I don't get it! TdF
 

ok Ulrich was 1:07 behind Lance at the end of stage 19. Couldn't Ulrich do a break away in stage 20 and win le tour? why was lance soo confident that he was going to win after stage 19? btw this is my first time watching le tour de france. right now i am waiting for the rerun of stage 20 so i can record it :)

Cycling is steeped in gentlemanly tradition. Stage 20 is more of a victory lap / celebration than part of the race. Although other honors, sprinters for example are still dueling, the general classification is not contested in the final stage.

Nope. If he tried, he'd get caught, plus, he'd have to try to get all the time bonuses(sp?) which all the sprinters will be fighting for.

also i have one more question, why was there only one TTT??? i loved that stage 4.

Not sure of the answer to that one, but do second your opinion that the TTT is a thing of beauty, absolute poetry in motion.

Wouldn't it be great to ride at that level of performance and skill?

i am almost there lol
how would Lance perform with a Wal-mart bike??

Fastest wal-mart bike you'd ever see!

whats TTT? stage 4?


huh?!?

TTT=team time trial.

Alas, he'd probably break the crank on the first pedal stroke.

Well the logical place a second TTT would be after either the Alps or Pyrenees (or both). This year Fassa Bortolo had what... three riders after the mountains? Imagine the decimation caused by teams at full strength.

So... the only logical place for a TTT is near the beginning before injury, sickness and the sprinters go home. Realistically that means only one TTT can be done. You'll never see two TTT close together... we may like them but I think they make crappy TV.

That's why Jan "waited" when Lance went down in stage 15.
http://grahamwatson.com/gw/imagedocs...15/$file/8.jpg

You don't take the advantage when the leader is down.

You have to have five riders to compete in the TTT. Not every team still had that many left after the mountains got done with them.

Speaking of teams, it was very cool that Tyler Hamilton got to share in 1st place for something, anyway.

RichC

before we get too far into patting backs for being "gentlemen", the riders have legitamate reasons for waiting. Some don't want to win under those circumstances, and if Jan attacked he would have lost his second place.

Yes, you need your team together for a decent TTT.

Or as Frankie Andreu puts it, “Triple The Torture.”:)

Interestingly, the rules don't apply to the individual time trial. Ullrich came down and lost what, maybe 10 seconds to LA because of that? Ullrich had enough time to gain in at least 2 stages before the TT, but I still wonder why he did not attack.

The TT is a little bit different than the rest. The TT is more man versus the clock. You don't have the domestiques to draft off of.

In the other stages teams are riding against each other, but they are know to "help" each other. In some breakaways, I have seen the sprinters from several teams reply to the attack together. If Ullrich had kept going full blast when Lance took that purse, well Team Bianchi would find it a little hard to gather allies.

In that picture, is that Iban Mayo on the deck as well? And wasn't he one of those two filthy cheating little spaniards who let Ullrich set the pace for the rest of the climb, riding on his back, and yet in the finish, sprinted past and took the time bonuses when it made no difference to their individual placings?

I'm glad Mayo did not finish on the podium. I'm glad his team did not win anything significant, though the turd did win a stage. The podium should be reserved for true champions, not stinking little turds called two-faced cheats.:mad:

Yes - but what do you really think? Don't hold back this time.:D

LOL - I had to get that off my chest! It was the worst example of bad sportsmanship of the tour. Not by one stinking little turd, but by two of them, from the same team I recall. My mother told me never to trust cyclists who wear orange.:)