OT - Tour de France stage 8 (Sunday)
Some prime breakaway territory today:
Many short, but steep, climbs. As yesterday, the toughest climb is last - the Category 1 Col de la Croix:
The breakaway specialists should be out in force. Will Cancellara try to make a move to get back yellow, or save his energy for tomorrow's time trial? I'll be interested to see how Sagan fares today.
Will any GC contender who lost time on Friday try to make it up today?
or are they on cycles like steroids?
Are you a douche nightly, or only on cycles? Does almost every thread about the Tour have to contain at least one post accusing everyone of doping?
Anyways, Sky put on an impressive showing yesterday and I'm interested to see if they'll be right back at it today. Should make for an interesting race. Does Cancellara try to make back the time he lost today, or does he try to conserve for the TT coming up?
Looks like a pretty difficult stage with 4 cat 2 climbs and a cat 1 climb to end it. Definitely a stage that could see some movement.
My head says team Sky looks too strong right now. Evans all by himself yesterday on the last climb. I think the blistering pace set yesterday hits a lot of the riders hard today.
Bicycle shorts are sexy. I wear them every time I go to the mall or grocery shopping. All the ladies check me out.
Oh that was you...
So are you grossed out by all camera shots of men's asses in footpall pants? Cyclists essentially wear the same outfits as football players minus shoulder pads, though there is one notable difference: football pants are the Capri version of bicycle shorts.
Disregard.
...is probably what you mean. Unless you are talking about some sort of grammar chief:
I kid. If OT on cycling in July bugs you so much, you are welcome to read one of the other threads.
s of you are going to post an OT about a bike race you have to be consistent and post an OT about every NASCAR related race their is.Actually, I don't. But someone who cares about NASCAR can feel free. BTW, if you hate these threads so much, why do you keep on posting in them and bumping them up to the top of the board?
While I love football, my tolerance for sports where men lay on top of other men only goes so far. Case in point:
...by M. Pinot. Marc Madiot cool as un concombre:
That was hilarious. I'd hate to be the driver of the car with him going nuts right behind me.
I can't blame him though - FDJ doesn't get too many stage wins. Pinot's a guy to keep an eye on for the future - only 22 years old.
FDJ had a man in every move last year and got nothing (memorably losing to Thor Hushovd in much the same way Pinot won this year). It's nice to see them achieve success; they certainly work hard enough for it.
Wiggans has been annoying to me in the past but this is pure gold.
In response to a question - to win the Tour de France riders must be doped “to the gills.
"Honestly they’re just fucking wankers. I can’t be doing with people like that, It justifies their own bone idleness… because they can’t ever imagine applying themselves to anything in their lives. And it’s easy for them to sit under a pseudonym on Twitter and write that kind of shit rather than get off their arses and apply themselves and work hard at something and achieve something.”
He paused, tossed the table and left.
He also added a final pejorative descriptor for emphasis: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/wiggins-delivers-caustic-assessment-of-his-critics
Cool stage - I love when there are lots of climbs.
Terrible break for Samuel Sanchez. He's out of the Tour and can't defend his Olympic medal either. What exactly happened there? We never got a good angle - we just suddenly see guys flying to the left.
...any footage, but Cycling News describes it thusly. Awful:
"The crash took place in the 60th kilometre of racing on stage eight on a short uphill section, and initial reports say it was apparently caused by a elderly male spectator sitting at a table too far out in the road. Team-mate Jorge Azanza - who was mainly responsible for protecting Sánchez in the pack - tried to avoid the spectator, who was moving out of the way at speed, but instead ended up colliding with him, with Valverde slamming into Azanza and Sánchez crashing into the two Spaniards, and somersaulting into the tarmac..."
In fairness, Sanchez wasn't going to make a significant bid for Gold this year anyway; the course won't suit him and he knew it, targeting the World Championships instead. He was an easy Top 5 contender here, though, and it's a terrible break for him.
I am starting to wonder why Froome isn't on another team as a serious GC contender. If it weren't for the flat on stage 2 (I think) he would be right there with Wiggins/Evans.
I'm guessing he'll have his own team next year.
Phil and Paul kept talking about what a great ride Evans had. Not sure I see it that way: 2nd day in a row he used up energy trying to drop Wiggins, 2nd day in a row it failed. Tomorrow should be pretty interesting.
They said something about the psychological benefit of that mini-attack he made at the end, but I don't see it that way. An attack that gets you no time seems like a failure to me.
In 2008 Evans was excoriated for never attacking and lost the Tour in part because he allowed himself to be neutralized by CSC; he's a different rider now, and he's trying to make something happen. If it doesn't work, too bad--but he won't be criticized for not trying.
It's not like he was trying to win the race in a day. He was looking for a few seconds on a flat at the end of a hilly stage, when Wiggins had only one teammate with him; seems like a smart move to me, even if it doesn't work. The fact is that if Evans wants to win, he probably has to gain time in unconventional places or by dropping Wiggins on climbs; he is not going to gain time on him in either time trial. We do know that Wiggins is under some considerably psychological pressure, because he is dropping strong-even-for-him reactions at the end of stages, and Evans is wise to keep the pressure on him.
from OLN and the constant "Runaway Shoes.com" commercials. Amazing to think that back in the Armstrong era it was difficult to get any live coverage, and now it's on NBC for the next 10 years. I just wish I could find a YouTube or something of Bobke discussing the differences (complete with Bobke-style double hand gestures) between schluges and schmenges......!