Tour De France

[jetje]

Well yesterday it started with a the prologue... Will Armstrong win his historical 6th time? that will be the great questionmark in this years race. I think it's in the advantage of the true climbers the mountains will be in the last two weeks of this years race. Therefor i think a better climber then Armstrong will win this years tour.

Do you follow it and who are your favorites?

my list: of the top 10 of this tour:
yellow (overall time)
01 Mayo
02 Ullrich
03 Tyler Hamilton
04 Lance Armstrong
05 Roberto Heras
06 Denis Menchov
07 Oscar pereiro
08 Georg Totschnig
09 Ivan Basso
10 Francesco Mancebo

In sprinting, Allesandro Pettachi will be hard to beat, the competition will come from Baden Cooke, Thor Hushovd, Robbie McEwen. Outsiders in the sprints will be
Jean Patric Nazon, Tom Boonen Bernhard eisel, Stuart o'grady, Erik Zabel and allan Davis... And you never know what Mario Cippolini will do this Tour :rolleyes:

Mountains will be the domain of the Spanish riders, Iban Mayo, Francesco Mancebo, Oscar Sevilla,Oscar Pereiro, Igor de Gozalez galdeano, Roberto Heras and Haimar Zubeldia.
Other climbers that can compete well there are ofcourse Ullrich, Armstrong, Hamilton, Simoni, Basso and Menchov. Alway wandering when the polka dot yearsey that seem to belong to frenchman Richard Virenque (6 times winner of it) will change to another rider. I think Virenque isn't strong enough this year to compete well for that, but with his character you'll never know.

Overall i think it will be a very interesting 4 weeks!
:)

[BILLY-THE-FISH]

I agree with you that I think it's one of the toughest sporting events on the planet!
I think that Armstrong WILL create history and become the first six times winner in a row!

ps. By the way I think the Tour only lasts 3 weeks?? Maybe Im wrong??

[yonki]

Yes its just 3 weeks. And i think its Ullrich time again. He has been 2nd 5 times!!!!
Armstrong is the favourite, but this year he wont have Heras or Hamilton in his team.

[jetje]

yeah ofcourse three weeks... :blink: don't know why i put up 4...

Yesterday the old fox Kirsipuu surprised the complete sprint elite to beat them all in the sprint. McEwen took a gamble and was taking the wheel of the big favorite Pettachi.. Although he probably was the fastest sprinter, because of the wrong gamble he came a few inches short to win the 1st stage.
http://img13.exs.cx/img13/8084/tdffinishstage1.jpg

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[BILLY-THE-FISH]

Originally posted by jetje@5 July 2004 - 09:27
yeah ofcourse three weeks... :blink: don't know why i put up 4...

Yesterday the old fox Kirsipuu surprised the complete sprint elite to beat them all in the sprint. McEwen took a gamble and was taking the wheel of the big favorite Pettachi.. Although he probably was the fastest sprinter, because of the wrong gamble he came a few inches short to win the 1st stage.
http://img13.exs.cx/img13/8084/tdffinishstage1.jpg

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[img]http://img18.exs.cx/img18/4546/tdfstage1.jpg' width='200' height='120' border='0' alt='click for full size view'> (http://img18.exs.cx/img18/4546/tdfstage1.jpg)
Nice post Jetje!!

[jetje]

Australia's Robbie McEwen took stage two of the Tour de France after winning a mass sprint finish in Namur.
The Lotto rider comfortably beat Thor Hushovd to the line at the end of the 197km trek from Charleroi but the 12 second time bonus for second position gave the Norwegian rider the yellow jersey.
Six riders, including Ireland's Mark Scanlon, attacked at the 10km mark and built up a maximum lead of five minutes before being hauled back by the peloton with just over 20km to go.
Alessandro Petacchi's Fasso Bortolo team then maintained a fast pace to ensure a collective charge to the line which saw Jimmy Casper and Kurt-Asle Arvesen come down, thankfully unhurt, on a sweeping left-hand turn 200m from the line.
However Gian Matteo Fagnini, Mario Cipollini's chief lead-out rider for the Domina Vacanze team, was forced to abandon the tour after fracturing his collarbone in an earlier crash.
It was McEwen's fourth stage win in the Tour and he dedicated the victory to former team-mate Steve Vermaut who suffered a heart attack last month and after several weeks in an artificial coma, lost his life on Wednesday.
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[jetje]

A tough day out there, the tour drove from Belgian place Waterloo to Wasquehal france. The stage was 210 km, the distance wasn't as hard as the cobblestones roads the drivers had to take...
It was a hard day, some guys did fell hard on the cobblestones and top-five contenders like Mayo, his teammate Haimar Zubeldia (both Euskatel), last year's best young rider, Russian Denis Menchov (Illes Balears) and Frenchman Christophe Moreau (Credít Agricole)were the big loosers this day. They lost 4 minutes time for the overall standing, it will be very hard for them now to reach the podium, although i still believe Mayo is the strongest driver in this Tour!
Other losers were Norwegian driver Thor Hushovdt, who lost his yelow jearsey and saw his opponents competing for the green jearsey (Points!) gather a lot of points without him being able to compete.

Biggest loser of the day was Marco Velo, the italian driver broke the keybone in his shoulder and is out of the race!

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[img]http://img17.exs.cx/img17/6792/tdfstage3.jpg

[internet.news]

I know nothing about this sport apart from I use to have a boss who kept going on about how Lance Armstrong rules so that's my vote :01:

[BILLY-THE-FISH]

After stage four (Wednesday 7th) .... Armstrong now takes the lead!!

Will he hold it??
Only time will tell..... :smilie4:

[brenda]

yes, agreed, definately the toughest. although I know none of the racers I've watched it a couple of times and it quite brutal.

[user123]

Absolutely the toughest race B)

I think Lance Armstrong will come good in the mountains this year & win the tour ;)

Shame about Pantani, even though he had drug problems he was the best climber i have ever seen B)

[blitz]

Lance Armstrong is gonna win it. Once again, the Americans will come out victorious ;)

[BILLY-THE-FISH]

Latest Leader Board after Stage 17 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/tour_results_and_standings/3839717.stm)
Surely It's all over now... barring accidents!
Armstrong is so strong!

[Busyman]

Lance Armstrong wins!!!

I think he should go for number 7 next year!!!

I say make the record even more uncatchable.

[Jay]

nothing can stop that man. i think he still got a whole lot more victories under his belt.

[jetje]

personally i think it has been Lance's last Tour de France. Next year he probably goes for the Vuelta (Tour de Spain) or Giro (Tour de Italy). Both also are 3 weeks of racing.
i think he will show he can win more as the tour de france, so his palmares shows looks better when he stops racing. :)