Tour de France thread

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I can tell you now - he'd lose two and a quarter to Contador and about three and a half to Evans. That would put them agonizingly close and probably make Contador at least THINK about attacking on the Champs Elysses which would be quite cool.

I think that barring incidents before the Time Trial and incident DURING the time trial (ie falling off) Rasmussen had made his Tour win pretty much safe.

Of course that's all words and conjecture now...

At least it'll be closer for overall victory now - but I know that Evans wouldn't celebrate on the podium now, dunno if Contador would.

[ACCBiggz]

I'll say that I think Rasmussen would have won, but with how he has time trailed in the past, it still makes me think a tad differently. With Vino and Ras now out, it'll be hard to guage how well these remaining few did. Even if we had Vino still in and he posted another great time we could then probably at least measure how much Contador, Evans, and Leipheimer would have cut into Vino's time.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Even drugless Vino has always Time Trialled well and would probably still have won that stage but probably only by a few seconds from Evans.

What's needed now (not that I really care) is someone in the top ten managing some kind of break to make it a real three way again.

[ACCBiggz]

Even drugless Vino has always Time Trialled well and would probably still have won that stage but probably only by a few seconds from Evans.

[mikevandam]

I think this whole situation is pure and utter bullshit. (far out theory ahead) i think that team discovery have moaned over that they cannot win the jersey. And since the head of the race is Prudhomme i didnt expect anything else. the man is a scumbag and a good friend of Johan Bruyneel (sportsdirector for team discovery). My guess would be that Prudhomme had threatened Rabobanks team boss to fire Rasmussen so that a Discovery man could get the duke (oh. And Contador WAS invovled in "operation Puerto")

[ACCBiggz]

Your theory is indeed far out, and laughable to me. CSAMH and I talked about this yesterday and the UIC(?) were outspoken about wanting him to fail because of the previous issues that came up. I feel that they were waiting simply to see if another rider took the yellow from him but when they didn't happen they gave him the boot from Rabobank. I don't think this has anything at all to do with Team Discovery. I think that they wanted Rasmussen to fail because of the allegations earlier and thought if he lost that they could say that a clean person will win anyway (even if Ras never tested positive), but didn't happen so they kicked him from the team.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Also it turns out that he's been thrown out on the word of ONE man, an Italian reporter who SAYS he saw Rasmussen in Italy when he said he was in Mexico. Ras says he was in Mexico, the reporter says he was in Italy (not with any proof) AND THEY THREW HIM OUT THE TOUR!!!!

What the hell?

It all smells suspicious. The question has to be, was Prudhomme leaning on Rabobank and were the team upset by the negative press Rasmussen was receiving....

[ACCBiggz]

What a time trial!!!

Leipheimer almost caught Evans, missed by a couple seconds, and then Contador saved his yellow by about 20 seconds. I think Leipheimer probably would be in yellow if the first time trial wasn't wet. I think that cost some valuable seconds from a lot of riders. 1:02:44 winning stage time for Leipheimer.

1. Alberto Contador - 87:09:18

2. Cadal Evans - + 00:00:23

3. Levi Leipheimer - +00:00:31

[mikevandam]

Fuck that Christian Preudomme . Now he has revealed that he had Rabobank in a vice to get Rasmussen out. Also the tour won't work with the UCI anymore. Which means that they will kick people out if they dont like them.

R.I.P Tour De France.

[ACCBiggz]

The tour is not dead.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Fuck that Christian Preudomme . Now he has revealed that he had Rabobank in a vice to get Rasmussen out. Also the tour won't work with the UCI anymore. Which means that they will kick people out if they dont like them.

R.I.P Tour De France.

It's a disgrace. He took a person vendetta against Rasmussen and used it politically to get his own way.

My heckles went up a few days before Ras was chucked out when Prudhomme said "I'll do everything in my power to get Michael Rasmussen thrown off the Tour".

And he did.

Arsehole.