ostas

hello friends,i had opened this post for all people that they want to say some words of this great ciclist that yesterday win the etapa of the alpe d'huez with great authority and i'm spanish and we're happy for his victory.do you think about this?

1saludo

Walter

I think, and have already said, that Mayo is the future of the Le Tour. The only question for Mayo is when does the future arrive?

I can definitely see him on the podium this year. Assuming Armstrong wins #5 Mayo may well be the one to deny him number 6. We'll see.

belfast-biker

Let Mayo win next year, Armstrong for no' 5!

Yeah, Lance doesn't seem as strong, (or is he bluffing?) but where it matters, he and his team are doing the business - when Beloki and Hamilton went ahead, USPS got them back with no trouble. When Armstrong needed to sprint to get third, he did so.

I think he's just calculating better, and he'll still win. It's good that it seems tighter though, makes better TV.

ostas

but...it don't seems that amstrong was conservator yesterday!he's a great but he arrived with beloki thanks to roberto heras and beltran,if he had ascending alone...

thanks to mayo,amstrong,beloki,mancebo, hamilton!!that's great tour!

bac

It was an awesome performance by Mayo! He was turning the pedals over on this slope like Lance did a few years ago. Great stuff from this very promising youngster!

RiPHRaPH

just imagine a 25 year old being a national hero for winning such a prestigious stage.... he broke out at the perfect time and if he can get some top 10 finishes later in the next 2 weeks i will be suitably impressed.

Walter

He took 3rd today just pipping LA at the line as the group finished behind Vinokourov.

Word is he's not great at the TTs and his team TT was pretty poor. However, he's only 25 and has plenty of time to improve. As for the team TT I'm sure after this season some strong teams might be calling him.

Walter

Ostas:

My condolences on Beloki. Your countryman was riding a great Tour. The race is diminished with his withdrawal due to injury.

don d.

Mayo is reported to be in talks ith Telekom. However, this improving in the TT's has proven to be a real Waterloo for a lot of cyclists. Virenque would have won Le Tour if he could TT. Simoni's efforts to improve his TT'ing are well documented and pretty much a failure. TT'ing is in the mind, not the body. The good TT'rs seem almost born to the calling. We'll see if Mayo can change his "genes" like he can his "jeans".

lotek 

I agree with Don.d
look at Heras one of the reasons he came to Postal
was to learn Time Trialing.
And while he may have improved, if he really had improved
he would have won Vuelta last year.
I don't think TT is something that can be learned,
you've either got it or not.

Marty

Flaneur

Mayo is a fine young rider. if he rides the Pyrenees with the panache he showed in the Alps and Armstrong continues to leave us doubting his form, the time trials could be academic, for a change. It is good for the climbers to redress the balance from time to time. Can Mayo last three weeks? If he can, we are in for the most competitive Tour since '89.

ostas

thanks walter! beloki have finished the tour and i think that all aficionates of the tour lose to one great ciclist and maybe the unique that he could to give war to amstrong! .i agree that amstrong will win the 5th tour but i want that amstrong have rivales so he don't win the tour easier!

beloki i wait that you coming soon to the tour!

Piratello

I´m not sure if Mayo has to wait until next year.
I think Armstrong ist definately not that strong has he used to be the years before.
Vinokourov and Mayo will be his nightmares in the next couple of days.

Laggard

Armstrong on stage 9 looked to me to be the old Lance. Beloki tried what seemed to be a fairly hard attack and Lance stayed with him easily.

Lance had a bad stage 8 and suddenly he's being written of as "not the Lance of old?"

ALL riders have the occasional bad day.

bac

Also, he reported that his back brake was rubbing for the entire stage sans the last GIANT climb. That will hurt a man!

BTW, unlike David Millar, Lance did not knock his mechanics or director for this mechanical problem. He is a class act. :thumbup:

Ajay213

As has been said in a few threads. Stage 8 out of 20 stages Lance takes it easy up a climb instead of using up energy to open a gap.....it's quite possible he's just being conservative with a lot of racing left to do...

Or maybe he doesn't have it...

Andrew

belfast-biker

I like the ambiguity....makes it exciting....!

brent_dube

I think it was a mix of both. I think he mostly just had a bad day. Equipment problem possibly as well.

We got a chance to see his racing form a month ago and he didn't exactly look that bad.

Ajay213

I just don't hold anything past the guy, the team and himself have brought on a whole new level of tactics to the game that we haven't seen before or in a long time. We've seen LA look like total crap on the way to a climb while the other teams pours it on hoping to drop him, only to have LA stand up and ride away from them at the foot of the mountain. And we've also seen LA bonk as well. It's just to hard to tell.

But I'd be inclined to say they are being conservative, the team is just to good and to smart not to know what it would take to win this year with it's whacky route, and I can't imagine them coming into the race not being strong enough...

Andrew

SamDaBikinMan

I think Iban mayo is a man to watch. He is definitely a threat to LA especially if LA is languishing in an out of form state.

Iban will certainly be there in the seasons to come. Perhaps a Tyler and Iban showdown next year.

Laggard

As I said before, I don't believe Lance is in an out of shape form. He simply had an off day.

And there is no way Mayo can time trial with Lance. He will easily lose 2-3 minutes during the next TT.

KevinG

Or Tyler either for that matter.
But Mayo will be a force to be reckoned with this year and in the years to come.
Eskerrik asko, gero arte.

don d.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Laggard
And there is no way Mayo can time trial with Lance. He will easily lose 2-3 minutes during the next TT. [/QUOTE

I quite agree.

Mayo will lose considerable time to LA in the first TT because the next stage is the first stage in the Pyrennees.

The riders that "compete", give their all in the TT, are going to go into the next stage with some serious recovery issues. This bang/bang, TT/mountains sequence is not normal or usual in the TDF, and I think the Basque riders are going to use it to try to take a stage on their home territory. They will "roll" the TT, come into the first pyrennean mountain stage with fresh legs, and we are going to see the "pirates try to storm the ship".

I think we are going to see a free for all in the Pyrennees. Laiseika and Mayo will go for blood. Once will also be looking for stage victories now that their overall contender is out. Botero has lost face this year and may try to salvage something here if not in the TT.

Postal needs to save some fresh riders for after the TT, (Rubiera/Beltran/Heras), and will have to be on their game to support LA.

And don't forget, there is another TT after the Pyrennees.

TimB

Iban is a coming man, but I doubt Tyler is going to be there for very much longer. He's already 30 and probaly only has another 2 or maybe 3 yrs left in him.
I think the future is with Mayo, Cadel Evans, Botero and few others who names I should first look up and spell properly before posting them.
It's bad enough Poor Iban keeps getting called Ivan.....

lotek 

oh yeah, Cadel Evans.
Look what he did in the Giro last year. I think he is going
to be the next all rounder.

wasn't IVAN MAYO a russian restraunteer in one
of the early James Bond novels?

Marty