Criterium International - The showdown

[Polish]

Is that you Bobke?

What a wonderful compliment!! Thank you

But Mr Roll is way tougher than me. Much more knowledgeable too.

Bob was on Gavia in 1988
See him at 6:52 on this youtube vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnJvU0ofskc&feature=related


Also, Bob finished Paris-Roubaix five times.
The gap between his front teeth holds more knowledge
and toughness than most people on this forum lol.

 

[franciep10]

What a wonderful compliment!! Thank you

But Mr Roll is way tougher than me. Much more knowledgeable too.

Bob was on Gavia in 1988
See him at 6:52 on this youtube vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnJvU0ofskc&feature=related


Also, Bob finished Paris-Roubaix five times.
The gap between his front teeth holds more knowledge
and toughness than most people on this forum lol.

That I have to say is pretty funny

 

[karlboss]

What a wonderful compliment!! Thank you

But Mr Roll is way tougher than me. Much more knowledgeable too.

Bob was on Gavia in 1988
See him at 6:52 on this youtube vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnJvU0ofskc&feature=related


Also, Bob finished Paris-Roubaix five times.
The gap between his front teeth holds more knowledge
and toughness than most people on this forum lol.

why is he in the mud while others are on packed dirt?

 

[Publicus]

What a wonderful compliment!! Thank you

But Mr Roll is way tougher than me. Much more knowledgeable too.

Bob was on Gavia in 1988
See him at 6:52 on this youtube vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnJvU0ofskc&feature=related


Also, Bob finished Paris-Roubaix five times.
The gap between his front teeth holds more knowledge
and toughness than most people on this forum lol.

Bob you are in rare form. I see you've taken Lance's one teste in your hand and run with it! Careful you don't pull too hard. It's the only one he has!

 

[BroDeal]

why is he in the mud while others are on packed dirt?

He was talking to another rider and veered off course when he took his hands off the bars to gesture wildly in the air.

 

[spanky wanderlust]

He was talking to another rider and veered off course when he took his hands off the bars to gesture wildly in the air.

not even the cobbles of the arenberg can keep bob from his erratic gesticulations!

 

[Cobber]

Why? He did that many years when he won the tour. It's not like he ever showed anything in a March race when he won the Tour.

Lance was dominant in time trials at the Tour during his 7 year run. His biggest ITT win prior to June during that stretch? The tour of Georgia.

I'm not saying he'll win the tour or even podium... but I expect him to be much better in July then he is now... just like he was every other year he's ridden for the GC in the tour.

Now you can comment on what a jump like that means regarding doping and such... but if it didn't raise eyebrows his last 8 TDF seasons enough to cause any reaction then I fail to see why it would this year.

Just like last year when he sucked in the Giro, podiumed in the Tour, and then posted his blood numbers.

 

[Berzin]

some feuds maybe. i'm up for a good feud. a real one. this feud is a fraud. and everyone knows it.

there are real stories. it's just that journalists and editors are as lazy as everyone else and if they can live off the low hanging fruit, they will. i realize they have ads to sell and real services to provide.

sadly, it's these moronic, yet extremely popular frames that support all of the serious journalism and everything else that happens here.

the problem is that setting this genuinely wonderful and interesting bike race in the frame of "lance v berto: the showdown," belittles us all. the race, the racers, the fans, everybody. it makes us all a little dumber.

This is why I love reading this site. Many times you read something that makes you think, "Damn, I wish I could have written that".

Bravo, my good man. Great post.

 

[reyan12]

Forumite David Suro wrote a wonderful post in the Clinic thread "Cycling in the 70's to the present day". It explains the advancement of peaking:
Partial quote....the entire post is a wonderful read, thank you David!

Quote:
Originally Posted by David Suro
Enter Greg LeMond. LeMond and his training staff recognized that a rider could be at his absolute best for only a couple of weeks out of the year. Given that the TdF was the only race that had a decent sized following in the United States, Lemond decided to have that be the sole focus of his season for obvious financial reasons. He trained with near singular focus on the Tour and achieved fantastic results. He built to a second 'peak' for World's and showed success there, too.
+
Armstrong, Charmichael, and Bruyneal refined the science of building to a specific 'peak' for the TdF beyond what any other team could accomplish

This is a myth!Contador has already busted this belief.

 

[wdiaz_pr]

This is a myth!Contador has already busted this belief.

I'd add that Lemond actually rode strongly for a good portion, if not most, of the season until his shooting accident in 1987.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Assuming he recovers from injury, David De la Fuente will likely serve in that role. There is also Jufre (who seems to be going well), Tiralongo (8th at the Vuelta last year), Navarro and/or Fofonov. There is a very long time between today and July, but these guys seem up to the task so far.

Yes but who does AC have to look after him and ride for him on the flats day after day? Even during PN and Algarve Astana seemed vulnerable and AC was isolated the day after a hilly stage. The question is can they back up day after day for him?

 

[Berzin]

Does it not cross any of these idiots minds that a really significant jump in form, not comparable to anything that has previously been apparent during the season, will simply cause tongues to wag like never before?

Absolutely not, because they are all convinced that Lance Armstrong is superhuman.

The one that I'm most disappointed in is Phil Liggett. Paul Sherwen was always crap, but Liggett has been the voice of cycling for so long that even I can overlook his mistakes and enjoy his commentary.

But ever since the "Cyclism" circa 1999, he has lost his objectivity and has become an unrepentant fanboy and it has affected his work.

Add Bob Roll and that other idiot with the spray-on tan and the hyper-whitened teeth (a pearly-white beam of light that nothing short of nuclear energy can produce) and what you get is a four-man laxative. I go into dry heaves just thinking of the crap they're going to spew all of July.

Even after Contador took the Tour fair and square, all they did was talk about Lance and how he was going to come back better than ever, because as in the words of carnival barker Bob Roll, "No one in the sport recovers like Lance Armstrong".

 

[auscyclefan94]

Absolutely not, because they are all convinced that Lance Armstrong is superhuman.

The one that I'm most disappointed in is Phil Liggett. Paul Sherwen was always crap, but Liggett has been the voice of cycling for so long that even I can overlook his mistakes and enjoy his commentary.

But ever since the "Cyclism" circa 1999, he has lost his objectivity and has become an unrepentant fanboy and it has affected his work.

Add Bob Roll and that other idiot with the spray-on tan and the hyper-whitened teeth (a pearly-white beam of light that nothing short of nuclear energy can produce) and what you get is a four-man laxative. I go into dry heaves just thinking of the crap they're going to spew all of July.

Even after Contador took the Tour fair and square, all they did was talk about Lance and how he was going to come back better than ever, because as in the words of carnival barker Bob Roll, "No one in the sport recovers like Lance Armstrong".

He's not wrong there. All we heard with liggett on aus tv was that AC was not a team player.

 

[knewcleardaze]

Armstrong still have time to pull out of this race?

 

[Cycling Addict]

Originally Posted by reyan12
This is a myth!Contador has already busted this belief.

Not really. The slower you build your form, the longer the peak lasts. That was the way that LA won so many tours. He probably could have focused on other tours as well - I suspect he regrets doing so. Given his performance at the Giro last year without adequate preperation he would have been very competitive. But you have to remember Armstrong started his Tour de France charge a lot later in his career than Contador so will have been much more mindful of burn out. AC never had the experience of the two speed peloton to deal with in the 1990s so was able to start on a level playing field, which is why he has won so many things at an earlier age.

I'm sure burn out is something AC will have to look at himself in the coming years, which is probably why he is going for everything under the sun whilst he still can. There is no point for him to wait until his 30s before he starts trying to win every race.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Yes but who does AC have to look after him and ride for him on the flats day after day? Even during PN and Algarve Astana seemed vulnerable and AC was isolated the day after a hilly stage. The question is can they back up day after day for him?

BMC are a much better support team I agree

 

[Berzin]

He's not wrong there. All we heard with liggett on aus tv was that AC was not a team player.

As leader of a team, he doesn't have to. The one who isn't a team player is Armstrong, but that is old news. Expecting the strongest rider on the team to lay down to feed Armstrong's ego was something the Versus commentators seem to have missed.

 

[karlboss]

As far as "the showdown" I expect Contador to win the mountain stage and be top 3 in the TT for the win. I expect armstong to be in the first bunch up the mountain, between 20-30 finishing with 5 to 10 guys and go top 10 in the TT to finish top 20. I expect horner to sit with armstrong and Machado to beat them both.

More interested to see what the likes of lokvist, rogers, uran/soler, sanchez, evans, vino can do.

Of all of them i expect evans to pull himself inside out to be competitive, he just seems to be hungry. Wouldn't surprise me to see him slip to 3-5 to more conservative riders who mark him knowing they can't launch off contador's attacks but can off evan's.

 

[spanky wanderlust]

This is why I love reading this site. Many times you read something that makes you think, "Damn, I wish I could have written that".

Bravo, my good man. Great post.

thanks, berzin (and bianchigirl). that is high praise indeed. glad i can contribute to this site that has given me so much.

for the record, i have been admiring your posts from afar all year; your contributions have not gone unnoticed by the lurkers (at least not this one).

 

[auscyclefan94]

BMC are a much better support team I agree

Yes but conti is going to be targeted against in the tour by every team so is going to need a strong team riding for him. On the flats without a strong team there he could be vulnerable especially with cobbles. That's where BMC will be a much better support team.

 

[Angliru]

Does it not cross any of these idiots minds that a really significant jump in form, not comparable to anything that has previously been apparent during the season, will simply cause tongues to wag like never before?

Their argument will be that since Armstrong hasn't been seen in actual competition in so long that his improved form from that last race will be attributed to his intense solo training of which he is known to do more of and work harder at than any of his competitors or anyone in the history of sports.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Their argument will be that since Armstrong hasn't been seen in actual competition in so long that his improved form from that last race will be attributed to his intense solo training of which he is known to do more of and work harder at than any of his competitors or anyone in the history of sports.

Will you be joining us later to watch the Criterium International? Hope so!

 

[Angliru]

Last, Alberto will become jealous of the attention and warm feelings toward Lance. Probably starting soon after the Crit Int'l.

You and Flicker must have late night brainstorming sessions to come up with some of this stuff. Its quite the rare perspective. Rare and odd.

 

[Angliru]

What a wonderful compliment!! Thank you

But Mr Roll is way tougher than me. Much more knowledgeable too.

Bob was on Gavia in 1988
See him at 6:52 on this youtube vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnJvU0ofskc&feature=related


Also, Bob finished Paris-Roubaix five times.
The gap between his front teeth holds more knowledge
and toughness than most people on this forum lol.

Bobke with all his illustrious background and cycling history compromises his credibility with his shameless buffoonery and almost religious fanatic like support of all that is Armstrong/Bruyneel. He's often quite deserving of a wake-the-frak-up slap in the face to bring him back to reality.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Bobke with all his illustrious background and cycling history compromises his credibility with his shameless buffoonery and almost religious fanatic like support of all that is Armstrong/Bruyneel. He's often quite deserving of a wake-the-frak-up slap in the face to bring him back to reality.

You will need more than a slap for Liggett!

I think I need a bucket! - Phil Liggett;

Having spent a week with Lance Armstrong in South Africa in early March, I know exactly how he feels about his former teammate, and he has nothing but admiration for the only Spaniard to win all of the Grand Tours.

"Right now, Alberto is at the top of his game and the best rider in the World, " says Lance, who watched some of his exploits in Paris-Nice on television between his charity commitments for the JAG Foundation

Am I supposed to believe that?!!!