It was so great to see Jens on the attack again and again. He rules.

Thanks for maintaining this area during the tour, koffee

Thanks for maintaining this area during the tour, koffee

+1 on that

I loved stage 20. it was great that Flyod won and the other jersey winners were great too. Levi's sidewalk trick was super.
I really liked that they had Eki lead into Paris.

Joe
:beer:

Don't mean to stir it up BUT, Caisse d'Epargne and T Mobile lost the race before Phonak won it.
That stage where they let Landis get away is one that they won't forget. To wait till the last climb of the day to chase him down? The were eyeing each other, Pereiro and Kloden, before they were worried about Landis and by then it was too late.
Just my opinion. Let's hear more.


Winnipeg

Pereiro, Sastre and Kloden had something to lose - a podim position - if they went out too early to stop Landis' breakaway and then cracked and gave back minutes to the other GC contenders.

So it played out perfectly for Landis: no one believed he could go solo that long, and none of the GC contenders were feeling strong enough to be willing to bet their current spot just to keep the guy 11th in the GC from closing the gap. (I'm sure they all realized their mistake as they heard the time gaps while Floyd zoomed up the last climb.)

Anyone else have that sad, empty feeling this morning, with no Tour left to watch? Sigh.

I 've seen some articles about T-Mobile Team having some "re-organizing" going on, partially due to their riders being unhappy about tactics. From Cycling News:

Although the squad has itself played down the suggestions that Ludwig, the general manager, and team manager Kummer will be shown the door, the paper states that growing dissatisfaction amongst the riders about the management means that the relationships are no longer sustainable. Andreas Klöden is known to have been unhappy with some of the tactical decisions made during the race. He finished just 1'29 off race winner Floyd Landis and 32" off the second place of Oscar Pereiro, who lost a lot of time in the Pyrenees but gained 29'57 on stage 13 to Montélimar.

"The fact that I even beat Floyd Landis in this time trial makes me even more happy, but I sort of have mixed feelings right now," Klöden told Cyclingnews on Saturday. "It's great that I jumped on the final podium, but if we would have had a better tactical performance, the second placing would have surely been doable."

He elaborated on this in a post-Tour reception head at T-Mobile's corporate headquarters in Bonn, Germany, early on Monday. "With a little luck, I could have done more," he said. "It bugs me, that it was third place, the second spot was surely reachable. We missed our chance."

Who missed it exactly, the riders or the team management? "Mistakes were made by both," he answered. "The riders make the race but the those who sit in the team auto make the tactics."
The Chicken also said he thought some of the team directors were "arrogant" in letting Pereiro and Floyd go, although all the other riders I've seen interviewed said they tried to close the gap to Floyd, but just couldn't do it, cause he was flying!

What a freakin' great tour! Flandis Flandis Flandis! Klöden Klöden Klöden! And good on ya, Oscar, even if you weren't one of my picks.

It was so great to see Jens on the attack again and again. He rules.


We claim him as an honoury Aussie.

Here's a little note on the technology involved in the tour. I wish I had checked the official website during the race in addition to olntv.

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/25/026248&from=rss