What are you 12 years old?

Levi had just spent watts cranking back up to the group through the friggin team cars at the tail end of a grueling 200+ km mountain stage, at the absolute worst possible moment. Is that enough to get you gapped when the gauntlet gets thrown down a few minutes later? Of course it is. Did he crack? Of course he did. Were there extenuating circumstances? Obviously. Do the great Grand Tour champs overcome those odds and persevere? Yes they do.

The race isn't over. Not yet. Not nearly. Whether or not you understand that, I'm sure the pros in the peloton do.

+1

I think you have to take everything into consideration. These guys aren't machines.

I was really impressed with Sastre and Menchov today. I liked how the announcer kept mentioning how bad Sastre looked, and then he blasts up the last hill and blows past the breakaway for the win.

Menchov didn't stay in contact with Sastre, but he was gaining at the end, and answered all the other attacks. It almost felt like he just let Sastre go because it wasn't worth the effort given the time gap he had.

I always wonder about riders that attack a breakaway. Seems like the time to attack a breakaway is with a few kilometers left. If the 4 man break hadn't shattered so badly, they might have been fighting for the top 4 places instead of 18th. Seems to me like Popov used a lot of energy to drop the guys with him, and I really wonder if that energy wouldn't have been better spent on the last climb.

You are right he did use watts to chase back on...it was however a descent and he had plenty of time to sit in and recover before the climb. If the effort of getting back on after flat took too much out of him what hell is going to happen on Wed when the attacks and counter attacks start? What killed Levi today wasn't a flat tire at a inopportune time but the plain and simple fact that he cannot respond to hard accelerations on climbs. He never has and, for at least the rest of this tour he won't. There is no way in hell he can hang with guys like Sastre and Basso who are pure climbers, anymore than they are going to beat him in TT. I know how much you want Lance and Levi to be the big hero's here but it ain't gonna happen. Lance is just not back yet (no shame in that) and Levi never was going to be the 'guy' in this race. Just like all of your talk of Hincapie being a Tour contender because he won a stage in the Tour. Levi is not a GT contender simply because he cannot beat the climbers at their own game, a game were minutes are won and lost. This is brutally true in race like the Giro where the climbs are shorter than the TdF but steeper and come more often. And don't get your hopes of some miracle of a TT 15k isn't long enough for him to recover minutes over Menchov or DiLuca...and Carlos will bank more time in upcoming climbs.

BTW you are the last person on this forum to be accusing people of acting like a child.

Why don't these race broadcasts get hip to how cool the 'Tour Tracker' app is. Wasn't the guy that wrote that pushing his own site or something for the Giro?

Just watched Sastre's attack on Popo today and wished to hell they had some MPH numbers to throw up on the screen. I'm guessing Sastre was pushing 20-22 MPH on the early parts of each of the three attacks I remember seeing. Popo looked like a club rider pushing a compact with 11-28 at about 8 MPH on Decker at the end of a Mulholland ride.

Wow, did Popo get smoked. He literally fell off that mountain at the end. Is he OK? Looked bagged and burnt.

Impressive end to a fairly ridiculous long, hard stage in heat. These guys are Mutants...that's insane stuff in 100 degrees.

If you drink, don't type. If you must type, at least come up with something better than that.

I'll stand by my assessment of the possible Giro outcomes. Please review. That I made such an assessment would answer your inquisitive regarding my grasp on the current state of the race being over/not over.

Pcad, to put it as kindly as possible, you've been wrong far more often than you've been right, and the times you've been right, there's usually an opposite prediction, such as predicting Levi's destroying the field in the TT followed by predicting he will lose.

You've got the credibility of a bipolar Nostradamus off his lithium.

You are to race analysis what the Weekly World News is to investigative journalism.

You are the Roomba of BF, wandering around aimlessly, sucking all the while, running into things then going the opposite direction, repeating endlessly.

And you had a horrid knowledge of criminal IP statutes.

Finally, my Scott Addict has far more stage wins in this Giro than your Cervixo.

I believe a 12 year old would put it thusly:

Neener. Neener.

Neener.

But you can be amusing, in the same way an episode of Jackass is amusing. You laugh in spite of yourself.

I've raced against Olympians and TDF guys (and Lance BTW). They are, in fact, cyborgs sent from other planets to destroy our will to race.

I have no mancrush on people I have never met and with whom I share only my country of residence, so my mind is clear and my will is strong. They shall not triumph in this lifetime as long as my SRM displays a single watt.

I continued my battle against these forces by winning our open master's criterium today. The world is safe for another week. I ask for no thanks. It is what I do.

Da doo doo doo. Do da da da. Is all I want to say to you.


http://shop.willshootphotos.com/gall...307_Cb2Tv-L-LB

wow, was really rooting for popovych to take the stage after last year's tdf no-show. gutsy performance but as soon as sastre took off it was "uh-oh" time. sastre hasn't made too many miscalculations on key mountain stages lately. menchov is the new ullrich but pulled a di-luca
today at the finish which is encouraging. still waiting for the pellizotti/basso 1-2 punch. will it
come on the blockhaus and/or vesuvius? disappointed at the lack of no-name mountain stage
winners so far in this giro. suppose that's what the vuelta is for? final podium: menchov, sastre,
pellizotti.

I take it back. 12 years old would represent a quantum leap in maturity for you.

P.S. Here is the Autobus from yesterday's stage:

112. Matteo Montaguti (ITA), LPR Brakes Farnese Vini, at 48:14
113. Rafael Cardenas Felix (COL), Barloworld, at 48:14
114. Robert Hunter (RSA), Barloworld, at 48:14
115. Vladimir Isaichev (RUS), Xacobeo Galicia, at 48:14
116. Giovanni Visconti (ITA), ISD - Neri, at 48:14
117. David Cioni Dario (ITA), ISD - Neri, at 48:14
118. Gorazd Stangelj (SLO), Liquigas, at 48:14
119. Harley Goss Matthew (AUS), Saxo Bank, at 48:14
120. Allan Davis (AUS), Quick Step, at 48:14
121. Oscar Gatto (ITA), ISD - Neri, at 48:14
122. Olivier Kaisen (BEL), Silence-Lotto, at 48:14
123. Ian Stannard (GBR), ISD - Neri, at 48:14
124. Leonardo Scarselli (ITA), ISD - Neri, at 48:14
125. Robert Forster (GER), Milram, at 48:14
126. Martin Muller (GER), Milram, at 48:14
127. Dario Andriotto (ITA), Acqua & Sapone - Caffe Mokambo, at 48:14
128. Bram De Groot (NED), Rabobank, at 48:14
129. Tom Danielson (USA), Garmin - Slipstream, at 48:14
130. Jose' Haedo Juan (ARG), Saxo Bank, at 48:14
131. Charles Wegelius (GBR), Silence-Lotto, at 48:14
132. Dries Devenyns (BEL), Quick Step, at 48:14
133. Fredrik Kessiakoff (SWE), Fuji-Servetto, at 48:14
134. Serafin Martinez Acevedo (ESP), Xacobeo Galicia, at 48:14
135. Paolo Longo Borghini (ITA), Barloworld, at 48:14
136. Francesco Reda (ITA), Quick Step, at 48:14
137. Hector Gonzalez Baeza (ESP), Fuji-Servetto, at 48:14
138. Bjorn Schroder (GER), Milram, at 48:14
139. Dmytro Grabovskyy (UKR), ISD - Neri, at 48:14
140. Tom Stamsnijder (NED), Rabobank, at 48:14
141. Davide Vigano' (ITA), Fuji-Servetto, at 48:14
142. Pieter Jacobs (BEL), Silence-Lotto, at 48:14
143. Jeremy Hunt (GBR), Cervélo TestTeam, at 48:14
144. Luca Barla (ITA), Milram, at 48:14
145. Ben Swift (GBR), Katusha, at 48:14
146. Anders Lund (DEN), Saxo Bank, at 48:14
147. Alessandro Petacchi (ITA), LPR Brakes Farnese Vini, at 48:14
148. Gustavo Cesar Veloso (ESP), Xacobeo Galicia, at 48:14
149. Edvald Boasson Hagen (NOR), Columbia - Highroad, at 48:14
150. Bart Dockx (BEL), Silence-Lotto, at 48:14
151. Said Haddou (FRA), Bbox Bouygues Telecom, at 48:14
152. Alberto Fernandez Ramos (ESP), Fuji-Servetto, at 48:14
153. Thomas Voeckler (FRA), Bbox Bouygues Telecom, at 48:14
154. Alessandro Vanotti (ITA), Liquigas, at 48:14
155. Mikhail Ignatiev (RUS), Katusha, at 48:14
156. Jonas Ljungblad (SWE), Silence-Lotto, at 48:14
157. Markus Fothen (GER), Milram, at 48:14
158. Kasper Klostergaard (DEN), Saxo Bank, at 48:14
159. Giampaolo Cheula (ITA), Barloworld, at 48:14
160. Gonzalo Rabunal Rios (ESP), Xacobeo Galicia, at 48:14
161. Thomas Fothen (GER), Milram, at 48:14
162. Alexander Serov (RUS), Katusha, at 48:14
163. Vasil Kiryienka (BLR), Caisse d’Epargne, at 48:14
164. Bartosz Huzarski (POL), ISD - Neri, at 48:14
165. Julian Dean (NZL), Garmin - Slipstream, at 48:14
166. David Zabriskie (USA), Garmin - Slipstream, at 48:14
167. Danny Pate (USA), Garmin - Slipstream, at 48:14
168. Bradley Wiggins (GBR), Garmin - Slipstream, at 48:14
169. Johann Tschopp (SUI), Bbox Bouygues Telecom, at 48:14
170. Evgeny Sokolov (RUS), Bbox Bouygues Telecom, at 48:14
171. Jos Van Emden (NED), Rabobank, at 48:14
172. Giuseppe Palumbo (ITA), Acqua & Sapone - Caffe Mokambo, at 48:14

isn't that called the gruppetto in this race?

nope.

mkay

I'm not sure you have the sequence of events quite correct on the stage today. When Popo went clear, Levi still had Lance and another Astana rider in company - and he was right with all the contenders. He looked like he was simply riding tempo up the last slope, and hoping to make it stick. He was over 1km ahead with under 5K to go when Levi got unhitched. He literally would have had to ride back down the course to help Levi out - and when have you ever seen the fellow leading the stage on the final climb do that? :eek: When have you seen anyone in a race do that? :rolleyes:

Had it been a cooler day, I think Popo might well have been able to hold on and grab the win. I see a lot of people being really harsh on the Astana tactics here, but this was not a blunder, IMO. Bad fortune for Popovich, who has used similar tactics to win a stage in the Tour, and for Levi, who now knows staying at one's peak for 3 months is too much to expect.

that win was bought by disco.

elaborate?

'Autobus' sounds like German b. Why do they use that to describe those big groups at the back trying to beat the time cut in the Tour de France? Is that an English term that has made it into half the languages of the Continent?

You're the Euro expert here. What's the deal?

autobus = french

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobus_(cycling)

if wiki is to be believed

There are other concerns than the overall and levi should have had lance with him instantly.

I don't give bike racing my full attention but I really haven't seen lance doing **** for levi were it couldn't be more easily interpreted as doing **** for himself. Maybe he just doesn't have the strength to but I given the first few days and yesterday I think it's pretty clear lance's primary concern is himself.

There still has been no explanation of:
Why the **** was lance struggling to remain with the group for quite a while after levi got dropped?


Who stayed back with levi when he got a flat?

A profound rejoinder indeed. Your Ballestra has left me bloodied. Please lash me no more with your acidic tongue and do, do provide us with more of your cogent analysis.

BTW, there's a touch of chamois butter on your nose.

You might want to give bike racing a bit more attention before inserting hoof in mouth.

that stuff is too expensive Ex. you should make some DIY chamois cream

http://www.queenhelene.com/images/pr...oz_reflect.jpg
My rub of choice. Most of the same ingredients as Assos creme, other than then extract of hand picked edelweiss. Plus you smell like 1000 nubile coeds at Spring Break post-race.

mine:

(although I modify it with some additives)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_DaEXf2nbxR...rly+smooth.jpg

Have never needed chamois cream. Even on 3+ hour rides. :thumb: