Vino! Vino! Vino!
 

Okay, I'm now an official Vino fanboy. *Meh* So sue me. :) The guy is a spirited, fighting rider who was farken exciting to watch last night....I almost even yelled out loud and jumped out of my seat for a second there, which is very un-TdF behaviour.

Anyway, three cheers for Vinokourov!! :beer:

+1... I have been a fan for the past couple of years but I loved how he took it into his hands. Agreed not always sucessfuly but he wouldnt go down...

I actually jumped up and down and yelled "YES....M**********r!!". I kid you not...

yeah, vino is an exciting character. he made stage 21 exciting. i wonder what team he'll ride for . . .

He is a machine!

he rode half of the Gerolsteiner team off his wheel, and won the intermediate sprint from the front.

gosh the guy is a frigging crybaby that quit his Team 5 days before the end!!!!
Couldn't he have waited??? good riddance to bad rubbish!!!!!!

I was excited to see him take the last stage win, but I'm sure those sprinter teams have no love for him right now. He totally split the race for them.

I don't know how they split up the time bonuses in the end, but I hope he doesn't get it- only because once the race officials said no time bonuses, it would be unfair to Levi to lose his time bonus because he didn't know they'd change their minds and award them after all. If he had, he would have had his team position him better so he could keep his fifth place. So I hope for Levi's sake, Vino didn't ruin things for him.

On the other hand, I do like Vino... though I did see some sucking up to LA when Vino passed LA and his kids as LA was headed to the podium. I don't think Vino will make it onto the Discovery squad, and his stage win kind of solidifies this. He's not a team player, and for Discovery, they want team players, not someone out racing for themselves.

I still like Vino a lot, though.

Koffee

i like Vino.... Much!!! :p

I wasn't happy about that because I wanted Levi to hold 5th, but anyone that can do that and then win the stage over the sprinters at the end deserves to move up in the GC. Good job Vino. But I agree with Koffee, Levi was under the impression that there wasn't going to be a final bonus right? It looks like it is official that Vino has 5th now.

They did award Vino with the time bonus for the stage win. The standings on letour.com show him in 5th.

Just finished watching the replay coverage of Stage 21 because I missed the live coverage due to my group ride. I admire Vino for going off the front like that to take the win, but am disappointed that the time bonus was given to him, bumping Leipheimer down when they were told that all remaining time bonuses were cancelled.

They didn't anounce NO time bonusses. They anounced no second intermediate time bonus and the GC clock stopping at the end of the first lap. The 20/12/8 final bonuses would still count.

Is it possible Levi's team misunderstood?

I like his style, but he may have put himself in an awkward postion with the folks on his team in 2006. His age, and the competition from the "young bloods", such as Basso mean he is not the absolute "Number One" favorite for winning the Tour in 2006. But, he seems unhappy when asked to ride in support for another rider.

His ideal situation would be for his team to say "You're the man...we ALL are here to support you". But, without that sort of arrangement, he may end up with the same clumsy arrangement he had with T-Mobile: "Vino, you are our main man...but only if Jan should crash and the folks at the hospital refuse to release him..."

Agreed. The whole sprinting for bonus seconds to move up to 5th place on GC on the cerimonial stage just left a bad taste in my mouth.

It really doesn't matter what was announced. Vino wanted to go for it and he did. It's not like he tricked anyone.

One the other hand, T-Mobile is a team that fell apart.

I don't think so. Either the entire cycling community misunderstood or just you and Vino, because I understood the announcement to mean that after the first finish line pass, there would be no more time bonuses awarded, but that POINTS for the green jersey would still be available. That's why (it seemed) that all the guys who were top contenders sat towards the back of the pack- avoiding the eventual madness that develops when the sprinters are fighting it out for the green jersey points.

Koffee

Though I do like Vino, I do believe that the etiquettte of the Tour is to never attack on the last day. Sprinters get to vie for the final stage win and bonus points. I was surprised (well, not really, knowing Vino's tactics) to see Vino break out of the pack in the last stage and go for it, but oh well... I feel bad for Levi, but I like Vino, and it was nice to see him on the podium again.

I simply don't know what team would take him on. Obviously, he's a strong cyclist and very ambitious, but what team would take him on, especially if other teams see him as a pariah and won't work with the team he's on, I don't know. Good luck to him, though. I'm eager to see how his next year shapes up (I don't think he'll ever be on Discovery).

Koffee

why was Vino wearing those colours?

No attacks on the last day is a dumb point of etiquette. It's a 21-stage race. Why should they stop racing after 20 stages? Thumbs up to Vino for making it interesting right to the end.

Leipheimer and Gerolsteiner were simply not strong enough to match Vino. Vino took on four riders at the first sprint and worked them over. Impressive. Vino deserved fifth far more than Leipheimer. He was attacking day in day out. Leipheimer basically followed wheels for 21 days.

Tell me Aussie531 is kidding!

classic1, I agree.

You are half correct. It is only bad etiquette to attack before the arrival to Champs Elysée except for the intermediate sprints. However, it is perfectly fine to attack once Paris is reached. Vino attacked at the intermediate sprint and on the Champs Elysée cleanly. There has been a couple of times when riders won just like Vino. What he did was terrific. A well deserved win for a classy rider.

It doesn't matter if Levi understood the rule change or not. There was obviously nothing he or anyone else in the peloton could do to stop Vino. Winning the final stage is not an insignificant achievement.

I think Vino is a breath of fresh air - he races! Don't be so sure he isn't a tour contender if he gets a good team to support him and focuses on the tour. 5th over all as a support rider (and 3rd? a couple of years ago) is incredible.

I heard that Kloden's parting words, as he left the TdF with a wrist injury, is that he would never ride with Vino again. What did Vino do that was so bad? OK, Vino seems to attack with impunity, but that is part of what could have thrown Lance off his game - unpredictable attacks . T-Mobile's strategy -- the Kloden and Ullrich wait-and-see approach -- seems destined to failure against a rider as strong as Lance.

i think he misplaced his pink strip.

Well said. It's not clear where Vino will end up for the next season, and I'm not sure he'd be a good fit for Team Discovery. But, if he can land with a good team that will support him properly as the leader from the start, then look out Jan and Ivan. No matter how you cut it, this guy repeated showed that he is talented and has great courage. With a good manager and a good team he'll be a very strong contender to win the TdF. If this can happen and T-Mobile gets their act together (i.e. they give Jan the proper, unquestioned support), then next year's race has the potential to be one of the greatest ever with three viable winners. Let's hope Bjarne Riis can get it together.

My $64? is who leads the Disco boys next year? I don't envy Jan sorting that out.