His last lap pass of Haga at Assen was epic...then he crashes out...monza again just on it...runs out of gas...he wins or DNFs!

Hey guys: http://www.forumula1.net/

Now... the Giro.

Points classification

1 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) LPR Brakes - Farnese Vini 72 pts
2 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Team Columbia - Highroad 65
3 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) LPR Brakes - Farnese Vini 54
4 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin - Slipstream 41


Edvald at least gets one day in purple. I can NOT wait until tomorrow's stage.

"I live just 25 kilometers from Bergamo, parts of the course pass by there. I know the roads by heart and I know when the best moment is to attack," Sivtsov said. "This is my finest win and at the finish line, my wife, who is expecting a baby, was waiting."

Awesome!

Uh huh, and I'm worried about crashing? Nice to have some body armour tho.

i was so bummed to see that...not that Haga doesn't deserve it but...not that way.

i hope Ben comes back, either way it's been a great season.

*** boy Pedrosa is on pole this weekend., he beat Lorenzo by .005 of a second.

Link please.

If Levi is within 2-3 minutes of the G.C. leader at the start of that 60km TT, and he doesn't have a mechanical or crash that day, all these friggin ridiculouso Italiano mopes are utter and complete toast. Toast I say. Or in the native Italiano, Il Toasto.

Levi will crush them like bad Tuscan grapes. Maglia Rosa this pal. I only hope he has room in his case at home, that's a big friggin trophy.

has Levi been tested in a time trial of this length since he improved his time trialing yet?

How do you find all that room in your mouth for both Lance and Levi.

Levi=no podium. But don't let that put you off your man-crush. The brutally hard mountains have yet to raise their ugly heads. And your beloved Levi can't attack for his life...and Basso's wheel is one he can't suck.

Levi showed the tactical brilliance of the Maginot Line today.

Sorry, but I disagree with this.

Even if he gets dropped, Levi Leipheimer is the best steady-state climber in the world. If he gets gapped, and has to ride solo to a mountain top finish, he'll lose very little if any time.

Watch the Angliru stage from the Vuelta last year, or the Stage 20 TT from the same. Left to himself, he'll reel in anyone in the world. What he did to Sastre at the top of the Angliru last year was nuts.

He was marking Sastre and being a good lieutenant for Contador on that stage. But, yeah, Levi motored away from Sastre once it was known AC had gone way ahead for the win.

We shall see...the climbs of the Giro are not the climbs of the Vuelta. I hope it's close between all the top guys, make the racing all the better....still I think Basso and DiLuca are going to top this race...we'll see how Levi fares. If past is prologue then I don't believe that he'll be there when the race gets grippy.

that was probably your best post ever.

it's just so ridiculous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65u44um5mBw

22%?! :eek:

^^carazay

horner
http://velonews.com/article/92154/co...rner-s-hauling

http://velonews.com/files/images/HORNER_2_0.jpg

I have those shoes, they are sweet.

There is no such thing as the "best steady state climber". The guy who gets to the top first is the best climber. If the discussion proceeds to how much time he'll lose, he's probably not the best climber in the race. There are several guys who can/will put time into him on the climbs on one day, and he'll take back some on the next.

Basso already had Levi on his back foot in one stage, I've watched the midget for quite a while and I could see some strained body language and cadence from Levi when Basso was on the front for a long period.

I wouldn't bet against Levi in the TT. Given the course though, he may not gain as big as advantage as people might think.

If he doesn't come out of stage 12's TT with a 3+ minute lead, he could well lose this to Basso, with an outside chance of guys like Di Luca, Sastre, or Menchov finding their way in front of him. An on-form Basso could take several minutes out of him in one of the mountain stages, cumulatively he could take enough to win.

Levi's best GT finishes have been when his teammate has won. Like Cunego working off the other's fear of Simoni, Levi has benefited greatly from Alberto's presence. The record backs that up, much as Sastre would not have won the TDF without the Schlecks.

If I'm Astana's DS I would have been screaming in Levi's ear today to shut down the bridge. He had a great opportunity to either make teams chase the break then counter, or leapfrog Horner up on GC and force the other teams to watch him also. Instead he took a moron pill and doomed a perfect set up while burning matches needlessly. And Popovich needs to quit being a self indulgent stage hunter. Great idea, launch a weak attack at the end on the race...burn some matches. Levi who? Why are we here again? Shades of his horrid riding for Lotto in the TDF last year.

Finally they need to cut Lance loose to fend for himself and send those guys up the race. He's done, and he's not going to be a GC factor in the tour either. Horner broke his collarbone in April too, missed about the same amount of training time, and has been flying. Lance has been at this since November and while he's looked good if his name was Frenchy Cameratime, he's shown zero vestiges of Tour winning form.

Astadiscomailboxes looked brilliant when they had the strongest guy in the race. Lately? Not so much.

Finally, Levi could just implode. He's had a lot of racing to this point.

Watching Vasil Kiryienka (Caisse Dep.) today and mavelled at how flat that guy's back was. Low stem, high seat post etc. and he was just stretched out low and f'ng flat.

Michael Barry's report today in VeloNews mentions this positioning of the Russian-trained cyclists. Thinks that track training methods of Russians gives these guy that awesome looking low-slung, flat position.

They forced LPR, and specifically DopeLuca, to use much energy in the chase. Also, they damn near pulled off the move. I wouldn't call it dumb by any stretch.

... Brad

horner ftw

Today (at least at the start) these guys are riding at a pace even I could keep up with :50:.

This could not get more boring

Please tell me there are hairpin turns or something vaguely interesting on a pancake flat course.