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QUOTE (greasywheels121 @ Jun 29, 2010 -> 08:27 PM)
I think you can't not believe him this time, with his age, but Lance Armstrong has called this his last TDF.

I don't believe it. He's not the oldest guy in the peloton yet and he is still competitive. I also think he is able to raise much more money for cancer research by staying competitive. I honestly think he'll race next year (barring any injuries) especially if he is on the podium again.

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Andy Schleck's probably Contador's main danger I'd say.

 

Evans is a smoky purely due to the fact he'll actually have a decent team supporting him at BMC now. What state he'll be in after the Giro de Italia though, we'll see.

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^ I am not sold on the BMC squad. I think the top squad are so powerful, if Cadel wants to win, he'll need to do it on his own.

 

RadioShack, Saxo Bank, Astana, Columbia, Garmin, Liquigas and even Sky are bringing some good teams.

 

I am so excited, I cannot wait, this is my favorite sporting event.

Edited by SuperSteve
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Good day for Evans today, he moved up to 3rd overall.

 

Quite a few cobblestone sections caused a lot of problems.

 

Armstrong finished up more than 2 mins back, while Contador only lost just over 1 minute.

 

Frank Schleck crashed and is out, big blow for Andy Schleck's chances going forward.

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QUOTE (DBAHO @ Jul 6, 2010 -> 06:09 PM)
Good day for Evans today, he moved up to 3rd overall.

 

Quite a few cobblestone sections caused a lot of problems.

 

Armstrong finished up more than 2 mins back, while Contador only lost just over 1 minute.

 

Frank Schleck crashed and is out, big blow for Andy Schleck's chances going forward.

 

Didn't Andy win the stage and he's ahead of Contador? Saxo is a much less potent team without Frank Schleck on board, but the brothers tend to ride harder when one of them is hurt - and with Cancellara on the team too, it should be a fun team to watch. I don't think its Andy's year either, but Saxo could win the team title.

 

And I love Armstrong dropping a minute behind Contador after Bruneel basically boasting that they were gonna eat up Contador for breakfast on the pavee.

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QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Jul 7, 2010 -> 01:47 AM)
Didn't Andy win the stage and he's ahead of Contador? Saxo is a much less potent team without Frank Schleck on board, but the brothers tend to ride harder when one of them is hurt - and with Cancellara on the team too, it should be a fun team to watch. I don't think its Andy's year either, but Saxo could win the team title.

 

And I love Armstrong dropping a minute behind Contador after Bruneel basically boasting that they were gonna eat up Contador for breakfast on the pavee.

They'll still have a good shot at winning the team title, but Andy just lost some major help when they get into the mountain stages. But he could ride harder from here on out absolutely.

 

Armstrong's in major trouble from here, because I don't think he's got any chance of keeping up with Contador in the mountain stages (just like last year) and he's already bout a minute behind him.

 

He's going to need a big stage from Radioshack in the team time - trial stage to try and catch back up.

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QUOTE (DBAHO @ Jul 7, 2010 -> 08:16 AM)
They'll still have a good shot at winning the team title, but Andy just lost some major help when they get into the mountain stages. But he could ride harder from here on out absolutely.

 

Armstrong's in major trouble from here, because I don't think he's got any chance of keeping up with Contador in the mountain stages (just like last year) and he's already bout a minute behind him.

 

He's going to need a big stage from Radioshack in the team time - trial stage to try and catch back up.

 

I'm sure he'll find some excuse to whine about when he falls out of contention in about a week.

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^I don't believe there is a team time trial this year. Last year was the first time in a few years that they had it. It tends to eliminate guys who are on weaker teams but would be in contention otherwise (Evans and Sastre are two great examples last year).

 

Frank getting hurt destroys Andy. Frank was always around Andy in the mountains last year. Cancellara will help Andy when he can but he will be dropped in the mountains. O'Grady and Voight arn't young guys anymore. I think it will fall on Jakob Fuglsang, who rode well in the Tour de Suisse.

 

Such an awesome tour so far. I can't wait for an awesome battle between Contador, Schleck and Evans. Hopefully the big three Shack guys are right there too.

 

Let's go Saxo Bank!!! Ryder Hesjedal has rode great too!!!

 

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Great stage today.

 

Armstrong is done, crashed twice and couldn't get back to the leaders in the climbs. He finished around 7 or 8 mins back from the lead group.

 

Andy Schleck won, Evans has the yellow jersey, Schleck is 20 secs behind and Contador's 3rd 61 secs behind.

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QUOTE (DBAHO @ Jul 11, 2010 -> 10:40 AM)
Great stage today.

 

Armstrong is done, crashed twice and couldn't get back to the leaders in the climbs. He finished around 7 or 8 mins back from the lead group.

 

Andy Schleck won, Evans has the yellow jersey, Schleck is 20 secs behind and Contador's 3rd 61 secs behind.

Armstrong lost roughly 11:30 on todays stage. I was actually more surprised to see Wiggins struggle as much as he did since Sky carried the tempo for quite a bit of the race early on.

 

It was a terrific stage and I find it interesting that everyone was waiting on Contador to follow the accelerations towards the end. Astana definitely looked strong today.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm not happy about Contador's tactics today. I understand why you would attach when Schleck's chain came off but a two-time TDF winner should have wanted to win the right way.

 

I understand the idea of winning at all costs but at least now I know I picked the right GC contender to cheer for. Lets go ANDY!

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QUOTE (SuperSteve @ Jul 19, 2010 -> 10:00 PM)
I'm not happy about Contador's tactics today. I understand why you would attach when Schleck's chain came off but a two-time TDF winner should have wanted to win the right way.

 

I understand the idea of winning at all costs but at least now I know I picked the right GC contender to cheer for. Lets go ANDY!

I read the article about that on Yahoo and I don't understand what the big deal was.

 

Why should other people slow down if your chain came off? They should have every right to pass you and win the race.

 

Apparently it's some kind of etiquette thing, but I don't agree with it.

 

That would be like a baseball player not running to 3rd base if the 2nd baseman couldn't catch the ball, or a basketball player not shooting for a hoop cause the guy defending him tripped, or a nascar racer not winning a race because the car ahead of him crashed, etc etc etc. :-/

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Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck are hands down the class of the field. Contador is a two-time champ (would already be a three-timer if not for Vino's blood doping in 2007), people want to see the favorite win by making everyone else crack, not by attacking on a mechanical malfunction after he was slow to react to Schleck's attack. Paul Sherwen called his move "desperate" as it was going on.

 

The first thing I thought when I was watching the stage was when Lance waited for Jan Ullrich after Ullrich crashed years ago. Those two men were the class of the field (along with Pantani) and Ullrich would have won more TDFs had it not been for Lance (Pantani wouldn't have beaten him again). Lance wanted to win the "right" way. Show he was the best of the best and no one could ride with him. He was in everyone's head (ultimately gave Ullrich depression according to Ullrich).

 

Personally, I love the professional cycling and I have been loving this tour. I have watched and followed the Tour for over a decade and this years edition has the makings of the best Tour I have ever seen however I wanted to see Contador or Scheck win by dropping the other (although I figured Contador would win on the TT). I understand both sides of the argument, but for me personally, I wanted the dual of duals.

 

 

On a side note, this showed how big Frank Scheck's injury was. He would have been in the group when Andy had the problem and he would have destroyed himself trying to get his brother back to Contador.

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  • 2 months later...

Contador fails second test for different substance.

A test new to the antidoping movement was used for the first time at the Tour de France last summer, and now it appears that the three-time Tour winner Alberto Contador — who tested positive for a banned drug at the race — may have more explaining to do.

 

That new test detects a specific type of chemical, called a plasticizer, that is found in plastic IV bags. Evidence of that chemical in an athlete’s urine could mean the athlete has used a blood transfusion to boost endurance. The World Anti-Doping Agency bans blood transfusions or any intravenous infusions, except in a medical emergency.

 

A test performed on at least one of Contador’s urine samples from the Tour revealed levels of that chemical eight times higher than the minimum amount that signifies doping, according to a person with knowledge of the test results.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...
QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 18, 2011 -> 04:34 PM)
This bit is very, very, very vague on what is in it...but it sounds like Selena Roberts has an enormous piece coming out in next week's issue of Sports Illustrated on Lance Armstrong and the juice.

I posted that in squared-circle because I didn't feel like going back tons of pages for this thread. You are a better man than I.

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