I think everyone has been spoiled by Lance's all too consistent performances (and a team strong and solid enough to back him up).

Will this and future TDFs give us a better appreciation of past champions?

I think everyone has been spoiled by Lance's all too consistent performances (and a team strong and solid enough to back him up).

Well said.

Will this and future TDFs give us a better appreciation of past champions?

And real racing too, perhaps?

I hated to see Floyd crack like that. I had the same thing happen to me on a ride. I am a wimp however and had to stop every 300' on the final climb. What was weird is I recall not breathing hard, but the legs would not turn over the pedals. I was hoping to get a diagnosis on Floyd so I could find out what happened to me.

I wish Floyd only lost 2 to 3 minutes to make this an even better race. Man anyone disappointed in this race just doesn't appreciate good racing.

Do you think Pereiro believes in fate? Wow!!!

Richard

I hated to see Floyd crack like that. I had the same thing happen to me on a ride. I am a wimp however and had to stop every 300' on the final climb. What was weird is I recall not breathing hard, but the legs would not turn over the pedals. I was hoping to get a diagnosis on Floyd so I could find out what happened to me.


That's the thing I loved about today's stage, I could totally relate. this year has been my first year of real training (second year on the road bike) and while I've seen some improvement it's the cracking/bonking/overtraining and overall suffering that makes it all... FUN.

A friend of mine has a cool cycling signature "Cyclists are united by their suffering".

If Floyd manages to bounce back then it's even more like our everyday ups and downs eh?

****! I'm at my friends house right now. He doesn't have cable.

I was watching the local news, and the sportcaster said "Up next! Lance, we need your help. Landis cracks down."

I yelled "F U * *"!!!! At the top of my lungs. My friends looked at me as if I was crazy. Then I went here and saw what happened.

Cycling news takes the best pics.
...


Fixed that for ya:
http://img124.imageshack.us/img124/1100/skelechickenkq6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

I'm interested to hear the take from Floyd's coach on the OLN prime time airing. This should be interesting. They're just sitting around talking about how good Floyd looks. Boy, they just didn't.

Wow, I’m into men. Do you have a webcam? Maybe we could masturbate together?





I have new respect for your candor.

ahahaha, you bunch of sad sacks in here.
Best TDF ever.

GO CADEL

Does anyone else fall asleep when Landis opens his mouth? Is there a specific school where American cyclists go to to have any vestage of personality surgically removed?

"I don't regret anything I regret how it went but I don't regret the way it went because I couldn't change anything sometimes you have a bad day today was a bad day but that's the way things go sometimes sometimes you have a bad bay on the wrong day and today was the wrong day..."

ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

:D ;)

ps: GO CADEL! CADEL FOR PM! :D

Unless Pereiro loses a minute to the other GC contenders tomorrow, it could be all over. Pereiro is not a bad time trialist, so Sastre, Kloden, or Evans will not be able to overcome a big deficit.

[QUOTE=Thylacine]Does anyone else fall asleep when Landis opens his mouth? Is there a specific school where American cyclists go to to have any vestage of personality surgically removed?

Are you kidding me? Landis, no personality?? SERIOUSLY???
Today I'm sure he was just drained and disgusted and really not in the mood to have to rehash his total disintigration, losing the yellow jersey when he could have had the race in the bag. If you want to read something that shows Floyd's real personality, check out Dave Z's "Interview" of Floyd in Bicycling Magazine. Hilarious---the guy is somewhat insane. And Zabriskie apparently missed the surgical procedure too. He's even more bizarre than Floyd. Love those guys.

Oh, and

KLODI KLODI KLODI! That's my BOY!

Its a bummer to watch anyone impload like that. Reminds me of Chickenman's cave in at the last ITT in 2005. It was just hard to watch and more so knowing how hard these guys prepare, and how much focus they put on this event above all others.

I thought the interview Landis did today was really courageous (maybe that term is to strong, but if you caved like that could you face a wall of reporters?). Plenty of guys would have simply not talked to the press. Landis proves he is a class act and that sport is unpredictable no matter how much we want to think it is going to go "as planned"

I agree with all the other comments about the excitement of this tour. I liked the last 7 years, it was fun to watch a team prepare and dominate consistently. But this is a great departure, and brings an entirley new level of interest to the sport. We really dont knwo what will happen next- and that is a cool.

I'm watching the prime time coverage of today's stage again. Boy, watching Floyd crack is almost funny. "Cracked" doesn't even do it justice. He went Humpty Dumpty. Just fell apart as everybody rode away. Can't remember a stage where the yellow jersey just fell apart like that...

I'm watching the prime time coverage of today's stage again. Boy, watching Floyd crack is almost funny. "Cracked" doesn't even do it justice. He went Humpty Dumpty. Just fell apart as everybody rode away. Can't remember a stage where the yellow jersey just fell apart like that...

I certainly wouldn't call it funny. It was quite painful to watch.

Poor dude... :(

I don't know a single racer who thought that was funny.

DrPete

Rasmussen interview from Cyclingnews.com (http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2006/tour06/?id=/riders/2006/interviews/michael_rasmussen_tdf06).

Q: Very often, when riders win a stage like this, you see them doing special moves or showing pictures of their family. We didn't see you doing that. How important was your family today?

MR: After the rest day, I said to my wife that I would win on Alpe d’Huez for her and our baby. I was very disappointed how things unfolded during yesterday’s stage. Today I had to prove a lot for myself and my wife.

See, not everyone has to follow the Charles Atlas program to get the girl. Hopefully, he's married to a runway model so his children will inherit the same sexy build as their dad.

Some serious magic needs to happen tomorrow... That's not a TT-able gap.

DrPete

Guys, Guys, Guys....it's a 57km TT not a prologue. ~35.2 miles. While not likely but very possible with the right starting position a rider could blow apart the field by 2-3 minutes. One mountain stage to go also. While most of you are righting off Floyd, Levi and thinking it's going to be Kloden, Evans or someone else there is still a lot that could happen. Whom among you were predicting todays finsih 48 hours ago?
I think tomorrows stage will go down as one of the most active in tour history in terms of attempted breaks because the lead has changed so many times and none of the teams has been able to isolate the winners/teams in any of the mountain stages thus far. Why will it change tomorrow? It won't.

I'm watching the prime time coverage of today's stage again. Boy, watching Floyd crack is almost funny. "Cracked" doesn't even do it justice. He went Humpty Dumpty. Just fell apart as everybody rode away. Can't remember a stage where the yellow jersey just fell apart like that...

Jan Ullrich 1998

Unless Pereiro loses a minute to the other GC contenders tomorrow, it could be all over. Pereiro is not a bad time trialist, so Sastre, Kloden, or Evans will not be able to overcome a big deficit.

I hadn't thought about it that way but you're definitely right. In the last TT Kloden was only 57 seconds faster, Cadel was :51, and Sastre was :30.

Those guys are going to need to put some time into him on the last mountain stage. Should make for an exciting day!

I don't know a single racer who thought that was funny.

DrPete

Just because its an American doesn't mean its tragic. It is just a bicycle race after all. Good grief. Floyd will survive. Here's the guy that all of American media is hyping as the guy who's in control of the TdF. Great story about him overcoming the hip problem. Blah, blah. Everything is going his way. Then he blows up. And blows up bad. He didn't get dropped. He fell apart. Had nothing left. At one point, he looked like he wished he was sitting next to Tom Boonen in a pub having a beer. What's really funny is to watch the OLN prime time coverage knowing what's going to happen and listening to them spend 2 hours pumping up Floyd. Then its like, uh oh!

There was quite a bit of sport made of Rasmussen on these forums last year when he fell apart during the TT. But when Floyd explodes, its not funny all. Its sad.:rolleyes: Gimme a break. Floyd had a great run. He just had probably the worst day in his cycling career at the worst possible time. Nothing more, nothing less. If you can't find a little humor and irony in the situation, then you might be wound a little to tight...

And it making for one of the most memorable tours...

Oh, and in 1998, I think Jan was more or less dropped. I don't think he had a total collapse of this magnitude. They didn't need to even attack. Floyd just fell apart. If he could have just kept up a decent pace he wouldn't have lost so much time (8 plus minutes). For minute, I thought Robbie McEwen was going to catch up and pass him...

Congratulations Rasmussen on the stage win. :beer:

You rode your heart out today! It was an inspiring win. You are the King of the Mountain.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2006/tour06/index.php?id=/photos/2006/tour06/tour0616/83

[. If you want to read something that shows Floyd's real personality, check out Dave Z's "Interview" of Floyd in Bicycling Magazine. Hilarious---the guy is somewhat insane. And Zabriskie apparently missed the surgical procedure too. He's even more bizarre than Floyd. Love those guys.



Everytime I see Zabriske interviewed I keep thinking he is autistic or something.

Whatever happened today to Floyd (hip, bonk, ?) was not the result of bad tactics. Having teammates might have helped, but he would have lost major time regardless.

According to Cris Charmichael, he bonked due to not having any teammates to shuttle food etc. to him...and while the team car was behind him on the last climb, they could only sit there and watch...

He wrote a pretty good article about how, when the pace goes up and a team cannot keep up, you are cutting the supply lines for that lead rider...

He looked a lot like Cadel Evans a couple of years ago at the Giro, when we was leading and he didn't eat or drink and just shut down.

Floyd needs about six more Axels...

...c'mon, look on the bright side fella's....Now that Boonen's gone home, there'll be room on the back seat of the sprinters 'auto bus' for Floyd....if he can keep up! :D...Go Cadel & the dodger!

Everyone seems to think the Oscar's an also ran, and someone who could not carry the jersey
to paris. I think otherwise, look at his palmares I think he is a serious threat (obviously now) and
should never have been allowed to gain that much time.
yah someone would be in yellow today other than floyd, but this just puts an additional
threat for Phonak to counter.

marty


Yeah, I missed that...I just have not ever put a lot of credence into the KOM as it relates to GC. I mean, look at Virenque, perennial KOM...he'd sprint up climbs, win a stage, that would be about it.
But you are right...my point was that Phonak obviously knows Oscar's capabilities and they made a conscious decision to let him go. Me, I defer to those that are actually doing this rather than the bench racers.
But, obviously, that was the wrong thing to do...

And regardless of what Floyd said, he did not get supplied enough. For him to say otherwise would have been a criticism of his team and he chose not to do that.

1. There is no ‘British’ football team – it’s England, ******. I'm English.


Commiserations........I'm sure Scientists are working on a cure! :D

Just because its an American doesn't mean its tragic. It is just a bicycle race after all. Good grief. Floyd will survive. Here's the guy that all of American media is hyping as the guy who's in control of the TdF. Great story about him overcoming the hip problem. Blah, blah. Everything is going his way. Then he blows up. And blows up bad. He didn't get dropped. He fell apart. Had nothing left. At one point, he looked like he wished he was sitting next to Tom Boonen in a pub having a beer. What's really funny is to watch the OLN prime time coverage knowing what's going to happen and listening to them spend 2 hours pumping up Floyd. Then its like, uh oh!

There was quite a bit of sport made of Rasmussen on these forums last year when he fell apart during the TT. But when Floyd explodes, its not funny all. Its sad.:rolleyes: Gimme a break. Floyd had a great run. He just had probably the worst day in his cycling career at the worst possible time. Nothing more, nothing less. If you can't find a little humor and irony in the situation, then you might be wound a little to tight...

And it making for one of the most memorable tours...

Oh, and in 1998, I think Jan was more or less dropped. I don't think he had a total collapse of this magnitude. They didn't need to even attack. Floyd just fell apart. If he could have just kept up a decent pace he wouldn't have lost so much time (8 plus minutes). For minute, I thought Robbie McEwen was going to catch up and pass him...

It wasn't even because it was Floyd. That would've been sad to watch for anyone wearing the MJ...

DrPete

It wasn't even because it was Floyd. That would've been sad to watch for anyone wearing the MJ...

DrPete

I'm callin' BS on that. If it was someone like Kloden who was wearing the yellow with Floyd chasing and Kloden blew up like that, most people on this board would have been cheering. They'd be ecstatic. No one would be talking about how it was "sad" for Kloden.

I'm callin' BS on that. If it was someone like Kloden who was wearing the yellow with Floyd chasing and Kloden blew up like that, most people on this board would have been cheering. They'd be ecstatic. No one would be talking about how it was "sad" for Kloden.
It is sad to see. It was sad to watch when Vockler finally cracked a couple of years ago, it was sad to see Rasmusen have such a tough time in the ITT last year, and it hurt to watch Floyd hit the wall yesterday. Yes I would be cheering if my favorite cyclist got the MJ because someone else cracked but I would still feel bad for the rider that had the bad day.
Craig

>>I'm so happy that all the American dreams failed.

Maybe you guys could go back to golf and sailing now? Cheers. Nah, leave the light on.<<

I'd point out the arrogant stupidity of Euro, but nobody highlights this better than his own posts. Amazing.

Oh yes, as I write this Floyd is handing the entire peloton its collective head. Let's see how much he can hold onto on the final climb.

Sigh. Bad day. Good day. But then anyone who rides knows what THAT feels like. I guess Euro never had a bad day.

Even though I'm American I'm cheering more for Floyd for his individuality, not just cause he a fellow American. I think he's a really cool dude. The more I read about him, the more I like him. He's so down to earth. The way he jokes around with Zabirskie is real stuff friends do. That's what I like about Floyd and makes me cheer for him. The fact that he is an American is just a nice bonus.

Originally Posted by McSpin
...He may be in the position of having to try an early break by himself. ...


Just won't work. Landis simply has to make up time on the last climb tomorrow, although the last 10-12 km downhill would give his opponents chance to claw some time back.

Really?:rolleyes:

. . . of his life, with a few seconds chopped off just for good measure. I'm a big Floyd fan, but this is dismal unless a miracle occurs tomorrow.

DrPete

Like I said . . . :) There is the TT!! Floyd has proven to be a winner after today. He can put a couple of minutes on the rest.

Wow. What a comeback from yesterday's performance. No wonder Lance wanted to keep him, then tried to resign him.

I don't think Floyd will ever go back to Discovery. Johan tried to recruit him with Lance's blessing. He doesn't need Discovery or anyone for that matter by what he did today. "The King is Dead,...All Hail The New King."

Perhaps the tooth ferry could just put the Yellow Jersey under his pillow. Both are equally probable
Ask and ye shall receive.

is landis' team car allowed to be beside him for almost the entire race?

dont get me wrong...i thought landis did an incredible ride to win the stage and to make up the time lost from the previous day...

but...

going through 100+ bottles of water to keep him hydrated and cool almost throughtout the entire race? in my race days, esp hot ones, i am guessing that i would have done SIGNIFICANTLY better if i had someone riding next to me constantly handing me food and water.

i didnt see Pereiro's team car beside him for almost the entire ride handing out food and water. i thought the riders could only get these items from domestiques that bring it up to them or from the feed zone. otherwise, what is the point of a feed zone...just have a rider pull back (which they do) and get whatever they want and if a rider breaks away...have the team car pull up beside him for moral and sustenance support.

just my opinion, landis did a great ride but i feel lacked true 'panache' as the french would call it.

It is up to the race director and commissaires how that is handled, but within a set of published rules. See http://www.uci.ch/modello.asp?1stLevelID=R&level1=0&level2=0&idnews=1662 for details.

Also see http://www.uci.ch/modello.asp?1stLevelID=H&level1=0&level2=0&idnews=2676