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

[Publicus]

You misunderstand my comment - I said he did look strong, just not "look at me as I ride away from with a rocket strapped to my bike while I laugh into your faces, puny mortals"-strong.

I say after basically a month off with no real training, he did pretty good, but as you say, he's not in his "You call that an attack? I'll show you an attack" mode. And frankly, I would be a bit worried if he had that this early. He'll need it definitely by stage 12

 

[Lanark]

kloden in top 5, 10secs. back. take out thor, gilbert & millar who are non-gc and that puts him at 3rd behind cadel & frank. horner & levi a further 8 secs back. does that make kloden the defacto leader of RS? i hope so. i prefer him to horner & levi to be honest.

It's looking good for Klödi, but it would be far to soon to make a decision about who will be leader. After Luz-Ardiden would be a much better place.

 

[just some guy]

Phil lost all classifications today

Yellow - God of thunder
Green - Rojas
KOM - Evans

 

[Liquigas]

Great ride by Evans, Uran, Van den Broeck, Kloden, Wiggins and Basso. It has been very surprising to see those last 3 so up.

I'm a bit dissapointed at Taaramae, I hoped that at least he would stay with the main GC group, maybe he started the climb too far back.

 

[rhubroma]

You misunderstand my comment - I said he did look strong, just not "look at me as I ride away from with a rocket strapped to my bike while I laugh into your faces, puny mortals"-strong.

Oh, well, in that case.

 

[JimPanzen]

I think besides the rather small time gains he got, it's important that Contador made a statement towards his contenders today.

Hoshovd was also crazy strong, and of course Rojas. Maybe he'll be a real contender for green.

 

[Parrulo]

isn't it obvious? hushovd to win the tour!!! thats my prediction

 

[Kwibus]

Meh, I've already doubted him once at the Dauphine and he proved me wrong. I will keep the faith this time around, though I must say that I detest the fact that he sucks so much on these punchy climbs. Makes me want to pull my hair out seeing him drop like a sack of potatoes when there are tempo changes on these climbs whilst being in good position. Rant over.

Isn't it logical you can't follow on the explosive climbs and accelarations if you always ride in such a small gear? He isn't able to switch to a big gear which is Gesinks biggest weakness.
I have no experience on the bike at all so correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[ManInFull]

I'm not sure that today's finish told us much about what will happen in the mountains later in the race, but it was sure satisfying watching Contador attempting to ride away and failing to drop most of the contenders. Even more satisfying was the end watching Contador raise his arm in celebration not realizing his late surge had come up short and failed to overtake Evans.

Did you really think that he was going to drop everyone and maintain it on such a short climb? I also saw a good bit of looking around. The only surprises in this stage were Thor maintaining the yellow jersey and Baby Schleck losing 8 seconds.

 

[Kwibus]

not to start some baseless gossiping, but during Riis post race interview -he was in awe by Hushov's riding performance today, and perhaps knowing he's looking around for a new team.........

This thread is starting to make me look like a Hushovd fanboy, but who wasn't impressed by Hushovd today?

 

[Barrus]

Does anyone have any clue why Gilbert chased down VDB2? Is he really such a gloryhound that he'd rather burn himself out than have a team mate win?

 

[auscyclefan94]

Matt Keenan was just onr adio and said that Cadel said to him that "he can't believe it" how this is all going. He's going so well. I am trying to keep a lid on it.

 

[Bavarianrider]

Flamish -- Wallonie beef?

 

[killswitch]

Watched the finish again:
Thor was going backwards on the steepest part, but managed to get back on the false flat.
Dumb tactics by Gilbert. VDB2 was going strong and no one wanted to drag others.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Isn't it logical you can't follow on the explosive climbs and accelarations if you always ride in such a small gear? He isn't able to switch to a big gear which is Gesinks biggest weakness.
I have no experience on the bike at all so correct me if I'm wrong.

But riding on the big gear on such a steep climb is nearly impossible for 98% of the cycling world, from tourist to professional rider.
You got to understand it's REALLY hard, especially if you're not explosive by nature already.

That's why we have 10 guys left in the 1st group after this climb, and not 40 with all gc riders in there...

 

[Parrulo]

what were good'ol phill and paul saying while contador was attacking?

 

[Better Call Saul]

isn't it obvious? hushovd to win the tour!!! thats my prediction

seems almost certain after that display... has anyone ever won the champs elysée sprint in yellow? crazy times!

 

[auscyclefan94]

what were good'ol phill and paul saying while contador was attacking?

They said he'd blown himself up

 

[Parrulo]

They said he'd blown himself up

oh boy really? XD

 

[happychappy]

what were good'ol phill and paul saying while contador was attacking?

I had those clowns on mute.

 

[red_flanders]

Great finish. Nice win for Evans, and Contador looks...not desperate, but a bit stressed. He hurt himself on that. As always though, he attacks when the road goes up. That finish is something Evans has gotten good at, and it was nice not to see Gilbert walk away with one.

Schleck is not going to contend for the win this year IMO. He's looked like crap all spring and today was telling. He had to at least follow wheels and stay with the contenders. He did not want to lose 8 seconds today.

The only questions are if Evans has enough to stay with Alberto in the high mountains, and how well will Alberto TT this year.

 

[ManInFull]

what were good'ol phill and paul saying while contador was attacking?

Phil was was claiming that AC went too early and that he was losing steam. Just as he said that, AC attacked again.

 

[boomcie]

People finishing in the same time as Evans:

1. Cadel Evans
2. Alberto Contador
3. Alexandre Vinokourov
4. Rigoberto Uran
5. Philippe Gilbert
6. Thor Hushovd
7. Fränk Schleck
8. Samuel Sanchez
9. Jürgen Van den Broeck
10. Andreas Klöden

You really wonder what Hushovd is doing up there. He already looked very strong in the first stage, but this is pretty incredible. Props.

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

seems almost certain after that display... has anyone ever won the champs elysée sprint in yellow? crazy times!

Hinault, I believe.

 

[sagard]

Watched the finish again:
Thor was going backwards on the steepest part, but managed to get back on the false flat.
Dumb tactics by Gilbert. VDB2 was going strong and no one wanted to drag others.

Yep. I can't believe Gilbert pulled those other back up to VDB2. Looked as stupid as when the old T-Mobile guys would attack themselves.