Tour de France, Stage 21: Creteil - Paris!!, 95 km

[Hawkwood]

Staying up for 3 weeks has really drained me. But here we go....


YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU LITTLE RIPPER!!!!


GO CADEL!!!!!!!!

You can retire now!!

Not a big Evans fan, however he played the long game to perfection, and what a time-trial!

 

[Mshengu]

Bravo Bravo Cadel! Now on to the clasica San Sebastian to kick the Schleck's butts again. I would have loved to have Contador there battling with Gilbert and Baby Schleck.

 

[ferryman]

Andy was better than Contador at sucking Cancellara's wheel over the cobbles.

Erm, is that not what team mates are for? Gee, see the way Cav is the best at sucking the wheels of the HTC train. So much better than say, Farrar.

It's good to see that the Andy hate on this forum hasn't abated a jot.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

haha they were already top 6 before le tour.

It's why the WT ranking sucks (compared to CQ).
Half of BMC barely scores, it's 90% Cadel. He forms his own team,

Thats why this Tour win is such a great performance. Cadel has one of the worst team support in the mountains in the history of the TDF, I think only Greg Lemond had a worse team when he rode for that bs team some 20+ years ago.

BMC could support Evans on the flat and that's basically it.

 

[ferryman]

Meh, it's not that unreasonable. Last year Contador didn't drop Andy in the mountains, and it was pretty close in the ITT, so I can see how Andy could think Contador wasn't that superior to him and that the Tour victory was within his reach. I think Andy lacks the ability to analyze a race as more than climbs + ITTs.

Unfortunately, Andy is lacking on the thinking front full stop. There is a great Scottish word that describes him perfectly - Glaikit.

 

[Caledon]

Unfortunately, Andy is lacking on the thinking front full stop. There is a great Scottish word that describes him perfectly - Glaikit.

And after some of his earlier post stage moaning you could add another good Scottish insult - Eejit.

 

[Polish]

Yeah, sadly OZ is starting to ape the USA when it comes to ugly nationalism. Even 10 years ago, there was a light touch to "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie". Still, lets hope it draws up short of the American example.

Gosh, if Cadel wins 6 more in a row, the Tour Down Under just may well have to pay him an appearance fee to race!

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Somewhere Phil Anderson is smiling.

 

[King Of The Wolds]

What an incredible bike rider Mark Cavendish is. Once again, it never once looked even remotely possible that he might not win. We seem to be forgetting what an astonishing achievement 5 wins and green is, but that's what happens when you make it look as easy as he does. It might be another 20 odd, or whatever it is, years before we see another rider do this again. Today is his day.

 

[El Pistolero]

What an incredible bike rider Mark Cavendish is. Once again, it never once looked even remotely possible that he might not win. We seem to be forgetting what an astonishing achievement 5 wins and green is, but that's what happens when you make it look as easy as he does. It might be another 20 odd, or whatever it is, years before we see another rider do this again. Today is his day.

His domination last year was way bigger, now he won because of his train. But placing is part of sprinting, so deserved winner.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

His domination last year was way bigger, now he won because of his train. But placing is part of sprinting, so deserved winner.

Yes, Cav was genuinely rubbish by his standards this year, and he still won 5 stages.

That is the remarkable thing.

 

[King Of The Wolds]

Yes, Cav was genuinely rubbish by his standards this year, and he still won 5 stages.

That is the remarkable thing.

That's a tough call to make. It's difficult to tell just how much impact having to do 2 sprints a day, against a different set of riders each time, made. The fact that he could still beat the world's best sprinters, sometimes 20 km after winning a sprint for intermediate points, was maybe more impressive than his Bordeaux and Paris wins last year.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

That's a tough call to make. It's difficult to tell just how much impact having to do 2 sprints a day, against a different set of riders each time, made. The fact that he could still beat the world's best sprinters, sometimes 20 km after winning a sprint for intermediate points, was maybe more impressive than his Bordeaux and Paris wins last year.

Don't forget the ****s in the pyranees.

 

[The Hitch]

Typical bbc **** show some f1 race as their main sports story and the Tour as a minor one.

It makes me sick to think its the biggest event in our sport with riders like Hoogerland who kill themselves to complete it, while some playboy rider who gets more money for smiling than Evans will get in his life, gets all the headlines for something that only consists 1/17th of their blue ribbon.

I always hated the bbc. I wish it the worst.

 

[jsem94]

Well.. seems like the Tour is as usual getting no attention at all in Sweden. People here have no idea how cycling races even work, that other races than the Tour even exist - and the nature of the race etc. I'm glad I found cycling a few years ago.

 

[King Of The Wolds]

Typical bbc **** show some f1 race as their main sports story and the Tour as a minor one.

It makes me sick to think its the biggest event in our sport with riders like Hoogerland who kill themselves to complete it, while some playboy rider who gets more money for smiling than Evans will get in his life, gets all the headlines for something that only consists 1/17th of their blue ribbon.

I always hated the bbc. I wish it the worst.

Yeah, seeing Hamilton's smug face when a Brit's just won green is pretty hard to take. ****s.

 

[benpounder]

I always hated the bbc. I wish it the worst.

You get what you pay for...

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Typical bbc **** show some f1 race as their main sports story and the Tour as a minor one. It makes me sick to think...

You could live in my country. Even my hometown, which is probably the biggest bicycling city in the United States where people are nuts about bikes, it will get hardly mentioned on the news. In today's news I can almost guarantee you Cadel will get about 10 seconds in the sports section, and the lead story in sports will likely be the NBA or NFL lockouts where nothing is happening. The Tour won't even make the main news, which concentrates on murders, rapes, fires, child molesters, etc.

You want to know what angry is?

 

[The Hitch]

You could live in my country. Even my hometown, which is probably the biggest bicycling city in the United States where people are nuts about bikes, it will get hardly mentioned on the news. In today's news I can almost guarantee you Cadel will get about 10 seconds in the sports section, and the lead story in sports will likely be the NBA or NFL lockouts where nothing is happening. The Tour won't even make the main news, which concentrates on murders, rapes, fires, child molesters, etc.

You want to know what angry is?

Ya but an American didnt win in green jersey. It being in right next door and Cavs winning should get it far more news.

Is your town - Bolder Colorado?

 

[amp300]

Ya but an American didnt win in green jersey. It being in right next door and Cavs winning should get it far more news.

Is your town - Bolder Colorado?

My guess is Portland

 

[jobiwan]

Ya but an American didnt win in green jersey. It being in right next door and Cavs winning should get it far more news.

Is your town - Bolder Colorado?

Boulder, Colorado is NOT in the Great Pacific Northwest as Alpe says he is, Hitch!

And as for the TV coverage, ESPN's Sportscenter showed Cadel winning the Tour at the end of their show, and scrolled the result along with Tommy D's placing on the bottomline.

That highlight and the Hoogie crash is about the extent of ESPN's TdF coverage.

 

[The Hitch]

Boulder, Colorado is NOT in the Great Pacific Northwest as Alpe says he is, Hitch!

And as for the TV coverage, ESPN's Sportscenter showed Cadel winning the Tour at the end of their show, and scrolled the result along with Tommy D's placing on the bottomline.

That highlight and the Hoogie crash is about the extent of ESPN's TdF coverage.

lol never looked at that, just heard that Boulder was the home of cycling in Us

 

[Maxiton]

lol never looked at that, just heard that Boulder was the home of cycling in Us

Nah, Boulder's not the home of cycling here, they just think they are. Boulder is popular among top level cyclists, but Northern California - Nevada has more strength in depth. A Cat 3 racer in the latter location might hold his own against a Cat 1 from somewhere else in the country. Lots of talent and very competitive.

What's interesting about the Pacific Northwest, though, is that cycling is about a lot more than just racing there. In fact, even though the locale is the most cycling-oriented place in the country, I'd guess most of the people don't follow racing (we'll have to ask Alpe). For them, cycling is about lifestyle. Sort of like Amsterdam, I guess, in that regard at least.

But whether it's there, or Northern Cali, or Boulder, European cycle sport just gets very little notice. Despite years of U.S. participation in pro cycling, and despite the famous American riders, it's just not on the U.S. radar. I think it has everything to do with being a continent-spanning, insular country that has an ongoing love affair with the car.

If we can get some cycling infrastructure built in the cities and get more people out of cars and onto bikes and organize more community-based road races, things might change. But lots of Americans object to those ideas, even here on this forum, so you can imagine what a challenge it is.

But anyway, to take this back on topic, the only reason we're even able to watch European races here in the U.S. is that we have the Web. If it weren't for that, we'd be back to foreign magazines and DVDs. The rare exception is the Tour de France, which is always broadcast on cable.

 

[Tuarts]

It's why the WT ranking sucks (compared to CQ).
Half of BMC barely scores, it's 90% Cadel. He forms his own team,

Thats why this Tour win is such a great performance. Cadel has one of the worst team support in the mountains in the history of the TDF, I think only Greg Lemond had a worse team when he rode for that bs team some 20+ years ago.

BMC could support Evans on the flat and that's basically it.

Yet alll 8 other riders were behind Cadel 110%. That's the most important thing here. In the Pyrenees he had some mountain support until the GC were isolated and he really only had 1 team mate in the Alpes....and Casar. So even if the team couldn't physically support him, the fact that it was all about Cadel and everyone was to that cause, then it would have had to have has some effect.

 

[The Ripper]

It's why the WT ranking sucks (compared to CQ).
Half of BMC barely scores, it's 90% Cadel. He forms his own team,

Thats why this Tour win is such a great performance. Cadel has one of the worst team support in the mountains in the history of the TDF, I think only Greg Lemond had a worse team when he rode for that bs team some 20+ years ago.

BMC could support Evans on the flat and that's basically it.

Actually, support on the flat and transitional stages is critical. There is only so much a team can do for you up a mountain ... just watch the pacemaking of TV. But if they save you tons of energy on the flatter or rolling stages (and from some crashes), then that translates to great savings in the big climbs.