Tour de France 2007 who will win?

[TQ]

Originally Posted by k0NG0

Ah, the ol' geezer's back...

Hey...I resemble that remark!

[TQ]

Lance Armstrong...the first paragraph from "It's Not About the Bike".

"I want to die at a hundred years old with an American flag on my back and the Star of Texas on my helmet after screaming down an alpine descent on a bicycle at seventy-five miles an hour. I want to cross one last finish line as my stud wife and my ten children applaud, and then I want to lie down in a field of those famous French sunflowers and gracefully expire, the perfect contradiction to my once-anticipated early demise."

I've always loved that opening. I found it beautifully poignant, especially last year when I first read it.

[spookyload]

Condoms of urine in his anus? Come on now, even for a France fanboy that has to sound a little out there. And to call Lance a doper before cancer is worthless. He won very little before cancer besides the World Championships. If you are going to jump on the "dirty american" bandwagon, you need stories of how he was cheating the poor frenchmen after cancer (while he did own the Tour).

I loved the quote that LA said last year after the tour. He was asked about Floyds win. He said, "If an American wins it next year for a 9th time we will have to rename it the Americas cup."

[TQ]

I always thought "Tour de Lance" had a nice ring to it...

[JimTram]

Well - allegations or not. He's still my hero, and of course the French are still the French!

[k0NG0]

Lance was a support rider back in the day. I doubt anyone but himself thought he'd win 7 straight TdF's 10-15 years ago. Much less when he had, y'know, one foot out the door.

Vino took a tumble today. Didn't see the fall (was he being a klutz?) but managed to catch the last 30 minutes of the stage live. Very nice with a little climb 15km from the finish. And a nice sprint at the end, great chopper footage after the stage was done illustrating the positioning of the winner (name escapes me right now) and how he moved up the field the last 500m. He really did it brilliantly.

I just realized today that both Vino and Klöden are in Astana. And both are favorites to win the whole shebang. That could be interesting, with support riders and whatnot. Can't believe I didn't know this.

[spookyload]

Here is the quote from cyclingnews. Vino looks pretty rough. He did a great job at limiting his losses through strong teamwork. Don't know if Kloden will start tomorrow.

The Astana team had a major setback on Thursday when their two GC contenders, Alexandre Vinokourov and Andreas Klöden crashed in separate incidents. Andreas Klöden was the first to go down, having touched a wheel of the rider in front when the peloton slowed suddenly. He fell into a roadside ditch, but managed to rejoin the peloton with the help of his team-mate Daniele Navarro. Post-race he was taken to hospital in Autun where X-rays revealed a fracture in his tail bone, which he had already broken in 2003. He also suffered contusions on his thigh and hip.

The team had a second serious mishap when Alexandre Vinokourov crashed after his chain jumped, and had to mount a furious chase for the last 30 kilometres of the stage. He arrived with blood pouring from both knees and his shorts ripped open on the right side.

[XJ.]

First off, this has been a pretty exciting tour, at least in terms of results. But with Vino beat to a pulp on those rough roads and Klöden busting his tail bone (again!), it's gotten a bit less exciting as far as the GC goes. I can't imagine either rider recovering enough to do well in the Alps

[k0NG0]

Yeah, just read elsewhere that Klöden took a tumble too. Astana does sound like it could mean "falling over" in Spanish or something.

¿Donde esta Vinokourov?
¡Meh! Astana...

Too bad. But in a way, I sort of like the idea of a really open field once the mountains come into play. Though I guess Vino has a better chance of actually continuing. Healing scrapes will hurt like the proverbial thousand needles if he's forced to negotiate anything else than lying completely still, but I'm pretty sure he's used to that anyway. As long as there wasn't tissue damage other than bruising, he could be OK to at least finish the Tour, though perhaps not as a top-10 rider.

[spookyload]

If Kloden fractured his tailbone, I can't imagine he would continue. We will see this morning.

[TQ]

This type of bike riding is very popular here in the Central Texas area, what our its hilly terrain, rural environments and open roads. It's quite common to see a large group of riders decked out in racing gear on any day during the spring and summer.
But, I've had two good friends (both excellent athletes and riders) injure themselves very seriously riding these skinny-wheeled tickets to the emergency room.

Back in the 80's I owned three motorcycles over the course of the decade (loved my BMW's) but finally gave 'em up. You couldn't pay me to get back on anything that has less than four wheels and those that do it for sport are mighty men, indeed.
A little crazy, too, maybe.

[TQ]

I just noticed a couple of typos and edits I needed to make in my last post and went to edit it only to find that I have no edit button and down at the bottom of the page the posting rules state that I may not edit my post.

Did I hit an option button I'd never before seen or what?

[TQ]

Weird. I have edit buttons in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. thread but not this one.

[XJ.]

Wow, today was a strange stage!

[spookyload]

Team Astana has fired Matthias Kessler following the positive results of his B-sample, the team announced Friday. Swiss Cycling, the national federation responsible for Kessler, had earlier in the day officially announced the results of the B-sample.

I guess it will continue forever.