2011 Cycling Thread

[IAceI]

We really need to do something about Hamster's postwhoring

Quality finish by Rolland, he play it to perfection and Sanchez must be absolutely livid. Was a fantastic stage, made better by Contador punching a fan. I was thinking not long before how much I'd like to see one of the fans take a smack in the mouth. Okay it was anti-doping protestor but it still made me a little happier to see. They should send a car through five seconds a head of the cyclists at 70mph and anyone in the way suffers.

Evans was awesome, even trying to attack Andy towards the end even though he must be certain he can make up the time in the TT anyways. Andy can hold onto the jersey, wash it and iron it and then pass it on to Evans for the final stage. And there's no doubt old bum chin deserves it.

[Sandars]

I might be alone here... and yet I don't care... I want Hushovd and Boasson to time-trial out of their skins

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

They're both decent time-triallists. Earlier in his career Hushovd actually won some big time trials. EBH is consistently the Norwegian TT champ and should take a top 10 place if he hasn't exhausted himself in those two big days he had earlier in the week.

Dunno if Millar is feeling well - according to his Twitter he may have caught some kind of cold or virus as the Tour moved into the Alps, which is a shame as he's one of only a few riders who can push Cancellara. The other guy to watch is Tony Martin who's been quieter the last couple of days.

Prediction: Cancellara top 3, Martin top 5, Millar top 5 (if fit), EBH top 10, Geraint Thomas top 10.

Cadel Evans will do something ridiculously good and Andy Schleck will outperform expectations but still lose out for yellow.

EBH and Hushovd will get a LOT of support on the course - the Norwegian fans have been the loudest and most numerous of all the fans this year.

[Hagen]

Apparently Jens Voight is stuck in a traffic jam on Alpe d'huez and there's about half an hour untill he has to start. Difinitely not good

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

This transfer is ridiculous. Loads of riders upset. The traffic from Alpe d'Huez is well known to be terrible and it's a 90 minute trip at the best of times. The transfers have been stupid all tour.

[The Quasi Juice]

Yuck, Evans wins the Tour.

[Mongrel]

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Wahey Evans! He deserves it. He worked hard on EVERY SINGLE stage of the tour from his attack at the end of the very first day onwards. He did all the work in the mountains, limited the losses of everyone else to Schleck on the 18th stage and did most of the work pulling back Schleck and Contador yesterday.

Without doubt the most deserving of the riders this year. Brilliant.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Boasson Hagen's hard riding rattled his handlebars loose so had to stop and replace his bike!

[Hagen]

Fantastic. I was all for Andy Schleck before the tour began, but with the horrible strategy Leopard-Trek brougt to the table, the last power performances of Andy just didn't cut it. I still think Andy could have won, had they just focused on getting him the victory and not both brothers on the podium. Evans is difinitely the right winner of the tour.

[The Quasi Juice]

Schleck must be royally pissed now. Contador started bad and wasn't himself for most of the Tour so this was THE Tour to beat him.

[mikevandam]

Crikey Cadel!

And i like the fact that last year, Bjarne Riis could not defeat Contador when he had both Schlecks.

This year he had Contador but could not outlast the Schlecks. Seems like a curse of Saxo Bank (i believe only Sastre have done it for them no?) :lmao:

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Yeah they bought in Basso to do it a number of years ago (the movie Overcoming is about that Tour de France). They just haven't been able to do it.

But then that's fine. Don't like Riis - doping is one thing but being unapologetic about it is another.

[maninblack]

Fan heckles Contador for his doping.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/post/Video-Three-time-Tour-champion-punches-fan-duri?urn=top-wp213

Edited July 24, 2011 by maninblack

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I think Cavendish is the first rider in HISTORY to win three years in a row on the Champs Elysees.

In the Tour de France he has:

2011 - 5 stage wins

2010 - 5 stage wins

2009 - 6 stage wins

2008 - 4 stage wins

Six most stage wins in history already and only 2 behind Lance Armstrong.

As I posted on facebook:

The right man won the yellow jersey (Evans worked hard every day), the right man won the mountains jersey (Sanchez attacked up numerous huge mountains), the right man won the green jersey (Cavendish won ANOTHER five stages including his third Champs Elyses stage in a row), the right man won the white jersey (Rolland protected Voeckler for 10 days in the mountains and got his reward for it) and the right team won the team award (Garmin won four stages, held yellow jersey for a week and had 3 riders in the top 20)

[IAceI]

It's worrying that the Schleck's seem to have worked to get both on the podium rather than an actual winner. But then coming up the final mountain stage, Frank looked utterly dead and Andy was probably suffering from his work the day before.

Andy will probably come back as a favourite for next year, probably be the same faces really fighting up there, but his partnership with his brother seems as much as a curse as it is a blessing - seems to really cloud his judgement sometimes on what he should do.

Also Cavendish truly is something special, people like Farrar, Rojas and Pettachi weren't even in touch when it came to the sprint - another sublime lead out and Cavendish took EBH apart, and was starting to pull away with a second kick when he crossed the line. Worthy green jersey winner and like said above, all the jersey winners were deserved so the TdF may have hit upon a good enough points sytem.

All this talk of 'ooh they should install a fourth step on the podium to honour Voeckler' shite that you hear from people, meh, it's part of racing. If Evans had tried to hold onto the yellow that long then he, too, would have struggled come the final stages. It's a tactical battle. Plus there's something inherently dislikeable about Voeckler and it's not just that he's French.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

While I like his racing style I've found it easy to dislike him, especially as this Tour went on, because of various reports from cyclists who state that he's extremely selfish in the peloton and when in breaks he attacks when groups agree to work together, or attacks when a rider has a puncture or accident.

They had him and Gilbert up onto the podium at the end for some kind of embarrassing award where they received some random jerseys on coathangers.

[IAceI]

Okay for Gilbert though, he's delightful

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Cavendish has decided about his team for next season. All he said was that their offer had changed a little to make it more interesting...and that it could be his current team (in whatever incarnation they take with a new sponsor or whatever).

He said money is an issue and I believe him cos he'll get good money wherever he goes.

I'm really hoping it's not Team Sky. It could well be staying at HTC, which would be the best as far as I'm concerned as they're a great team that really supports hot young riders and has a mentality of giving chances to those who deserve it rather than the "dead man's shoes" and "home country favouritism" of the European teams.

It's good for British cycling to have riders on as many different teams as possible so dragging everyone except Millar back to Team Sky would be a backward step (Millar can't sign because of his drugs ban and Sky's stance against past dopers).

Speaking of Millar, he's signed a new contract with Garmin - 3 years. He'll stay there 'til he retires and then he'll probably stay on in the staff.

Evans has signed another contract with BMC until 2014 and Hincapie has signed a year extension. If he rides another year in the Tour then he'll become the rider with the most Tours - well deserved.

Omega-Pharma will merge with Quickstep to make an Uber-Belgian team, though dunno where that puts Gilbert who was looking to move elsewhere.

Still no word on Hushovd though I'm hoping he stays with Garmin.

[Lineker]

Apparently HTC are now set to fold at the end of the season.