Road Bike Racing - Criterium du Dauphine Libere 2003

This started on Sunday. For anyone who may be interested, I have posted some photos from stages 1 and 2 here:

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/masong4/imagesdauphine03.htm

Cheers...Gary

Originally posted by gmason
This started on Sunday. For anyone who may be interested, I have posted some photos from stages 1 and 2 here:

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/masong4/imagesdauphine03.htm

Cheers...Gary

Very nice, Gary! :)

Thanks!

OLN is gonna show a highlight of the race, in a few weeks, I think.
I don't know if I should bother waiting for the show, or just check out the race results online.

Thanks BAC! And I didn't mean to tease in the USPS piccie from today. Part of the caption got lost somehow. It is Carlos Sastre, not Armstrong, behind the big guy.

They are too far away to go see again this time, so I hope it comes that close again next year.

No TV here either until Saturday, when they do the Galabier. It certainly does make the traffic situation better than le Tour. And none of those pesky choppers around either.

Cheers...Gary

Lance just crushed the field today in the time-trial at the Dauphine Libere (sorry I don't know how to get the accent mark over the "e"). Over the 33.4km course, Armstrong beat David Millar by 1' 7". I guess that will get the attention of the competition.

It would be nice to be in such "poor" conditioning as a lot of the trade rags and racers have hinted about Lance.

You would think that they would learn to keep quiet until the race is over before they spout off about LA and his "weaknesses".

All I have to say is:
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

the most amazing part is his ability to switch it on when he wants to. the articles i've read sound like he almost nonchalantly decided "well, i guess i might as well win today." he says he did it to boost team morale. sheesh, he's a machine.

I wish there was someone doing live updates on this race in English on the WWW. it would be cool to follow, kind of like a warmup for spectating the TdF. LOL.

I guess I should just learn french.

. . . by the way. Nice pics, thanks for posting them.

Nice pics. Thanks for posting them.

Crack - are you aware of a site that does live updates in French?

my bad cpratt, there isn't. I had a brain fart. I was at a site that was giving the results before they were official and a couple of hours ahead of cyclingnews and velonews. But, no live updates.

Originally posted by mjolnir2k
It would be nice to be in such "poor" conditioning as a lot of the trade rags and racers have hinted about Lance.

Kind of like this little gem from Simoni. Does he not understand that this type of smack only serves to motivate LA even more??

"I'd like to try and hammer away at Armstrong in the mountains, perhaps I can even demolish him," Simoni said after finishing 18th in the concluding time-trial stage to Milan's Piazza Duomo, won by the Ukrainian Serhiy Honchar.

"He has never had to deal with a real climber before. The guys he has beaten have been time-triallists. If he's caught out, he will panic."

I wondered what kind of things would come up that could be motivators for LA this year. I mean, he's done it 4 years straight now, how can he stay focused? Well, now we know who will motivate him in the mountains. It should shape up to be a sweet battle.

re motivation: surely getting back together with his wife should eliminate a major distraction.

re live updates: http://criterium.ledauphine.com/criterium03/ their official site has a "realtime" update in French, but not nearly as good as the TdF.

Originally posted by Crack'n'fail
I wondered what kind of things would come up that could be motivators for LA this year. I mean, he's done it 4 years straight now, how can he stay focused? Well, now we know who will motivate him in the mountains. It should shape up to be a sweet battle.


"Armstrong smiled and paused when reminded of comments by Italy's Gilberto Simoni, winner of the recent Giro d'Italia. Simoni said he was confident of pushing Armstrong all the way at the Tour de France.

"They all talk the big talk," Armstrong said. "It's the same every year. But talk is cheap. Yet it's nice to have guys giving you some extra motivation.""

:D

How about the stage where he went down? He got back up. The team dropped off the pace to go get him, and brought him back into the lead group. He barely lost any time at all. That is what makes him strong. He could have given up, and said he didnt want to injure himself before the Tour. He didnt.

all i know about that fall is i saw way more of lance than i ever needed to. it was a strong recovery, though. can't wait for this weekend!

anyone got pics of his crash? Rumour has it that he will have a scar identical to mine :D

Brendon

Originally posted by NZLcyclist
anyone got pics of his crash? Rumour has it that he will have a scar identical to mine :D

Brendon

Now you, I and Lance have one thing in common!!!!! :D

I havent seen any pics. I saw it on OLN. He went down pretty hard. He had to have stitches after the race. It looked like he tore his elbow up. The team doctor cleaned it, and worked on it from a car driving next to him. He lost a ton of time. It was a strong ride to make it back to the lead group. Once the team dropped back to get him, people started attacking at he lead of the race. They caught back up, even with them pushing the pace. He had alot of road rash. Enough that he said it effected his training for the tour. His shorts were damn near scraped off his body. :eek:

Originally posted by ~LongRider~
I havent seen any pics.

Elbow:

Originally posted by ~LongRider~
I havent seen any pics.

Below the elbow!

Dat' had to hurt. :D

It'd be hard to get back into cadence after that.