re: le Tour de France 2012--Official Thread

I think Cav has to be the favourite for Olympics, he's already won the test event for it, the British squad is strong and will be able to catch any break aways if necessary..he also still holds the stigma of being the only Brit not to win a medal at the last olympics for cycling as extra motivation

I can't remember Ulrich or Zabel ever helping each other except realearly in their careers. Zabel usually got spit out the back in the mountains (though he was a far better climber than most sprinters) and Ullrich would ride with the team to avoid crashes, but I can't remember him taking pulls at the front on flat stages.

Telekom is one of the most dysfunctional teams in sports history. They made a MOVIE about how dysfunctional the team was. They just served too many masters - they brought in guys like Kloden and Vinokourov, who just competed for the GC with Ullrich instead of trying to be good domestiques. Though the staggering talent the team had is amazing.... Julich, Evans, Botero, Totschnig, Sevilla, Kessler, Honchar, Rogers, etc.

Zabel is one of the all-time greats. Loved that guy.

Baloo, jump to the 20:00 mark of this video.

LINK

Today, Wiggins made statement and put everyone on notice that he plans on keeping the yellow jersey for the next two weeks. Imagine beating Sparticus by almost a minute in a flat time trial.

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Wouldn't be surprised if Sky was full of juicers. Having two guys beat Cancellara by that much is a red flag

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What's even more of a Red Flag was Froome's come from behind victory over Evans at the finish day before yesterday. He leads them up the mountain as the domestique; then, he's got enough in the tank to surge past Evans on a counter attack.

And after that large output, he beats Cancellara in the time trial by over 20 seconds?

I don't doubt Wiggins can be in great form, but this guy, Froome, has instantly become the best climber and second best time trialer?

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Froome has beaten Wiggins in a time trial before and has a 2nd overall at Vuelta a Espana last year, 4th in the Daulphine this year he's not completely out of the blue.

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I agree that he's a good rider. I just don't believe that he's 45 seconds faster than Cancellara in a time trial.... unless you think that Cancellara was still suffereing from over-exerting on the climb. Even then, is Froome over a minute better than everyone else? Maybe so. Maybe I'm underestimating him. But I wouldn't be surprised if he's got some help, either.

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However i hate that Time trials are going to decide the Tour once again, assuming the final one goes the same as this Cadel is going to need to gain about 5 minutes between now and that TT

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He'll need 4-5 minutes, but I think he can get that over the course of the mountains. He's looked pretty strong when he's attacked. It'll depend on his ability to attack/descend versus Team Sky's 1-2 punch.

Voeckler back at it again

Nibali just went on the offensive
Damn he had Sagan with him there for a few minutes but he just couldnt keep up. Team Sky, or at least what remains of it is doing work at the head of the maillot jaune peloton and they will probably catch back up with Nibali who's riding solo at this point.

Is Thomas Voeckler the biggest fan favorite in Tour history? I love the guy. He rides so hard. If he only had the skill of the top guys.

Yeah it's going to be very hard, the work they did today at the front of the maillort jaune group was impressive. Nabali tried and even took Sagan with him to help him out but Sagan just couldn't hang in there. Today's race was very entertaining and tomorrow's should be as well.