Official thread - TdF Stage 5 Cap d'Agde-Perpignan (197.0km)

[Alpe d'Huez]

Another of the many happy ones to see Voelkler win. Agree he does have a lot of heart.Wondering if race radio weren't around if his break would have been longer...

Real bummer for Gesink. Will say this though, the Vuelta course looks like it will really suit him. Let's hope things at Rabo remain stable, and he goes for it there.

 

[velocodger]

That sucks...and is strange. I'm watching Versus and they didn't cut to commercial for me.

Could be my local cable TV provider: Surewest, who fits in commercials whenever they feel like it...even during the finish...
incredible!

 

[Bala Verde]

Another of the many happy ones to see Voelkler win. Agree he does have a lot of heart.Wondering if race radio weren't around if his break would have been longer...

Real bummer for Gesink. Will say this though, the Vuelta course looks like it will really suit him. Let's hope things at Rabo remain stable, and he goes for it there.

Early indication is 4-6 weeks 'out'... But he could be on the rollers earlier than that

 

[BeachBum]

Voelkler is one of those guys like Durand, Voigt and Garmin's Cozza that seems to prefer the break over the bunch. Glad he made it, and glad to see Skil at the front again-- they are proving to be quite entertaining.

Sure we'll be hearing whining from Columbia again. I like George but he blew it the other day when he complained AFTER THEY WON STAGE 3! Hey George, you can win or you can whine, but you can't do both.

 

[Amsterhammer]

"Cycling: Voeckler wins as Armstrong stays 2nd"

CNN



Gesink rode the last 60 kms with a broken wrist! I like him even more now.

 

[whiteboytrash]

Doesn't the Columbia bus say something like "best cycling team in the world" or something like that?

Pretty sure you're gonna have back up that statement.

Columbia should stop complaining. After all, you're the best cycling team in the world. ;-)

It was farking great ! Voeckler stuck it Columbia and Cav's big fat mouth ! I even note that Columbia are complaining that no one is helping them chase down the breaks..... well you get that when you try and bust up the peloton and tip off a few riders along the way. Columbia get nothing

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/aldag-frustrated-by-pelotons-tactics

 

[whiteboytrash]

It was farking great ! Voeckler stuck it Columbia and Cav's big fat mouth ! I even note that Columbia are complaining that no one is helping them chase down the breaks..... well you get that when you try and bust up the peloton and tip off a few riders along the way. Columbia get nothing

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/aldag-frustrated-by-pelotons-tactics

Thanks WBT good post.

Also good to see Saxo pushing mixing it up on the cross winds then dropping off the front. Good agressive riding. They will be wearing the red numbers tomorrow.

 

[39*23t]

should of gone to the bookies called 5 out of 5 so far. Should make me a DS hear there is a vacancy coming up at astana soon.

 

[Mellow Velo]

"Cycling: Voeckler wins as Armstrong stays 2nd"
CNN

Gesink rode the last 60 kms with a broken wrist! I like him even more now.

Are you becoming a hater?
Notice it's us lot who are about, applauding Tommy Voeckler's solo win and expressing concern for Bobby Gesink.
Great courage to finish, along that exposed headland and finally, into a raging headwind. These sort of heroics are the stuff, that used to make the history of the Tour, but have become lost in the media swirl surrounding one man.

Maybe it's this, more than the man, that people hate.

 

[Bala Verde]

"Cycling: Voeckler wins as Armstrong stays 2nd"

CNN

I even saw that the NYT set up a website with fancy flashy maps and so on and so forth... But it seemed only AFTER the Boss had reduced his deficit on Spartacus.

 

[Bainreese]

I apologize in advance for this, but I was unable to catch the airing of the stage today because of an early morning bike ride. So I was only able to read CN's recap of the stage.

Their article made it sound like part of Astana split up the Peloton and that AC was caught out yet again in a secondary group. Here is the quote from the main article....

Three groups formed on the road and gaps opened rapidly. Columbia-HTC's high representation in the move had the potential for it to become a carbon copy of the final kilometres of stage three; however, the likes of Frank and Andy Schleck, Cadel Evans and Alberto Contador made their presence felt in the front to avoid conceding times to the likes of Armstrong, Rogers and Martin again.

Can someone confirm this for me? Was AC yet again riding further back and got caught out again? Since everything came back together again it didn't hurt him this time, if that is indeed what happened. But I am extremely surprised he didn't learn his lesson the other day.

 

[Publicus]

I apologize in advance for this, but I was unable to catch the airing of the stage today because of an early morning bike ride. So I was only able to read CN's recap of the stage.

Their article made it sound like part of Astana split up the Peloton and that AC was caught out yet again in a secondary group. Here is the quote from the main article....



Can someone confirm this for me? Was AC yet again riding further back and got caught out again? Since everything came back together again it didn't hurt him this time, if that is indeed what happened. But I am extremely surprised he didn't learn his lesson the other day.

Contador was with the first group, along with all but one of his teammates (the token Khazah was initially gapped but got back on when the first group let off the gas a bit).

 

[Amsterhammer]

Are you becoming a hater?
Notice it's us lot who are about, applauding Tommy Voeckler's solo win and expressing concern for Bobby Gesink.
Great courage to finish, along that exposed headland and finally, into a raging headwind. These sort of heroics are the stuff, that used to make the history of the Tour, but have become lost in the media swirl surrounding one man.

Maybe it's this, more than the man, that people hate.

No chance of me going over to the Dark Side.

See, that's the problem with jumping to hasty conclusions by pigeon-holing people on the basis of very limited information. Not all 'fanboys' (though I don't see myself as such) are three week fans, know nothing about the sport and are obsessed by one man. I love the sport. For Christ's sake, I live in Holland!

 

[39*23t]

No chance of me going over to the Dark Side.

See, that's the problem with jumping to hasty conclusions by pigeon-holing people on the basis of very limited information. Not all 'fanboys' (though I don't see myself as such) are three week fans, know nothing about the sport and are obsessed by one man. I love the sport. For Christ's sake, I live in Holland!

funny luke skywalker said the same thing

 

[whiteboytrash]

I apologize in advance for this, but I was unable to catch the airing of the stage today because of an early morning bike ride. So I was only able to read CN's recap of the stage.

Their article made it sound like part of Astana split up the Peloton and that AC was caught out yet again in a secondary group. Here is the quote from the main article....



Can someone confirm this for me? Was AC yet again riding further back and got caught out again? Since everything came back together again it didn't hurt him this time, if that is indeed what happened. But I am extremely surprised he didn't learn his lesson the other day.

Astana ? What ? Saxo namely the Canc did all the work to split the peloton. Contador was up there the entire time.

Sounds like CN is reading Twitter feeds and not watching the race !

 

[Bainreese]

Thanks Publicus.

Interesting stage and very cool that TV stayed away for the win.

 

[Cobblestones]

Their article made it sound like part of Astana split up the Peloton and that AC was caught out yet again in a secondary group. Here is the quote from the main article....

**** poor wording of the article. No wonder you're confused. I think what the person wanted to say was that AC, Evans, and the Schlecks were present in the first group, so they avoided a repeat of stage 3.

If you really really twist your brain I guess you can parse the sentence in this way and make it conform to reality.

 

[Bainreese]

**** poor wording of the article. No wonder you're confused. I think what the person wanted to say was that AC, Evans, and the Schlecks were present in the first group, so they avoided a repeat of stage 3.

If you really really twist your brain I guess you can parse the sentence in this way and make it conform to reality.

Yeah, it was confusing. And I don't really have such a low opinion of Contador as to take what was written at face value. That is why I had to ask. I wish I hadn't missed the stage. I had assumed it would be another Columbia romp to the finish and so I went for a bike ride instead.

The article also says that the Schleks, Evans, and Contador 'made their presence known at the front'. If that again is a reference to stage 3 CN really need to do a better editing job. But if Contador was up front working today, it really kinda makes you wonder. If I were JB and I truly felt Contador was my team leader, it would have been my other guys at the front doing the work, not Contador.

Man...missing the stage makes me feel completely in the dark. This is exactly why I say that despite what has already happened....the Tour still has a lot to offer.

 

[Publicus]

Yeah, it was confusing. And I don't really have such a low opinion of Contador as to take what was written at face value. That is why I had to ask. I wish I hadn't missed the stage. I had assumed it would be another Columbia romp to the finish and so I went for a bike ride instead.

The article also says that the Schleks, Evans, and Contador 'made their presence known at the front'. If that again is a reference to stage 3 CN really need to do a better editing job. But if Contador was up front working today, it really kinda makes you wonder. If I were JB and I truly felt Contador was my team leader, it would have been my other guys at the front doing the work, not Contador.

Man...missing the stage makes me feel completely in the dark. This is exactly why I say that despite what has already happened....the Tour still has a lot to offer.

Contador wasn't working one bit. He was holding Lance's wheel, with Levi on his tail. He was well protected.

 

[Bainreese]

Excellent. That makes a great deal more sense.

I appreciate the info guys.

 

[Anonymous]

Just saw the Gesink crash. I was hoping for him to do well this year. Sucks.

 

[Anonymous]

Also watching Astana hammering on the front. Looks to me like they were doing so because they were coming to the coast and wanted to be in a good position in case of any problems with the wind. I also think that in a couple of years they will wait for Gesink in a situation like that.

 

[Deagol]

Thanks WBT good post.

Also good to see Saxo pushing mixing it up on the cross winds then dropping off the front. Good agressive riding. They will be wearing the red numbers tomorrow.

I've lurked on this forum since it started and never wanted to post until recently. I have seen on some other forums that a person would create multiple profiles and log-in with their various user-names and respond to posts they made under their other user-name(s) in order to bolster their standing among the forum users somehow. Occasionally that person would lose track of which user name they would be logged-in under and reply to one of their own posts made under the same user-name as the one they replied with. Could that have happened here ??????

 

[Anonymous]

I've lurked on this forum since it started and never wanted to post until recently. I have seen on some other forums that a person would create multiple profiles and log-in with their various user-names and respond to posts they made under their other user-name(s) in order to bolster their standing among the forum users somehow. Occasionally that person would lose track of which user name they would be logged-in under and reply to one of their own posts made under the same user-name as the one they replied made the original post with. Could that have happened here ??????

No, that is just WBT. He marches to the beat of his own drummer. (he could have easily deleted the post)

However, that is going on here with a couple of posters I believe.

 

[Anonymous]

Damn Spartacus is a badass.......and damn it would have been more fun to watch live. Oh well, I will get to watch Friday live.