Australian Politics Forum

Viva le Tour !!!!!!

It's back on.
I ride a cannondale and one won the first stage :-)

Cadel is looking good.

Found one, they are elusive, so fast ......

Quote:

The Victorian crossed in 78th position behind a mass of pin-balling sprinters to remain only 17secs behind race leader Fabian Cancellara and 10secs down on arch-rival Bradley Wiggins.

Evans said BMC teammates including Marcus Burghardt and George Hincapie had expertly kept him out of trouble in "this sometimes disrespectful nervous peloton."

Sprintcyclist wrote on Jul 3^rd, 2012 at 10:54am:

Found one, they are elusive, so fast ......

Wont go very fast without pedals

Looks a little like the Libs direct action plan. All show and no functionality. Don't worry I'm sure Tony will pull something from under his hat. Perhaps his ears.

Apparently Bradley Wiggins is the favourite.
He has good form coming into it.

Makes me wonder, would the cyclists look up more to a Tour de France victory or an Olympic gold ?

I'ld opt for the Tour.

Well, well, well, the saga of Tour '12 continues.

Cadel 10 seconds behind Wiggins.

Quote:

............
But potentially the much bigger development for Evans on Tuesday was that Sky rider Kanstantin Sivtsov became the first rider to abandon the race.

The Belarusian, a key lieutenant for Evans' main rival Brad Wiggins, crashed at 140km into the 197km stage from Orchies to the northern coastal town of Boulogne-sur-Mer.

It means Wiggins is now one rider down for support when he duels with Evans in the mountains."You need to be firing on all cylinders in this race and to be one man down, it's not an advantage, that's for sure," Evans said.

"I've been many guys down on certain occasions.

"Nine is better than eight."

Evans benefited again from strong BMC teamwork to stay out of trouble............

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cycling/gerrans-hurt-in-tour-de-france-crash-20120704-21g1y.html

Two + weeks to go, 3000+ kms to go, ALL the alps to climb.
Wiggins is 10 secs up and has lost a key player.

Anyones game.

Losing a domestique is going to hurt Wiggins more than losing time to Evans.

first hill climbs and the Tour changes a gear.

Team SKY look to be ALL over BMC. Last year Cadel was often doing it all alone.

Thought Cadel had it over Wiggins on the finish, but Wiggins is a time trialler, of which his speciality fetures highly this year ..........

There are some very promising nights coming up.

For the keen watchers, here are my picks.

This wednesday and thursday nights, 11th and 12th.
sunday 15th, wednesday 18th, thursday 19th

Good luck

Cadel had a bad night. Might be Wiggnas victory in Paris now.

Look at the glowing sportsmanship comments

Quote:

.......But neither man is prepared to budge from pre-race theories that the 99th Tour would go down to the wire in Paris.

Asked if the battle for yellow was over only 10 days into the race, Wiggins said: "No, it's never over until the fat lady sings and she hasn't entered the building yet.

"This race is far from over. Cadel is an absolute fighter and I'm taking it one day at a time and not get carried away with the emotions.

"This race is not over until Paris.
"I'm only human, I'm not a machine.

"Things can still got wrong. Anything can happen. I could have a bad day, a crash.

"We'll put this day behind and be ready to go in two days time."

Lance Armstrong's lawsuit against USADA doping officials dismissed
Evans has vowed to fight all the way to the French capital on Sunday week, hopeful of making up time in the French Alps and the Pyrenees.

"You see where we are and it is what it was," Evans said.

"I rode not my best time trial, but certainly not a bad one which, in comparison to the other time triallers in Cancellara and Martin and so on, it wasn't so far off the mark."

Asked how he would approach the remaining 11 stages of the Tour, Evans said: "Same as always - fight to the end and don't give up."That continues and it hasn't been optimal so far, the Tour, 1.50 down or something.

"Not the best position to be in compared to last year, being two seconds down was a lot more realistic.

"Reassess the situation day by day.

"We don't give up, we don't give up - that's for sure.

"There's a lot more racing to go before Paris."

......

http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/tour-de-france/tour-de-france-2012-stage-9-time-trial/story-fn9485p4-1226421964052

Love it

Ah, saw it last night.

Looks like cadels tour attempt is over.
Quite downhearted about it.

Thanks Cadel, you gave it your best.

Yes a pity, but he remains to be one of the very few drug free (hopefully) champions.

Australian Politics Forum
http://www.ozpolitic.com/forum/YaBB.pl Member Run Boards >> Sport >> Tour de France http://www.ozpolitic.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1341191034 Message started by Sprintcyclist on Jul 2^nd, 2012 at 11:03am