TDF Discussion - here be spoilers

[endurancerider]

slam dunk for Contador. But we do have some people to watch--definitely Wiggins, and Lance (again), plus Andy Schleck...

[Zen]

And Tony Martin.

[papaver]

And Tony Martin.

especially him.

[cylegoddess]

Ladies your giving our commentators here in Oz a run for their money! I wish I had you all live when the tour was on
'That Andy Schleck ,if only I was 19 years old...'
Me too, and anyone else... still
As in earlier, Ill fight you for him!
__________________
I think I may have posted this but BF said," ... schlecks ; I love them and want to have their babies!" I'll fight HIM for them!!

[chutch]

When Lance was being interviewed yesterday, he said something to the effect of he'd ride his race and Alberto can ride his race... if any of Lance's teammates from his 7 victories had said something like that they'd be totally reprimanded for not supporting the team leader.

I have been a big Lance fan in the past. But my feelings about him have totally changed this year. He came into the Tour with a big chip on his shoulder. It's frustrating because I expected him to be a bigger person.

[BabyBlueNTulsa]

He came into the Tour with a big chip on his shoulder.

I'm sorry.. what chip is that?

[chutch]

I'm sorry.. what chip is that?

Just his general attitude through the tour. It's not been that of a true team member and it's not reminiscent of Lance pre-retirement.

[jobob]

slam dunk for Contador. But we do have some people to watch--definitely Wiggins, and Lance (again), plus Andy Schleck...

And Tony Martin.

Yes, lots of new & old faces to root for. It'll be excellent.

And "Chicago's Christian VanDeVelde" (I didn't know VDV changed his name ) -- hopefully he returns to top form.

It was interesting to watch the dynamics of the various teams and how they varied depending on the types of contenders they had in the race.

Columbia clearly put its top priority into the sprinter's/green jersey race and had no significant GC contenders.

And Astana had no sprinters, it was all about the GC for them. As with Saxo Bank, as far as I could tell.

The teams that tried to do both had a rough go of it - I'm thinking of Garmin and Cervelo in that regard, among others of course (though Thor smash lucked out with the relegation of Cavendish). It seems to be really successful in either the GC or the green nowadays, a team has to be speciallized for either one or the other.

[spazzdog]

With the past "enhancement" contoversies and this years LeMond pissiness re: Contador, I got to thinking (always dangerous)... so I pulled out my stats from past tours and looked at distance/time (total) of each champion's last win compared to this year. Here's what I got - tell me what you think (be nice . I have a little trouble with math & time )

Lance 2005 3608 km/86:15:02 2009 3459.5 km/85:53:59
He was about 21min 2sec faster this yr over a course 148.5 km shorter

Contador 2007 3550 km/91:00:23 2009 3459.5 km/85:48:35
He was about 5hr 12min faster this yr over a course 90.5 km shorter

Sastre 2008 3558.5 km/87:52:52 2009 3459.5 km/86:14:56
He was about 1hr 38 min faster this yr over a course 99 km shorter

Now I know I didn't include "difficulty" in this - I don't know how. That aside, do any of these look "interesting" in the "improvement" category?

I'm just sayin'...

your ever-lovin' spazzdog

[papaver]

spazzdog, you really can't compare those. This tour was not as hard as previous years.

[Dogmama]

Lance 2005 3608 km/86:15:02 2009 3459.5 km/85:53:59
He was about 21min 2sec faster this yr over a course 148.5 km shorter

Contador 2007 3550 km/91:00:23 2009 3459.5 km/85:48:35
He was about 5hr 12min faster this yr over a course 90.5 km shorter

Sastre 2008 3558.5 km/87:52:52 2009 3459.5 km/86:14:56
He was about 1hr 38 min faster this yr over a course 99 km shorter

Now I know I didn't include "difficulty" in this - I don't know how. That aside, do any of these look "interesting" in the "improvement" category?

I'm just sayin'...

your ever-lovin' spazzdog

Hmmm-even with difficulty figured in - that is one heck-uv-an improvement.

Can you say "Andy Schlek - default winner?" C'mon - I know you can!

Anybody read From Lance to Landis? My physical therapist and I had many long conversations about doping. He bets everything he has that there is doping in the tour. You have to admit - some of those break aways that AC did were reminiscent of Landis. Schlek did a fair share too - but AC had several days of incredible bursts of speed.

For the sake of the sport, I hope I'm wrong. Maybe AC got his mojo going in a big way. I sure hope so.

Imagine - AC and AS both eliminated for doping. Lance is the winner.

[Trek420]

I hope not. I could not help but notice I felt Versus practically ignored AS. It's as if there was only 1st and 3rd place. "Alberto Contador wins the Tour and Lance Armstrong takes 3rd"

'scuse me? There's a spot in between?

[Dogmama]

VS was really bad this year. Usually I like Bob Roll - but I felt like I'd been "lanced" after 15 minutes (bad, I know.) He didn't even say Tour Day Fraance - I heard he stopped his feud with the French & decided to acquiesce to the correct pronunciation.

I kept wanting Andy to quit turning around to find his brother and ride his dam bike! Aren't there 12-step meetings for people like that??