[Richie Crouch]

Made up to see Cav get a stage after the negative press over the last few days!

[fatdoc]

kept myself *blind* on the net to see the highlights...


lump in throat moment....

good luck tomorrow Cav... he was the fastest today... lets see some more... fuckin great TV!

[chappers]

looks like i was well wrong there then.

pretty touched watching that interview, good to see how much it all means to him.

[Percy B]

I spend all afternoon avoiding finding out who's won, saving myself for the highlights and then the bloody news reader on 6music of all places announced that Cav had won whilst I was driving home from work. Gutted! Bloody 6music - and I campaigned to save you lot, you bastards!

I'm well happy that Cav won though.

[fatdoc]

6music 

you  deserve it mate 

[BB]

Well done Cav. What a great post race interview. It was really touching to see how emotional he was about making sure he didn't let his team down.

[chappers]

great exciting racing this weekend, shame to see wiggins blow in the last kms, i thought he was looking good.

[Palomides]

Reminded me of when he got dropped on Ventoux last year.

Still, he only lost 1m45, it's not like he trailed in almost 12 minutes down on the lead group....

Nice to see Andy Schleck put in a proper attack - although his windmilling victory celebrations were a bit too disturbingly sapling-in-a-storm. At least he didn't snap off an arm.

[squeek]

great exciting racing this weekend, shame to see wiggins blow in the last kms, i thought he was looking good.

It's those black socks that do it.  Roche looked wrecked when he got dropped.

It's good to see these athletes say it straight when they don't make it too, rather than make a load of excuses up. 

Should be a good one tomorrow.  Maybe Lance will do a Landis and get the yellow? 

[chappers]

i think lance has been "doing a Landis" his whole career, but he has just avoided getting caught!

why would team sky ride in black in the 35 degree heat? is brailsford mad?

[Palomides]

They have white panels on the back, and mesh sides:



(but this doesn't rule out DB being a fruitcake...)

[mjh]

why would team sky ride in black in the 35 degree heat? is brailsford mad?

More to the point was Team Sky's suicidal push up the penultimate climb, so that BW was left with little/no help on the last climb...

[chappers]

why would team sky ride in black in the 35 degree heat? is brailsford mad?

More to the point was Team Sky's suicidal push up the penultimate climb, so that BW was left with little/no help on the last climb...

tdf suicide! no surprise that he couldnt hold on at the end!

[cofe]

interesting to see Contador unable to follow Schleck at the end the other day. Was he just fucked, or what? Do the roadies know?

[Palomides]

I'm not really a roadie, but...

Reading some of the rest-day press reports, contador made it sound like he started responding, then decided to wait for the rest of the group. Bear in mind that Contador is apparently aiming to peak in the third week...

However, I've also seen suggestions that he'd had breathing difficuties during the stage, so he might not have been able to follow - far better to let AS get a few seconds and not show the world that he couldn't counter the attack.

Those few seconds are probably not too important. The final "real" stage this year is a 50km time trial in Bordeaux. Contador can expect to take at least 3 or 4 minutes out of Schleck. If AS wants to win then he has to have a lead of around 5 minutes before then. That means attacking at every opportunity in a real rabid-badger Hinault style. Of course now he doesn't have to wait for his slower big bro, which should help.

[mjh]

It was the first I ever remember seeing Contador in any sort of trouble in the TdF, so I think it was significant.  It will give Schleck real confidence that he can put time between himself and Contador (though perhaps not on today's stage - 30km from top of the Madeleine to the finish).

Palomides is right that Schleck knows he needs a decent time gap for the TT stage, but that just makes it more likely he will attack.

[chappers]

Cofidis rode my favorite ever bike today (mine would have campagnolo super record and lightweight wheels - im my dreams like (logs onto national lottery site)).

[Palomides]

I think I'm most impressed with the cranks on that bike - a one-piece carbon monocoque that has to be threaded through from the drive side:


It'll never catch on...

[chappers]

well...what the fuck was renshaw up to this afternoon? does that by default put cav out of the tour too?

[tlr]

Certainly wouldn't be surprised if Cav throws his toys out of the pram and goes home too.

Renshaw's second action did seem pretty blatant; look left then veer violently across to block.

Loved the  though....nutcase.

[Snoops]

well...what the fuck was renshaw up to this afternoon? does that by default put cav out of the tour too?

He was leaned on, if u see the helicopter shot, dean moves them all to the left so Renshaw didn't start it. As tlr says, the veer to his left after cav had already gone was wild though.

[mjh]

Renshaw was treated pretty harshly - Dean came across him and pushed him to the barriers so he used his head to tell him to get off his line (it was hardly the violent headbutt that some of the media have made it out to be).  Using his head was brighter than sitting up and taking hands off the bars.  OK his second move where he blocked Farrar was cynical, but that was essentially what Dean had tried to do to him....

[Dolly]

Cav did seem pretty gutted when interviewed afterwards didn't he ?
He hardly knew what to say.
I guess that's why I quite like him - cos he's not a PR trained platitude delivering automoton
and... he's pretty fucking good at riding a bike extremely fast

[squeek]

well...what the fuck was renshaw up to this afternoon? does that by default put cav out of the tour too?

Lets see how he did without Renshaw in 2008:

"On the road, Cavendish won his first stages of a grand tour, by picking two victories in the 2008 Giro d'Italia.[26]  Cavendish won four further stages in the 2008 Tour de France, his first coming in stage 5 from Cholet to Châteauroux.[27]  He won again on stage 8, stage 12 and Stage 13, making him the first British rider to collect four stages in a single Tour."

Shouldn't be too bad.  Won't he just sit on Pettachi's wheel/leadout and then (try to) beat him in the sprint?

headbutting was okay IMHO, but the swerve was dangerous, could have easily caused a crash into the barriers.

[fatdoc]