Tour de France thread

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

He'll be gutted though cos he was wanting to compete for Denmark in the mountain biking at the Beijing Olympics next year.

[ACCBiggz]

Vino absolutely tore up the road today. Contador also looked good and if he can attack on the mountains that will be interesting. As CSAMH and myself were talking about earlier in the week, the field made a huge mistake by not attacking when Vino went down and hurt himself. They let him ride in the peloton and do nothing but recover for days.

And Rasmussen shocks everyone by riding well and even passing Valverde on the course. I think if Rasmussen can ride these next few days very well and perhaps even extend his lead like he did in the Alps he may very well become the next Tour de France champion, but it'll be close with how Vino rode today.

Edited July 21, 2007 by ACCBiggz

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Watching highlights now - Wiggins was excellent and David Millar put in a decent time in horrible conditions.

Valverde has bottled it, no surprise there.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Man, Evans was good, which is annoying but Rasmussen, a useless time trialler who finished ELEVENTH on the stage! That's incredible! So glad he's remaining in yellow. He'll need to work in the Pyranees though to build up enough time for the time trial.

Also Contador was excellent which is great and Kloden did a good enough job considering the fall.

So Rasmussen, Contador, Kloden...My three favourites just separated by the rider I really dislike!

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Stage 14 is extremely exciting so far. Six left in the top group with one random up ahead on his own. Discovery (Popovytch and Leipheimer) did an amazing job for Contador and Rasmussen looks comfortable. Annoyingly Evans is still there though but Kloden's just been blown out the rear.

We all know Evans won't attack cos he's boring and can afford to trail Rasmussen by a minute at the start of the final time trial.

Of anyone I'm most worried about Contador because he's got real explosive pace, probably more so than Ras who's more of a machine, churning out the climb rather than springing away up it.

Also, looks like I've been right all along...Valverde's proven to be overrated again and popped and has fallen away badly. Team that with his shocking time trial and he's out of contention now. He's NOT a three week cyclist.

EDIT: Cadel's popped! This is brilliant! Contador and Rasmussen have gone away! This is a phenominal stage!

Edited July 22, 2007 by ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster

[ACCBiggz]

Best thing about the stage was Contador attacking at the precise place in the road where fans spelled out Contador 800 times.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Soler and Leipheimer also cycled very very well.

I'm a happy bunny after that stage and it really was exciting. Also Vino finished 30 minutes back so he's out.

As far as the Brits went Wegelius finished 30th which was very solid and even David Millar dragged himself up in 66th a long way ahead of the support group and a good long time ahead of Vino's group.

All in all, good times.

[Animal]

Easily one of the best mountain stages I"ve ever seen, even though I don't like Evans it was nice to see him fighting for it, finally snapping and having to let Rasmussen and Contador go.

So yeah it is either going to be decided on Wednesday if either Rasmussen or Contador can get away in that ridiculous mountain stage or at the last time trial. I'm (obviously) rooting for Rasmussen.

Oh and on a side note, Thomas Dekker and Micheal Boogerd both did an excellent job today, go Dutchies!

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Easily one of the best mountain stages I"ve ever seen, even though I don't like Evans it was nice to see him fighting for it, finally snapping and having to let Rasmussen and Contador go.

So yeah it is either going to be decided on Wednesday if either Rasmussen or Contador can get away in that ridiculous mountain stage or at the last time trial. I'm (obviously) rooting for Rasmussen.

Oh and on a side note, Thomas Dekker and Micheal Boogerd both did an excellent job today, go Dutchies!

Dekker gave everything. He chased down attacks and gave himself for Rasmussen. Brilliant.

Boogerd was just as good, as was Menchov who also gave himself for him, despite being the previous team leader. Now that's good teamwork right there.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Vinokourov's the Floyd Landis of the tour this year.

Dies and loses half an hour one day, explodes his way through the Pyranees the next.

What gives?

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Well, up that final climb it showed a lot.

Boogerd and Menchov worked hard, perfectly, did everything right so that when Contador went and Rasmussen went after him, no-one else could follow cos they were right at their limit.

Still, very interesting to see Contador continue his attacks and Ras struggle to catch up a couple of times.

Rasmussen needs the rest day (although most of it will be spent being questioned about missed drugs tests and the like) and then Wednesday, with the summit finish, could be very very exciting.

[ACCBiggz]

Vinokourov's the Floyd Landis of the tour this year.

Dies and loses half an hour one day, explodes his way through the Pyranees the next.

What gives?

Edited July 24, 2007 by ACCBiggz

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Vinokourov had been an outspoken critic of current Tour leader Michael Rasmussen, who was dropped by the Danish Cycling Union team after missing two out-of-competition tests earlier in the year.

BBC SPORT

No-one likes a hypocrite.

[Animal]

It's too bad he did it,it's a good thing he got caught.

Kinda could see it coming tho, he wasn't doing well at all and out of nothing he won the time trial and yesterday he was like an animal going up the mountains, atleast suspicious. Oh well let's hope it stops with Vino...

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Rasmussen broke Contador today! That's all kinds of great.

Now as long as he doesn't crash in the time trial he should carry yellow all the way. Rabobank will make sure no big names escape in the upcoming couple of stages.

So Astana go, and now Confidis quit after one of their non-riders is caught doping. Bad news for Bradley Wiggins who could have got another top five TT finish!

[ACCBiggz]

Rasmussen kicked out of Tour de France.

This year's Tour de France was dealt a potentially fatal blow on Wednesday when yellow jersey wearer Michael Rasmussen was sensationally kicked out of the race by his own Rabobank team, the Dutch outfit revealed on Wednesday.

The 33-year-old Dane had seemingly weathered the storm over missing four out of competition dope tests in the past 18 months and had won Wednesday's stage to all but seal overall victory.

However the team has learnt that Rasmussen lied to them over where and what he was up to during the month of June when he was in fact in Italy and not in Mexico as he had told them.

"He broke team rules," said a team spokesperson.

"It is not even sure if the team will carry on in the race," he added.

Tour de France race director Christian Prudhomme - who phoned International Cycling Union (UCI) president Pat McQuaid to berate him over not informing the organisers over Rasmussen's missed tests - said that there was not much more he and his co-directors of the race could have done.

"We did all we could do to get rid of him," Prudhomme said.

"I at the very least do not feel that I have been dishonoured.

"One cannot mock the Tour de France impunitively like those riders," he added, referring to Rasmussen, Cristiano Moreni - who also exited on Wednesday after failing a drugs test - and Alexandre Vinokourov who was thrown out on Tuesday.

Rasmussen had won two stages during the Tour, though, his presence at the race was questioned by several officials and from the race organisers as well.

His departure leaves young Spaniard Alberto Contador in the lead with Australian Cadel Evans in second.

Edited July 25, 2007 by ACCBiggz

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Prudhomme's a hypocritical scumbag. He's had a personal vendetta against Rasmussen for a while now. He's not a glamorous winner.

He IS a moron though. I love the guy but he's been a moron....However it would so far seem he's a drug-free moron.

They hung him out to dry and Rabobank had no choice. If he was in Polka NONE of this would have come up but Prudhomme wanted Vino to win (erm, gutted there mate) as he was a big supporter of him as a big "clean" hope. He's also a big fan of the up and coming squeaky clean youngsters.

He dug, dug some more and found out Rasmussen's weakness - his intelligence and professionalism......And buried him with it.

I'll apologise in the thread if it comes out otherwise but 14 tests would show...RASMUSSEN'S NO DOPER.

[ACCBiggz]

Well, I think it's obvious that he and Vino couldn't handle the greatness that is Team Discovery.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I can't be bothered to watch the rest of the Tour and in fact this has pretty much destroyed the point of '07's Tour. So what if Contador or Evans or even Leipheimer wins...They only won by default. Big deal.

Pointless.

[ACCBiggz]

I won't say by default. We don't know how Rasmussen would have performed in the last time trial.