TDF Stage 16 - Tuesday, July 20 2010, Bagnères-de-Luchon - Pau, 196 km

[Moose McKnuckles]

Lance has probably got more people riding bikes than any other rider and that alone is a great victory.

Yes, I agree with this. The increased popularity of cycling is perhaps Lance's greatest contribution to a sport he has otherwise sullied over the last decade or more.

 

[Francois the Postman]

i would have liked to see la win a stage in his farewell tour, but it was not to be. he rode well today, but not enough to win. i think a stage win for him was not out of the question, but would have required a real confluence of factors in his favor. when you don't have the firepower, you really need the stars to align for you, and that clearly hasn't happened.

i know there are a lot of anti-la here, but lance introduced me to the sport as well as my son and husband. i have a lot of great memories of the three of us getting up, from when my son was very young, half asleep and snuggling in bed to watch the tour. we had a lot of fun watching him and cheering for him through the years, and in the process, we were introduced to a lot of amazing athletes and to a sport unlike any other. we all have tremendous respect for the riders and are grateful for the tremendous inspiration and entertainment they have provided.

lance clearly has flaws, as do we all, but i will always be grateful to him for his part in all those july's that our family enjoyed so much together. i think i am probably like many others who most likely would never have gotten this introduction without lance and all the attention he garnered.

You won't be the only one, and good on ya for seeing beyond LA. I think that's the bit that drives most lovers of the sport so bonkers. Most of the LA fans seem to be incapable of seeing beyond the man, and that group includes the loudest group too.

To me LA is not a great ambassador for the sport, simply because he appears to have been pretty unsuccessful in promoting the totality of racing. He has been very successful in promoting himself. The simple fact that people keep saying that he will leave a huge gap when he leaves only illustrates how ineffective he has been as an ambassador for the sport. Which is staggering given the size of the megaphone he was handed.

Like you, I enjoyed seeing the way he rode today a lot more than the dire spectacle of the previous days (he did ride well yesterday too, but I guess most of us were a bit preoccupied with other issues). And like you stated, he needed an awful lot of stars to align to squeeze a win out of his 2010 body. He didn't, ah well, bring on the post-Lance era. No tears from me.

 

[lilyprotector]

i don't call a guy who got and beat cancer a cancer lightly. But if you can't see that he is, then you just haven't been paying any attention at all.

these are the types of posts that were really disappointing yesterday. we clearly have different opinions. i respect your right to have a different one from me. i don't wish to denigrate you for it. just because i don't agree with you that lance is "a cancer" doesn't mean that i "haven't been paying any attention at all." i don't think it's necessary to attack each other on these boards just because we have different viewpoints.

 

[CatsNK]

Does anyone know what happened to Ivan Basso today?

 

[Mellow Velo]

i know there are a lot of anti-la here, but lance introduced me to the sport as well as my son and husband. i have a lot of great memories of the three of us getting up, from when my son was very young, half asleep and snuggling in bed to watch the tour. we had a lot of fun watching him and cheering for him through the years, and in the process, we were introduced to a lot of amazing athletes and to a sport unlike any other. we all have tremendous respect for the riders and are grateful for the tremendous inspiration and entertainment they have provided.

lance clearly has flaws, as do we all, but i will always be grateful to him for his part in all those july's that our family enjoyed so much together. i think i am probably like many others who most likely would never have gotten this introduction without lance and all the attention he garnered.

That is good. A nice post. I hope you and your family continue to follow the sport and perhaps find another "hero" amongst the peloton.

One thing and I don't mean to be nasty.
Yesterday, you were in "grandma" mode, saying you had followed the sport since the old days.

For some of we grandpas, that Lance era seems like only yesterday!

 

[Francois the Postman]

Does anyone know what happened to Ivan Basso today?

See an earlier post by Susan. Bronchitus apparently.

 

[luckyboy]

Does anyone know what happened to Ivan Basso today?

34 minutes down in the bus. Bronchitis.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Funny isn't it. It's been quite a stressful day for them. They had to wait until the last 100 meters before they could finally rest easy. lol.

I suppose I'm one of those.
Once Fedrigo showed how strong he was on the Aubisque, I knew who was gonna take the stage. That's because I follow the sport all year and know who's who.
Not stressful at all.
( If LA had won, I'd be less upset than the fanboys are, right now)

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

I commend Lance for giving it the ol' college try in the sprint today.
Nice of Horner to hold up to make sure he doesn't gap Lance. It's a long swim back home.

 

[alberto.legstrong]

these are the types of posts that were really disappointing yesterday. we clearly have different opinions. i respect your right to have a different one from me. i don't wish to denigrate you for it. just because i don't agree with you that lance is "a cancer" doesn't mean that i "haven't been paying any attention at all." i don't think it's necessary to attack each other on these boards just because we have different viewpoints.

let's just agree to disagree. I wasn't attacking you personally, and I am not going to quiz you on your awareness of how he got to where he is. If you took it as a personal attack please correct that notion.

It doesn't make a difference to me if he won today's stage. He is still a disgusting human being. the organizers should have withdrawn their invitation in May, but they were buffaloed into thinking they needed him there. So be it. It probably would have been better for him had he not shown up.

 

[Deconstructor]

Can you read everyone's mind or just mine?
Sorry, he is a creep and the creepier he gets, the more his apostles try to wallpaper over the giant hole in his soul.

But why would you hate someone for just throwing their weight around a bit in a team that he used to dominate? Even if you don't like it, isn't that understandable?

Though I don't agree with Contador doping last year to the absolute max and breaking the power record - probably one of the untold stories about tensions in the team - and I did not like what he did yesterday, I can move on from that and put it in a wider context. I'm not going to go all silly about it.

Where have all the people gone that told us how tough Eddie Merckx and the like used to be in their day as a defense of AC yesterday?

Your objections to Armstrong are just so hypcritical. One minute you're singing the praises of all that macho stuff, the next your using it as a reason to call someone a psychopath.

You people really need to look at yourselves.

 

[Straßenrennen]

People we are all missing the big news of todays stage, and that is RadioShack have managed to mantain there 4minutes plus lead in the Team classification!

 

[alberto.legstrong]

BPC trolling [edited by mod]

is this a serious post?

 

[lilyprotector]

That is good. A nice post. I hope you and your family continue to follow the sport and perhaps find another "hero" amongst the peloton.

One thing and I don't mean to be nasty.
Yesterday, you were in "grandma" mode, saying you had followed the sport since the old days.

For some of we grandpas, that Lance era seems like only yesterday!

haha, i'll clarify. totally see where you thought that. yeah, i was off the cuff and should have been more clear. i was trying to say, i could picture myself in the future one day, when i'm a grandma, saying, back in the day...does that make sense? no, not trying to say at all that i'm a grandma now (my son would be in big trouble!) and have been following since the 70s or anything!

we will definitely follow the sport. we continued to watch tdf even during lance's retirement. it's part of our family tradition. honestly, we would watch more except it's hard to actually find air time (maybe we need more advanced cable channels). but we do try to read about the big tours since we can't watch them. also, it takes up so much time. like today, i need to teach a class soon, and i'm SCREWED! have to prepare the lesson plan in like 10 minutes now haha.

my son swims very competitively as does my husband. it takes up all our time. we love the sport. swimmers live in the pain zone too, maybe more than any other except cyclists. really, nothing compares to cyclists. it's amazing to watch. my son has taken a lot of what he has gained in inspiration from cycling and applied it to his swimming.

we have really enjoyed watching contador race and watching him develop (even though i was NOT feeling the love yesterday), and i really like andy schleck who seems like such a sweet guy--gotta have a soft spot for the two brothers. honestly, we really enjoying hearing about all the racers. i always have an interest in the psychological, and what drives people. maybe that is why i don't hate la, because he has a lot of demons that have driven him in the past. cav would fit in that category. it's all interesting.

 

[Barrus]

People we are all missing the big news of todays stage, and that is RadioShack have managed to mantain there 4minutes plus lead in the Team classification!

To be honest this is the first year I see this being brought up and stated as a specific goal. I wonder if Caisse is really that concerned by it, I think they rather would win a stage, or get Moreau in the polka dot

 

[Straßenrennen]

As sad as it sounds.. im actually enjoying this fight for the team jersey since it seems to add at least a little bit of interest for 2 "average" teams.... please feel free to openly mock me.
And yes I would love to see Moreau in the polk dot shirt, would be a fitting present for him at least.

 

[hrotha]

To be honest this is the first year I see this being brought up and stated as a specific goal. I wonder if Caisse is really that concerned by it, I think they rather would win a stage, or get Moreau in the polka dot

I think they're going at it the way you're supposed to: as a nice bonus that shouldn't interfere with your real goals. Might as well win it while you're at it, but I'd say they've just been trying to win a stage here.

I've seen many instances of a Shack rider covering an attacking Caisse guy, not the other way around.

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

Thursday we're going to be treated to a battle not only for the GC but for the KOM jersey and the team classification as well.

I don't think we've seen a single day this important in the Tour for a long time. I hope it livens up what has been an otherwise mediocre TdF.

 

[The Hitch]

I don't think we've seen a single day this important in the Tour for a long time. .

Damn right.

 

[marinoni]

Missed Nothing

Normally, I wake up at 6am. Automatically, no alarm needed. For some reason today I slept till 9:30 and missed todays stage. Frankly, my interest in the professional side of this sport has been waning for some time now so no big deal. But still, I went online to check out the results. I thought, surely after seeing so many nobodies allowed to win mtn stages today's stage would be dominated by the favourites, the men who should be dominating big mtn stages. Instead, Fedrigo wins out of a breakaway of non-contenders who finish many minutes ahead of the lead group containing, besides the GC men, such climbing stars as Ciolek, Hushovd, and Morabito.
Am I really the only person who understands just how f**ked that is?! Are these clowns planning to, you know, actually race their bicycles, or is this going to be a training ride for 99% of the time like almost every other bike race these days. I don't know what infuriates me more, the shameful excuse for a bike race or the fact that everyone seems to just accept it. If this had happened as recently as 20yrs ago, their would have been scathing editorials in the media. Riders would have been booed off the podium. It flat out wouldn't have been accepted. Really, it just amazes me how many times pro sports in general analy rape their supporters and the suckers(yes, me included) just keep beggin for more.

 

[Big GMaC]

well ITV4 said that Schleck should keep his revenge cool in the fridge of his hotel room for another 48 hours.

Do they know something?

BTW: before anyone piles in, this was actually said

 

[The Hitch]

For all those who said it would be boring pat youselves on the back, for the following, hang you heads in shame

I will be surprised if this ends up being a boring stage.

Boring stages are raced by boring racers. Time is time. Good for this mixing it up.

I don't see how tomorrow can fail to be a very active day. igt.

I think this is a stroke of genious. It breaks the pattern of "let's all ride together slowly until the last 20 minutes" that you usually get. This is saying "if you are man enough to attack early and hard you could win the TdF".

I've been waiting for this day for 9 months, what an EPIC stage, big attacks and big gaps for all the GC men. Should be thrilling from 0km to 200km.

Not sure i am making my point clear , so let me try again. there is enough though climbing in that stage to beat your oponent at whatever range you are fighting.

What makes this stage special is that a climber can attack from the start of the stage . The road goes up immediately. Any team who feels strong should remember that and use it for it is rare. .

But it doesn't mean you shouldn't attack.

Let's say this: (it won't happen but just for the sack of the theory)

Andy is first over the top
Contador is second 2 minutes back
Sanchez and Menchov are next 4 minutes back
.

Oh and this was the best

Time for Basso to move forward rather than backward!

( i know you couldnt predict Basso would be ill, no one could, but it is funny to read at this point)

 

[Barrus]

Normally, I wake up at 6am. Automatically, no alarm needed. For some reason today I slept till 9:30 and missed todays stage. Frankly, my interest in the professional side of this sport has been waning for some time now so no big deal. But still, I went online to check out the results. I thought, surely after seeing so many nobodies allowed to win mtn stages today's stage would be dominated by the favourites, the men who should be dominating big mtn stages. Instead, Fedrigo wins out of a breakaway of non-contenders who finish many minutes ahead of the lead group containing, besides the GC men, such climbing stars as Ciolek, Hushovd, and Morabito.
Am I really the only person who understands just how f**ked that is?! Are these clowns planning to, you know, actually race their bicycles, or is this going to be a training ride for 99% of the time like almost every other bike race these days. I don't know what infuriates me more, the shameful excuse for a bike race or the fact that everyone seems to just accept it. If this had happened as recently as 20yrs ago, their would have been scathing editorials in the media. Riders would have been booed off the podium. It flat out wouldn't have been accepted. Really, it just amazes me how many times pro sports in general analy rape their supporters and the suckers(yes, me included) just keep beggin for more.

To be honest you missed a lot. The first two, three hours were some of the most exciting yet this tour

 

[Anonymous]

Do people think Basso just had nothing or he might try something tomorrow (long shot I know)?

Considering Basso got dropped 30 seconds after the race started, I will go with the "Basso had nothing" camp.

 

[Anonymous]

i would have liked to see la win a stage in his farewell tour, but it was not to be. he rode well today, but not enough to win. i think a stage win for him was not out of the question, but would have required a real confluence of factors in his favor. when you don't have the firepower, you really need the stars to align for you, and that clearly hasn't happened.

i know there are a lot of anti-la here, but lance introduced me to the sport as well as my son and husband. i have a lot of great memories of the three of us getting up, from when my son was very young, half asleep and snuggling in bed to watch the tour. we had a lot of fun watching him and cheering for him through the years, and in the process, we were introduced to a lot of amazing athletes and to a sport unlike any other. we all have tremendous respect for the riders and are grateful for the tremendous inspiration and entertainment they have provided.

lance clearly has flaws, as do we all, but i will always be grateful to him for his part in all those july's that our family enjoyed so much together. i think i am probably like many others who most likely would never have gotten this introduction without lance and all the attention he garnered.

Lance brought a new generation of fans to the sport. He single-handed probably doubled the global fan base.

Even the Tour itself recognizes what Lance has done for it. Who cares if those on this board don't.