Tour de France - rest day1 round up

[Shardi]

the people who are out do not constitute 70% of the GC-contenders.

but 70% of the gc-contenders have had their gc-ambitions crushed or severely diminished.

dont be a moron when theres no need to..

 

[Shardi]

70 % of the main contenders are out of the race?
Out: Wiggins, vdb, Vino: Yeah that's 70% of the main contenders

the people who are out do not constitute 70% of the GC-contenders.

but 70% of the gc-contenders have had their gc-ambitions crushed or severely diminished. Like the poster you quoted said..

dont be a moron when theres no need to..

 

[Cimber]

70 % of the main contenders are out of the race?
Out: Wiggins, vdb, Vino: Yeah that's 70% of the main contenders

I said out, badly injured or significant time loss. Let me put some more on the list for you:

Wiggins (out)
VdB (out)
Vino (out)
Gesink (badly injured and time loss)
Horner (out)
Levi (injured and huge time loss)
Brajkovic (out)
Klöden (injured)
Contador (injured and time loss)

Sanchez is a bordeline case. He lost significant time but isnt injured or out.

Unharmed and no time loss:

Andy
Frank
Evans
Basso

so whether your put Sanchez on the harmed or unharmed list its between 64% and 71%. In any case 9 GC-contenders are out of have been put back seriously cos of crashes

Caveat: one can always argue who you consider main-contenders. But from the top of my head that was the list of 14 I could come up with. Might have forgotten some.

EDIT: Forgot to add Tony Martin. He should be on the list too (though he will lose 20mins on one of the mountain stages (0; )

 

[Bavarianrider]

the people who are out do not constitute 70% of the GC-contenders.

but 70% of the gc-contenders have had their gc-ambitions crushed or severely diminished. Like the poster you quoted said..

dont be a moron when theres no need to..

70% have there hopes crushed?
Well 70% to you must mean something different then to me.
I would guess there has hardly been a Tour where not at least 50% of the favoruites have hit the road at least once in the first days. That's just the way it is. Avoiding injures is part of being a cyclist too. That's what seperates the likes of Indurain and Armstrong from othe rguys, you know.

 

[Cimber]

70% have there hopes crushed?
Well 70% to you must mean something different then to me.
I would guess there has hardly been a Tour where not at least 50% of the favoruites have hit the road at least once in the first days. That's just the way it is. Avoiding injures is part of being a cyclist too. That's what seperates the likes of Indurain and Armstrong from othe rguys, you know.

when 9 GC contenders are out or injured cos of crashes its just too many. Ofc crashes are normal - also for contenders. Andy has crashed too but he was unharmed by it and lost no time so I put him on the "unharmed and no time loss" list.

 

[Captain_Cavman]

...

Caveat: one can always argue who you consider main-contenders. But from the top of my head that was the list of 14 I could come up with. Might have forgotten some.

You forgot Tony Martin

 

[Bavarianrider]

when 9 GC contenders are out or injured cos of crashes its just too many. Ofc crashes are normal - also for contenders. Andy has crashed too but he was unharmed by it and lost no time so I put him on the "unharmed and no time loss" list.

Of course there might have been more bad luck then in average yyears. But what do you wanna do about it? As long as cycling in this way exists, you can never rule out something like this year. Stop whinning about it. You can't change it anyway. And who ever will win then Tour will be the deserving champion. No matter how many of the other riders went down.
You guys do know that Degrange actually wanted the TD to be a race where only one rider reaches the finish? The pain just belongs to the Tour like the mountains. Let's be gratefiul that nobody hurt himself seriously and everybody will be able to recover.

 

[Cimber]

You forgot Tony Martin

Your are absolutely right. Personally I think he will get beaten beyond belief in the mountains I agree that he should be on the list.

 

[Cimber]

Of course there might have been more bad luck then in average yyears. But what do you wanna do about it? .

Am glad that we can at least agree that the numbers of GC-contenders who are hurt this year is extreme.

About what can be done about it? Well I agree that we cant avoid crashes, they are as you say a part of cycling. But in the Tour the first week is always extremely nervous, and hence some gold old-fashioned broad, pancake flat sprinter stages would be nice in the first few stages. I am not saying all stages in the first week should be like that, but this year nearly all stages have been "drama" stages.

Also not w8ing till stage 12 with a real mountain stage would help too, as the peloton is more at easy after the initial GC has been set. Also a prologue is a good way to get the initial nervousness out of the system of the riders and creating some time gaps will also easy things up a little. Anyways, thats just some ideas from the top of my head. Ofcourse your cant remove crashes from cycling, but you can plan the route so that the risks arent immensely high.

 

[lancaster]

there weren't 9 GC contenders before the start.

we certainly haven't lost 9 GC contenders.

most of the guys we've lost were "looking for a good GC" that doesn't mean they were contenders.

AC, AS, FS, IB, CE and SS are all still in and are OK.

maybe VDBke and AKloeden could be in that group but most of the guys who are out were hoping for a top 10 and were never contenders.

 

[Cimber]

there weren't 9 GC contenders before the start.

we certainly haven't lost 9 GC contenders.

most of the guys we've lost were "looking for a good GC" that doesn't mean they were contenders.

AC, AS, FS, IB, CE and SS are all still in and are OK.

maybe VDBke and AKloeden could be in that group but most of the guys who are out were hoping for a top 10 and were never contenders.

as I stated it can be argued who is a GC-contender. But imho atleast VdB and Gesink were major contenders (more so than IB for example). After DL and TdS Levi and Wiggins were too.

Also: SS is game but lose significant time cos of a race and AC isnt ok at all (knee injury)

 

[DenisMenchov]

Why do people skip Velits as a GC contender, I mean guy was 3rd in Vuelta last year.

 

[just some guy]

Picture 1000 words and all that

 

[Bavarianrider]

Why do people skip Velits as a GC contender, I mean guy was 3rd in Vuelta last year.

Cause he has to carry bottles for Tony in the mountains.

 

[rainman]

Ofcourse your cant remove crashes from cycling, but you can plan the route so that the risks arent immensely high.

Maybe the tour organisers have difficulty getting police to close bigger and wider roads.

 

[funnytanlines]

i hope this doesn't violate the uci "no needle" policy

@albertocontador
Alberto Contador
1:30de bici y descansando con acupuntura pa la rodilla.Today1:30riding&relax,acupuncture for my knee http://yfrog.com/kjfh8fj

 

[Jan the Man]

Cause he has to carry bottles for Tony in the mountains.

It will be the other way round after stage 12 in all probability.

 

[Parrulo]

i hope this doesn't violate the uci "no needle" policy

@albertocontador
Alberto Contador
1:30de bici y descansando con acupuntura pa la rodilla.Today1:30riding&relax,acupuncture for my knee http://yfrog.com/kjfh8fj

that knee looks pretty swallowed and thats a not so good looking bruise on the inside of his knee. i guess he really isn't bluffing.

i hope the acupuncture works, i have heard wonders about this kind of treatment for some health problems. a friend of mine used to have terrible chronic insomnia and head aches and acupuncture put it under control.

 

[jens_attacks]

oh man i hope he will get the best recovery possible.

gilbert charging big time before the pyrenees:

 

[Parrulo]

lol greipel

 

[Dedelou]

Europcar and rabo wont be controlling the break on thursday. I think it will be mainly leopard, with good help from euskaltel, liquigas and BMC. they will be ruthless with the breakaway especially leopard. they will really crank it up on the climbs.

Interesting point and one that I can see possible. I had imagined Europcar and Rabobank controlling "who" goes on the break early part of the stage and Leopard , liquigas , BMC, Lampre even, doing the hard tempo on the 3 climbs. Saxo doing deficit management and not taking chances.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

oh man i hope he will get the best recovery possible.

gilbert charging big time before the pyrenees:

greipel has the most german face I've ever seen.

 

[just some guy]

Hoogie to try and ride on

 

[b.broadhurst]

errr not really. He was making us believe that Thomas will win the white jersey and that Peter Velits will attack in the mountains.

I said he has a chance, which means if he finishes top 5 then he has done well!! Peter Velits will attack to win a stage!!

 

[Gingerale]

i hope this doesn't violate the uci "no needle" policy

@albertocontador
Alberto Contador
1:30de bici y descansando con acupuntura pa la rodilla.Today1:30riding&relax,acupuncture for my knee http://yfrog.com/kjfh8fj

nothing like a picture for some evidence

i'm happy. he tamed the giro with those legs. TdF would be a historic bonus.

tour of wounded knee. wait and see.