Tour de France Stage 4: Lorient - Mur de Bretagne - 172.5 km

[eljimberino]

So did Feilu get fined for streaming behind his car?

 

[red_flanders]

Contador made the race today. He created the decisive attack and split the favorites. He lost out on the sprint coming back from 4th as the hill flattened out, and lost it due to timing it a bit wrong.

Clearly AC was the strongest today.

Very strong ride and nice win for Cadel, he pushed it hard at the finale to hang on.

 

[Cimber]

him too. in week 3 the giro could really hit him.

Actually I think he will be getting better. AS he said yeasterday he feels his form is improving day by day. I think he deliberately rested so much after the Giro that his form is not at 100% here at the beginning of the Tour so that he will be at his best in the last weak. That doesnt mean that the Giro cant kick in regardless.

 

[maxmartin]

yes, can someone explain why gilebert are chasing down VDB????? too much ego of himself, who knows what is going to happen, if selfish gilbert sits down, what pity OPL did so much work for him today and i doubt VDB will get much support in the mountain, since most team members will be wasted before the big moutains

Stupid move by gilbert by getting back in VDBs wheel.
Had a few meters there, who knows what could have happened.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Clearly AC was the strongest today.

You can make a case for him, but also a case for Evans. Evans, after all, won. And he did it by leading out the sprint and he did it after chasing back on from a mechanical towards the end of the race. That's impressively strong by any standards.

Contador showed that he's not to be taken lightly, and it's very likely that he will be the strongest in the real mountains, but he was beaten today.

 

[luckyboy]

yes, can someone explain why gilebert are chasing down VDB????? too much ego of himself, who knows what is going to happen, if selfish gilbert sits down, what pity OPL did so much work for him today and i doubt VDB will get much support in the mountain, since most team members will be wasted before the big moutains

It looked more like he got stuck behind Evans and then tried to get back to VDB's wheel to me.

 

[Galic Ho]

i just saw the last 4k with phill and paul commentating and jesus christ talk about biased. they said about 6 times that contador had overcooked himself. lol

and ya schleck is just bsing here. he may not be as good as frank on the hills but he is much better then this.

ofc i said it before and will say it again his form will appear the day of the first MTF. its magic

Dude, yesterday they said Jurgen came 4th last year. In Sherwen's mind, his Freudian slip showed his bias. Another LA nut hugger peeved that AC beat their false prophet hands down and hasn't dropped the hate since 2009 and Arcalis. Hence, his Freudian slip. Jurgen came 4th because in his mind, despite evidence to the contrary, Contador has been removed from the winners position. If you ever hear of Sherwen getting smacked in the head Down Under, you'll know who did it.

It's the same every day in every Tour. They don't like Contador one bit. Phil will however acknowledge when Contador isn't bested. But that takes the entire Tour most years for him to come to such a realisation and grow the nads to voice such a revelation.

 

[ManInFull]

i just saw the last 4k with phill and paul commentating and jesus christ talk about biased. they said about 6 times that contador had overcooked himself. lol

and ya schleck is just bsing here. he may not be as good as frank on the hills but he is much better then this.

ofc i said it before and will say it again his form will appear the day of the first MTF. its magic

This should be no surprise. Andy is the hero of all fans who previously were or still are in love with Armstrong. Why do you think Trek jumped on the chance to sponsor the team? Hell, I even heard that many Specialized fans were upset with Specialized because of how the company has gotten behind AC. Many American fans, especially the ones who only watch cycling in July, want to see AC fail and Versus is exploiting that.

 

[red_flanders]

You can make a case for him, but also a case for Evans. Evans, after all, won. And he did it by leading out the sprint and he did it after chasing back on from a mechanical towards the end of the race. That's impressively strong by any standards.

Contador showed that he's not to be taken lightly, and it's very likely that he will be the strongest in the real mountains, but he was beaten today.

Yeah, I'm not going to argue with you about it, they're IMO the two strongest right now. My take is just that both were very strong, Cadel hung on, timed it well and finished very strongly. IMO Contador looked stronger, and the win had to do with timing as much as anything.

I'll admit it's sort of an esoteric point, but I do think it's clear who made the race today.

 

[red_flanders]

This should be no surprise. Andy is the hero of all fans who previously were or still are in love with Armstrong. Why do you think Trek jumped on the chance to sponsor the team? Hell, I even heard that many Specialized fans were upset with Specialized because of how the company has gotten behind AC. Many American fans, especially the ones who only watch cycling in July, want to see AC fail and Versus is exploiting that.

I can't put my finger on why all what you say is so. I totally agree with you BTW.

Is this really all about Armstrong's petty little war with AC that year? Why do all the Armstrong fans go to Schleck? The english thing has to be part of it. Then they're all being trained by P&P that Contador is bad. I just can't figure the chicken and egg of it all.

 

[No_Balls]

This should be no surprise. Andy is the hero of all fans who previously were or still are in love with Armstrong. Why do you think Trek jumped on the chance to sponsor the team? Hell, I even heard that many Specialized fans were upset with Specialized because of how the company has gotten behind AC. Many American fans, especially the ones who only watch cycling in July, want to see AC fail and Versus is exploiting that.

Great to see not everyone is falling for this. But this must explain why they almost pin-point every move AC does and try to cloud the judgment in a negative way.

To me this sounds bizarre. We have (in Europe) our fair share of biased commentaries but this is over the top. Really.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

I too was impressed and surprised a little by how strong Cadel looked. It's hard to tell if Contador was trying to put a stamp on his leadership, gain back a few seconds, or simply was that much stronger.

Agree with those who say AS, and probably Basso, are riding themselves into the Tour, expecting to peak at the third week, and are mostly staying out of trouble here.

Not all LA fans go to Shcleck. I'm sick of LA, and I'd be fine if Andy won the Tour.

 

[No_Balls]

You can make a case for him, but also a case for Evans. Evans, after all, won. And he did it by leading out the sprint and he did it after chasing back on from a mechanical towards the end of the race. That's impressively strong by any standards.

Contador showed that he's not to be taken lightly, and it's very likely that he will be the strongest in the real mountains, but he was beaten today.

+1

A very balanced view as always, Zinoviev.

Cadel is the man of the day and let´s not take it from him.

 

[red_flanders]

Not all LA fans go to Shcleck. I'm sick of LA, and I'd be fine if Andy won the Tour.

No, not all. But an inordinate amount and enough that the point is worth pondering.

 

[maxmartin]

they are biased idiots, they don't know too much cycling stuff, they even say Matt Goss is the biggest favorite today, what a joke!! euro sport is much better!!!

Dude, yesterday they said Jurgen came 4th last year. In Sherwen's mind, his Freudian slip showed his bias. Another LA nut hugger peeved that AC beat their false prophet hands down and hasn't dropped the hate since 2009 and Arcalis. Hence, his Freudian slip. Jurgen came 4th because in his mind, despite evidence to the contrary, Contador has been removed from the winners position. If you ever hear of Sherwen getting smacked in the head Down Under, you'll know who did it.

It's the same every day in every Tour. They don't like Contador one bit. Phil will however acknowledge when Contador isn't bested. But that takes the entire Tour most years for him to come to such a realisation and grow the nads to voice such a revelation.

 

[Publicus]

You can make a case for him, but also a case for Evans. Evans, after all, won. And he did it by leading out the sprint and he did it after chasing back on from a mechanical towards the end of the race. That's impressively strong by any standards.

Contador showed that he's not to be taken lightly, and it's very likely that he will be the strongest in the real mountains, but he was beaten today.

This. Evans was the strongest and craftiest. But only by about 13 cm

I don't care what Andy has to say, this was a real blow (psychologically). It stopped the questioning of AC's resolve and raised some real questions about Andy's form.

But kudos to Evans AND Thor. An impressive ride by both.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Talk about biased idiots.

The jury that decides the combativty award... decided Jeremy Roy. 8 out of the 9 jury-members are French.

Hoogerland was furious: "I attacked, I took the sprint, i took the mountain points, i attacked again in the finale and i did the most work. And then they give the prize to Roy. Unbelievable! What do I have to do more??"

 

[jobiwan]

Not all LA fans go to Shcleck. I'm sick of LA, and I'd be fine if Andy won the Tour.

No, not all. But an inordinate amount and enough that the point is worth pondering.

I will use myself as an example to prove your point, red_flanders

I will admit that I was an LA fan. Started watching ON VERSUS around 02/03. It was awesome.
Continued watching only Tours through 06-09, while still buying all that Versus was trying to sell.
Once Lance finally was shown for what he was, moved to Andy. Alberto became "The Bad Guy"

So YES, this statement is very much true.

Then I joined the forum, and it allowed me to learn about and watch more races, and I finally realized what was going on. So thank you forum!
Andy's still my favorite, but I hold no ill will toward Contador and I rather enjoy watching him race.

Still, I watch the TdF on Versus because they are the only ones to carry it. Getting the Universal guys on is a good move though.

 

[maxmartin]

haha, tour in the end is a french race, feel sorry for hoogerland

Talk about biased idiots.

The jury that decides the combativty award... decided Jeremy Roy. 8 out of the 9 jury-members are French.

Hoogerland was furious: "I attacked, I took the sprint, i took the mountain points, i attacked again in the finale and i did the most work. And then they give the prize to Roy. Unbelievable! What do I have to do more??"

 

[Publicus]

Talk about biased idiots.

The jury that decides the combativty award... decided Jeremy Roy. 8 out of the 9 jury-members are French.

Hoogerland was furious: "I attacked, I took the sprint, i took the mountain points, i attacked again in the finale and i did the most work. And then they give the prize to Roy. Unbelievable! What do I have to do more??"

That is absolutely ridiculous.

 

[hfer07]

strangely, many folks here are troubled by the Idea of Contador riding the TDF-not only the French, the fanboys but also the critics.... BUT today's stage proved to the world how exiting is his presence in any race-because even today when he was defeated, he Attacked, & made the race hard for all the favorites, including Gilbert-whose abilities as a one day wonder are just confirmed today-thus the challenge to beat him raises the bar & embraces those brave riders to bring their best- So when Evan won today- not only he proved to be the strongest today-but what matters is that he has beaten the best, so his victory values much more because of that...

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I'm not going to argue with you about it, they're IMO the two strongest right now. My take is just that both were very strong, Cadel hung on, timed it well and finished very strongly. IMO Contador looked stronger, and the win had to do with timing as much as anything.

I'll admit it's sort of an esoteric point, but I do think it's clear who made the race today.

Oh, I don't know. Gilbert chasing down VDB cause a bit of a reaction

AC's mind set is to attack. I think everyone knew it was going to happen and it's telling who went with it and who didn't. AS getting pumped is no big surprise, FS hanging tough was a surprise. Gilbert not having a kick was surprising... Hushovd was downright shocking. His is a big ass to be dragging up that hill.

The look on Horner's face crossing the line was a bit of a surprise too.

 

[jobiwan]

Talk about biased idiots.

The jury that decides the combativty award... decided Jeremy Roy. 8 out of the 9 jury-members are French.

Hoogerland was furious: "I attacked, I took the sprint, i took the mountain points, i attacked again in the finale and i did the most work. And then they give the prize to Roy. Unbelievable! What do I have to do more??"

3 Frenchman have won the Combativity awards.

Quermenur (Stage 1), Delage (Stage 3), and Roy (Today)

Quermenur was fine IMO, but Gutierrez should have gotten it yesterday, and Hoogerland definitely should have gotten it today.

 

[Polish]

Great to see not everyone is falling for this. But this must explain why they almost pin-point every move AC does and try to cloud the judgment in a negative way.

To me this sounds bizarre. We have (in Europe) our fair share of biased commentaries but this is over the top. Really.

I think I can speak for ALL Americans when I say we like to root for the underdogs.

That explains why we like PouPou so much.

Boo AC Boo. Boo Boo Boo.
Go Tommy, Go Tommy, it's your birthday it's your birthday.

 

[Parrulo]

Talk about biased idiots.

The jury that decides the combativty award... decided Jeremy Roy. 8 out of the 9 jury-members are French.

Hoogerland was furious: "I attacked, I took the sprint, i took the mountain points, i attacked again in the finale and i did the most work. And then they give the prize to Roy. Unbelievable! What do I have to do more??"

the french are just pathetic . . . . stuff like this just makes my dislike for anything french related grow even more.

hoogie deserved it hands down, he was extremely aggressive as always