Road Bike Racing - TdF TTT Results

Posties by 30 seconds. Pena in yellow. It's all too beautiful. Like ballet on bikes.

Looks like they were fast enough for the top 7 GC spots to now be occupied by Posties!! Nice...

Wonder if the team will try hard to keep Pena in yellow or conserve their energy for the mountains.

Not seven, but Eight posties on top!!! :beer:

This is so sweet!!!
:D

About time they had a clean run. No flats, no crashes, just a good old fashioned arse whippin'.

Bianchi put in a great performance. They are really pulling things together considering what they had to go through to get to the tour.

Whoo hooo!

Thanks for the update Tilly! My PM is not working, so I couldn't respond. :(

Anyway, this is one of the stages I'll be watching for sure. FOG is in Chicago, and we're meeting up at that bar at 6pm so we can watch this stage on the television there, and we'll be drinking and toasting tonight! Whooooooo!!!

Go Posties!

It's cool that someone other than Lance got to wear the jersey for awhile. The domestiques should get some glory once in awhile too. :)

yeah Pena sure deserves it he is the unsung domestique
on the postie team.

Postal kicked butt and took names.
what was that Beloki was saying? Lance is strong but
the team is weak? yeah right.

While we are at it, Kudos to Tyler for 1)finishing the time trial,
and 2) captaining the team to 10th position. Tyler is in 39th
place, with a broken collar bone. Any bets that he makes
it to Paris?

Marty

I cant see him just dropping out like theyve stated he would. He made it through the first couple days, Im sure he'll press on.

yeah Tyler will make it for sure, barring any other unforeseen accidents, he's tough as leather... and if he made it the first few days.. he should be good to go.. he may not finish as high as he wants... but I think he'll finish

Jeff

I expected ONCE to rule it.
That USPS team just seems to get stronger and stronger each year...

I think it is a great win from a psychological standpoint... showing how strong the team is, and showing what the competition should expect from them throughout the race.

It's got to be a bit disheartening for the other teams. The mountain stages are coming up. :eek:

I am just sooo happy that Victor get's to wear the yellow jersey..They said he is the first Columbian to wear it!! that must be such an honor for him, and it came on the centenery edition, so it has the "HD" on the shoulders, he must be feeling sooo good right now, and I can only imagine what it's like inside of Postal, at dinner and in the bus and at the hotel, they've got to be excited and just sooo happy!! I would love to be there if I could..

Go posties!!

I can't wait till the mountains!! it's going to be cool!!


Benjamin

Originally posted by KevinG
Bianchi put in a great performance. They are really pulling things together considering what they had to go through to get to the tour.

They were strong, and they even dropped 2 riders before the end.

Jan is going to be a force this year. I can't wait to see the 2 big GC men fighting it out!!!!

:)

Does anyone though realistically see anybody dropping Lance in the mountains? I just can't imagine it happening.

Simoni and Mayo lost over 3 minutes each during the TTT.

Vinokourov and Botero lost 1:30.

Tyler 1:45.

These are pretty big deficits for podium hopefuls.

Only Jan and Joseba kept it close.

Originally posted by Laggard
Does anyone though realistically see anybody dropping Lance in the mountains? I just can't imagine it happening.

You never know.;)
But there are a couple of people that will give him a good fight this year.

I'll go so far as to say that there's no one who can climb with Lance once he decides to put the hammer down. In other words, he can drop anyone if he so chooses.

Hey thanks Bac for posting that picture, it's sooo awesome!! looks like it was a pretty day over there in st. Dezier also....Sooo cool!!

Benjamin

Looks like George is happy. They should have had Pena cross the line first in ritual acknowledgement of the Yellow Jersey going on his shoulders.

I always liked the color blue. :)

http://www.velonews.com/images/news/4450.5294.f.jpg

Too cool!

http://www.velonews.com/images/gallery/4447.5293.f.jpg

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Ullrich.

And congrats to Pena for being the first Columbian in yellow, Hamilton for being a true hero of an athlete, and to US Postal for finally finishing a TTT without screwing something up halfway through .... good job Lance you managed to not drop your teammates! Sorry but I had to get that dig in, seriously amazing ride by all of Postal and I am happy to see them get the win.

I hope Hamilton can make it to Paris, that would be quite a feat, but it will really come down to Thursdays x-rays and the coming mountains.

Originally posted by Ba-Dg-Er
And congrats to Pena for being the first Columbian in yellow, Hamilton for being a true hero of an athlete, and to US Postal for finally finishing a TTT without screwing something up halfway through .... good job Lance you managed to not drop your teammates!


That TTT's did they screw up?
I figured it would have been better if a couple guys ended up getting dropped... as it would seem to show maximum efficiency. I don't understand TTT's that well. Wouldn't it be most efficient for the best 5 riders if the others ran in the front until they were completely spent?

Yeah Ulrich looked awesome. I wonder how he will do in the ITT's...
it seemed like he was just pulling his team along the whole time. Great job by the whole team.
(Compare that to Saeco... Simoni is 3 minutes off now.)

Originally posted by brent_dube
I figured it would have been better if a couple guys ended up getting dropped... as it would seem to show maximum efficiency. I don't understand TTT's that well. Wouldn't it be most efficient for the best 5 riders if the others ran in the front until they were completely spent?

Two years ago Lance dropped the team going across a windy bridge. Last year a couple riders crashed in the rain... I think the years are right, I could have them backwards though. I don't remember who went down and am too lazy too look it up, maybe later if no one beats me too it.

As far as efficiency, more riders means less effort in the pack, and less time at the front of the pack. This is why the large peloton can travel at speeds much greater then a small breakaway, the breakaway gets tired while the riders in the peloton are constantly cycling through and staying fresh. No use in killing 3 riders to pull you most of the way and then shell them so you can all sprint for the end. Stay together, work together, and in Postals case get time checks so you know just where you need to be. They rode extremely well today and deserved the win.

The TTT was so COOL! Bianchi looked strong, but the Posties were a team that was firing on all cylinders - they looked so strong. It brought a tear to my eye to see them finally pull it all together for the TTT. I was impressed to see Lance come out of the trailer after the race and start to give an interview in French - geez, half of the NBA can't give an interview in English! :rolleyes: I also liked Lance's statement that he kept asking Victor during the race what color of jersey did he want to wear tomorrow? What a great way for the captain of the team to motive the troops. Man, I'm glad I'm on vacation for the next 2 weeks!

I'm sure that everyone who claimed that Lance had no team behind him are eating their words now. What an outstanding team performance. I can't wait to see Pena ride in Stage 5 in the yellow jersey on his birthday.

It was an interesting TTT.

For me Bianchi gave the most impressive performance considering how new a team they are, but the posties performance was truly staggering. ONCE definitely seem to be missing Galdeano this year, not that their time was anything to complain about.

It's a pity Euskaltel never seem to get the TTTing together...

Richard