Tour de France 2011 talk

[pll]

Talking about bad luck for a team, the situation of Movistar is particularly sad. Coming into the tour, they were dealing with the death of Xavi Tondo in a freak accident with a garage door, while Mauricio Soler has serious neurological deficits after a crash in the Tour de Suisse. During this tour, two of their young riders, Andrey Amador and Beñat Intxausti (fracture of the radius on stage 1, diagnosed yesterday -- he was in the same ambulance as Horner), were injured in a crash, and Vasil Kiryienka abandoned, sick. I've been rooting for their sprinter, José Joaquín Rojas, who is clearly putting an effort to get the green jersey. It has been neat to see him get some stages from teams with serious lead outs for their sprinters.

Things are definitely not going Contador's way. He seems tired after the Giro, and it does not look like he has a good enough team. The team has been invisible.

[tulip]

What a great finish! I can't remember if spoilers are allowed here, so that's all I'll say.

[pll]

Thor de France!

[ny biker]

So, Chris is doing better, two head scans have been clear, and he's already looking forward to next year's TdF. Me personally, I think he and Jani will light things up at the Vuelta this year.

This is from this morning:

http://lockerz.com/s/118442988

And yeah, Thor is pretty amazing. And go Tejay!!!

[bluebug32]

Is it just me or was Contador climbing with a limp of sorts? Didn't look smooth at all on the pedals. Maybe he was injured a bit more in that crash than he let on.

[pll]

The events on today's stage were nauseating. Unreal.

Two of those events:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKuJCGV8m-w
http://www.flickr.com/photos/francet...in/photostream

[KnottedYet]

I'm stupid. I've watched that clip 4 or 5 times now and absolutely cannot see how Karpets had anything to do with it. Even in slo-mo, I just can't see how Karpets was close enough, it looks like he was a bike length ahead?

Ug, and WTF with the team car.... if I was driving and a tree was coming up, I'd make the choice to put the car in the ditch rather than wipe out a couple riders... sick.

ETA: ah, it was a TV car http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011...tage-nine-live

[pll]

It's hard to tell much from the video, so we'll have to wait maybe until tomorrow to find out... I just saw some Twitter comments and it appears Riis suggested that Contador's brake hood got caught in Karpets' saddle (Karpets is ~5.5 inches taller).

The car was apparently one with VIPs from France TV. Should have hit the brakes instead of veering into the riders. Almost took Voeckler out, too.

Update: VeloNews quotes both Karpets and Contador -- it was an accident.

[KnottedYet]

There was an interesting comment to the Guardian story, where someone (associated with the Tour, but I don't remember who) said there have been more crashes lately, and thinks it's due to the riders being less careful now that they all wear helmets.

Reminded me of a statistic I read on automobile-related fatalities in the US. It's been holding steady around 40,000+ per year for decades, regardless of all the amazingly effective new safety additions to modern cars. People drive more aggressively the safer they feel, and only modify behaviour as the fatality rate begins to exceed the "acceptable" level.

(meanwhile I think the bike-related fatality rate in the US is something like 700+ per year... but everyone thinks biking is far more dangerous)

[pll]

Well, today Bobke had a great one. According to him, it turns out that Contador is to blame for the nervousness of the peloton. He looks vulnerable and has crashed. Therefore, there is a sense of urgency and everybody wants to get up front... I guess Contador should swap costumes with Didi Senft for the rest of this tour.

[Dr.Doo]

Poor Vinokourov...they were talking about it being a career ending injury. I hope, for him, that it's not.

Great to see someone else take the maillot jaune today.

[tulip]

What a terrible bunch of crashes. I ache for Vinikourov; he was so fabulous yesterday. The media car that hit Flecha/Hoogerland (and almost Tommy) was just plain wrong. I've watched the tour since 1984 and I don't recall a car hitting a rider before (although I could have repressed it in all these years).

Tommy Voeckler is just delightful to watch, though, and I'm so glad he's in yellow. Remember in 2004 when he just couldn't believe himself. He was all smiles, just like today when he hopped with joy on the podium. He's one of my favorite riders.

[pll]

Terrible accident for Vino.

Re Chris Horner, read today that he still does not remember the entire first week of the TdF, but otherwise feels great. He twitted a picture of him having dessert... looks like a fast food place. In France, in a fast food place?

[KnottedYet]

I suppose if I'd got my brains rattled and the snot wolloped out of me, I'd be craving some McDonald's comfort food, too.

http://twitpic.com/5o76et

Mmm, french fries in France...

[blue_angel]

What a terrible bunch of crashes. I ache for Vinikourov; he was so fabulous yesterday. The media car that hit Flecha/Hoogerland (and almost Tommy) was just plain wrong. I've watched the tour since 1984 and I don't recall a car hitting a rider before (although I could have repressed it in all these years).

Tommy Voeckler is just delightful to watch, though, and I'm so glad he's in yellow. Remember in 2004 when he just couldn't believe himself. He was all smiles, just like today when he hopped with joy on the podium. He's one of my favorite riders.

Voeckler has totally won my heart. He's just an amazing cyclist--his strategy looks so well executed, he works so hard, and he just pours everything into it.

As for the car clipping those riders today, it makes me sick how cavalier those people are being with not only the outcome of the stage, but also with those riders' lives! TV France should have its filming privileges revoked for this.