Stage 4 - Team Time Trial SPOILER

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Comments

  • SpaceJunk
    SpaceJunk Posts: 1,157
    Kléber wrote:
    The stage is all about the team working well together, it's not about having the six foot guys who can turn 180mm cranks and 55T chainrings. Chapeau ASO.

    Note that Silence-Lotto spent a day training on the Zolder motor racing circuit. So a big, wide and flat place, ideal practice for a twisty, hilly course, no? :wink:

    yeah kleber - as you are probably aware, cadel is a racing car fanatic. He probably organized it, and then did the laps in an Aston Martin.
  • Jez mon
    Jez mon Posts: 3,809
    Reckon Astana will do well, especially if they prepared for it as well as Diso/Postal used to.
    You live and learn. At any rate, you live
  • Pokerface
    Pokerface Posts: 7,960
    Silence appear to be back to 7 riders.
  • afx237vi
    afx237vi Posts: 12,630
    Here we go. JI Gutierrez saying the course is unnecessary and dangerous, even though CdE have practised a lot on the course.
  • jackhammer111 - banned
    jackhammer111 - banned Posts: 245
    I love Zabriskie and his sly humor. Hope he stays upright.
  • Stuey01
    Stuey01 Posts: 1,273
    Nearly time for the big boys to get out there. getting exciting now.
    Not climber, not sprinter, not rouleur
  • blazing_saddles
    blazing_saddles Posts: 22,730
    afx237vi wrote:
    Milram crashed too.

    Euskaltel up next. That should be fun! :twisted:

    terpstra and wrolich went down for milram and Wegmann is off the back.
    Another disaster.
    No one is safe on this course.
    "Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
  • afx237vi
    afx237vi Posts: 12,630
    Badger Bend claims another! Bingen Fernandez from Cofidis is the latest victim.
  • SpaceJunk
    SpaceJunk Posts: 1,157
    What odds for someone from Astana, garmin, saxo bank or highriad crashing out?
  • iainf72
    iainf72 Posts: 15,784
    Kléber wrote:
    I thought I'd start a new thread so the race can be discussed under the SPOILER label.

    It seems to me the stage is between three outfits: Astana, Columbia and Garmin.

    I know who Kleber is at last! Welcome aboard Tom Danielson! :wink:

    Tom Danielson: Hi and it’s great to be here commentating on CN for such an exciting stage. It is a very difficult course today. The twisty, up and down roads, make it very challenging. Then throw in the wind and it’s crazy hard. It will not be just about pure horse power. A team that is very unified with great communication will win today. I think my favorites are Garmin, Columbia, and Astana
    Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.
  • skavanagh.bikeradar
    skavanagh.bikeradar Posts: 1,097
    I hope we don't get whining about the course - the course is there to be ridden, so slow down a bit where it's dangerous otherewise we'll be stuck with TTT being run up and down a motorway. That is no kind of spectacle and no kind of a test of a teams ability to organise itself.
  • SpaceJunk
    SpaceJunk Posts: 1,157
    First time Cadel has ever attacked and made it stick - pity it was in a Team Time Trial.
  • afx237vi
    afx237vi Posts: 12,630
    Garmin out on the course now.

    Look like Cuddles had a rush of blood at the end there.
  • Kléber
    Kléber Posts: 6,842
    Apparently there's oil on that early corner.

    Liquigas go through the time check fastest. But behind Garmin are fastest on the course so far, setting a significantly faster pace although that's based on unofficial checks.
  • blazing_saddles
    blazing_saddles Posts: 22,730
    How far will Frank Schleck get, before he crashes?
    "Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
  • Jez mon
    Jez mon Posts: 3,809
    CSC setting off.

    Quick Step coming in ahead of Silence lotto
    You live and learn. At any rate, you live
  • afx237vi
    afx237vi Posts: 12,630
    LOL @ Voigt smiling on the start ramp. TTT? Crashes? Pain? Danger? Jens says BRING IT ON.
  • afx237vi
    afx237vi Posts: 12,630
    Voeckler very pragmatic. The circuit is not a scandal, you just have to recognise the dangers etc...
  • donrhummy
    donrhummy Posts: 2,329
    Top_Bhoy wrote:
    PeteinSQ wrote:
    It is all going wrong for Cadel Evans. Silence Lotto are down to 6 riders now...
    His tour is over before its hardly started - he's screwed now. Its going to take a monumental and special effort to get back this time over the next few weeks. He'll have to do something he hasn't managed in the last 2 TdFs and that is to ride away from the wheels of the other main contenders in the mountains. Very unlikely.

    Yeah, does anyone here think Cadel will even be in the top 5?

    Last year was his best chance but he got hurt two ways:

    1. The crash - it affected him more than he thought it would
    2. The limelight - he wasn't able to handle the pressure
  • afx237vi
    afx237vi Posts: 12,630
    3rd for Cervelo, only 14 seconds down on Katusha. Not a bad day for Sastre.
  • Jez mon
    Jez mon Posts: 3,809
    edited July 2009
    Columbia about t go off.

    Cervelo come in third 14/15 seconds off.
    You live and learn. At any rate, you live
  • SpaceJunk
    SpaceJunk Posts: 1,157
    The experience of BIG George Hincapie.
  • Pokerface
    Pokerface Posts: 7,960
    Actually - it's not all that bad. No big GC contenders have lost any major chunks of time. YET.

    Depends on how the big boys finish
  • bipedal
    bipedal Posts: 466
    Cadel will never win riding for Silence Lotto - even without McKewen on the team they still can't pull together a decent team for him
  • afx237vi
    afx237vi Posts: 12,630
    Grabsch must hate this new trend for hilly, twisty TTs in grand tours. "Geez, can't we ever have 50 kilometres along a motorway pleeeeeeeease???"
  • Jez mon
    Jez mon Posts: 3,809
    I'd say Evans was a big GC guy, and he's lost a bunch of time
    You live and learn. At any rate, you live
  • Mettan
    Mettan Posts: 2,103
    edited July 2009
    Columbia off - Tyler Farrar dropped for Garmin - Julian Dean dropped aswell.
  • Pokerface
    Pokerface Posts: 7,960
    Jez mon wrote:
    I'd say Evans was a big GC guy, and he's lost a bunch of time

    To who? No one on Katusha is a GC contender.
  • SpaceJunk
    SpaceJunk Posts: 1,157
    Looks like someone popped Bertie in the nose :-)

    Hmmmmm.....
  • Pokerface
    Pokerface Posts: 7,960
    edited July 2009
    4 riders lost now for Garmin!

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