Official thread TdF Stage 14 Colmar - Besançon - 199 km

[frizzlefry]

Sorry, I guess you need to get up earlier tomorrow so you don't miss something.

What I can tell you is that it was around 8:45 am here, and maybe I am trolling a bit with the insinuation because the stringing out of the peloton didn't last long, but it did happen. And unless the time gaps quoted by Phil and Paul were wrong, the gap came down during that time, and then Astana backed off. In fact, if you read Lance's commentary, he even says that once they found out Hincapie was in the break, they shut it down a bit. But for a short time, they were chasing hard.

LOL, so it happened between the 199-147km mark. Even Phil and Paul admit during the stages that their time gaps are wrong. Phil and Paul even commented during the stage that one of the Astana riders looked "very relaxed".
Maybe they were chasing hard. Most likely because they got a little nervous with George taking the lead, but most likey, they eventually thought about it and decided that it wasnt that big of deal.

 

[frizzlefry]

That it is. In fact, it is sad that the most talked about things in this tour have been soap opera crap. The Uniballer likes the drama, so he for sure is loving handing out quotes and tweets like water.

As if LA is only one handing out tweeter quotes.

 

[Anonymous]

LOL, so it happened between the 199-147km mark. Even Phil and Paul admit during the stages that their time gaps are wrong. Phil and Paul even commented during the stage that one of the Astana riders looked "very relaxed".
Maybe they were chasing hard. Most likely because they got a little nervous with George taking the lead, but most likey, they eventually thought about it and decided that it wasnt that big of deal.

Yea, I think that is the actual case here.

 

[Four Winds]

Columbia's big balls up today came after just 14k.

The main objective had to be getting Cav back in green? At 5 points behind and only Paris left for the sprinters he needed to be in green after today if he was serious about winning the jersey, as Thor could possibly mop up a few points in the Alps. Getting GH in yellow would have been opportunistic and not a realistic long term goal. Surely winning the green overall is more important than one day in yellow?

To do this Cav either needed to take the 1st intermediate sprint with Thor getting no points or win the stage with Thor 2nd.

When he got into a 14 man break after 14k he apparently sat up. Either he was shooed off by the others who wanted the break to succeed, as has been reported, or he didn't fancy riding in the break all day which is also possible. With 20k to the first sprint and Hushovd not in the break I was a bit surprised at this to be honest. At that stage Columbia needed to forget GH and reel the break in. He was never gonna win the stage and to think of putting him in yellow was a bit ambitious. It was no big surprise the break stayed away though with 11 teams eventually represented, leaving the sprinters to take small points. Even without the disq I don't think it would have been enough for Cav anyway.

In the end they tried to do 2 things and ended up doing neither- a bit like trying to keep 2 women on the go, you're bound to end up with nothing.

 

[BroDeal]

That it is. In fact, it is sad that the most talked about things in this tour have been soap opera crap. The Uniballer likes the drama, so he for sure is loving handing out quotes and tweets like water.

Awww, but fwizzlefwy and other fake fans with their crush on Armstrong want to watch a soap opera. This is like reality TV come to life for them. They get off when the camera pans over the peloton and they spot Armstrong. When Armstrong tweets they can imagine he is personally messaging them. A number of these sad cases probably have a Ken and Barbie set with a homemade Astana uniform for Ken that they play with while watching Versus.

The rest of us are bored to death.

 

[Mellow Velo]

The rest of us are bored to death.

and then some.
However, I still have high hopes for the lantern rouge battle.
Has to be the worst Tour, I've ever witnessed and boy, I've seen a few.

The past week has been like Chinese water torture and that's only in regard of the green jersey; which, ultimately has been decided by the "Stictly Come Dancing" judges, a whole week before Paris.

As for the yellow jersey. Well subtract the "clock" cock and it's lasted 4 minutes, so far, out of 50 hours of riding.

We all must be mad.

 

[frizzlefry]

Awww, but fwizzlefwy and other fake fans with their crush on Armstrong want to watch a soap opera. This is like reality TV come to life for them. They get off when the camera pans over the peloton and they spot Armstrong. When Armstrong tweets they can imagine he is personally messaging them. A number of these sad cases probably have a Ken and Barbie set with a homemade Astana uniform for Ken that they play with while watching Versus.

The rest of us are bored to death.

Seems to me you like the soap opera. As someone said in another thread, "Reverse Saddle Sniffer".

It will be funny if someone from Garmin has a few choice words.

This could be like the Hatfields and the McCoys.

 

[BroDeal]

As for the yellow jersey. Well subtract the "clock" cock and it's lasted 4 minutes, so far, out of 50 hours of riding.

I would give it a little more time than that. There was the two kilometers at the top of Arcalis and Armstrong hopping in the lead echelon on stage 3. That was a little more than four minutes--not much--but it is a pitful amount of time for two weeks of racing.

Verbier will probably give us another whopping four minutes of racing "action."

I would like to see the television ratings over the two weeks. They have got to look like the altitude descent graph of a crashing plane.

 

[runninboy]

I can't believe Nicholas Roche not getting a mention here. he did yeomans work today to keep his leader in yellow.
If you watch the tape everytime the camera goes to the break(except in the last kms when he was trying to shatter it) You can see Roche sitting about 4th wheel and then letting big gaps open up. This effectively split the break in two and kept them from being efficient.
Usually the gentlemanly thing to do is just sit on at the back and not do any work, save all your energy and get yourself the win.
Of course this allows the break to work smoothly and costs your team yellow.

Instead he used up most of his energy letting gaps open and then going out into the wind to reposition himself to 4th wheel and then opening a gap again.
He was working his **** off the whole time.

I say he is the hero of the stage today.
I can't believe Phil & Paul failed to mention this
is it their love for the Irish???

anyone else see this?

 

[BroDeal]

Seems to me you like the soap opera.

Yup, watching the saddle sniffers get their panties in a wad when people yank their chains is better sport than watching the actual boring race this year. They can always be relied on to throw a tantrum every time someone says a bad word about Satana, Armstrong, or Bruyneel. It is hilarious.

 

[frizzlefry]

Yup, watching the saddle sniffers get their panties in a wad when people yank their chains is better sport than watching the actual boring race this year. They can always be relied on to throw a tantrum every time someone says a bad word about Satana, Armstrong, or Bruyneel. It is hilarious.

Ohhh... so you can tell when someone is throwing a tantrum through a computer? how in world did you ever figure out how to do that? Did your boyfriend Limerickman teach you that?

 

[BroDeal]

Ohhh... so you can tell when someone is throwing a tantrum through a computer? how in world did you ever figure out how to do that? Did your boyfriend Limerickman teach you that?

Awww, did the big bad Limerickman smack you down on CF for being an idiot? Still smarting about it I see.

 

[Cobber]

LOL it's become a friggin' soap opera

It's impressive really... this thread was 5 pages long when the peleton crossed the finish line. Now it is 21!

 

[UTFan2]

I disagree about Roche. I watched the race and until the end, he WAS sitting on the back of the break. Which is exactlly where he should be, doing zero work. They commented on this several times. I don't know why he quit riding in the back with 20-30K to go, but now your explanation makes sense. But I think AG2R expected to lose the jersey today, did not defend it, but having Roche in the break might have helped with those 5 seconds.....who knows

 

[Cobber]

A number of these sad cases probably have a Ken and Barbie set with a homemade Astana uniform for Ken that they play with while watching Versus.

The rest of us are bored to death.

Bravo, Sir!

 

[richwagmn]

My two cents...

Astana was just managing the time gap for the most part seeing how AGR2R has about completely shot their wad. It makes me sad to see Nocentini pull on the yellow everyday. Pretty sure we'll never hear much from that guy again.

Definitely in Astana's interest to see Columbia in yellow tomorrow. Puts pressure on them to control since AG2R will mostly likely completely blow up tomorrow.

Politics aside, can't understand why Garmin would waste energy pulling at the front towards the end of the stage. They've got two guys in the top 10. Why waste anyone at this point? The riding at the front to stay out of trouble excuse seems a little lame. Should be able to do that without pulling much if at all.

Finally, no one "deserves" the yellow jersey. George could have gone off on his own too at the end if he was worried about time. That said, if Garmin did chase just to be ***, well, bad form on them.

Also speaks a lot about this tour that this is the most interesting thing that's happened in the last week. A real snoozer. 2009 Giro makes this TDF look like a charity ride IMO.

 

[Padeiro]

It's impressive really... this thread was 5 pages long when the peleton crossed the finish line. Now it is 21!

Actually, I know some of you are hating the soap opera but I think it's good for cycling overall. It's bringing new faces to the sport and I for one could never argue against additional interest/exposure here in the States. Any exposure helps.

 

[Cobber]

Actually, I know some of you are hating the soap opera but I think it's good for cycling overall. It's bringing new faces to the sport and I for one could never argue against additional interest/exposure here in the States. Any exposure helps.

This "soap opera" is as ridiculous as the ones on TV. The fact is, Hincapie missed yellow by 5 seconds, but spent the last 5k of the stage screwing around instead of riding hard to the finish. Regardless of what Astana/Garmin/AG2R/Silence did, if he had ridden hard for the last 5k, he would be in yellow. He has noone to blame but himself!

 

[BroDeal]

Actually, I know some of you are hating the soap opera but I think it's good for cycling overall. It's bringing new faces to the sport and I for one could never argue against additional interest/exposure here in the States. Any exposure helps.

Not really, not for the long term. What will these new faces see when they tune into the race? A boring race that makes Olympic walking look as exciting as no holds barred cage fighting. How many of those new faces will ever want to watch again?

The ASO had a chance with Armstrong's return to enlarge the fanbase. Instead they have designed the weakest race course anyone can remember. The p!ss poor racing is even driving away hardcore fans.

 

[Irish2009]

Roche's job today was to discourage the break by sitting on, disrupt it if they looked like they were going to challenge for yellow, if possible win the stage. He did all 3 very well, with 1.5kms to go Ivanov had 38seconds on the line only 16. If he went earlier he risked dragging Hincapie into yellow. His attacks broke up the rythm of the chase group. A bit of advice for Hincapie, next time you tip off Armstrong(a GC contender)(stage 3) about something don't tell the other GC contenders via the media as it will come back to haunt you (Silence + Garmin today). Armstrong's team riding on the front for 2hrs, are you a threat?. Armstrong has always kept his friends close and his enemies closer.Hincapie I like your honesty as a rider but don't be a big fool.

 

[Kennf1]

Gotta laugh at Stapleton's comments. Saying, basically, he will have a talk with Vaughters at the appropriate time, or better yet, he will talk to Vaughter's boss.

Tell you what Bob, talk to Vaughter's dad! That'll really show him.

 

[cowboy]

its sad to say that this is the most excitement we have in 2 weeks of "the greatest bike race on earth"...... most boring tour I can remember ever, although the next few stages do have the possibility of redeeming things.... heres hoping

if george wanted yellow so bad he should have ridden himself into the ground for the last few km's..... simple as that..!

pyscological warfare by media manipulation, Lance is pushing buttons and its working

viva le tour

 

[hfer07]

Roche's job today was to discourage the break by sitting on, disrupt it if they looked like they were going to challenge for yellow, if possible win the stage. He did all 3 very well, with 1.5kms to go Ivanov had 38seconds on the line only 16. If he went earlier he risked dragging Hincapie into yellow. His attacks broke up the rythm of the chase group. A bit of advice for Hincapie, next time you tip off Armstrong(a GC contender)(stage 3) about something don't tell the other GC contenders via the media as it will come back to haunt you (Silence + Garmin today). Armstrong's team riding on the front for 2hrs, are you a threat?. Armstrong has always kept his friends close and his enemies closer.Hincapie I like your honesty as a rider but don't be a big fool.

and the critics out there call "paranoia" the fact that AC simply don't trust LA at all....

 

[Padeiro]

Not really, not for the long term. What will these new faces see when they tune into the race? A boring race that makes Olympic walking look as exciting as no holds barred cage fighting. How many of those new faces will ever want to watch again?

The ASO had a chance with Armstrong's return to enlarge the fanbase. Instead they have designed the weakest race course anyone can remember. The p!ss poor racing is even driving away hardcore fans.

I don't expect every single new face to become hooked on cycling, but there are people who would never have been interested in cycling before that are watching the race now. To them, it might not be as boring as it is to you because honestly, i doubt they know/care much about strategy at this point. To most of them, it's still very much about personalities (or one personality, LA). But even if 10% of the newbies take it up, that is great for cycling in the US. More cyclists means more cycling awareness, more ppl on the road, more bike lanes, more cycling friendly traffic laws, etc. I remember the days when we had to wait days to find out about the race results and even then it was a 2 minute blurb on abc sports or whatever. I don't want to go back to those days and if the price is having to sit through drama and LA comeback hysteria and soap operas, so be it.

 

[BroDeal]

I remember the days when we had to wait days to find out about the race results and even then it was a 2 minute blurb on abc sports or whatever. I don't want to go back to those days and if the price is having to sit through drama and LA comeback hysteria and soap operas, so be it.

We are never going back to those days, just as we don't have to worry about wars being fought with sticks and stones. This new fangled invention called the Internet will prevent that.