who's following Tour de France? TdF, the biggest bike stage race that spans across 3 weeks is now into it's third week. as of today, 4 time winner Lance Armstrong is holding the overall lead, however, the race is very tight and after 50+hrs of racing over 13 stages, Armstrong has a slim 15 seconds lead over the 2nd place Jan Ullrich.
It's the old sneak attack after Bellochi went out I'm afraid. Since it's Jan Ullrich's come back year no-one expected him to be as strong as his winning year and with the trouble that he has faced this year with the team's financial problems now Bianchi (think that is how to spell it) the frame manufacturer taking over, it looks like Jan may win. He certainly has the support of the crowd and all the comentators would like to see him win, the only problem for me was that Zulle jumped ship before Bianchi took over the team and that was a bad move, because he is not in the tour this year, he always wore weird looking glasses. Anyway if things continue as they are Armstrong is not strong enough in the mountains to handle all the attacks and Ullrich just has to sit back and wait for the attacks coming on Armstrong and then counter attack as he done yesterday to get some time an the bonus for the first 3 places. I think it may even come down to the final time trial, which looking at Armstrong over the last few days he is not strong enough this year. Remember what hapened to Miguel Indurain? He went to peices in the mountains on his final tour when everyone expected him to win.
Lance has been really lucky up till now. Hamilton broke a collar bone, and yet still managed to squeeze in 5/6 position. despite all the drama that the commentator/media try to draw, it is nontheless quite impressive. just imagine the man if his bone was intact. and then Beloki crashed. what a shame, Beloki would've and had given Armstrong lots of trouble, at least add into the communal effort in the slow destruction of the man. and now he is out of the tour. is that lucky or what? but looks like his luck is starting to run out. two bad days and he is now in a vulnerable position. it will be a hard day tomorrow with 6 mountain climbs. but surely, his rivals aren't have too great of a day either. they gotta be tired too. Riis said before sat stage that someone's is gonna pay for spending too much effort in the time trial, i wonder if he was refering to Armstrong or Ullrich. certainly turned out that way for Armstrong. and what Virenque said was interesting: "One of the two will crack. There's going to be destruction in the days to come. It's going to be spectacular."
Well at the moment Ullrich looks good, Armstrong however looks as if he is trying to conserve some energy by riding slightly further back in the peloton with his team split among the group, some kind of strategy? Also Armstrong has some dehydration problems since three stages ago and as he says you don't rectify the problem immediatley, it takes a bit of time. Ullrich however looks the same man as when he won the tour, the silent assassin. He was always up there but wasn't getting coverage through the media until the crash the other day.
I have follwowed the tour since i was young watching on channel four (uk) and thin kthat it is one of the most physically demanding events in the world, miguel indurain is a hero of mine, as is lance armstrong, his comeback is awesome. how they manage to cycle at 45km/hr for 6hours and climb 2200m mountains in 32degrees is beyond me. at that temperature i cant walk without being sweaty and tired, i cant cycle that fast for 20 seconds, never mind 6hours and at sometime high altitude. as a physical feat anyone who completes the tour is amazing. This year no one has stamped authority, we are all waiting for when lance will attack and get a lead before the final stretch back to paris, but im not sure it will happen. he has let attacks come onto him without too much reaction but now there are people in the top 5 who could make an attack, ullrich, vinokourov, possbly hamilton but another year i think or even mayo , with the stage through his homeland. it will be intresting to see if armstrong makes an attack as up to now he hasnt at all i would love to see it, but if he attacks it has to be decisive, as if they reel him in a minute later they will all now he definatley isnt the man who has dominated it for 4years, and they will attack and the chance could be gone. I believe if he wants to win he has to do this as he cant just track them and win. lookin forward to it, today and tommorrow i think will decide it. i love it.
what sportsmanship from jan ullrich, the real threat to armstrong in todays stage, even when armstrong fell, seeming like the perfect time for ullrich to attack and steal a march, he waited for armstrtong to get back to climb together. Today armstrong made his break, winning the stage by 40 something seconds. A tremendous day and with just one day of mountains to go ullrich will feel his only remaining chance is the final time trial on friday. If armstrong can make a break tomorrow though it will be his tour again. Ullrich looked shattered as he tried to limit the damage armstrong did to him, i think he has done everything he can to try and mentally break armstrong, and tomorrow and friday will see if he has suceeded. looks like being a tremendous finale to the tour.
Agree What do you think about the spectators? I have always thought that they are too close to the riders, but they do bring a great atmosphere to the tour, it's amazing how they walk up mountains just to get a place to see the cyclists because the roads are often closed to traffic very early on the morning of the stage. But as to the sportsmanship, as Armstrong said you let up and wait when things like that happen. But you had to feel for Ullrich, when Lance got back after the group waiting he peddled himself out of site and got himself another 40 seconds. Amazing. P.S. Kwun, have the counts been turned off? My last 4 have all registred as 31.
Ah damn, i was rooting for Vinokourov. looks like he is out of the yellow unless he suddenly got the legs and heart of a superman.... won't get to watch the stage till tonight, but from what i read, adrenaline was helping armstrong after his crash. and i think surprised also comes into play. i think Ullrich made the mistake yesterday of not attacking armstrong. armstrong was in bad shape and if Ullrich had attack him, armstrong would do anything to protect his position. that will put armstrong in worse shape. however, by not attacking, Ullrich allowed Armstrong to recover and he is now a different man.
QUOTE]Originally posted by Dill But as to the sportsmanship, as Armstrong said you let up and wait when things like that happen. [/QUOTE] I was little disappointed by Armstrong, because he tried very hard to organize a chase for Telekom´s Vino after the Beloki crash, not knowing if Beloki was out or not. But the other cyylists refused to support him in the beginning, when it was not clear whether Beloki was out or not. I think, that Ullrich will only have a chance on saturday ( ?)in the last time trial to win the Tour, if the whether will be getting very hot again, beloved by Ullrich but not by Armstrong. This will be a great finish. I also think, that Armstrong will retire after the Tour, beeing aware of that he might not be able to win the Tour in 2004.
What I did notice on the highlights was Tyler Hamilton trying to slow all the group down after the crash. Good sportsmanship or was it because he used to be the U.S. Postal no 2 rider and has now moved on to lead C.S.C. Tiscali? After the weekend I thought Armstrong had no chance, but how wrong was I. I now think that he is clearly over any problems with the dehydration that he suffered and may still have the legs for the time trial to take it away from Ullrich. But as events have shown, it aint over till the fat lady sings.
I think Hamilton was a little bit upset,wehn Basso seemed to speed up, instead of waiting for Armstrong and Mayo.
I think the spectators are very good, they walk all the way up mountains just to see their heroes go past in a flash. I think the running of some of them is good but can be distraction. they do get amazingly close, but i think although a danger it brings atmosphere and makes the riders want to be their heroes. As for the adrenaline i think was clearly the case, imagine falling of in the most important part of a race which could define your career, he would have been excited to catch up, and therfor when he got back, he might as well have kept on going. It is one of the things we will never know but would he have attacked had he not fallen. It is intresting. tommorrow will be even more so. The time trial is friday. We are spoiled, as we got the world champs next week as well, are you going dill?
Armstrong's fall not completely the spectators' fault Armstrong admitted to reporters that it was his fault to stay close to the spectator crowd that lined the winding ascent. Hope Armstrong will capture his 5th Tour de France title.
Actually only Armstrong, Landis and Hankapie are US Americans ( 3 of 9), the rest of US Postal are from Spain, Russia,.... But Euskatel for example is an "all Spanish team", the cylcist even have to be "basque", a native minority in Sapin and France as far as I remember, Brioches la Boulangère an "all French team", but this not common, especially for the top teams.
James, no chance of any time off work. I'd love to go for week but the nearest I'll get is watching on sky on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Reason that US Postal have Spaniards is that apart from some Colombians is that they are regarded as the best climbers in the world. Heras was the man in the last tour that kept Lance in position going up the mountains and when Lance feels good he just gives that extra little kick and leaves his competition in his wake. The reason the Euskaltel team is entirley Basque is that the team is sponsored by some business' and by public donations and they are a very proud people all coming from what they consider to be a seperate part of spain - the Basque region, if I can put an alternative it's like calling a Scot English. (sorry, I'm not meaning to offend anyone) but they have a different version of Spanish just like the regional dialects in the UK although the Basque language is quite different to Spanish. Teams are generally made up of domestiques (who shield the main men, get food etc, sacrafice their bikes if anything goes wrong with the main riders), Sprinters: obviousley they sprint on the flat, Climbers: good on the slopes and the No 1 rider who has usualy served his time with a team and leads and makes the decisions on the road in conjunction with the team manager. What is interesting is that depending on the race the person with the best chance of winning is usually protected (ie) if it is a hill then Heras would be the best chance of victory and would replace Lance for a short while. Its just like football teams, the best team available for the money with people from different countries put together to perform as a whole.
Ulrich had to wait........ Jan had to wait because three years ago (was it three?) Lance waited for Jan when he crashed in the downhill of a mountain. And saturday will be the day of the last (long) time trial. I think Lance will win this one because he will not make the same mistake twice!
What is Taylor Hamilton doing, I mean a great performance, but still the descent and 100 km to go- all alone- !!!???
Unbelievable ride -great performance by Hamilton, too bad, that he got involved in a crash at the beginning of the Tour ,suffering strongly from a serious shoulder injury.
Agreed, we will never know how much the broken collar bone afected him, well, i suppose we will next year, when if armstriong continues he will be a major threat to the overall standings.
