Best tour ever
Yesterday I was convinced that it would be impossible for Landis to finish in yellow.No GC potential gets away from a charging peloton to put 6 minutes on his closest chasers. That just does not happen in modern TdF racing.
But this has been no ordinary tour.
Each day gets better than the next. I don't think I can take a moment more of this drama.
~~~~~
In the end, there were no tactics today. TMobile had 5 guys at the bottom of the last climb...and nothing happened. This was just straight up brutal racing. It was just every man for himself. Landis'antics stripped this race down to its most primal elements. I think I can watch that last climb, and all of its drama, over and over again.
~~~~
Landis' face, after he finished and rolled off to his soigneur, was priceless. He was still pumped and wide eyed with whatever boiling adrenalin and fury that had kept him going. There was a bunch of "fuck yeah" in that face.
~~~~
Pereiro continues to impress. He led the scrambled charge up the mountain. Keeping his composure even after Kloden or Zubeldia wouldn't or couldn't work. And then sincerely congratulating Floyd. Good stuff.
~~~~~
Moreau stood in sharp contrast to all of this heroism. He left behind Dessel, who was in 4th place. For what? So that he could be the highest place Frenchman? I have never been a fan of his and now I remember why.
~~~~~Rasmussen. I can't look at him.
~~~~~
Where's Discovery?
posted by Velo Bella @ 9:54 AM
25 Comments:
From today's results:
Most combative
1 Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak
You think?
classic
all out war
more schtuff:
Dessel lost 90 seconds to Moreau in the first TT. Bummer. I would have loved to see him stay in front of that wanker. We'll see.
White Jersey ~ Cunego lost what ... 4 or 5 minutes to Fothen in the first TT?
I don't mind Fothen keeping the jersey, he's worked hard to stay up there ... but, seeing Levi get dropped to 18th was tough to look at (and not only because of those dorkball sunglasses).
Periero does honor to the race. dig it.
better and better...
thank goodness armstrong retired
"At T-Mobile, we had no tactics today," Rogers continued. "We just tried to hang on as long as possible. We thought the last climb would be the decisive one. Klöden had problems from the start; me too. We both struggled today. We never expected Landis to do so well today."
Except for Poppy's win they have been entirely absent from this tour.
Their season preceding this has nothing to do with this. This is the Tour.
But my comment was directed at this stage in particular.
For a team who lost nothing to the drug scandal and came with their full team intact, they have come up exceptionally short handed.
So, tell me what was not fair about that statement? That was nice even.
~~~
Bruyneel looks like he's been partying in Paris discos all night.
Oh, never mind, I found them, hanging out with Jens and Vandevelde(who did a shitload of work today but we won't rub that in or anything):
31 Egoi Martinez (Spa) Discovery Channel 21.23
32 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Discovery Channel
33 Jens Voigt (Ger) Team CSC
34 José Azevedo (Por) Discovery Channel
35 Christian Vandevelde (USA) Team CSC
36 George Hincapie (USA) Discovery Channel
I agree with VB re: Discovery. Where was their fight? I bet they've trained harder than they've raced these last few weeks. All other teams have always been Lanceless, most of them also had to use their next strongest domestiques as their team leader. Pretty even playing field I say.
CSC lost Badasso, but they just went on and won 3 more stages. T-Mobile lost Jan but they had 3 or 4 guys daily up front, tactics or no tactics. Even Robabank showed their house of pain daily. Riis just says now we have Carlos. Even the bitty teams fought for something daily. It seems Discovery just gave it up when they weren't in control of the race. Well welcome to real life, sometimes its chaotic but you still fight and do your best. Maybe their Prolife under the Lance era of control left little flexibility to adapt to new situations. Who knows, they just seemed defeated after Georgie lost so much time the first week. Every team, even the weaker ones always had one or two guys in the front. Jose Assyvedo was pretty much the only consistent guy in the group. Hopefully they'll figure it out and move on. They'll probably have to contract a leader and I predict it will be Floyd. At least I hope they select an Americano.
Floyd was Phloydnomenal today...and I have mucho respect for Oscar.
Did you see all those man panties in the sidelines? I renaming that mountain, Col de da man pantie
that picture of Rasmussen is going to give me nightmares
that pic of Rasmussen looks like horns are about to pop out the top of his head and his eyes are about to shoot fire...
man panties?
mmm ... man panties.
these aren't your grandfather's speedos.
After yesterday's descent Rasmussen's new name is Spasmussen. Maybe he's still thinking about those descents.
Col de Joux Plane-Col de Joux Plane Man Pantie...watch for them tonight.
this guy forgot his
Spasmussen ... [snort]
I just call em like I see em
But don't worry. I'm sure they'll still let you sit at the kid's table.
WD - Michael just heard that and was cracking up.
Now we have to watch again so I can hear it too.
BJM -I met your baby sitter at my chiro office
we talked about how damn cute Chase is.
crazy small world it is.
gawdamn, we missed da'BJM
... and hell yeah, luv'd that crazy crash commentary. look forward to hearing it again.
Linda and I heard the "God Damn!" too and
also Al and Bob all giggly then putting
on their serious announcer voices when they
*thought* they were back on air.
Priceless
marscat...that was really funny...
Oh, Im always late for your blogs...but I only have one question for ya all... What did Floyd do overnight to go from a total bonk to total superstar? Is anyone else wondering about this? Does anyone know?
My question was more of
What did he do to go from total superstar to total bonk?
Post a Comment
<< Home