2012 Cycling Thread

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I want a non-Wiggins/Froome winner today. Millar's capable if he's on form but his TT this month has not been so brilliant. Van Garderen has been great but maybe he'll be too tired. Chavanel maybe cos he's been silent this last week.

[mikevandam]

Wiggins has this one in the bag. It has been a really boring tour.

Couldn't have said it better myself. I thought it was certain when Froome took over second place in the standings. The interesting question is: Can Wiggins do it again next year?. Many have choked on being defending champ. From my memory i can only think of Lemond, Anquetil, Merckx, Armstrong, Indurain and Hinault winning back to back. Maybe Bobet and Thys did win consecutive tours, i'm not sure.

[Adam]

Will he do it next year? I'm not sure he'll even try, since they keep talking about putting Froome up to win the Tour in future.

Anyway, today isn't the day to talk about next year. Let's get through today and enjoy for once a truly great British sporting achievement

[Hagen]

Since I started working again I haven't watched much as I've only been able to get home to watch the last 25 km or so, of the stages, but it seems I didn't miss much other than more crashes and Gilbert almost beating up a spectator. I do however love how the danish commentators are going crazy about "dissention in the ranks of team sky" and whether or not Froome will be able to beat Wiggins today, but I suppose they're just trying to add tension to an otherwise uneventful tour.

Also Chris Anker Sørensen is the fucking man for finishing the stage with that injury the other day.

Edited July 21, 2012 by Hagen

[Adam]

Bradley Wiggins has destroyed the field to win the TT and the Tour de France. Insane achievement, what a race he has ridden this past three weeks.

Edited July 21, 2012 by AdamDRFC

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Historically someone has only won in such a way by doping. I hope he hasn't and if he hasn't then YAAAAAAAAAAAY Bradley Wiggins and YAYYYYYYYY England. I'll wait for a couple of months first though.

[GoN_]

Historically someone has only won in such a way by doping. I hope he hasn't and if he hasn't then YAAAAAAAAAAAY Bradley Wiggins and YAYYYYYYYY England. I'll wait for a couple of months first though.

Well, this was a really odd edition of the Tour. The mountain stages were mostly irrelevant, the best climbers were out of the competition or in bad shape. The top 10, the time differences between them and what I described above really make me think of the 2006 Tour but without the winner going alone for more than 100km and taking 5 minutes from everyone.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Chris Anker Sorensen was awarded the most combative rider of the Tour award. He deserves it.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Cavendish won the final stage. EBH took a terrible line through the final corner so Cav had to sprint from a long way out. Goss just couldn't go past him and Sagan was too far back to get close. Three stage wins ain't bad and a record four consecutive wins on the Champs Elysees. Groovy.

Nice to see Wiggins lead him out through the final kilometre though, never usually see the yellow jersey do that.

[EddieG]

Played a lot of PCM lately, so I told myself I was gonna get more into the Tour this year, and missed well.. all of it out of the last 5km, suppose I can still say I saw some history in the making, not bad in a year where Spain made history at the Euros.. it's a bloody good year for Sports.

4/4 for Cav is impressive as hell too.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Cavendish has now won the fourth most Tour de France stages in history.

Eddy Merckx - 34

Bernard Hinault - 28

André Leducq - 25

Mark Cavendish - 23

Lance Armstrong - 22

TO put that even more into perspective, the next most by an active cyclist is Thor Hushovd with 10.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

My ten best from this year's Tour will be, in no order...

Bradley Wiggins

Chris Froome

Teejay Van Garderen

Chris Anker Sorensen

Jens Voigt

Peter Sagan

Thomas Voeckler

Thibaut Pinot

Mark Cavendish

Luis Leon Sanchez

Then my back-up five will be...

David Millar

Vincenzo Nibali

Fabian Cancellara

Jurgen Van Den Broeck

Fredrik Kessiakoff

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

+ David Millar to win a stage (either time trial, craft break in the final few kms, or an epic all-day foray off the front of the peloton).

Yes. I am happy. It was epic and all-day. As good as it could be.

+ George Hincapie, riding his final TdF before retiring to get a moment of glory.

No glory but he got to ride in front of the peloton as they rode onto the Champs Elysees.

+ Nicolas Roche to either win a stage or sneak into the top ten (which'll be hard with all the time trialling)

He got 11th, would have been better if he hadn't had one bad day where he lost 6 minutes. Also came about 150 metres short of a sneaky stage win.

+ Team Garmin to win best team and get whoever ends up as their main competitor right up in the overall finishing positions.

Miserable Tour for Garmin. Both their main GC guys had to retire from the Tour due to injury. Terrible bad luck in the first week and finished like 3rd last in the team competition. However it did free Millar up for an attack and Vandevelde finished second on a break too.

+ A couple of EPIC mountain stages with attacks, riders cracking big time and general heart-pounding brilliance.

Mountain duels never really materialised sadly. This Tour was all about the sprints, polka dot competition and the breakaways. However Cadel Evans DID crack and Froome repeatedly riding away from Wiggins was entertaining.

+ Samuel Sanchez getting a podium position.

See below.

+ No horrible crashes.

Too many again meaning we lost Sanchez, Hesjedal, Danielson from GC, a couple of top sprinters and some good exciting riders.

+ Johnny Hoogerland getting a stage win.

Came nowhere close.

+ More stage wins for Cavendish, despite riding for Sky.

Three in the end makes for a very respectable Tour. One would have been a disappointment for him, whatever he was saying to camera. Ultimately he got unlucky in the early days, getting caught in numerous crashes.

+ Andre Greipel, Sagan and Rojas to win nothing.

Sagan grew on me this year. I just worry that he's "too" good if you catch my drift. However if he truly is a modern day Mercx then I can live with that. Greipel got a couple of stage wins, Rojas got injured and went home with nothing. Don't like injuries though.

+ Scarponi and Valverde to fail dismally in the mountains.

Along with Menchov, Scarponi was poor. Their days are over you have to feel. Valverde was useless for much of it so changed his target and took the stage win which annoyed me as I don't like him whatsoever.

+ It HUUUUUUURTS me (as I hate Team Sky so much) but.....go on then, a first British Tour winner in Bradley Wiggins.

ENGERLAND ENGERLAND ENGERLAND!

[EddieG]

Cavendish leaving Team Sky to join Omega Pharma Quick Step

[EddieG]

Double post but it was yesterday so

Rabobank are ending their sponsorship of well.. the Rabo team effective January 1st.

[Noah]

All our officials are either getting sacked, or are standing down it seems.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Very good move for Cavendish. He gets to go back to his old director sportif Rolf Aldag. Hopefully they take Bernie Eisel too. Cavendish + Boonen means a possible dominance. Boonen in the classics and Cav in the stage races. Beautiful. OPQuickstep could turn themselves into an HTC-style team. Very exciting focus on sprints, stage wins and classics. Especially with Leipheimer gone for next season.

[EddieG]

So the 2014 Tour De France will kick off in Leeds, and if I read it properly the second stage will be Leeds - London.

[Adam]

I can't wait. Tour de France in Yorkshire! Definitely going to be going to watch that.

[Lineker]

Do we have a 2013 thread?

Wiggo has withdrawn from the Giro with a chest infection.