[fatkid2000]

Some commentators think the race is over already and that Astana will walk away with it despite the internal team battles.

I think we will have to wait until the mountains to see just how good condition Lance is in. I expect it will all come down to penultimate day on Ventoux which will make for an exciting race.

[hairich]

come on lance you legend.if he wins after 3 years out it will be the biggest thing in sport ever

[chappers]

i personally am not a fan of armstrong, and i feel sorry for contador/want contador to tech him a lesson for his strange manner in the face of the media once we get to the mountains.

i was discussing earlier about his behavoiur in the media, if a football team was having an internal power struggle there is no way that one of the potential captains of that team would appear saying what he is. mind games...

im with you squeek on the evans call. borrrring!!

[Plattsy]

Contador is gonna kick ass in mountains and I wouldn't be surprised if Kloden was hot on his heels.

Also not that I'm defending Evans but he did try to attack in the Giro this year. I was 

[squeek]

come on lance you legend.if he wins after 3 years out it will be the biggest thing in sport ever

Rubbish. 

Armstrong wins = small colour photo two pages from back cover of british papers, brief mention without video in national tv news.

Armstrong in yellow for last week, then done for doping on final day = Front page of papers, in length video special including interviews in national tv news.

[chappers]

squeek, the d word is banned here!!

today didnt go to plan then...

good to see cav dashing for third though, im with him for taking the green all the way to paris due to seeing the dedication today.

[fatkid2000]

The French government must be plotting some plan to catch Lance out on some kind of doping offence. The French hate him so much they would do anything to prevent him winning again. He got tested today.

Got to agree with Squeek - cycling won't get a look in -its the Ashes, that sport England excels at getting beaten at by the Aussies.

I'm just trying to decide which bike I want / need - The Spesh SL3 looks nice - maybe not bright yellow, Cav's paintjob looks cool on his Scott Addict although the Wilier Cento Uno always looks good or how about the Cervelo S3. 

 

[squeek]

squeek, the d word is banned here!!

Maybe, but I'm not wrong.  Cav was close to second too.

[fatkid2000]

squeek, the d word is banned here!!

Cav was close to second too.

That position is called third.

[squeek]

squeek, the d word is banned here!!

Cav was close to second too.

That position is called third.

Yes, but my point was that almost caught the guy from the break who was going much slower, rather than he failed to out sprint someone else.

[IanP]

Yes, but my point was that almost caught the guy from the break who was going much slower, rather than he failed to out sprint someone else.

Good point - Cav still hasn't been beaten in a sprint and put more distance between himself and his green jersey rivals.

[Palomides]

Yes, but my point was that almost caught the guy from the break who was going much slower, rather than he failed to out sprint someone else.

Good point - Cav still hasn't been beaten in a sprint and put more distance between himself and his green jersey rivals.

As someone who only recently got into cycling, I'm finding this tour really gripping.

I saw a few remarks from Columbia complaining that they had to do all the work, as the other sprint teams weren't pulling. Some interesting comment on velonews suggested that this was good for Cav, in that it shows that he's already established a psychological advantage over his rivals - they know he's going to crush them all in a sprint, so they're already resigned to fighting for second place. Apparently this was what Armstrong used to do; establish dominance early on?

However, as this is only Cavendish's second tour (?) and he's only what, 24? it seems a bit like the other teams are banking on him being completely trashed for the later sprint stages. It's a long way to Paris yet.

[Plattsy]

Millar is trying to TT his way to the end of this one. Not sure he's got enough of a gap.

[erm, sam]

Aaaaargh. Just watched Millar get caught with 1km to go. Bollocks. Epic.

[chappers]

bollocks been away from my computer all day, not seen the tour, saving it for the itv4 footage. thought i would just log on thinking that nobody would have said owt on here. ruined it for myself!   

[bigd942]

Good chance of an Astana 1,2,3 which would be a first I think, is a team sport after all. Armstrongs Twitter makes for a good read sometimes, read the other day he was on about 32 drugs tests in the season, and went on to say, been drug free the last 10 years (ie all his tour wins) - thought it odd no-one asked "well what about more than 10 years ago, we're you clean then?"
Tour has been good the last three years without Lance, yep Landis was a bit iffy but what a day to ride away like that, Contador's win was good as was Sastre's so still think the race holds up without the 'Lance' factor. Good pic's of all the new kit on the Weight Weenies road forum btw, under the pro stuff.

[fatkid2000]

Good pic's of all the new kit on the Weight Weenies road forum btw, under the pro stuff.

The new Spesh SL3 has a weight built up of under 6Kg -(SRAM Red), Zipp 202 wheels- and thats the one you can buy in the shops!! So the pros must stick some weight on or something to get up to the UCI weight limit or run heavier wheels.
Lampre were appparently running a Wiier Cento Uno with integration for the new Di2 dura ace groupset.

[Plattsy]

Mr Wiggins has just twitted that some news is gonna shock the cycling world. 

[Falling Down]

Interesting Tweet from Bradley W 5 mins ago about 'news' that's going to shock the cyclingn world.....

[Duma]

So he's not going to sky? That's it?

[Plattsy]

Would appear so. Not shocking although I think it's a shame. I'm looking forward to a British team. Just hope it turns out to be a good team.

First mountain stage today  . Evans has to attack. No two ways about it. Will they let him go? I suspect they might.

Rain expected again.

[chappers]

i dont know what to think about team sky.
how will it represent a british team? only that they are registered in the uk? because they sure as hell aint going to get their hands on many good british pros, they seem to be content riding in foreign teams from what i can tell...so i assume that they will take any rider, in which case how "british" will this team be?

evans wont attack, he cant. sastre though...

[Plattsy]

Good point forgot about Sastre.

[fatkid2000]

Team Sky won't be a fully British Team - it has aims of doing well / winning a grand tour. It won't at the moment. Britain does not have the riders - to win the Giro or Le Tour you need to be a world class climber & be capable of putting down a good solid time trial and I can't think of anyone at the moment that is British and able to do that.
I agree with Chappers the current crop of British riders seem happy where they are - Millar will probably take over Garmin Slipstream when he stops riding, from what I understand he has some management role already & was heavily involved setting the team up. Lance seems to be courting Cav at the moment - apparently for some kind of Livestrong team. Bradley who knows?

Hopefully Evans will get destroyed for being a whinging Australian - although I do feel a touch sorry for him,  I think he could have won le tour in the past, but the team he has around him just don't do it for him.

[chappers]

Hopefully Evans will get destroyed for being a whinging Australian - although I do feel a touch sorry for him,  I think he could have won le tour in the past, but the team he has around him just don't do it for him.

 
i have no interest in watching him at all. too boring.

i am looking forward to an attack from sastre, he needs to get back on terms.