The Official LANCE ARMSTRONG Thread 2010-2011

[theswordsman]

Well, he seems to mostly have committed to a race schedule. How do you think he's going to do? I left off the Tour de France intentionally. Predictions?

Milan-San Remo - March 20
Critérium International - March 27-28
Tour of Flanders - April 4
Circuit de la Sarthe (Possible) - April 6-9
Amstel Gold - April 18
Flèche Wallonne - April 21
Liège-Bastogne-Liège - April 25
Tour of California - May 16-23
Tour de Suisse - June 12-20

 

[karlboss]

I didn't expect more, but Armstrong and his press
team, along with many in the press and on thes forums, sold a lot wolf tickets. Armstrong lists his weight as 71 kgs at the Team Radio Shack site
He and Bruyneel have talked incessantly about how much stronger he will be this year and how much fitter he is compared to last year at this time. And I was personally told by many of his supporters that he would be stronger and a podium at this year's Tour was likely.

I agree with you, but just because he's unlikely to win, doesn't mean he'll finish out of the top 20 as many here seem to expect.

 

[altark123]

I agree with you, but just because he's unlikely to win, doesn't mean he'll finish out of the top 20 as many here seem to expect.

yep, I am both a Lance fan and a realist (I know some of you don't think that is possible), and I am hoping for a top 10.

 

[Hugh Januss]

yep, I am both a Lance fan and a realist (I know some of you don't think that is possible), and I am hoping for a top 10.

Oh no, it's quite possible as long as you are realistically willing to ignore a lot of things.

 

[Krap Police]

edited by mod

 

[Krap Police]

Nice drowned rat in your picture.

 

[wattage]

The whole Radioshack and Armstrong does look like total garbage, maybe when the Bruyneel/Ferrari-treatment kicks in they have atleast decent form.

 

[Publicus]

I agree with you, but just because he's unlikely to win, doesn't mean he'll finish out of the top 20 as many here seem to expect.

I don't think he'll finish out of the top 20, when he's in shape he will be one of the top 20 riders in the peloton. I think the difference will be that there is no TTT and he will likely have to race the entire race, something he didn't have to do in 2009.

Plus, let's be real here: for all of the talk about a more traditional calendar, he's not really racing at all. He's spent far more time making you tube videos and doing promotional activities than he has getting race miles in his legs. I think he is finding that he enjoys his life (post-original retirement) as it is now and going back to his 2005 and earlier routine is no longer feasible. That's just my opinion.

 

[Anonymous]

Maybe he's riding clean?

 

[Big GMaC]

Maybe he's riding clean?

Ha!


But he could have just taken a boatload of blood out

 

[ravens]

I think he may have borrowed Captain Kirk's girdle.

Do they sell men's girdles at the same shop as the bro/mansierre? I could use one. My gut is like a giant DDDD boob.

Lance feels my pain.

My hair isn't as gray as his but I can no longer grow a beard because it's ALL gray, and the coloring for men's beards is an atrocity. They did a pretty good color job on him in the Mich commercials.

 

[ravens]

I don't think he'll finish out of the top 20, when he's in shape he will be one of the top 20 riders in the peloton. I think the difference will be that there is no TTT and he will likely have to race the entire race, something he didn't have to do in 2009.

Plus, let's be real here: for all of the talk about a more traditional calendar, he's not really racing at all. He's spent far more time making you tube videos and doing promotional activities than he has getting race miles in his legs. I think he is finding that he enjoys his life (post-original retirement) as it is now and going back to his 2005 and earlier routine is no longer feasible. That's just my opinion.

I agree with you. Life is good for him now, training: not so much. Training is very hard at times and he can't part with the high life.

Lending more credence to the thought that when June rolls around, he is going to look at his prospects for the tour and decide to claim injury/illness if he can't turn in a respectable performance. Better to preserve the myth with speculation of what might have been than to destroy it with fact.

 

[flyor64]

Not one comment on the "moonwalker"???

That was a fantastic piece of side comedy there sir

 

[ImmaculateKadence]

I don't think he'll finish out of the top 20, when he's in shape he will be one of the top 20 riders in the peloton. I think the difference will be that there is no TTT and he will likely have to race the entire race, something he didn't have to do in 2009.

Plus, let's be real here: for all of the talk about a more traditional calendar, he's not really racing at all. He's spent far more time making you tube videos and doing promotional activities than he has getting race miles in his legs. I think he is finding that he enjoys his life (post-original retirement) as it is now and going back to his 2005 and earlier routine is no longer feasible. That's just my opinion.

A valid one that I agree with.

I don't think he'll finish outside the top ten. No TTT is certainly a disadvantage for him, but if you'd take it out of last year's Tour, he still would have finished in the top 5 or just outside.

I dont' understand why everybody thinks his lack of results are indicative of a poor performance at the Tour. He looks about the same as last year, and the only thing that matters to him is July. One photo taking with his head down while exhaling doesn't mean anything, regardless of what some of the more critical users think.

 

[thehog]

A valid one that I agree with.

I don't think he'll finish outside the top ten. No TTT is certainly a disadvantage for him, but if you'd take it out of last year's Tour, he still would have finished in the top 5 or just outside.

I dont' understand why everybody thinks his lack of results are indicative of a poor performance at the Tour. He looks about the same as last year, and the only thing that matters to him is July. One photo taking with his head down while exhaling doesn't mean anything, regardless of what some of the more critical users think.

I think if their were more mountain top finishes last year and Contador rode on another team he wouldn't have finished top 10. No chance. Which will all be the case this year.

 

[Cerberus]

I think if their were more mountain top finishes last year and Contador rode on another team he wouldn't have finished top 10. No chance. Which will all be the case this year.

You're letting your prejudices run away with you. Armstrong was clearly one of the top 10 climbers of the last yours Tour. Sure Contador and the Schleck were better, possibly also Klöden, Nibali and Wiggins, though I'm not sure about any of them, but he was clearly better than anyone else in the mountains. Which 4 people do you think would have passed him if the Tour had been longer?

 

[mr. tibbs]

You're letting your prejudices run away with you. Armstrong was clearly one of the top 10 climbers of the last yours Tour. Sure Contador and the Schleck were better, possibly also Klöden, Nibali and Wiggins, though I'm not sure about any of them, but he was clearly better than anyone else in the mountains. Which 4 people do you think would have passed him if the Tour had been longer?

Armstrong did seem to be getting stronger as the Tour wore on, but he suffered on the earlier climbing stages--just compare him and Kloden as the race progressed; they kinda switched in strength. I think if there were one more mountain top finish in both ranges, the effect would have been more time lost for Armstrong, though.

Having said that, I was pretty impressed by him on Ventoux. He was able to hang with F Schleck pretty well, which is something I wasn't expecting.

 

[ImmaculateKadence]

I think if their were more mountain top finishes last year and Contador rode on another team he wouldn't have finished top 10. No chance. Which will all be the case this year.

You're letting your prejudices run away with you. Armstrong was clearly one of the top 10 climbers of the last yours Tour. Sure Contador and the Schleck were better, possibly also Klöden, Nibali and Wiggins, though I'm not sure about any of them, but he was clearly better than anyone else in the mountains. Which 4 people do you think would have passed him if the Tour had been longer?

Hog, I'm not sure how you figure he could have finished outside the top ten. As Cerberus pointed out he was clearly a top ten climber last year. He would have to lose over 9 minutes to finish outside the top ten. Which riders could have put that much time into him?

 

[thehog]

You're letting your prejudices run away with you. Armstrong was clearly one of the top 10 climbers of the last yours Tour. Sure Contador and the Schleck were better, possibly also Klöden, Nibali and Wiggins, though I'm not sure about any of them, but he was clearly better than anyone else in the mountains. Which 4 people do you think would have passed him if the Tour had been longer?

Not really.

I'm suggesting that if there were 3-4 more stages like Verbier whereby the finish was a summit finish he would not finished ahead of those riders. Agreed Armstrong was stronger as the race bore on but he was fortunate enough that here were plenty of stages to soft pedal and recover.

Look at the Toumalet for example – the entire field rode over a 20km mountain, the highest in the Pyrenees with an average 10% gradient! That normally doesn’t happen at the Tour. There really wasn’t anywhere for anybody to attack and take time. Add to that that Ventoux was a non-issue due to the wind. No one was going to take time there. Lance got 3rd. Take nothing away from that but really that was the easiest 3rd place in history since Bobby Julich got 3rd in 1998 when half the field was bunged out of the race. To repeat Armstrong got 3rd on the podium but by no means was he 3rd best in the race.

Period.

 

[Bag_O_Wallet]

I think if their were more mountain top finishes last year and Contador rode on another team he wouldn't have finished top 10. No chance. Which will all be the case this year.

So if he had been redlined a couple more times , you figure he would have unravelled?

nevermind... you've answered as I was posting this.

 

[SpeedWay]

To repeat Armstrong got 3rd on the podium but by no means was he 3rd best in the race.

Period.

Other than the reality of the final times for the race you've got this one all figured out. I'm sure you've got his position figured out to a precision of 4 given a variable of type float.

 

[Dr. Maserati]

I agree with you, but just because he's unlikely to win, doesn't mean he'll finish out of the top 20 as many here seem to expect.

I dont believe I have ever seen anyone suggesting that LA will finish outside the top 20.

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

Well, it's pretty clear why Armstrong is avoiding Contador like the plague.

 

[thehog]

I dont believe I have ever seen anyone suggesting that LA will finish outside the top 20.

Top 30 yes.

 

[BikeCentric]

WTF is up with Velonews?! Embarrassing effort? He bonked and then attacked hard on the last day. He didn't quit. He didn't go through the motions. He picked himself up, dusted himself off and fought to the end. Nothing embarrassing about that.

Not only is VeloNews obviously being disrespectful of Contador with that "embarrassing effort" characterization of his effort at PN last year, they are more importantly doing a dis-service to their reader base.

The majority of the reader base of VeloNews is an American club rider or Cat 5 racer, someone who's fairly new to cycling. VeloNews is doing a disservice to all of these readers by trying to insinuate that it's "embarrassing" to race hard and risk blowing up, when in reality every good racer has to race until he blows up, cracks, and bonks many times both to find his limits and to push them.

Ask Jens Voight if he thinks it's "embarrassing" to go off the front and blow up.