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Stage 18 - Friday, July 23 2010, Salies-de-Béarn - Bordeaux, 190 km

Page 6 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Oct 16, 2009
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El Pistolero said:
He crashed in stage 1, stage 2 was neutralized and stage 3 was cobbles.

So no, not really. Thor doesn't even deserve a second place in that competition riding like that.
He probably won't get it either. I'm amazed he has broken 200 points with his current sprint form. Without the Spa neutralization he'd have even more, and probably win. And with his sprint from last year he could top 5 in the bunch gallops, and take it easily.

I hope he forgets about the green jersey next year tho, and goes 100 % for the classics, including the hillier ones. Leave the green to the true sprinters (that way we don't have to put up with a hundred threads about how *insert favorite sprinter here* deserves the green jersey more!).
 
Jul 16, 2010
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timmarshall said:
Not talking about Cav not winning persei, more that Thor, who hasnt really featured at the front of any of the bunch sprints is up there at all

Thor was able to collect a lot of points in stage 1 and 3. Cav got no points from those stages.

Thor didn't do that bad in the first week. After that he did really crappy.
 
Jul 16, 2010
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goggalor said:
He probably won't get it either. I'm amazed he has broken 200 points with his current sprint form. Without the Spa neutralization he'd have even more, and probably win. And with his sprint from last year he could top 5 in the bunch gallops, and take it easily.

I hope he forgets about the green jersey next year tho, and goes 100 % for the classics, including the hillier ones. Leave the green to the true sprinters (that way we don't have to put up with a hundred threads about how *insert favorite sprinter here* deserves the green jersey more!).

Yeah, I hope Tom Boonen does the same. It's pretty clear that Tom and Thor's story is done at TdF now Cavendish is here. No way are they going to outsprint Cav for a stage victory.

They should do the Vuelta instead, perfect preparation for the World Championship. And classics are way more important then stage victory at TdF imo(on flat stages at least)
 
Waterloo Sunrise said:
Oh dear. Quite right, it's called a seperate point, following yours, which presumed the validity of yours as I haven't had a chance to study the replay.
The point was that there was a sprinter who had the same speed as Cavendish until he was blocked.

That is, the same speed being 4 places behind, thus he would've never been able to close the gap to Cavendish.
I'm just countering the argument that nobody had Cavendish' speed. Which is simply not true

But you are blurting out all sorts of nonsense missing the point completely.
 
Oct 16, 2009
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Oh, God. Now I hope the Jet takes it and not the Missile! To think of Cav coming in the final two sprints without even wearing green once this tour... Oh, the horror.
 
So Cammy Diaz and Mr Cruise go through an embarrassing interview for French tv and all they get is a lousy, yellow jersey apiece.
I expect next it will be off to meet fellow superstar Lance, back at the Shack chucklewagon.
Maybe, they can bring him up to speed with news from the US.


Has Bradley Wiggins finished yet?
 
Oct 16, 2009
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Mellow Velo said:
So Cammy Diaz and Mr Cruise go through an embarrassing interview for French tv and all they get is a lousy, yellow jersey apiece.
I expect next it will be off to meet fellow superstar Lance, back at the Shack chucklewagon.
Maybe, they can bring him up to speed with news from the US.


Has Bradley Wiggins finished yet?
Wigans led out Boasson Hagen, didn't he? I think that's the first time this Tour he's been in the lead... of a stage!
 
Dekker_Tifosi said:
The point was that there was a sprinter who had the same speed as Cavendish until he was blocked.

That is, the same speed being 4 places behind, thus he would've never been able to close the gap to Cavendish.
I'm just countering the argument that nobody had Cavendish' speed. Which is simply not true

But you are blurting out all sorts of nonsense missing the point completely.

Calm down.

I was simply saying that placement and positioning is as important as speed in a sprint, and it's interesting that Cavendish seems to have got it so much more right than Oscar. It's not a repetition of the point you'd already made, and it clearly isn't a point you want made, but that doesn't make it "all sorts of nonsense".
 
Jun 9, 2010
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Ufff Grande McEwen!!!! I don't know who he do it but always without a lead-out man he achieves great results... always 3-4-5 place...

Today Manxman was awesome... he is already in top form... when I saw Ale-jet jump with his sprint I thought "Yeah! good jump!" but was too soon :(, Manxman passed him almost yawning...

Well we are seeing the ending of a great generation of sprinters: McEwen, Thor, Ale-jet, Boonen (I know that he is not in the tour), etc... The new generation is great too but right now Manxman doesn't have equal, Maybe Greipel or Tyler but I think that Manxman is still little bit further...

Well anyway... La Maillot vert is for Ale-jet, I'm sure! He has been doing great and this could be his last TdF in a very very good form...

GO ALE-JET!!!
 
Feb 16, 2010
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Cav made it look easy.

Loved the "Where are you all?" look over the shoulder.

Pretty Awesome.

Looks like the Ale-Jet's special jet fuel has run out. At what point do they kick him out of the tour? Before he wins the Green in Paris; or do they do a Landis and wait a couple of weeks?
 

ttrider

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Apr 23, 2010
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Hushovd is a lousy excuse of a sprinter! a good lead out train arguably the best today and yet he went no where and ended up 14th, green is surely Petachis now i would expect HTC to go for the intermediate sprints for Cav on the champs or he has no chance of green
 
Waterloo Sunrise said:
I really don't understand why you watch stages like today. You know exactly what will happen, and then come on here and make the same old post *****ing about the inevitable result.

Why, thank you. In fact I didn't watch today's stage. I saw what was happening early on, and proceeded to go and do other things, occasionally checking back in to see that yes, it was still exactly the same as it was when I left it. Then I got to the last few kilometres, thought about giving a damn, failed miserably, but couldn't find anything better to do, so decided to give it a go, and exactly what was expected happened.

If the race wouldn't be so predictable, I wouldn't have to moan about how obvious and inevitable the result was. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but I'd quite like a sprinter to have to actually work to get to the sprint. A stage in which 10 seconds of five hours is actually relevant is a complete waste of everybody's time.
 
ttrider said:
Hushovd is a lousy excuse of a sprinter! a good lead out train arguably the best today and yet he went no where and ended up 14th, green is surely Petachis now i would expect HTC to go for the intermediate sprints for Cav on the champs or he has no chance of green
If you watch a bit closer you would notice that he is far, faaaaar back with about 1k to go, then he basically has to sprint past 15-20 riders before he gets into position, and then he was already exhausted when the sprint started. Not saying he is a good sprinter, but normally he would have been top 10 at least.

Interesting to see Team Sky try a full lead-out today. I can't say I'm surprised that they started a bit too early, but they had better timing than some of their leadouts earlier this year at least. EBH did the mistake of following Hushovd who was going backwards, instead of jumping on Cavs wheel for a 2. or 3. place.
 
Jul 16, 2010
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Ryaguas said:
Ufff Grande McEwen!!!! I don't know who he do it but always without a lead-out man he achieves great results... always 3-4-5 place...

Today Manxman was awesome... he is already in top form... when I saw Ale-jet jump with his sprint I thought "Yeah! good jump!" but was too soon :(, Manxman passed him almost yawning...

Well we are seeing the ending of a great generation of sprinters: McEwen, Thor, Ale-jet, Boonen (I know that he is not in the tour), etc... The new generation is great too but right now Manxman doesn't have equal, Maybe Greipel or Tyler but I think that Manxman is still little bit further...

Well anyway... La Maillot vert is for Ale-jet, I'm sure! He has been doing great and this could be his last TdF in a very very good form...

GO ALE-JET!!!

He's only 29 years old you know lol. But you're right, I don't see him doing much anymore in the Tour de France. But that doesn't mean his career is over, far from it.
 
Jun 9, 2010
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El Pistolero said:
He's only 29 years old you know lol. But you're right, I don't see him doing much anymore in the Tour de France. But that doesn't mean his career is over, far from it.

I know but next year he will be 30... With the years you start losing speed right now he can't beat Manxman, Farrar or Greipel...
 
Jul 16, 2010
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Ryaguas said:
I know but next year he will be 30... With the years you start losing speed right now he can't beat Manxman, Farrar or Greipel...

Well, I've always considered Boonen to be a way better classics specialist then a sprinter anyway.
 
Jan 6, 2010
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ttrider said:
Hushovd is a lousy excuse of a sprinter! a good lead out train arguably the best today and yet he went no where and ended up 14th, green is surely Petachis now i would expect HTC to go for the intermediate sprints for Cav on the champs or he has no chance of green

np, Cervelo again had NO train. Last 2 kms he had basically 1 team mate - even Euskaltel/Caisse had a better train thanCervelo, as did the usual suspects (Rabo, HTC, Miilram, Lampre, Garmin, etc). I was very impressed with the sky leadout, they just started a little early, than when flecha and thomas wer eleft got a bit swamped. but that last 3 of Wiggo/Flecha/Thomas leading out for EBH was pretty impressive
 
I love Thor, but after today's stage if he can't win the final stage into Paris I'm kind of hoping someone else comes away in Green. I'm just not a fan of Ale-Jet because of his problems, or Cav because of his attitude and the way he races.

Where's Mario or Zabel when you need them? :cool:

Too many sprint stages this year, btw. Very few breakaways the entire Tour. Yawn.
 
Mar 12, 2009
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Alpe d'Huez said:
I love Thor, but after today's stage if he can't win the final stage into Paris I'm kind of hoping someone else comes away in Green. I'm just not a fan of Ale-Jet because of his problems, or Cav because of his attitude and the way he races.

Where's Mario or Zabel when you need them? :cool:

Too many sprint stages this year, btw. Very few breakaways the entire Tour. Yawn.

I don't know about Zabel, but Mario's probably backstage banging a podium girl...or Cameron Diaz. Or Tom Cruise. :D
 

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