Professional Cycling For the Fans - Tour Of California

I watch the TdC on Eurosport (I really do live in Lux) so maybe you didn't see the feed we get.

That live clean guy was running alongside the peloton and looked to fall over. Turns out it was LANCE WHO PUSHED HIM!

Credit to Lance - the guy was running out of "shoulder" and the snow build up was going to knock him on his arse or into the riders so Lance did the right thing.

But what a picture - Lance stiff arming the guy.


Please tell me you all saw it but just haven't stopped laughing - I really expected to see this ALL OVER the boards today!

I watch the TdC on Eurosport (I really do live in Lux) so maybe you didn't see the feed we get.

That live clean guy was running alongside the peloton and looked to fall over. Turns out it was LANCE WHO PUSHED HIM!

Credit to Lance - the guy was running out of "shoulder" and the snow build up was going to knock him on his arse or into the riders so Lance did the right thing.

But what a picture - Lance stiff arming the guy.


Please tell me you all saw it but just haven't stopped laughing - I really expected to see this ALL OVER the boards today!

I didn't see the fall.

I was just commenting in another thread that I would love to see one of these fools fall, I didn't even see him fall, let alone know that he was nudged by Lance. That is just too appropriate. :)

The geeks that run along the side of the riders always bug me, whether at the ToC or at any other race, but they seem to be in pretty high numbers at the ToC this year.

Yeah I tried that same tactic on Tuesday's stage, setting my DVR for an extra 30 minutes, just in case. I normally do that for the TdF stages too since they often run over. The trouble is, the extra 30 minutes was the hockey game since VS was contractually obligated to televise that.

Same experience here. Bummer.
So, Wednesday I didn't set it to record longer, guess I should have?

Just watch online on the ToC site. Much better than Versus and you don't get cut off before the end.

The clip has to be on the net somewhere. I'll look tonight from home (even in Europe they block youtube.co.uk from work).

The irony of it is that David Harmon (he's like the Phil Liggett of Eurosports and normally does all the races - many of them with Sean Kelly) sees the guy and having acknowledged him before for 'stabbing' at Tyler Hamilton he is just about to say 'hey there he is again - wouldn't it be funny to see him ... OOOOH there he goes down'.

And the color guy (not Kelly but a Scot guy with a wicked accent) says - I think it was Lance that done pooshed him down!

Sure enough the Eurosport guys key up the vidi slow mo and you see it - plain as day - Lance stiff arming the guy into the snow.

The single greatest non-cycling moment I've ever had watching a cycling event!!!:roflmao2:

On the tracker page, there's a clock (that seems) to show how long the break has survived, but nothing showing how much time it has on the peloton, only a distance measurement, a tad annoying. Otherwise, the site is quite amazing.

false alarm -- magically the peloton-break differential clock is now working (although not too dynamically -- it was at 6'11" for several minutes, then jumped to 6'45") I know, they're working out the kinks. I'm impressed.

"The Push"

http://magliarosa.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/la21.jpg?w=450&h=299
http://magliarosa.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/la31.jpg?w=449&h=298
http://magliarosa.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/la41.jpg?w=450&h=299

Hahahaha, that is classic! Notice the riders laughing at the knucklehead. The look on his face in the last shot is priceless. :lol:

Yeah, looks like he's shouting something not to complimentary.

That guy should have baseball bats on that stick and go hang out in front of some baseball stadium.

Wonder how those guys get to one location to another so quickly and how do they find the TV camera locations? Seems I've seen them on TV every day. The announcers say they've lost weight too...lol.

Mancebo's accident could have been prevented/avoided if he rode with the group or paid more attention to the road. Looked like he was by himself on the left side when it happened. There are signs warning of falling rocks and a lot of cars have had their oil pans bent or ruptured running over them. Maybe that's why the road is usually closed in the winter...lol.

Any pics of Baldwin trying to take Hincapie's water bottle?

The guy should have Cinzanoed Lance.

Any pics of Baldwin trying to take Hincapie's water bottle?

I didn't hear about this. Can anyone elaborate?

The video of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VHfI6Pfy0Q

My whole gallery of the tour is here (I had a press photographer pass, so I got really good access for photos, and covered every stage):

http://allenh.zenfolio.com/f71455161

A sampling:

Lance on stage showing that Levi is "the man", at least for this tour:

http://allenh.zenfolio.com/img/v4/p921448424-4.jpg

Sprint finish: Cavendish starts celebrating well BEFORE the line - and the photo finish on TV showed that he won by less than 2 inches. Now THAT is a pro: knowing you've "got it" even when the margin is that small:

http://allenh.zenfolio.com/img/v5/p190642888-4.jpg

Lance on time trial stage in Solvang:

http://allenh.zenfolio.com/img/v6/p841677644-4.jpg

Taken on Sierra Road climb - brutal cold, windy, raining - this captures that even these world-best riders guys DO suffer, especially on climbs this steep in weather this bad (at the press conference, a reporter asked Levi what conditions were like. His answer: "go in your shower, turn it on as cold as it gets, and stand under it for 4 hours - that's what it was like"):

http://allenh.zenfolio.com/img/v4/p429501261-4.jpg

The Modesto pack sprint finish, won by Thor Hushovd:

http://allenh.zenfolio.com/img/v5/p370623772-4.jpg

Floyd Landis & Tyler Hamilton (since this marked their returns to competitive cycling):

http://allenh.zenfolio.com/img/v4/p121379356-4.jpg

http://allenh.zenfolio.com/img/v5/p322093532-4.jpg

Oh, and one of the podium girls was very cute and well-endowed (my son saw this photo and said, "Dad, she was lookin' right at ya"; I responded that she knew to smile for the camera):

http://allenh.zenfolio.com/img/v5/p72197655-4.jpg

nice pictures...THANKS

Thanks, SSL. Here's a few more of the top guys in the Tour, all in the Solvang time trial:

Levi:

http://allenh.zenfolio.com/img/v6/p990868305-4.jpg

Zabriskie (using his tongue on the climb of Ballard Canyon):

http://allenh.zenfolio.com/img/v5/p692723662-4.jpg

Michael Rogers shifting:

http://allenh.zenfolio.com/img/v4/p840299497-4.jpg

Jens Voigt, with his open mouth like a big air scoop:

http://allenh.zenfolio.com/img/v5/p832742041-4.jpg

Robert Gesink, looking like an Ichabod Crane on the bike:

http://allenh.zenfolio.com/img/v5/p630397391-4.jpg

Great pictures Allen, thanks for sharing. You just raised the jealousy factor by 100 fold here....wish I had been at the race to see Jens Voigt...one of my all time favorites! I keep telling hubby I am going to kick him out and use Jens as his replacement. :D

Those are fabulous pictures Allen. I hope to see more in the future.

Thanks, Suzie & 2wheeled.

All the ToC stages are uploaded here:

http://allenh.zenfolio.com/f71455161