July 15 164 km

,,,,,

A day to go out riding, and see the stage in highlight later in the day methinks.

Roll on the hard climbs...

Just a pre-cursor to Friday and Saturday.

Those are the days that will make this year's Tour.

LOtek's, pulling my cool posts, but there aren't any signs of life in these forums anyway.

Heads up, the wisemen claim there may be a little racing near the end of this stage.

Because of the second rise for the La Pierre Levee near the finishm there may indeed be a down right "real" attack on the Cote de Bagnac.......the idea is the second rise prevent a sunstantial regroup and keeps the attackees away..... yippeee....

Pardon this question, but what is the meaning of the blue circle amidst the climb categories. It almost looks like the halfway point in the above profile but at 88k it's a little more than half the stage length...

Feeding zone: lunch time!

I'm not feeling well. I think I might need to call in sick tomorrow....

As far as I recall I haven't pulled any of your posts.
I'd double check prior to making such claims. . .

Marty

Neither have I, so that makes two mods.

Koffee

Well I have to give it to T-Mobile. It appears they have been the first to play their cards in the runup to the high mountains. They sent Kloden up the road in one of the initial breaks and forced USPS to work to bring him back. It was a small move that has gone largely unnoticed, but I applaud them.

Ullrich talks about it in todays race roundup at Cyclingnews.com. Armstrong mentions that the team had to work hard today.

Armstrong said the team had to work hard today, but he also said that his team controlled the field and they were strong and excited for tomorrow's stage. So if Ullrich thought he could play the mind game by sending his guy up, I don't think it accomplished much. I guess we'll see tomorrow how tired the team is from chasing down the renegade T-Mobile rider.... ;)

I'll be taping the stage myself.

Koffee

Interesting. So you think T-Mobile(Ullrich doesn't make these decisions, Godefroot does) was playing mind games by employing a standard racing tactic that has been used by teams for decades, but USPS was not playing mind games by saying that being forced to chase down the "renegade" break had no effect on them. Curious. So does that mean that anytime another team attacks and USPS is forced to chase, the other team is playing mind games? That is truly a fresh perspective. :)

And I really don't think that T-Mobile expected making USPS chase down 1 small break would weaken them to the point that they couldn't compete effectively tomorrow. As I said, it was a small move. And these tactics are designed to have cumulative effects over, how many stages are left-9? ;)

It's just good to see somebody doing something was my point. :)

I'm just saying that Ullrich sent the guy ahead, USPS reacted and reeled him back in and still felt strong. So to me, that says whatever Ullrich's reasons were for sending the guy ahead, it just didn't work. Still, we'll see tomorrow. If the USPS team is feeling fatigued from yesterday, Ullrich will be able to attack and be more effective.

That's what I was saying. Whatever you were saying, insert it into what I was saying, and that's what we're saying. ;)

Koffee

Ok :)

Ditto.

;) :D

Koff

Is reading an elective in Chicago schools? :p

Strange finale, don't you think?

Flecha, Martinez and Moncoutie cooperated very well during their escape. Check. As the finish line approaches (and the peloton--again--does not), our three heroes slowly turn into adversaries, not particularly interested in bringing one another to the sprint. Check. Some talking is done, mainly between the two 'spaniards'. Check. Flecha is the first to make a move (albeit somewhat half-heartedly). Check. Moncoutie sits and waits; Martinez reels in Flecha (which wasn't that difficult, considering the nature of the latter's jump). Check? Moncoutie immediately counters. Check. Martinez looks at Flecha; Flecha looks back at Martinez. The Frenchman takes the stage...

Apparently Flecha wasn't strong enough in the final 10kms (I saw him turning the small ring, where the others were still 'comfortably' on their 53). So why did he attack in the first place? He could have guessed that somebody (the Frenchman?) would go after him. If he had struck some deal with Martinez, that must have been one of the shortest deals ever (shorter than the Virenque-Merckx pact). Or was Flecha bluffing, hoping that the two others would get stuck in a stalemate (as eventually happened)?

Martinez' tactics puzzle me more. After Moncoutie had flown off (and it was clearly a serious attempt) and Flecha threw the towel, why did he capitulate so easily. I mean, you don't get this close to winning a TdF stage often. Was he knackered as well? Then why jump after Flecha?

Nope. We dun readed them thar buks when de teecha dun tole us to,

:D

Koff