That second crash... he just loooke aghast. I felt sick for the guy. But still... he is a great cyclist with a great attitude. I would have died myself if it had been me.

Koffee

I am consistently disappointed by the lack of funny photos in this thread. :/

That's a bit like saying Voeckler should have been on the podium in '04.

If this guy had any hopes of being on the podium, they certainly wouldn't have let him gain six minutes on the stage he won.

If your saying that he should have held on just because he was already in 3rd before the TT, then you're missing the point of what I'm saying. If you told Rasmussen at the beginning of the Tour that he would win a stage, win KOM AND get a top 10 finish, he'd have said "Sweet!"

Even if he hadn't melted down, he would not have been on the podium, he would have had to finish in the top 10 to hold his place.

Hey, thanks for the jersey design, Crack'n'fail! It's awesome. Thanks to everyone who contributed!

Next TdF I'll start a "King of the Malfunctions Points Competition" thread with daily updates on who has the Blue Jersey. Won't that be fun? With your permission, Crack'n'nfail, I'd like to your jersey design.

Rassies own people said he just "lost it" after the first fall. Remarking that he kept thinking his breaks were touching when they weren't. Choking of that magnitude looks awful on a pro in any sport. I mentioned the Colnago site and its news updates because I thought it looked bad the way the way they just went silent on him. There was no "Hey it was unfortunate but the guy still made a big impression" etc. Just silence after they had been building him and his Colnago up. The last update before the fall:

"Rasmussen Sitting Pretty On Tour's Second Rest Day

Rabobank's Great Dane Michael Rasmussen is sitting pretty on the Tour's second
Rest Day in Pau. Although he slipped slightly to Ivan Basso on GC, Rasmussen
is poised to ride his Colnago Extreme-C climbing bike onto the Tour De France
podium next Sunday. At the very least, Rasmussen will take the title as the Tour
De France's Best Climber and hopes to ride his Colnago C50 Crono next Saturday
for the best time trial of his life to hold off Jan Ullrich and keep his third place in the
Tour De France Final General Classification. "

Please do.

Ya, he kept getting off and spinning the rear wheel, which spun without obstruction it looked to me. I have no room to talk, my big arse going up hill I'm always hoping my slow speed is a brake rubbing. =)

At the Houston Rodeo, a rider who is having a good two week run can make a TON of money. But, some riders get hurt early on, and end up with nothing. So, the Rodeo shows the crowd video replays of the worst examples of a bull landing on a rider, and by crowd noise, a "hard luck" award winner is selected. The worse your luck, the better your chance of winning the award.

So, for the 2005 Tour, the "Hard Luck" winner has GOT to be Rasmussen...now where is his trophy?

Oh no, I'm not designing a trophy too.

;)

The entire jersey should be made of "elastoplast".

With all respect to Rasmussen and a great TDF, that time trial had to have been the single worst professional performance I've ever seen.

What happened to the blue jersey pics?