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Official 2011 Le Tour de France Thread


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all doping jokes aside, i really enjoy watching this event. for the past ten years, it means that summer vacation is in full swing.

 

so...anybody wanna speculate/discuss?? i'll admit that i haven't done as much this season keeping up with the team/sponsorship/individual cyclist movement and performance, but i do know that contador won the giro and has his spanish sights on this year's tour again. and the team time trail is day 2!!

 

post here!!

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I'll be watching. After Andy Schleck's issues at the Giro it'll be interesting to see whether he's got good legs in France. If so, maybe he can get the better of Contador this year.

 

What's the over/under on Cavendish stage wins?

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it was an exciting an eventful stage for the first...even after they neutralized the passage du gois! already theres a split of about 50" between the gc favs contador and schleck. cadel is up there, but my bet is that he cracks, he always does.

 

team time trial tomorrow. should be good!

 

:thumbup

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I sure hope my favorites got their blood transfusions recently. If not, they don't have a chance.

very original. :yawn

 

garmin sure is having a nice beginning to this year's tour: thor in yellow, victory in the ttt and tyler's stage win today.

 

i'd say the tour would be a success for them right now if vaughters would only cut off those hacky sideburns...

 

i kid. but seriously, they're pretty awful.

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garmin sure is having a nice beginning to this year's tour: thor in yellow, victory in the ttt and tyler's stage win today.

 

i'd say the tour would be a success for them right now if vaughters would only cut off those hacky sideburns...

 

i kid. but seriously, they're pretty awful.

 

Certainly a good win today for you guys! Cav and HTC got caught out there. Good finish though. Still getting my head around the new sprint points sytem.

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Certainly a good win today for you guys! Cav and HTC got caught out there. Good finish though. Still getting my head around the new sprint points sytem.

i was rooting for cav. he's the man.

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Yeah, I think with all the legal stuff hanging over Contador, I think no-one is trying to play him up.

 

He might have a quiet Tour, but we'll see when it hits the mountains I guess.

 

As for Cav, he might have the personality of a prickly hedgehog, but there's no man quicker in a sprint finish.

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a bit more mention of contador at the finish of today's stage...but cadel clipped the last-minute effort by contador to grab the stage win (by perhaps the smallest of margins!)

 

man, each stage so far this year has been exciting. in years past, this first week, apart from the prologue (which was left out this year in favor of a road race stage) was a string of sprint stages that could be fairly uneventful, although i will say that i enjoyed last years week one drama between the sprinters. hats off to the planners this year for shaking things up!

 

did you see that climb at today's finish?? alberto attacked and didn't really have it.

 

by the way...have you noticed the weezer/indycar/izod commercial (coverage on versus network in the us)? in the words of deandre cole: what up with that?

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Can't comment on the US commercials, but really enjoyed the stage. Nice to see Wiggins put some time on some rivals as well.

 

Watching Contador "struggle" yesterday, did make me wonder whether he's, perhaps, clean this year......

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With all the crashes yesterday, it's amazing that no one aside from Brajkovic was forced to abandon.

 

(Christophe Kern bowed out, but not due to a crash.)

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i'm dvr'ing each morning's race to watch later that night - it's killing me to have an espn.com blackout from late-morning throughout the day! don't want to spoil the results...

 

i thought i heard 10 crashes, and maybe more yesterday? it was like bicycle bowling out there... the pins kept crashing down...

 

and can't say i'm too sad to see contador that far behind. but it's still a young race, and anything can happen in the next 2 weeks!

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bad luck today for wiggins...i hate that. i can't remember a more dangerous start to the tour in all my years of watching.

 

cav continues to crush.

 

we'll see what tomorrow's more mountainous stage brings. paging andy schleck?

 

(i'll page him but contador will probably answer the call...)

 

also, i'm interested to see what cadel's climbing form is looking like.

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Absolutely gutted Wiggins is out. Can't get over the drama of yesterday's stage - madness. The french TV car taking out the Team Sky rider was unbelievable.

 

Rest day today, so I guess everyone gets a chance to take a breather and repair themselves.

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The television car incident was absolutely shameful. Despicable. One wonders whether charges could be brought against the driver, who apparently disobeyed instructions from the tour director prior to the crash.

 

Hoogerland's legs were mincemeat. Here's a photo (it's pretty rough, so I figured a link was better than just posting it here).

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Fractured femurs, fractured collarbones, spinal injuries, Hoogerland's legs (that picture is nasty). I could not believe that footage of the car incident, rough stuff so far.

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