Road Bike Racing - Stage 15- SPOILER!!!

And the only reason why I'm posting is because I'm following along with the live audio.

I am UPSET!!! Armstrong and Mayo crashed when they were in an attack after a long downhill descent. The reason? A spectator got in the way, and they hit the spectator!

Up until then, Armstrong, Mayo and Ullrich were neck and neck- Ullrich took off, but then waited for the two to recover.

This is crazy!!!!!

Dang, I am beginning to hate the spectators- they truly need a better system of caging them in or something!

Koffee

Ok, even more crazy- Armstrong is bleeding, Mayo and Armstrong catch up with Ullrich, and now Mayo counterattacks, and Armstrong overtakes both of them and they are all 7 km from the finish line! Ullrich is NOT responding to the attack!

THIS IS CRAZY!!!!!

Koffee,

Lance is gonna win this one by 1:30 over Jan.
firmly in Yellow by end of the day (unless he crashes
again).
Kudo's to Ullrich for sportsmanship in not attacking
when LA was down. That was payback for 2 years
ago when LA waited for JU.

Lance is BACK (or he never really left!).

Marty

He is looking good. Man my heart started beating at about 150 bpm when I read that on the live coverage.

No spectator, he slipped from his pedal and hit the ground. This was very clear during the replays. This happened again some minutes later but now without falling of his bike. Gentleman Jan waited for Armstrong instead of taking advantage. And now it seems Armstrong is heading for his fifth victory.

BTW, Jan is closing the gap a bit now.

Amazing how any of these guys can recover from the ITT to ride like this.

I have to go home now, can't stand this and I'm exhausted
and the stage isn't even over yet!
Mattc only 150 bpm? man you are one cool collected guy! :D

Marty

Lance won the stage by 40 sec plus 20 sec bonification for the 1st place...

This is so crazy....

Allthough i'm an Ullrich Fan, what Lance is doing there is so brilliant!!!

Sad for Vino, he lost over a minute on Jan...

What a fantastic tour!

Ok, they didn't elaborate yet that it wasn't a spectator.

Lucky you, got the live visual there. Keep informing us about what's going on!

Koff

Phil and Paul still say that
lance went down due to his bars being hooked by
a spectator. I can't wait to watch this one.

Lance takes stage 15, 20 second time bonus
Ullrich takes 4th no time bonus. approx 1:15 deficit
to Lance.

what a race.

M

I am emotionally spent!

I've been screaming for like an hour now! I didn't do my morning ride- I got a ride planned for the full day tomorrow... I will have to slip someone my cell phone number so I can keep getting the updates, because otherwise, I will not be riding at all- make that, I won't be riding for the rest of the week!

I am thrilled for his victory. Do you have the standings yet of the top 5 finishers you can post for us?

Maybe the best tour I've ever seen.

My wife called and said that it appeared that lance
broke brake/shifter in the fall. She said it was swivelling all
over the place.

can you imagine what Lance would have done had he
not fallen?

Marty

Today was an AWESOME race!!! I only wish I had a TV so I coulda watched the final drama....

Lance... forgive me for doubting you! LOL

I guess i'll start seeing riders slipping off there pedals now.lol.

Holy cow!! I was jumping up and down in my living room as Lance crashed and then stomped butt! :D The dogs thought I was nuts!

Go Lance!

Originally posted by BikerDawg
Holy cow!! I was jumping up and down in my living room as Lance crashed and then stomped butt! :D The dogs thought I was nuts!

Go Lance!

My wife said the same exact thing.

Lance has won the stage and increased his overall lead!!!!!!!!!
:beer: :beer: :D :D

Ullrich was just give 3rd place.

Official results have Ullrich at 1:07 behind Lance.
followed by Vino who is 2:45 behind LA.

Apparently spectator was reaching for feedbag and hooked
lances pedals.

Marty

The top eight in stage 15 is:
1. Lance Armstrong 159.5km in 4h29'26" (35.518kph)
2. Iban Mayo at 40"
3. Jan Ullrich at 40"
4. Haimar Zubeldia at 40"
5. Christophe Morea at 40"
6. Ivan Basso at 47"
7. Tyler Hamilton at 1'10"
8. Alexandre Vinokourov at 2'07"

What a race. Kudos to Ullrich for maintaining the gentleman's position of waiting for his competitor. Lance is awesome. I don't know if I can watch many more of these - may not be able to take all the excitement and emotion.

1 1 ARMSTRONG Lance USA USP 65h 36' 23"
2 131 ULLRICH Jan GER TBI 01' 07"
3 28 VINOKOUROV Alexandre KAZ TEL 02' 45"
4 179 ZUBELDIA Haimar ESP EUS 05' 16"
5 171 MAYO Iban ESP EUS 05' 25"
6 81 BASSO Ivan ITA FAS 08' 08"
7 71 HAMILTON Tyler USA CSC 09' 02"
8 121 MOREAU Christophe FRA C.A 11' 09"



Excuse its not nice, but therefore quick :D

Kudos to Ullrich and the other riders in the group who showed such outstanding sportsmanship by waiting for LA when he went down.

I think Lance just won the Tour. I don't see JU gaining 1' 07" in the ITT.

Tomorrow is a full rest day :)

Oh man..I was screaming my head off when I saw Lance go down! Much respect to Jan Ullrich, Tyler Hamilton, and the rest of the group for playing the sport like gentlemen and not kicking someone when they're down due to unavoidable circumstances

Holy Crap!!!
Thank god tomorrow is a rest day.

I need it after that.

Jeezis, I feel like I was racing!

Lance just verified himself, that a musette bag hooked his handlebars.

Whooo hooo!

Rest day! That means I can do my full day ride in peace! :D

Go Lance! I really hope he doesn't lose the lead, but he still needs to kick butt in that time trial to ensure that he comes out on top.

I'm still being cautious. I hope no one thinks he's got it bagged- I'm sure Ullrich will be giving it everything he's got now that he's so far behind!

I am watching the instant updates online at work and the *!#$
thing started freezing up when Lance was about 4km from the finish:crash: Everyone in the office thought I had lost my mind.

What Ullrich, Tyler etc. did was nothing special. Remember 2001 when Ullrich fell, Armstrong did the same... This is what i like on this sport... Its really gentlemen like... Except Basso, who seemed to push after Lance fell..

Hoping for a nice ITT on Saturday!

P.S: Can someone explain the word "Kudos" to me?

Lance...showing that he's an unbelievable athlete AND sportsman yet again.

Originally posted by Yogu
P.S: Can someone explain the word "Kudos" to me?

It means "good job" or "good for you".

Ohhhhh!!!!!!!!! I just love cycling!!! Where else are you going to get sportsmanship like this and suspence??!!!

GREAT GREAT stage!
:D
But I still think it is to close to say that LA has it in the bag. JU is amazing in TT, so who knows????
Gotta love it, baby!!

I actually expected Mayo and Zubeldia to continue the
attack when lance went down.
I heard that Tyler was exhtolling everone to not attack
while the maillot Jaune was down.

Marty

All I can say is....unbelievable.

Can't wait to get home tonight and watch it for myself. I may have to close my eyes when they show Lance falling. Otherwise I may have to HURT the television. :mad: Sounds like this stage will be another classic, to be replayed for years to come. :)

Not that hes falling, there was something else.... Watch it, it was so amazing...

Thought my neighbours called the police while hear me screaming

Tell us, Yogu!

Some of us don't have the tv coverage at all! What happened? What did you see?

My head just exploded. I snuck home to watch it.

OMG - what a stage!!!!!!

The Time trial is looming large. If LA was really dehydrated, and that was the reason he couldn't keep up with Ullrich, then he should be able to stay within striking distance of Ullrich. The winner of the TT will get 20 seconds, but I am not sure if there is any time given to second place. If Lance stays more than a minute up then Ullrich will have to beat Lance by mroe than 40 seonds to win the tour. One really nice piece of news is that if Lance wins he won't have won without winning a stage.

Originally posted by Koffee Brown
Tell us, Yogu!

Some of us don't have the tv coverage at all! What happened? What did you see?


No don't tell us... I can't take it!!! LOL :D

Like a person mentioned in this thread... I wonder how well lance would have done if he didn't fall. Talk about a bad time to fall... right at the start of an attack


Originally posted by FOG
The winner of the TT will get 20 seconds,

What?
The TTs don't give time bonuses.

@Koffee Brown:

Nothing special :D
After he fell he got out of his saddle, seemed to push very hard and slipped out of his cleats...

oh my god, i cant sleep tonight.. still too upset

Originally posted by Koffee Brown
Tell us, Yogu!

Some of us don't have the tv coverage at all! What happened? What did you see?

I know its not up yet but you know there are video highlights on the tour website? (just mentioning if you didnt know) The highlights are good (but come like day late)

This is a terrible thing to say, but I think LA may have crushed his last gonad when he slipped out of his pedal! I hope that his boy didn't hit the top tube.

However, perhaps that's what got him going! :D

Originally posted by bac
This is a terrible thing to say, but I think LA may have crushed his last gonad when he slipped out of his pedal! I hope that his boy didn't hit the top tube.

However, perhaps that's what got him going! :D

rofl

Are the video highlights on the OLN site??

Originally posted by bac
This is a terrible thing to say, but I think LA may have crushed his last gonad when he slipped out of his pedal! I hope that his boy didn't hit the top tube.

However, perhaps that's what got him going! :D

Maybe the fact that he only has one is what kept him
in the race and not doubled over on the side of the road
singing soprano (falsetto?). :D

Marty

Truely awesome. Armstrong, Ullrich and Hamilton, all class acts.

When they were interviewng Lance after the stage and asked him about the fall - did Lance and OLN let the sh_t word slip through??? Very appropriate Lance - I said the same thing when it happened.