What the hell is with Phil/Paul, have they gone blind? When the feed
flipped back to Lance and Popovych, you could immediately see that
Lance's front wheel had been changed. It's a coblbes stage, when
someone gets shelled from a group, that's what you look for. It took
Phil/Paul about 5 minutes to figure it out. I'm also still looking for
that third bike change for Chavanel that Paul was talking about.
>Did anyone see exactly how the split between the Schleck/CFE/Gruber
>group and the Vino/Pistolero/Wiggins group happened? I couldn't tell
>jack shit from the Versus coverage. Was it the result of a crash or
>simply pressure?
It was consecutive to the elder Schleck falling off his bike for no
apparent reason, apart from his tires being too inflated.
What's not clear is how the Vino/Wiggo/Contador took off from the rest
as there was a large group chasing behind Gruber and his friends.
The coverage left something to be desired, but not the race. Impressive, and
it did *not* turn out as I expected. Andy was a real surprise, Contador
showed that he could ride the cobbles, and that long chase by Lance and Popo
to try to get back... and even Cadel looking quite respectable. The only
predictable thing was Thor putting his stamp on the race today. Almost
forgot about Fabian and Jens; it's always a treat watching those guys work
for their team mate.
--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
Redwood City & Los Altos, CA USA
i find it hard to like hushovd ... he rides a little like a sprinter
version of leppy ... just hanging around, doing no real work, waiting
on the chance to snatch a win or a few points. the way thor pimped
Flecha for 2nd this year at P-R earned him a permanent place on my
shit list. Saxo Bank won today's stage ... I don't care who crossed
the line first.
Thor wasn't sitting on anybody's wheel that day. I remember how surprised I
was on the third col of the day, seeing Thor come through. I kept thinking I
must have missed somebody, that we arrived too late to see the climbers
pass.
--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
Very impressive stage. I some how think they had the Contador and
Armstrong group mixed up at one point. Lance was always in the chase,
punctures and all.
Got to hand it to him though, to keep the gas going to limit his time
lose to Contador. I for one expected Cancellara to do well on today
stage. Turning the screws tight at the right moment of the pave'
sectors, literally blowing up the peleton. It's a shame Frank went
down at the jump. I would have enjoyed the two Shelcks' reaking havoc
on the rest of the GC contenders.
Coz
yeh, ok, you got me there. that was a good ride. but he rode like a
bitch in this year's P-R ... Flecha deserved 2nd ...
i still haven't really watched today's stage, so i don't know if he
worked any today ... did he?
^^^^^^^
nope
--
Michael Press
>yeh, ok, you got me there. that was a good ride. but he rode like a
>bitch in this year's P-R ... Flecha deserved 2nd ...
>
>i still haven't really watched today's stage, so i don't know if he
>worked any today ... did he?
Only when Cancellara got tired of grubering him and took off, that
forced Hushovd to lead the group to quickly catch up with him. I agree
Hushovd is not a very likeable racer, just happy to tag along and
sprint it out if he gets lucky.
Let me get this straight. Thor is supposed to help Flecha
beat him? If Flecha deserved 2nd he'd have dropped him on
the cobbles.
Fred Flintstein
=======
yeh, ok, you got me there. that was a good ride. but he rode like a
bitch in this year's P-R ... Flecha deserved 2nd ...
i still haven't really watched today's stage, so i don't know if he
worked any today ... did he?
=======
Pretty sure he was just along for the ride today. :-)
Must have been frustrating knowing that the guy probably most able to handle
the cobbles was probably laughing to himself about his situation. I mean,
why *should* he work? He doesn't give a rat's tail about the GC, and there
was strong incentive for just about everyone else in his group to get as
much GC chewed off the clock as possible. It's not as if he had to work to
make sure a Boonen or Cav was going to catch up to him.
--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
+1
But you at least have to give Thor credit for not crying afterwards
about the lack of TVs in the team cars.
DA74
Dumbass -
Totally agree.
thanks,
Kurgan. presented by Gringioni.
:: But you at least have to give Thor credit for not crying afterwards
:: about the lack of TVs in the team cars.
Dumbass -
Leppy would've made the front group today if they had TV in the team car.
As Billy Bilsland said about a Glasgow Couriers rider some time back:
"Only time he gets on race radio is when he falls off"
i agree too ... why should he work? and he's just that kind of rider.
content to sit on and pimp them at the end.
boonen would have worked, at least until the last K, and then still
outsprinted them.
Fred Flintstein wrote:
> Let me get this straight. Thor is supposed to help Flecha
> beat him?
I gather that's called cat 4 racing in Amerika.
no, it's called riding with some class. what's the difference between
2nd and 3rd to pros like thor? it should be nothing ... after all
neither one of them is 1st place. it's just a podium spot. flecha did
ALL the work on the run in, and then thor went around him in the last
20 meters ... why do you think flecha was clapping? celebrating
thor's awesomeness? please.
Betty wrote:
>> I gather that's called cat 4 racing in Amerika.
bar wrote:
> no, it's called riding with some class. what's the difference between
> 2nd and 3rd to pros like thor? it should be nothing ... after all
> neither one of them is 1st place. it's just a podium spot. flecha did
> ALL the work on the run in, and then thor went around him in the last
> 20 meters ... why do you think flecha was clapping? celebrating
> thor's awesomeness? please.
It happened to me recently where someone sat my wheel for 2 laps/40km of
a race although admittedly I was doing what I gather is called
sandbagging in Amerika ie riding in a open race as my club hadn't
entered a team in the licensed race (but he was sandbagging too). Anyway
I didn't get pissed off about it - its just bike racing and I could have
sat up and let the rest of the group catch us. Personally I wouldn't
have done it but I'm probably a mug without enough killer instinct.
Admittedly I may have been slightly pissed off if it wasn't just a
training race.
Let me get this straight. You're saying Cat 4s are the classy
riders in the US? I'm not grokking this at all.
Fred Flintstein
Here is what I will say about the coverage:
I remember when we got 7 minutes from ABC's Wide World
of Sports.
I do not complain.
s
i haven't said anything about cat 4s ...
Dude, then give us an example of a guy that is a lock to
win a sprint putting in effort just out of a sense of
fairness. It isn't Thor's job to help Flecha drop him.
That is 100% Flecha's responsibility. Jesus !F! Christ.
Fred Flintstein
I remember when I'd read about the race in Competitive Cycling, a month
afterward.
i haven't said anything about JFC either, bro
:: Very impressive stage. I some how think they had the Contador and
:: Armstrong group mixed up at one point. Lance was always in the chase,
:: punctures and all.
Dumbass -
I don't think so.
LANCE was in the 1st chase group, Contador in the 2nd, then LANCE flatted
just as Contador's group caught his group.
Tom Boonen.
Sense of style or sense of fairness?
Fred Flintstein
Dumbass -
I dunno, but he did equal work w/ Cancellara at Flanders to the point that
Cancellara just dropped him. Dumb, since we know who is the better sprinter
of the two.
: >
: > I remember when we got 7 minutes from ABC's Wide World
: > of Sports.
: >
: > I do not complain.
: >
: > s
:
: I remember when I'd read about the race in Competitive Cycling, a month
: afterward.
Dumbass -
I remember looking for the top 10 in the stage and top 10 in GC in the
"results" section at the back of the sports page of the newspaper every
morning.
thanks,
Old. presented by Gringioni.
Steve Bak, that dude was our mainline here.
Brad Anders
You got "results" that way, but no story. Who was it who wrote a lot of the
euro stuff back then, Noel C-something? Charonat?
> On Jul 7, 2:13 pm, "Fred Gringioni" <soulinthemach...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>I remember looking for the top 10 in the stage and top 10 in GC in the
>>"results" section at the back of the sports page of the newspaper every
>>morning.
The tabloid papers in the UK didn't (probably still don't) give anything
other than the top 3-5 for the stage/GC, together with any info on the
placings of any Brits in the race.
> Steve Bak, that dude was our mainline here.
They were hard days.
I had notes for 4-5 hrs of live coverage in note form for Paris-Roubaix
1994, ready to be typed and posted (Steve Bak wasn't sure whether he was
able to cover that one - so I was plan B, and there was so much coverage
that day becomes the Eurosport tennis lovers had some non-event rained
off so they had nothing else to show other than the cycling) .
When I used to post the Spanish races viewable on TVE, I don't think there
was ever more than 90 mins coverage at worst (Vuelta mountain stages) .
Regards,
Steven Perryman