Wow! I never thought today's stage would be so exciting.

Lance outsprinted Basso last 600 mtrs!!!
 

Lance did it again !!!!

What a race ! He's the BIG BOSS !

Corsaire

WOW. What a great finish!

Lance did it again!

Corsaire

HECK YEA! Best stage ever i'd say. Dudes amazing at acc. I love him

he's not going to give anybody anything.

if basso can't do any better than 2nd to him on a stage like that - before the TT no less.

man oh man....

..... :roflmao:.....No cat4 climbs on this stage. Must be why he did so well.... :rolleyes:

Deleted since merged under new thread.

These were the 10 of the "Guillotin"

16 H 48 - The Top 10 In Stage 15
The top 10 places for the 180.5km 15th stage from Valreas to Villard-de-Lans is:
1. Lance Armstrong (USP) 180.5km in 4h40'30" (38.609km/h)
2. Ivan Basso (CSC) at same time
3. Jan Ullrich (TMO) at 03"
4. Andreas Kloden (TMO) at 06"
5. Levi Leipheimer (RAB) at 13"
6. Richard Virenque (QSD) at 48"
7. Mickael Rasmussen (RAB) at 49"
8. Jose Azevedo (USP) at 53"
9. Jens Voigt (CSC) at 1'04"
10. Carlos Sastre (CSC) at 1'24"

WOW!!! You gotta love bke racing at this level, just the best! Armstrong came from behind after being in 9th place. He waited to see who will the surgers be....

What a performance today by Ulrich too, and Azevedo is very impressive as well, not to talk about Basso.

Corsaire :)

Yeah no kidding, there was already a thread created for this stage...

How about those who claim retirement for Lance, hey! he's 32 but he's got it man!
Corsaire

I was impressed with Ullrich's ride, but I think it was a mistake for him to have attacked earlier. One of the knocks on him has always been tactical judgment. Did he really think he was strong enough to ride away? If he hadn't wasted that energy, who knows how things might have gone. And Basso! What can you say?

Do you think he may have attacked to make things easier for Kloden?

Edited to add: Ullrich's move today meant that Kloden did not have to chase down any breaks or set the pace. All he had to do was follow the wheels of the other riders. Jan may well have been playing a similar role to the role Vino played for T-Mobile last year.

I think Ullrich is now riding for Kloden. He might have just wanted to create some panicking in the Blue Train and force them to use some energy they would have preferred to save for the next couple of stages. In the process he moved up in the standings and will probably end up in the 4th place in Paris.

So much for the boring tour predicted after Ulrich faltered and Hamilton dropped out. Man if Hamilton hadn't gotten injured...

I thought one of the announcers mentioned his strategy was likely a poker type move, trying to scare LA and pull him out of his game, hoping he would follow. Something like that.

Don, I actually think he was winding up that big diesel for the final sprint :D

I have no clue, whats up with Jans attacks? like last year on the Tourmalet no tactical
sense if you asked me.

Marty

Hey now! 32 aint old.

I think Phil was implying that Jan may have hoped Lance went with him. If Lance did, then the two could have worked and Jan could have worked his way toward the podium without taking time out of Lance (which he would not have allowed). Lance, of course, didn't see the benefit for him because he knows he can put time into Basso on the two remaining TTs.

He did what he had to do.. he is 7 mins down. If he doesnt attack he wont catch up, the only way to know if Armstrong is having a bad day is to test him. How about if in 4 year Lance writes a book and says he was feeling weak on this stage and he wouldnt have been able to keep up with an attack. Ullrich is too far behind, he has more to gain than to lose now, still there is a guy better situated than him in the T-Mobile, so its all gain for him really. I read he knows this Alpes really well and that he knows where to attack, so Im pretty sure this attack at that point was talked before hand.

It was a great great stage today! really exciting.. my favorite so far.

Did you guys see the USPS car handing over a letter/note to the CSC car?? What do you think about the stragegy of both teams pulling together to catch up on Ullrich? One of the Spanish commentators was really angry cause Voigt was pulling them, he said that they should let the USPS pull and tired them down. In that way Basso might have a better chance against Armstrong in the future.

The other commentator said that it the USPS at this point in time has no real fear of Ullrich catching up on Lance and that CSC did a smart thing cause Ullrich is a contender to over take Basso for 2nd place. So by doing what they did today they helped USPS not getting so tired but took out Ullrich's possibilities of 2nd place overall. Kinda of conceiding first place but asuring the 2nd.

What do u guys think?

CSC rocks.

Unless Leipheimer has a bad day, he should get his 2nd top ten finish in the last 3 TDF. I think he should push Caucchioli out of the 9th spot and Voeckler out of 8th, and possibly even Totschnig out of the 7th spot, depending on how Totschnig and Leipheimer climb the next few days. They're both good time trialers, so Levi may not be able to get past Totschnig. If he can "leip" over these riders and finish 7th, he will surpass his 8th place finish in 2002.

It could also be said that USPS didn't care about a stage win (unless they arrived as a leading bunch, of course, with the time bonuses), while CSC would be more hungry for it.

T-Mobile had two riders at the end. Wouldn't it have made more sense to have one of them attack on that final climb, instead of having Kloden basically lead it out for Armstrong and Basso?

I believe that the race right now is for 2nd and 3rd place so JimCR's post makes
sense. While Basso might be a threat to overall GC in mountains I don't think he
will hold in the final TT. Jan however is a threat both on mountains and TT so any
time that can be put into him works both for CSC and USPS.
Great tactical stage.
My wife called and mentioned the "something" passed between team cars.
Not sure what that is all about but I'm sure it will cause an uproar
I bet T-Mobile is sure curious about it.
Marty

If anyone thinks that Bjarney is racing for second, they have under estimated him as a DS. With Basso only 1'25" down on LA, Bjarne has conceded nothing. I think he will attack USPS in the upcoming stages, and while I think it is unlikely that Basso will win Yellow, I am confident CSC will not give up trying to the last. Bjarne has shown himself to be a savvy DS, and should not be under estimated.

The reason why Bjarne worked with Johan today in closing the gap to Jan was to prevent T-Mobile from taking the lead in the Team competition, which CSC leads by 55", coincidentally the gap Ullrich was maintaining on his break.