TdF Stage 9 *Spoiler*

Abdoujaparov

SpaceJunk wrote:

Kléber wrote:

mididoctors wrote:

somebody needs to take it on tomorrow and perhaps the mende stages and shake up the GC

if andy cant drop contador you could well be looking at the race as is

the one avenue of hope is that saxo will find it hard to control so the door may open for some daring do...

or contador cracks... you never know..looking stressed but riding smarter

The trouble is now we're getting into the "if the favourites crack" and the old "use the transition stage to mix up the overall". Both are long shot propositions. A lot of guys are going to start defending their top-10 places already knowing they're not going to make the top-5.

I agree. Gesink, VDB, Ryder et al will be looking to defend their spots. This COULD end up being a rather average TdF.

Christ, some of you guys are hard to please. The best moments in cycling and in sport are when rivalries come to a head and with Schleck looking marginally stronger than Contador in the mountains and Contador being better at TTs we might be about to see that happen.

F*ck the rest of the field. This is about who wins the greatest bike race on earth and writes their name into the history books.

mididoctors

Abdoujaparov wrote:

F*ck the rest of the field. This is about who wins the greatest bike race on earth and writes their name into the history books.

you have a point

and its not a dne deal which one of the two will win..

actually I'm not calling this an easy to predict race compared to 2009 where bertie won it with one leg and no team

mattsy666

...

timoid.

I agree with Abdu. Who needs the other contenders? With the two best riders (by some distance on the evidence of today) duking it out, there is no need for support cast cameos.

Would like Samu to beat Denis to the podium though.

stagehopper

afx237vi wrote:

Millar was last man across the line, 42 minutes down. Ill or injured?

Riding with broken ribs. Made it inside the time limit.

dave_1

mididoctors wrote:

Abdoujaparov wrote:

F*ck the rest of the field. This is about who wins the greatest bike race on earth and writes their name into the history books.

you have a point

and its not a dne deal which one of the two will win..

actually I'm not calling this an easy to predict race compared to 2009 where bertie won it with one leg and no team

some riders will have bad days all things being equal....Ac and AS may have made far more effort in the last two days then we know...early days yet

afx237vi

stagehopper wrote:

afx237vi wrote:

Millar was last man across the line, 42 minutes down. Ill or injured?

Riding with broken ribs. Made it inside the time limit.

Didn't know that, cheers. Ouch.

disgruntledgoat

SpaceJunk wrote:

disgruntledgoat wrote:

Good lad Sandy! Never really pushed on from his 6th at the Giro for hwat commentators like to call "various reasons", but a rider I have a lot of time for.

Now then folks, when was the last time France had 3 stage wins in a Tour?

Last year??

Posting in haste never works out well does it? :oops:

frenchfighter

Casar did about 90% of the pace making in the last 10-15km. Led from 1km to 500m and from 350m to the line. And won. Class - really pleased for him.

Last km
http://www.steephill.tv/players/versus4 ... 3/500/720/

Kléber

Yes, he led from the front, a very strong ride. A nice win, all the more so since he was robbed by Mikel Astarloza last year.

timoid.

Santambrogio wins domestique of the day. Lord knows how many kms he pulled for.

Kléber

Timoid. wrote:

Santambrogio wins domestique of the day. Lord knows how many kms he pulled for.

Navarro for me. He blew the race apart.

dennisn

I only caught bits and pieces today but noticed something about Vino attacking.
Anyone care to fill me in? Thanx

mididoctors

Timoid. wrote:

Santambrogio wins domestique of the day. Lord knows how many kms he pulled for.

whole team didn't do too bad compared with what we thought may happen
pity about Evans... day in yellow better than nowt

Mettan

FJS wrote:

I don't think Andy had an all or nothing attack on the Madeleine today, considering there was the long descent following. I do believe both Ax and Tourmalet still offer good opportunities for an attack from Andy that will test Bertie a bit more.

Agreed - Andy put in some brief little digs - Bertie stayed with him (as expected) - all, in all, a good ride by both riders - hopefully plenty more to come.

dave_1

Mettan wrote:

FJS wrote:

I don't think Andy had an all or nothing attack on the Madeleine today, considering there was the long descent following. I do believe both Ax and Tourmalet still offer good opportunities for an attack from Andy that will test Bertie a bit more.

Agreed - Andy put in some brief little digs - Bertie stayed with him (as expected) - all, in all, a good ride by both riders - hopefully plenty more to come.

Couldn't get cycling fans streams to work for very long here in Cambodia, just had audio and broke up. Was Contador the equal of Schlek or struggling?

donrhummy

Well, looks like Evans has a broken elbow. That sucks. Appears to be the reason why he had so much trouble today.

Kléber

Dave_1 wrote:

Couldn't get cycling fans streams to work for very long here in Cambodia, just had audio and broke up. Was Contador the equal of Schlek or struggling?

The equal, although Andy Schleck was attacking and Contador just had to close him down.

timoid.

Dave_1 wrote:

Mettan wrote:

FJS wrote:

I don't think Andy had an all or nothing attack on the Madeleine today, considering there was the long descent following. I do believe both Ax and Tourmalet still offer good opportunities for an attack from Andy that will test Bertie a bit more.

Agreed - Andy put in some brief little digs - Bertie stayed with him (as expected) - all, in all, a good ride by both riders - hopefully plenty more to come.

Couldn't get cycling fans streams to work for very long here in Cambodia, just had audio and broke up. Was Contador the equal of Schlek or struggling?

Pretty evenly matched, but Andy had perhaps a little extra. Especially on the flat where he did the longer turns and was mainly responsible for the lead group getting caught. I think Contador is building more to the Pyrenees and Shleck may find a lot harder when it comes to the Tourmalet.

Will be a good fight though.

mididoctors

Dave_1 wrote:

Mettan wrote:

FJS wrote:

I don't think Andy had an all or nothing attack on the Madeleine today, considering there was the long descent following. I do believe both Ax and Tourmalet still offer good opportunities for an attack from Andy that will test Bertie a bit more.

Agreed - Andy put in some brief little digs - Bertie stayed with him (as expected) - all, in all, a good ride by both riders - hopefully plenty more to come.

Couldn't get cycling fans streams to work for very long here in Cambodia, just had audio and broke up. Was Contador the equal of Schlek or struggling?

had his number but looked scared

definitely wasn't going to risk going over the top on the counter


but he did match andy pedal for pedal as he attacked..ie no real clawing back on the climb

however did look tired on the flat run in but made the effort to come over the top i the sprint to look back at andy(who lead the sprint out)

andy probably has a bit more to give is my guess

timoid.

Kléber wrote:

Timoid. wrote:

Santambrogio wins domestique of the day. Lord knows how many kms he pulled for.

Navarro for me. He blew the race apart.

I missed most of Navarro's effort. Saw some good adds for cheap car insurance though.

ITV sucks.

dave_1

Sounds like AC might be seeing himself in a defensive damage limitation role ? Following schlek and praying for the 50k TT

Mettan

Dave_1 wrote:

Couldn't get cycling fans streams to work for very long here in Cambodia, just had audio and broke up. Was Contador the equal of Schlek or struggling?

They both looked quite even - although, tbh, Andy looks much closer to Contador this year. Bodes well for the rest of the race.

blazing_saddles

Not so sure. I still get the impression that for Contador, it's always been about the Pyrenees.
Today, he had his little "chat" with Andy and they agreed to work to dump the rest.
Andy attacking and Bertie defending was just being counter productive.

Clearly, Astana are reluctant to the possibility of yellow at this early juncture.

Mende might only be a 3km climb, but there will be no hiding there.
That's where the Tour is finished with the potatoes and starts on the meat.
(tomorrow's Col de Laffrey, excluded)

shakey88

frenchfighter wrote:

Pretty basic tactic to send a guy up the road from your team and attack to have him help later. He would be particularly good use of the descent for Contador.

Again from Cnews:
e break reaches a flat section on the Madeleine and Christophe Moreau comes to the front and the pace has shot up accordingly. He may be 39 years of age, but the former Festina man can still turn a mean pedal.


Some people...

you're paranoid dude :shock:

Pokerface

Yup, fractured elbow for Evans from his crash the other day. Explains a lot really and chapeau for carrying on.

shakey88

frenchfighter wrote:

Lets go Basso. Riding himself onto the podium right here

Two questions mate.Do you only like riders that dope,and are you on a permanent wind up?

thamacdaddy

Think we should add something here, though andy was attaking he was doing it from the front. Contador looked far from scared and stuck to his wheel and wouldn't take the front which is the sound tactical thing to do. For me it's andy that currently should worry bearing in mind he can't crack Alberto and he just can't get the 2 mins or so he probably needs. Time will tell though.

Let's also add that contador did attack when it meant something and shelled voightso he could not help slheck and I think that shows who was in control there.

Tyler\'sTwin

donrhummy wrote:

TakeTheHighRoad wrote:

Does Andy really need 3 minutes in the TT? The comparative differences is the same as 2008 with Sastre and Evans, probably 2007 with Contador and Evans too, and they only had around 2 minutes.

Last year, the final TT was 40km and Andy lost 1'45".This year, while he's supposedly worked on his TT, he had a very bad prologue TT. So maybe he'll do a little better, but this year's final TT is 51km and flat as a pancake, which isn't good for Andy. So unless he really did improve, he's likely to lose more than 2 minutes.

AC wont TT like Spartacus this year... and if he does find that form, it'll be all over before the TT.

FransJacques

Kléber wrote:

Dave_1 wrote:

Couldn't get cycling fans streams to work for very long here in Cambodia, just had audio and broke up. Was Contador the equal of Schlek or struggling?

The equal, although Andy Schleck was attacking and Contador just had to close him down.

Was Andy being serious or just toying - looking for breathing problems? He was watching Contador closely when he was accelerating - I just looked at it again on Channel 4s recap. I don't think he was going 100% - he looked back after 4-5-6 pedal revs.

Dunno - but i do know andy has a lot in the tank for now and the Tourmalet will be golden to watch.

But there's one thing - a 51 km TT that'll slaughter Andy...he's got to think of that daily.

It's also good Frank's not there to hold him back. I don't think Frank would've survived the tete-a-tete AC and AS had after dropping Sanchez when the Astana guy pulled off. That was awesome "what kinda lega ya got buddy?" sparring. Hope to see more of that.

(go Hesjedal)