Tour de France stage 2 *spolier*

Tusher

Yessssssss!

blazing_saddles

Cavendish. No surprise there.
Question is, who got involved in the crashes?
Where were Boonan, Bennati, Freire, Hushovd?

Also, do we have the next generation fanboy? :P

disgruntledgoat

Just watching replay and Boonen had to pull up the sidestreet.

afx237vi

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Cavendish. No surprise there.
Question is, who got involved in the crashes?
Where were Boonan, Bennati, Freire, Hushovd?

Also, do we have the next generation fanboy? :P

Hushovd was there. 4th I think.

TheStone

Messy....but the way he hit the front and increased the gap was very impressive.
He could dominate this tour (green and sprints)

Pokerface

Cav starts tomoro in Green!

Smokin Joe

iainf72 wrote:

Yawn.

I admit Cavendish is the fastest but it does make the race rather boring. As long as he's near the front he'll win. I was hoping he'd do his usual and fluff the 1'st sprint stage but no...

Columbia obviously harbour absolutely no GC hopes with Freiburg Mick doing a turn on the front.

Jesus H, some people are hard to please :roll:

takethehighroad

I think most of the "names" were taken out in that crash. Bennati was around the same place as Boonen, and there were two Leakygas riders up the side street with him.

Also Napolitano was walking in later on.

Shows how dominant Columbia are, they can just let Milram do the work until they're ready, and then take it over form there.

Cumulonimbus

Boonen and Bennati were two of the last to finish so it looks like they were caught up in the crash. Millar also finished a long way down. Id have thought he would have been trying to stay near the front so maybe he got caught up too?

http://www.letour.fr/2009/TDF/LIVE/us/2 ... index.html

sonny73

Cav the legend, how many will it be this year then? Potentially 7, though that's obviously seriously unlikely, awsome if he did though!

disgruntledgoat

Seee 2003 for Millar's sprint stage strategy... "chilling at the back"

blazing_saddles

afx237vi wrote:

Hushovd was there. 4th I think.

Of course. It's all black and white to me.

AO1504

I was hoping Tyler Farrar would win the stage today

deejay

Smokin Joe wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

Yawn.

I admit Cavendish is the fastest but it does make the race rather boring. As long as he's near the front he'll win. I was hoping he'd do his usual and fluff the 1'st sprint stage but no...

Columbia obviously harbour absolutely no GC hopes with Freiburg Mick doing a turn on the front.

Jesus H, some people are hard to please :roll:

No it dosn't please me either.
You mean you have been watching all the afternoon and I've had something more interesting to do in the garden, watching the "Grass" grow.

4 riders away and oh dear they get caught inside the last 10km. Play it again sam.
Stage 3 and play it again sam.

Thank's very much but at least there is a TTT on stage 4.
I never miss going to that but this year it's a bit too far south.
I won't be in the garden for that.

Harry182

That overhead shot of the sprint was fantastic! I'm no huge MC fan but seeing him actually accelerate away from Farrar when the final lead-out man swung off was PHENOMENAL!

TheStone

Let's never ever be bored by the best sprinter in the world winning spint stages of the TdF.

..... and he's British

Tusher

To paraphrase someone important after the Olympic haul, "This is what it must feel like to be Australian".

OK, it'll take some getting used to, all this success for a Brit (or even a Manxter) but with a little practice we'll all get used to it. Let's just enjoy it whilst we can!!

Harry182

TheStone wrote:

Let's never ever be bored by the best sprinter in the world winning spint stages of the TdF.

Exactly!

iainf72

Harry182 wrote:

TheStone wrote:

Let's never ever be bored by the best sprinter in the world winning spint stages of the TdF.

Exactly!

What about if everyone just sat up and didn't bother trying? Would that be fantastic as long as a Brit won?

When you have Boonen / Thor / Friere / McEwen then you can't really be sure who will win so there's a bit of interest. Put Cav into the equation and it's a different picture. This is not a criticism of Cavendish by any means.

It just doesn't make for a very interesting race. I'd voice the same complaint if he was Italian (Cipo bored me senseless some years ago in the Giro) or Japanese. I'm sure we all enjoy stages where a group gets away, stays away and you don't know who's going to be quickest at the end.

Homer J

Awesome sprint, wonder what speed he reached??

TheStone

iainf72 wrote:

Harry182 wrote:

TheStone wrote:

Let's never ever be bored by the best sprinter in the world winning spint stages of the TdF.

Exactly!

What about if everyone just sat up and didn't bother trying? Would that be fantastic as long as a Brit won?

When you have Boonen / Thor / Friere / McEwen then you can't really be sure who will win so there's a bit of interest. Put Cav into the equation and it's a different picture. This is not a criticism of Cavendish by any means.

It just doesn't make for a very interesting race. I'd voice the same complaint if he was Italian (Cipo bored me senseless some years ago in the Giro) or Japanese. I'm sure we all enjoy stages where a group gets away, stays away and you don't know who's going to be quickest at the end.

OK, undestand where you're coming from, but can't agree.
I grew up watching Abduj.... (sp) then later Cipo, wishing, dreaming that someone closer to home could do that. Now they are.

Every sport need an individual to aim at, OR a couple that destory each other.

blazing_saddles

That looked like a difficult finish and we had a crash.

I'm expecting a twitter health and safety proclamation, tonight.

leguape

iainf72 wrote:

Harry182 wrote:

TheStone wrote:

Let's never ever be bored by the best sprinter in the world winning spint stages of the TdF.

Exactly!

What about if everyone just sat up and didn't bother trying? Would that be fantastic as long as a Brit won?

When you have Boonen / Thor / Friere / McEwen then you can't really be sure who will win so there's a bit of interest. Put Cav into the equation and it's a different picture. This is not a criticism of Cavendish by any means.

It just doesn't make for a very interesting race. I'd voice the same complaint if he was Italian (Cipo bored me senseless some years ago in the Giro) or Japanese. I'm sure we all enjoy stages where a group gets away, stays away and you don't know who's going to be quickest at the end.

Nobody expected Petacchi to pop him at the Giro did they? Perhaps it wouldn't be so dull if the other sprinters pulled thier fingers out and stopped letting him have a clear road to the finish. Throw a man up there and box him against the barriers maybe, but they are giving him too easy a ride regardless of how good his jump.

mididoctors

iainf72 wrote:

Harry182 wrote:

TheStone wrote:

Let's never ever be bored by the best sprinter in the world winning spint stages of the TdF.

Exactly!

What about if everyone just sat up and didn't bother trying? Would that be fantastic as long as a Brit won?

When you have Boonen / Thor / Friere / McEwen then you can't really be sure who will win so there's a bit of interest. Put Cav into the equation and it's a different picture. This is not a criticism of Cavendish by any means.

It just doesn't make for a very interesting race. I'd voice the same complaint if he was Italian (Cipo bored me senseless some years ago in the Giro) or Japanese. I'm sure we all enjoy stages where a group gets away, stays away and you don't know who's going to be quickest at the end.

they have got to stop working with colombia to pull back the breaks and get in them instead..

make the race difficult to control..

blazing_saddles

Something occured to me. The Tour, is the first race on the PT/Historical calander, since the TDSuisse.
2 stages in (10 in total) and Columbia/Saxo Bank run of wins remains unbroken.....

moray_gub

iainf72 wrote:

Harry182 wrote:

TheStone wrote:

Let's never ever be bored by the best sprinter in the world winning spint stages of the TdF.

Exactly!

What about if everyone just sat up and didn't bother trying? Would that be fantastic as long as a Brit won?

When you have Boonen / Thor / Friere / McEwen then you can't really be sure who will win so there's a bit of interest. Put Cav into the equation and it's a different picture. This is not a criticism of Cavendish by any means.

It just doesn't make for a very interesting race. I'd voice the same complaint if he was Italian (Cipo bored me senseless some years ago in the Giro) or Japanese. I'm sure we all enjoy stages where a group gets away, stays away and you don't know who's going to be quickest at the end.

The way you are going on youd think this was new phenomenon, top sprinters have been wining early stages like that in the TDF since the year dot .

moray_gub

deejay wrote:

Smokin Joe wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

Yawn.


4 riders away and oh dear they get caught inside the last 10km. Play it again sam.
Stage 3 and play it again sam.

Thank's very much but at least there is a TTT on stage 4.
I never miss going to that but this year it's a bit too far south.
I won't be in the garden for that.

This shows how different people view things different ways i absolutely hate the team trials totally distorts the race imo. Bad idea to bring it back hopefully it wont be back next year.

NervexProf

See here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/others ... ctory.html


Seems like Kenny Van Hummel took his hand off his bars to take a swipe at Cavendish!

Did anyone else spot this incident?

afx237vi

NervexProf wrote:

See here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/others ... ctory.html


Seems like Kenny Van Hummel took his hand off his bars to take a swipe at Cavendish!

Did anyone else spot this incident?

No, but Cyclingnews says is was Piet Rooijakkers not Van Hummel.

Kléber

Cavendish said Van Hummel's rode into him, the Dutchman's bike clipped Cav's bars.