lotek 

July 18 192.5 km

don d.

.....

Joe Gardner

bump.

531Aussie

Gotta say, McEwan has surprised me. I thought he was on the way out last year.

PriO

who won? what is lances standing?

Devil

Traitor Gonzalez won.

Lance is still in second place, 22" behind Voeckler.

shimano_cranker

That was amazing when Gonzalez broke away. He opened the gap so much. And could you believe his speed???!!! 32.8mph they said.

trekchic

Why didn't he take the yellow today? He could've made up the 22" easily. Did he, Basso and Voekler have an agreement to keep the standings like they were?

On another "women's only" message board, a girl said she was at the show in Mass. this a.m. with Tyler Hamilton's father. He started the show and there was Tyler announcing he had to drop out. The dad didn't even know before then! He went off the stage with his cell phone and came back in a few minutes reading an email from Tyler saying that in crash earlier in the tour, he fell on a pedal and the pain in his back was too great to continue in the race. That's too bad for him.

I am too new at this to understand much of the strategy, but I don't understand why Lance didn't take the yellow today.

Anyone have any ideas?

Devil

Today was a flat stage. Lance (and the other GC guys like Basso, Klöden, and Mancebo) don't need to expend the energy trying to break away on the flat stages. They know that Voeckler will not be in yellow after Tuesday (and if he is, and I can't see him staying with Lance even on the category 2 finish), then he is definitely losing his lead on Wednesday.

Crack'n'fail

Economy of effort, it would take more effort to gain 22 seconds on a flat stage for Armstrong than it would going up, where he can gain much more with the same kind of output he would give in a breakaway on a flat.

Thylacine

Why is it that every live stage they broadcast on Sunday nights here in Australia is always sooo boring, that I fall asleep during it?!

Anyway, been impressed by Ivan Basso over the past weekend. Gutsy efforts. And what can you say about Voeckler? What an amazing amount of heart and spirit that guy has! That's what makes the tour watchable.

Anyway, looks like I'll have to wait until tonight to see what happened in todays stage. Hopefully the condensed version is less sleep inducing

Hitchy

G'day Tigerboy,

Its not the racing thats boring, it's Mike Tomalaris, the soccer commentator & that Stephen Hodge...who should know better!...Those 3 just like the sound of their own voices!.......Its on live on Weds nite...i think thats the Alpe D'huez TT...should be the defining stage of the Tour de lance,

cheers,

Hitchy

ed073

BUMPORAMA, Hitchy!!!

you have hit on my sorest of sore points...that farkwit Tomalaris has nearly cost me about 4 TVs as I pick up a size 46 Sidi ready to launch at his dopey head as he tells me "the top Dutch squad, CSC" or "Ullirch is not a noted time-triallist"....

Andrew Orsatti-stick to soccer.
Stephen Hodge-get excited for gawd's sake.

Plus I'm getting a bit sick of the Phil and Paul banter....if you get the crap Aussie version of Eurosportnews you can occasionally hear David Duffield and Sean Kelly. Refreshing change.

geez....I need a lie down after that.....

Hitchy

G'day Ed,

Did you notice last nite Orsatti made a point of telling us when the last ad. break had been taken.....with about 15km to go. They musta got a huge number of complaints from last week, when they went to an ad. just as the escapees were about to be caught in the last 2km!...They just got back in time for the sprint...bloody hopeless!,

cheers,

Hitchy

brent_dube

Who knows why nowone tried to chase down Aitor immediately. That move was obviously dangerous.

don d.

This is a bit convoluted, but I'll take a shot at it. Aitor took a flyer after the other non-sprinters, Galdeano and Landaluze tired themselves trying to escape. It was well timed because he knew that the sprinters wouldn't want to chase and the non-sprinters already had a go. I don't know why Jalabert didn't try to chase him down immediately, other than he didn't want to give a free ride to Lotz, Mengin, and Wrolich, the main sprinters.

Mengin probably has the best reputation as a sprinter in that group, although he is 36 now and built his name on a few victories years ago. He is mainly a lead out man now and has been beaten in similar situations by the likes of Hushovd in recent years. He made a big mistake when he was the one to try to chase down Aitor, but it appears that at that point, no one else was willing to go after him. Lotz was on Mengin's wheel in the pursuit, but it appears Mengin died, which Lotz didn't expect, and when Mengin gave up, it gave Aitor just the gap he needed to stay away. Lotz tried to jump around Mengin but to late. Wrolich was probably the best sprinter in the bunch, and it appears he just sat on the wrong wheel or was cooked. Lotz and Mengin were cooked from the chase so Jalabert got 2nd.

Absolutely no one could possibly speculate about what Botero was doing except Botero. He had no chance in the sprint, and should have gone from far out, but I don't think he has the explosion to create a gap.

webist

I'm just pleased that OLN coverage is live and ends only a few minutes after I am supposed to be at work.

ed073

Yep...and when he threw back to the race after another boring cross to some cafe in Mt Eliza full of tourists and a surreal John Kennedy he said "And now we take you back to our match...er...race commentators, Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin."

Euro 04 is well and truly over mate.

meb

Lance will be conserving himself Tuesday for Wednesday's run. If Voeckler want's to expend himself to wear the yellow more day, he'll be able to stay with Lance on Tuesday. If he wants to protect the white jersey he may save himself. Who wears the yellow at the end of Tuesday is in Voeckler's hands.

Devil

If Lance attacks on the final climb, Voeckler cannot and will not stay with him. He just needs to put three seconds into Voeckler and win the stage and it's over.

brent_dube

Great timing then. I didn't recall Gonzalez attacking (which must be because I was being distracted right around that time)
Botero.... where did his legs disapear to???

Thylacine

Hitchy, I don't mind Mike Tomalaris - it's Hodgey and Orsatti that have the personality of a wet sponge. I wish SBS would employ someone with a bit of oomph who actually knows cycling, without resorting to using whoever isn't doing anything at 6pm on a weekday. I also think the editing is a bit crap too this year, but that's a whole other rant.

Bring on the rest day. I need a nap. Damn colds *sniffle*

don d.

I think T-Mobile was using Botero to take the lead in the team competition.

Before the attacks started to occur in the final 10k, Botero made a visit to his team car and had a conversation with The Beet. I have been wondering what Godefroot could have told him that would make him just sit in and do nothing in the finale like he did. Then, looking at the progression in the teams competition, I noticed that after Stage 13, T-Mobile was 8+ minutes down on CSC, after Stage 14 they were 5+ minutes up on CSC. So I suspect Godefroot told Botero that he had done his job and just be cool and don't overdo it trying to win.