Le Tour!

The final stage is traditionally ceremonial. Mostly because it is the last chance for the sprinters to gain a stage win. That is the only reason the sprints get themselves over the climbs in the last week. The sprint teams would assist in the chase of any serious breakaway that threatened the yellow jersey.

I do recall Vino attacking and gaining a time bonus at an intermediate sprint point in the last stage a few years ago. At the start of the stage, he was in 6th place overall and just 3 seconds behind Levi L. who was in 5th. Because of the time bonus, Vino took 5th. Levi took a hit among his American fans for letting a top 5 slip away.
 
I been up and down with my feelings on Contador. But after this...I love him.

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lol .. it didn't look that bad on TV .. don't blame AC though, i'd do the same thing if i saw a crazy guy coming at me with a shiny silver object
 
An excellent observation from Phil Ligget during this point in time:

"The crowd is a bit excited, they have been drinking beer for 72 hours!"
 
ArmyOfNone said:
I been up and down with my feelings on Contador. But after this...I love him.

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The idiot protestor had it all wrong. He should be dressed up as a butcher.

I do agree that Contador did the right thing and it definately did not look even half as bad on the live feed. He really clocked him good.
 
I have seen Contador slap people a few times over the years. He hates what people get close and will swat people away. He put everything on the line yesterday, which was respectable. If it weren't for the finger bang thing and the fact that hevturned it into his logo, he may be ok.
 
My gf was even rooting for AC yesterday on his final attack. He was very respectable yesterday. Sanchez screwed AC by over taking the frenchy and setting the pace. The french is still very french. Cowards! Didn't do any of the work to bridge up on AC
 
Spylab said:
Quoting myself here for a reason.

Still, great work by Voeckler on this tour. He wasn't supposed to be anyone but a random stage winner and clung onto the wheels of Schleck Co., Evans, Sanchez, etc. The guy deserves all the praise in the world for riding as he has on this tour.

And ANDY SCHLECK! EXACTLY my sentiment from above. I knew he was holding back, and I knew that staying in touch with Frank all the time was holding them BOTH back. It was such a pathetic sight in the Pyrenees and I was almost ready to write them off... but Andy did just what I said. He rode his own race, left Frank back in the pack and took this Tour for himself.

Not to be outdone, Frank clawed his way back up to second, but on his own as well as little brother was already long gone. The two of them obviously work much better when they are not paying attention to one another at all.

I think Tommy V is about tapped out... not likely he can pinch Evans off the podium with only the TT left. But this year was definitely one of the best Tours I can remember watching.

Looks like Alberto needs to find some other kind of 'tainted' food to eat next year. How bout that,huh...
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So, looks like TV wasn't able to pick Evans off. I'm guessing today took you a bit by surprise?

Looks like the talking heads were spot on with this one. I'd say this was in league with that 1 Super Bowl where Dallas beat Buffalo so bad the cheerleaders were out on the field by the end. I really didn't know what to expect from today. It sure wasn't a delivery like that. Well done, I have to say.

I was rooting for Evans after Horner got knocked out but wasn't in love with his passive approach to everything. Well it turns out their recipe to bake the perfect cake was plenty good enough to do what they needed to do.

I was texting with Fred that it would have been more interesting if AC was on his game. But as he said, if he brought the same form from the Giro to the TdF, it likely would have been a good old fashioned ass kicking. Fair enough.

Tour of Colorado starts when now?
 
I expected a strong TT from Evans.

I did NOT expect such an bad TT from Schleck. I thought he had enough to at least keep a couple seconds.

By the first check I realized it was all over. Cadel Evans was a missile.

Good on him, though. Raced very smart and calculated the whole way and it paid off where it counted.
 
props to evans .. he had no help for the whole tour, doing all the work himself when it counted and still managed to pull it off
 
al415 said:
Hey,
I don't want to cause the derailment of the thread by asking, but this disdain for AC is pretty common on US cycling forums. Why do you not respect him? I'm just asking, not baiting a trap or anything. Speaking for myself, the only questionable act so far was the attack during Andy's mechanical. Other than that I see him as a pretty stoic racer who lets his riding do the talking.
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stb222 said:
Spanish.
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I have been and am still trying to figure out exactly what this means because right now not only am I offended - but pretty GD pissed off...
 
soulchild said:
I have been and am still trying to figure out exactly what this means because right now not only am I offended - but pretty GD pissed off...
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The fact that he is not a good English speaker puts him at a disadvantage with the English speaking population. This is pretty common in the cycling world. Riders take tons of flack from those they don't communicate well with.

It is not the fact that he is Spanish. He is just considered an outsider by too many. Lance Armstrong was hated by the French. Then he made an effort to learn the language and the French fell in love with him. Well, everyone except the French press.
 
Final comments. Great Tour. I think the policies may actually be working.

I blew my predictions thanks to AC. AND big props to him for letting it all fly. It looks like Luxemborg is too close to Germany as the Schlecks seem to be taking the Ulrich approach to the tour.
 
graveyardman67 said:
It looks like Luxemborg is too close to Germany as the Schlecks seem to be taking the Ulrich approach to the tour.
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Harsh, but it may be true though.

Great tour, I'm glad Cadel gets the win after so much heartbreak. He finally has a team to back him up and he rode very smartly this year.
I wish they attacked more in the Pyrenees though.
 
soulchild said:
I have been and am still trying to figure out exactly what this means because right now not only am I offended - but pretty GD pissed off...
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Calm down Lou, sarcasm. For ac, it all started wrong with the finger bang. Then lance made one of his famous enemies of ac, so america didnt even stand a chance of seeing the real ac. Limited interviews and such and the dude doesn't speak engliah very well, which means he is immediately written of. He is great to watch and at least didn't lay down and take it this year once he was down pretty far.
 
I hope everyone learned a lesson this yr, never let anyone get ahead and think there is enough stages to make up for it. I like Sammy Sanchez!
 
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