I mean what the hell?? Is it me or did that stage suck for EVeBoDeee!!!!

Big George started out ok but basically sucked toward the end.....which basically described all the tour's top contenders.
The UCI messed with Floyd's bikes so that the aerobar cracks and basically threw his game off.
Bobby Julich loses concentration and freakin brakes his wrist in a bad crash....hes out of the tour.
David Zabriskie's ride sucked. Yes you can defend him but I betcha he's mad at his performance.
Thor's ride wasn't that hot.
And Levi's ride........omg was he pedaling backwards or something????!
Just about everybody's ride today SUCKEDDDDDD!! If I were their coaches I would be furious! Only Floyd, despite his bike troubles did ok. But imagine if his bike wasn't messed with. But still......

And who won the stage? Gontchar who?

Just about everybody was off their game by some degree today. And today was supposed to be a hot stage. Today was supposed to be a day when everybody unleashes their full wrath on the tour and throw down their gauntlets. Today everybody looked like they were amateurs. Argue all you want but I bet you they are ALL mad at themselves and their performances today. What the hell is going on??

Nice and unpredictible.

I liked it.

- oh yeah, and Serhiy Honchar was the World TT Champ, 2000

ya gotta luv trolls....but anyway,

well only if you are a seppo!....seriously, dontcha ever get worried about being so insular?...There are 170 odd riders still in the TDF, about 10 of them are Seppo's....perhaps some of them may be worthy of your attention?



research & pro cycling knowledge are obviously not your strong point.....see comment above

Ya gotta luv the elitist snobs too but anyway.....

OLN might make it sound like only Americans have a shot at this race, but it was pretty close to expectations. Levi had a bad race, and hindcapie could of done 5-10 places better. I don't think hushovd or other sprinters were planning on racing very hard (Boonen surprised).

Hontchar smoked everyone. Landis did very well.

actually, neither elitist or a snob. Before starting another thread you might do well to take notice of one of your compatriots:

"Better to remain silent & be thought a fool, than to speak out & remove all doubt"

ahhh no
America is not the only place in the world. I know its hard, you may want to start looking slowly. Maybe buy an atlas and slowly unwrap it starting with America so you dont get too scared. Do you know there is a south America? Bit of a shock aye?

It was just you.

I thought it was a great race today. Unpredictibility is what makes it interesting.

StalkerZERO = PWNED!

Type "Serhiy Honchar" into Google, ya d¡ckhead.

For some reason this thread makes me think of the Randy Newman song, "Political Science"...

Well ya gotta love guys like this. no knowledge, does no research...it is no surprise that people like this end up tasting their toes. Makes BF a kind of lively place ehhh? I am diggin' thie TdF big time....Stage 8 today and still no clear favourite. This is what sport is all about...Vive le Tour (at least this year's version)!!

Cheers,

Brian

You guys are scary....but don't bomb us....we don't have any oil!

The OP was a bit "over the top", but I think it is a fair question to ask. It isn't often that an early time in a TT holds up as well as Lange's did. Given that a number of strong TT riders who went later on didn't better it suggests that the wind may have picked up at some point during the day.

That Honchar (or Gonchar, or whichever way his name is getting spelled today) won, really shouldn't be that surprising. For me, the surprise was that so many from T-Mobile did so well, when only a couple other riders on other teams had "good" results.

pwned what.
Its you guys that are looking shameful right now. All you guys think about doing is attacking. "Who should we show off our intimate geeky bike knowledge to now?"
Its forums like these that showcase the true character of a person. If you feel good in the morning realizing that your a shmuck and that doesn't phase you whatsoever more power to you.
I had no favorites american or otherwise. I wasn't attacking anybody or putting any one down. I just noted all the top contenders had a realllly bad day and it seemed strange.

But nooooo!! This thread had to act like a venus fly trap to every shmuck, ill mannered S.O.B. bike geek, who was never thought by momma how to have a civil conversation, that hang at this thread.
NO SAVE IT!!
All your training from home is right here on the blasted thread!!

Gawd! You stay out of my threads and I will stay out of yours.

Maybe a few people should take a timeout... sit the next few rounds out...

Anyways, about the original question, I was reading all the dispatches during the ITT from the official Tour site, and they mentioned that the first riders commented on how there was no wind, and the air was "completely still," and later in the day a decent headwind developed on the latter part of the course. I read somewhere that Zabriskie prefers riding into a headwind, but the course was bumpy whereas he prefers smooth blacktop.

But, as in any sport, sometimes you just have a bad day.

P.S. to StalkerZERO,

Like USAZorro said, you had a good question (I was surprised at the Americans' performances as a whole as well), but the way you wrote it out didn't help. When some people read such things as "EVeBoDeee!!!!" and "Gontchar who?," they might assume some things.

Appreciate the decent response. But regardless of the colorful "eveeboddee" or whatever.....people shouldn't assume. But in any case I wanted a good conversation on what happened yesterday but after all this nonsesne I just don't care any more. Hooray for the internet.

I'd agree with you, but I didn't know who Honchar was either. So you know what I did? I looked him up, and you know what? He's worn the the Maglia Rosa and won three medals at the world time trial championships. He's only 'Honchar Who' because 1) You know even less than me about bike racing and 2) You didn't even bother looking him up.

I've been watching the TdF for almost 20 years. I'm in no way a geek or a racing expert - I just watch it for fun - but when I don't know something, I LOOK IT UP.

Now, to put road cycling into some sort of 'big picture' framework for you, let me just say this. Of the 200 odd starters, only 8 are Amercians, so 2 guys in the top 20 is actually pretty good. Landis' 2nd place is a damn good ride, despite his mechanicals (if your bike looks like a leper, you'd expect some bits to randomly fall off). Most of the other top 20 are guys you'd expect to be there - Rogers (World Time Trial Champ), Lang (won the prologue, durr), Kloden, Menchov, Evans etc. etc. - all guys you'd expect in the top 20.

It's cute and all that you would expect sans Lance that every other Amercian would naturally step up and of course, rule, but unfortunately you're forgetting about...um....everyone else, forgetting that riders can just have a bad day or 6 (See: Boonen), and that the pulling out of 24 riders from the startline this year has caused a fair bit of turmoil within the teams (Not that that has seemed to effected T-Mobile much yesterday!)

If you've been following the Tour for more than 2 years, you'd know that the Tour is blown WIDE OPEN this year with more true contenders for the Mailliot Jaune than there has been in recent history. The depth of talent is in no way diminished by the absence of Armstrong, Ullrich and Basso, it just makes the race that much more interesting.

Nice post Thylacine.

Seriously. Just become someone says something, don't assume they mean what they say.

Question to the moderators? Why is it permissable for Australians to refer to Americans as Seppos? My understanding of the derivation of the term is that comes from septic tanks, which rhymes with Yanks. A derogatory stereotype for an entire group of people, especially when used in a post that is rather hostile to one individual of that group would not appear to be consistent with BF's policies. Certainly, everyone would agree it would be inappropriate to refer to other vaqrious nationalities by a host of derogatory titles, which I won't list, but you all have heard. Then why is it ok to call Americans Seppos?

Maybe the Aussies are just referring to the smelly Americans?

firstly . . . 99ers, eh?

as to the Seppo thingy, I'm really not going to get bent outta
shape over it. It may have originated from the Austrailian rhyming slang
(which is itself a derivative of cockney slang), but by now its somewhat accepted.
how many posts refer to tommys, Poms, Frogs, etc. ?

Personally I have no problem with it, other mods may see it differently.
I'll report it, see what comes of it.

I think 99er, while maybe a stereotype, is not a stereotype based upon one's race, ethnicity, or national origin. Rather, its based on an individual's experience, and an a experience that is relevant to the subject matter. Certainly people that never paid any attention to the Tour prior to 1999 have a different frame of reference than people who have followed bike racing for a number of years. (and I think my use of the term was to say I wasn't a 99'er, rather than to put down a specific forum member because they were.)

Back to Seppo. I personally am not too concerned about political correctness. However, inconsistency bugs me. Everyone would certainly agree that use of the N word is inappropriate. There would also be broad consensus that calling a person of asian origin a number of slang terms that I won't repeat would be offensive. Frog, IMHO, is no different in charachter, nor is Seppo. I guess what bugs me is the idea that's its somehow ok to be derogatory of Americans. What if we started calling all Australians convicts? Would that be acceptable? It certainly wouldn't be constructive.

Actually not as unusual for an early time to hold up as one might think. It is a bit unusual in the TDF, but that is in large part because by the first 'real' (e.g. excluding the prologue) ITT there has been a TTT and it makes sense that the best time trialists and the contenders are usually on teams that put out a good TTT. This year no Team Time Trial and the result is riders all up and down the placing that are decent time trialists.

Oh and the winner should be no surprise to anyone besides 99ers. (That is not to say knowledgable fans would not have picked other riders to win, just that after the fact it is not at all surprising).