Tour de France 2011 Stage 9: Issoire - Saint-Flour 208 km

[Ramira]

Jurgen van den Broek officially retired. God damnit.

 

[Sofía_]

wow, the tour of crashes

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Vandenbroeck and Vinokourov

 

[HL2037]

What a shame

 

[Arnout]

I think the difference this years is that all riders that go down are team leaders.

Pretty sure the crash was in the same corner as where Hoogerland had problems. Unexpectedly slippery.

Please, can it be dry from now on.

 

[Publicus]

Now if they try to neutralize this, I'm calling bullsh*t.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Cancellara up to his old tricks. Get on with it.
Hushovd won't sit and let the jersey go because the Schlecks have got the willies again.

 

[hatcher]

Crazy. It really is hard watching sometimes.

 

[Franklin]

Same thing that's been happening for the last 100 years - it just gets televised and we hear about it as soon as it happens.

BS!

I have been watching cycling for 30 years. Attrition like this is something relatively recent. Sure we had the idiotic 1999 crash, but that was idiotic parcourse. We had Beloki, but that was partly a mechanical as his tube just stuck to the tarmac (also he fell alone).

 

[ak-zaaf]

So, Titi in yellow on the restday.

 

[Delicato]

So, we have only Evans, Schlecks, AC and Basso, all the other serious guys have abandoned. I would say that this Tour now lacks even more depth GC-contenders' wise than 2008.

 

[Parrulo]

sucks to see JVDB going down he was looking extremely good this year

 

[just some guy]

now if they try to neutralize this, i'm calling bullsh*t.

+ 100000000000000

 

[Ramira]

Omega Pharma has now lost Willems, Van de Walle and Van den Broek. What a nightmare tour for them. I'm guessing everything is going for the green for Gilbert now to try and salvage something from the tour.

I really hope VDB will recover for the Vuelta but it's not looking good at this moment .

 

[craig1985]

Now if they try to neutralize this, I'm calling bullsh*t.

I think they will try and take it easy for a little while.

 

[Animal]

Neutralize it? That's stupid.

Ride the conditions you idiots.

 

[Anonymous]

Not happy anyone was hurt, but glad it wasn't VDB2. I am really hoping he has a great tour.

Oh well, I had hope for a moment. This Tour has really sucked with the crashes. I cannot remember any tour where so many favorites were taken out by a crash.

Looks like Lay-O-Tard wants to attack, and Thor and Gilbert is giving them hell about it.

 

[Maxiton]

It's not. Have a look at how poor the guys are positioning themselves in relation to other guys in the bunch, especially when we get views from the on-bike cameras. Half wheeling, inability to hold straight lines, random switching of lines to cut people off.

I think some of it is the bikes; super light, super short wheel base, not very stable.

 

[ak-zaaf]

So, we have only Evans, Schlecks, AC and Basso, all the other serious guys have abandoned. I would say that this Tour now lacks even more depth GC-contenders' wise than 2008.

Before the tour: Schleck and AC
Now: Schleck and AC

Might get a strange top-10 though.

 

[Publicus]

Saxo and Euskaltel should go to the front and ride since the peloton didn't wait on Stage 1.

 

[For The World]

See, here's the thing that really annoys me. These guys have at least a year to view the race route after it's announced, and they can go and check out the roads. They know what they're getting into, and they CAN slow down on wet roads (like the ones they were just on).

They need to start being proactive, rather than reactive, neutralise the stage and take away the chance for the breakaway to get the stage win.

 

[Ramira]

Btw just for the haters, seems Cancellara (and most of Leopard) is helping to control the pace, and hmmm no Schleck's behind. Just sayin'

 

[hrotha]

I hope it's just that everyone's shaken and they need some time to get it together and race again, not that they're going to neutralize this stage protesting against... uh... cycling I guess.

 

[The Hitch]

So are they going to soft pedal the rest of the stage?

If thats the case this is an insult to Wouter. Soft pedaling a stage should be done in someones honour, not because Canc was an ego boost.

 

[Kazistuta]

So, we have only Evans, Schlecks, AC and Basso, all the other serious guys have abandoned. I would say that this Tour now lacks even more depth GC-contenders' wise than 2008.

Let's not forget Sanchez and Klöden - even though the rate of GC contenders dropping out is alarmingly high.