. For our Bcers wishing to follow the 2012 Tour de France, here is the link: http://www.letour.fr/2012/TDF/COURSE/us/le_parcours.html Running from Saturday June 30th to Sunday July 22th 2012, the 99th Tour de France will be made up of 1 prologue and 20 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,497 kilometres. This year, Australia is sending in a team, the Greenedge Cycling Team. Hope that it could perform well. Prologue results are shown here: http://www.cyclingnews.com/tour-de-france/prologue/results Can't wait for Stage 1 to begin in a few hours' time. .
Cadel Evans will have to call it quits if he can't win this yr's Tour, barring any catastrophic accidents...no Andy Schleck, no AC, no excuses..
2012 Tour de France: Expecting a battle between Cadel Evans and Bradley Wiggins . In Australia, many are expecting a great battle between Cadel Evans and Bradley Wiggins. .
2012 Tour de France: Standings after Stage 1 . Standings after Stage 1 can be found here: http://www.sbs.com.au/tdf2012/standings 1 012 FABIAN CANCELLARA RNT 05:05:32 00:00:00 2 101 BRADLEY WIGGINS SKY 05:05:39 00:00:07 3 192 SYLVAIN CHAVANEL OPQ 05:05:39 00:00:07 4 009 TEJAY VAN GARDEREN BMC 05:05:42 00:00:10 5 102 EDVALD BOASSON HAGEN SKY 05:05:43 00:00:11 6 131 DENIS MENCHOV KAT 05:05:45 00:00:13 7 004 PHILIPPE GILBERT BMC 05:05:45 00:00:13 8 001 CADEL EVANS BMC 05:05:49 00:00:17 .
It Should be a decent battle between evans and wiggins as they are pretty balanced in their respective strengths/weaknesses. I am going for wiggins, with f schleck on the final podium spot.
2012 Tour de France: Stage 1 Update . 25km to go. Roux is still on his own at the front of the stage, with a lead of 50 seconds. .
2012 Tour de France: Stage 1 Update . 10km to go. The peloton has caught up after 4 hours 45 minutes of this 207.5 km Stage 1 race. Source: http://www.letour.fr/le-tour/2012/us/live/aso/ .
2012 Tour de France: Overall Standings after Stage 2 . There will be 6 big climbs in Stage 3 today, Tuesday 03-July-2012. Sprinters won't be expected to be there at the finish. Overall Standings after Stage 2 can be found here: http://www.sbs.com.au/tdf2012/standings POS NO. NAME TEAM TIME GAP MOVED 1 012 FABIAN CANCELLARA RNT 10:02:31 00:00:00 2 101 BRADLEY WIGGINS SKY 10:02:38 00:00:07 3 192 SYLVAIN CHAVANEL OPQ 10:02:38 00:00:07 4 009 TEJAY VAN GARDEREN BMC 10:02:41 00:00:10 5 102 EDVALD BOASSON HAGEN SKY 10:02:42 00:00:11 6 131 DENIS MENCHOV KAT 10:02:44 00:00:13 7 004 PHILIPPE GILBERT BMC 10:02:44 00:00:13 8 001 CADEL EVANS BMC 10:02:48 00:00:17 .
2012 Tour de France: Stage 3 live . About 10km to go. Morkov and Grivko are leading by about 30 seconds. http://www.letour.fr/le-tour/2012/us/live/aso/ .
2012 Tour de France: Stage 3 live . About 5km to go. The peloton has caught up with the leaders. http://www.letour.fr/le-tour/2012/us/live/aso/ .
2012 Tour de France: Stage 3 is Over . Race is Over. Sagan has claimed another stage win. http://www.letour.fr/le-tour/2012/us/live/aso/ .
Speaking of elevation, in the recently concluded Tour de Suisse, the cyclists had been in the quiescent Chur of a town, with mountains in the background. A short while later, they were up there, looking back at the town down in the valley; and in barely an hour, they had reached Arosa, some 4000 feet up. And they looked none the more tired. Incredible athletes! [video=youtube;_zUL1Cze29U]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zUL1Cze29U&feature=plcp[/video]
Lol, you've got to forgive flatlanders like me. Arosa's elevation is actually 5,823 feet, but almost 4000 feet above that of Chur. It is quite level for the most part of stage 8 save that nasty gradient near the end. I would have opted to dismount and push the bike .
2012 Tour de France: Overall Standings after Stage 3 . Overall Standings after Stage 3 can be found here: http://www.sbs.com.au/tdf2012/standings POS NO. NAME TEAM TIME GAP MOVED 1 012 FABIAN CANCELLARA RNT 20:04:02 00:00:00 2 101 BRADLEY WIGGINS SKY 20:04:09 00:00:07 3 192 SYLVAIN CHAVANEL OPQ 20:04:09 00:00:07 4 009 TEJAY VAN GARDEREN BMC 20:04:12 00:00:10 5 102 EDVALD BOASSON HAGEN SKY 20:04:13 00:00:11 6 131 DENIS MENCHOV KAT 20:04:15 00:00:13 7 001 CADEL EVANS BMC 20:04:19 00:00:17 8 051 VINCENZO NIBALI LIQ 20:04:20 00:00:18 .
2012 Tour de France: Stage 4 is Over . The Top 5 in Stage 4 can be found here; http://www.letour.fr/le-tour/2012/us/live/aso/ 1. André Greipel (GER) LTB 214.5km in 5h18'32" 2. Alessandro Petacchi (ITA) LAM 3. Tom Veelers (NED) ARG 4. Matt Goss (AUS) OGE 5. Peter Sagan (SVK) LIQ André Greipel has given his Lotto-Belisol team-mate the perfect reward for all their work today. .
There was an almighty crash within 3 km of the finish which wiped out a bunch of the chasing peleton, including Mark Cavendish. A pretty torn up Cavendish, the left side of his helmet shattered, eventually limped across the line 188th but was given the same finish time as the main peleton because of the 3 km rule. Lots of crashes this year.
Saw on TV the aftermath of that awful crash in 1995. Glad there hasn't been any more fatalities among the cyclists since then.
