the good side of cycling

[centurionomega]

With all the post-tour sniping between Contador and Armstrong, let's try and focus on something positive.

George Hincapie rode four stages with a broken collarbone!!

Truly one of the hard men of cycling. I am applauding right now.

Any others?

 

[Ninety5rpm]

With all the post-tour sniping between Contador and Armstrong, let's try and focus on something positive.

George Hincapie rode four stages with a broken collarbone!!

Truly one of the hard men of cycling. I am applauding right now.

Any others?

Tyler Ham... never mind.

 

[scribe]

Hmmmm. :thinking:

 

[mambo#5]

nice way of starting the thread mentioning AC and LA. I am to the point of calling them, "he who must not obey" and "he who most everyone here hates".

 

[Publicus]

nice way of starting the thread mentioning AC and LA. I am to the point of calling them, "he who must not obey" and "he who most everyone here hates".

I hate to get off topic, but:

"He who must not obey"????? Obey who?

Back to the topic:

I think you have to celebrate guys like Jens Voigt, Thomas Voekler, the Schleck Brothers, and yes AC. They, and others, love to race their bikes. And as a fan, that's really all you can ask for.

 

[Bala Verde]

Back to the topic:

I think you have to celebrate guys like Jens Voigt, Thomas Voekler, the Schleck Brothers, and yes AC. They, and others, love to race their bikes. And as a fan, that's really all you can ask for.

Hey don't forget Laurens ten Dam and Robert Gesink!

 

[Clemson Cycling]

Lance Armstrong has used his talents and story to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for cancer research and has given millions fighting the disease hope that they can make it through the fight

 

[Publicus]

Hey don't forget Laurens ten Dam and Robert Gesink!

You are absolutely right. I stand corrected sir. I will go read Lance's twitter page for an hour as penance.

 

[Anonymous]

The biggest bummer was Kenny Van Hummel crashing out. Man that guy was my hero.

 

[badboyberty]

Furlan was doing a pretty good Egyptian mummy impersonation, at one stage I think the only part of him that wasn't bandaged was his face and head.

 

[dgodave]

I really liked the scenery in this years TdF. Seriously, I couldnt get enough hill towns and river gorges.
.

 

[hillytn]

Schlecks were great. pity for Van Hummel, but that vid of him racing against the time limit was an interesting take and you gotta give him credit for not backing down. Nocentini deserves mention for defending the yellow jersey as long as he could. Jens recovering.

this isn't really 'good' per se, but nice to see that everyone who crashed has gotten through fairly ok (no one's paralyzed, lost limbs, 6ft under, etc). off topic, but anyone have any ideas on how the number of crashes this year compares to past years? quite a few areas of carnage, plus the TTT wasn't exactly a cakewalk.

 

[croix_de_fer]

With all the post-tour sniping between Contador and Armstrong, let's try and focus on something positive.

George Hincapie rode four stages with a broken collarbone!!

Truly one of the hard men of cycling. I am applauding right now.

Any others?

George is fricking amazing! I love this guy. He reminds me of Sean Kelly in his toughness. And that amazing lead-out on the Champs...he has sacrificed so much to make other riders look great. He is going to be remembered as one of our best cyclist!

 

[ThisFrenchGuy]

Stéphane Goubert, the other 38 years old guy. Was instrumental in the defense of Nocentini (which was kind of very bland, unfortunately), and still managed to get in breaks in the third week. Finished 16th at the GC. Never won anything as a pro, but an excellent domestique. Too bad Efimkin DNF, he would have had some serious help for a good GC ranking (was 16th at GC before he had to quit).

 

[TrudyTas]

I believe Kurt-Asle Arvesen rode the rest of the stage after he crashed with a broken wrist(?). (and it was way further than Levi had to ride with his broken wrist!)

Kenny was definitely a highlight - and the video was great inside perspective.

Another highlight for me was Haussler's effort in the cold and rain and winning by such a large margin.

Oh, and agree with the others about George (except for his whinge episode).

 

[Jonathan]

I'm not very enthusiastic about riders continuing with broken bones. Ofcourse, it is an incredible feat to pull it off - even if your name is Hamilton (that pain must have been real no matter what he took). However, I'm concerned about the precedent it sets and to what lengths riders should reasonably go. Just as I do not want them to take drugs that endanger their health, I think a rider with broken bones should be treated and get some rest.

Hincapie's case is probably different because he didn't know it was broken. Still, while his ability to withstand pain is amazing, it's a disgrace nobody saw earlier what was going on.

 

[runninboy]

George is fricking amazing! I love this guy. He reminds me of Sean Kelly in his toughness. And that amazing lead-out on the Champs...he has sacrificed so much to make other riders look great. He is going to be remembered as one of our best cyclist!

George had an amazing ride in the finale.
Just when Garmin was setting up for Tyler, George hits the gas and pulls away giving them just enough to be able to beat Garmin to the final corner.
To think George was hammering those cobbles with a broken collarbone
ouch

 

[TourLeTour]

Another highlight for me was Haussler's effort in the cold and rain and winning by such a large margin.

Yep, I thought this was fantastic. I have never been so cold and miserable on a bike as that day, and this was actually one of the stages that I ended up cutting short and not riding the whole lot of. It was a horrible day. The only thing (almost) that cheered me up was seeing this great effort. He worked hard all day, and came up with a win at the end. Brilliant.

Disappointed to hear German radio describing it as the first stage win for a German though, he was born in Inverell and you really can't get much more Aussie than that!

 

[Jonathan]

Disappointed to hear German radio describing it as the first stage win for a German though, he was born in Inverell and you really can't get much more Aussie than that!

Sure, but he had a small German flag next to his name. These nationalities don't really become more meaningful then that.

Nationality and sports is like the Game of the Goose. You win by a roll of the die and in the end it doesn't matter one bit with whom you identify.

 

[balkou]

The most unlucky guy was that Skil-Shimano rider that crashed hard on the TTT stage (who hadn't crash that day...) He had two an open fracture in the one hand, I think some vertebrae too, he will be sidelined for a long time!

Good to have Japanese riders in this Tour. Especially the BBox one was very animating!

 

[Bala Verde]

The most unlucky guy was that Skil-Shimano rider that crashed hard on the TTT stage (who hadn't crash that day...) He had two an open fracture in the one hand, I think some vertebrae too, he will be sidelined for a long time!

Good to have Japanese riders in this Tour. Especially the BBox one was very animating!

ugh, completely forgot about him, Piet Rooijakkers, who had had a little altercation with Cavendish the days prior to the TTT. He deserves to be mentioned as well!

 

[pmcg76]

Stéphane Goubert, the other 38 years old guy. Was instrumental in the defense of Nocentini (which was kind of very bland, unfortunately), and still managed to get in breaks in the third week. Finished 16th at the GC. Never won anything as a pro, but an excellent domestique. Too bad Efimkin DNF, he would have had some serious help for a good GC ranking (was 16th at GC before he had to quit).

I was thinking this myself, Goubert is even older than Lance, finished in the Top 20 despite being a real team-mate riding for Nocentini. True that he didnt have 3 years away from the sport but he never came close to winning any Tour either. Inigo Cuesta was the oldest guy in the race but didnt finish. This is what is frustrating for me, everything else gets ignored when a certian rider is around.

 

[TRDean]

My hard men of the tour were

1. van Hummel...no misunderstanding here...he was my favorite rider coming in and has solidified that now!!

2. Every rider that crashed out...some bad crashes and some tough dudes

3. i will give it up for George...not a huge fan..but he is tough

4. The Japanese riders...congratulations to them for the fine race!

5. maybe not a hard man and a rider I don't really like...but I gotta give Cavendish some props. He is a stud and won every one of his stages in style.

Lastly, I loved the emotion of Astroloza when he got the stage victory...can anyone tell me if he was happy? LOL.

 

[balkou]

IThis is what is frustrating for me, everything else gets ignored when a certian rider is around.

Come on, Lance has his bad moments but he won that race 7 times, it doesn't take us to be rocket scientist to understand that the focus on him is justifiable.

 

[saphblue]

Stéphane Goubert, the other 38 years old guy. Was instrumental in the defense of Nocentini (which was kind of very bland, unfortunately), and still managed to get in breaks in the third week. Finished 16th at the GC. Never won anything as a pro, but an excellent domestique. Too bad Efimkin DNF, he would have had some serious help for a good GC ranking (was 16th at GC before he had to quit).

Another "old fart" who's 38, Christophe Moreau, finished in the top 10 of the ITT, higher placed than a certain someone. I thought that was a impressive.

I think this is the first year I followed the Lanterne Rouge so closely. I kept hoping that P&P would talk about Van Hummel on Versus. Each day I'd check the results to see how he did in the day's stage. Too bad he couldn't finish.

Tony Martin had a really good Tour. It'll be fun to see how he progresses. Also, I'll never forget the look on his face as he rode up Ventoux. It was a great effort.