Le Tour de France

[Wim]

Bad day for the Astana team yesterday, with Vinokoerov and Kloden hitting the tarmac. 2 heavy weekend days in the Alps waiting before resting on Monday. But before that,today, the sprinters can come in action again. After sprinters McEwen, Steegmans,Hushovd and Pozzato it stime for Tom Boonen I may think.
Blondie ? where are you, I m feeling lonely here

[elvaago]

Who do you all consider the best cyclist of all times?

Jacques Anquetil? Eddie Merckx? Jan Jansen? Joop Zoetemelk? Bernard Hinault? Greg Lemond? Stephen Roche? Miguel Indurain? Lance Armstrong?

In my opinion the best ever has to be Merckx with Hinault as second.

[Blondie]

Bad day for the Astana team yesterday, with Vinokoerov and Kloden hitting the tarmac. 2 heavy weekend days in the Alps waiting before resting on Monday. But before that,today, the sprinters can come in action again. After sprinters McEwen, Steegmans,Hushovd and Pozzato it stime for Tom Boonen I may think.
Blondie ? where are you, I m feeling lonely here

Hey Wim,

..........I'm here, , and a bit late today, , and quite a win for Filippo Pozzato stage 5 yesterday, and the overall standings now have Fabian Cancellara still leading, Kloden 2nd, Filippo 3rd, and David Millar 4th.

And interesting to see how they will all get on today, Semur-en-Auxois to Bourg-en-Bresse, and I'm sure they'll all be glad of the rest on Monday...

And good luck to Tom and David too...

Lol....xx

[Wim]

Hey Wim,

..........I'm here, , and a bit late today, , and quite a win for Filippo Pozzato stage 5 yesterday, and the overall standings now have Fabian Cancellara still leading, Kloden 2nd, Filippo 3rd, and David Millar 4th.

And interesting to see how they will all get on today, Semur-en-Auxois to Bourg-en-Bresse, and I'm sure they'll all be glad of the rest on Monday...

And good luck to Tom and David too...

Lol....xx

Hi Blondie

What a Friday the 13 th for Tom Boonen. In fact things did not look that good for Tom 2 km before the end: the blue lead out train of Quick Step didn't look well at all - Gert Steegmans failing again and derailing things by 'losing' again the wheel of team mate (I think) DeJongh. Boonen decided to go for it! But then his 'derailleur' (don't know the translation so this picture: (http://home.casema.nl/comet51969/ima...derailleur.jpg ) was hit by another rider and was becoming useless. He finally won with that tremendous power of body he has and finishing at 67 km/h !!!
So things getting serious from now on, let us see how CSC will defend the yellow shirt of cancerala.

[Blondie]

Hey Wim,

.........and what an incredible stage 6 win for Tom yesterday, and thank you for the piccie, and even with this misfortune, Tom still won, incredible really. And there must have been great celebrations where you are..

And stage 7 beckons, Bourg-en-Bresse to Le Grand Bornand, and I can hear "Les montagnes appellent tous les pelerins colportant", and hope I said that right....

Continues to be a great race though, , and with the Alps ahead it's going to be tougher and tougher. And good luck to everyone, especially Tom and David...

Lol.....xx

[Wim]

Hey Wim,
.........and what an incredible stage 6 win for Tom yesterday, and thank you for the piccie, and even with this misfortune, Tom still won, incredible really. And there must have been great celebrations where you are..
And stage 7 beckons, Bourg-en-Bresse to Le Grand Bornand, and I can hear "Les montagnes appellent tous les pelerins colportant", and hope I said that right....
Continues to be a great race though, , and with the Alps ahead it's going to be tougher and tougher. And good luck to everyone, especially Tom and David...
Lol.....xx

Hi Blondie

What a test, today, for The Astana team of Vinokoerov and Kloden after their bad luck this week. They could be pushed back for good in the Alps. So the hiding is over and teams like Caisse d'Epargne with Alejandro Valverde will have to show how strong they are. We could be in for a french victory as today it is July 14 th 'French National Holiday'

Still looking for the correct english word for "derailleur" as used in a previous message Anyone ?
http://home.casema.nl/comet51969/ima...derailleur.jpg

[Wim]

Who do you all consider the best cyclist of all times?

Jacques Anquetil? Eddie Merckx? Jan Jansen? Joop Zoetemelk? Bernard Hinault? Greg Lemond? Stephen Roche? Miguel Indurain? Lance Armstrong?

In my opinion the best ever has to be Merckx with Hinault as second.

Definitely Eddy Merckx and not because I m a Belgian myself. He was the all round champion and not limited to the tour of France. He also won the most important one day races as the Tour of Flanders, Paris Roubaix,Milan San Remo, World championship,etc...So his career is unequaled. After some reflection I agree with you for the second best, Bernard Hinault.

[attilahun]

Great stage and a very unlikely winner - Gerdemann. He also took the yellow jersey. But I wonder if he can resist tomorrow when the stage is Hell on Earth, anyway a solid performance. And Kloden and Vino are still in the race despide the medical problems.
I can t wait for tomorrow .....

[Blondie]

Hey Wim,

..........and what an amazing win yesterday in stage 7 for the rookie, Linus Gerdemann, T-Mobile, winning the first alpine stage.

Stage 8 beckons today, Le Grand Bornand - Tignes, and in the overall standings now David Millar has moved down from 4th to 53rd place, and I hope he has a better day today. And good luck to Tom as well.

It certainly is a very surprising race so far.....

Lol......xx

[Wim]

Great posts already from Attilahun and Blondie about the stage of yesterday.
What can I add ? I think the Astana team is playing games about the injuries of Kloden and Vinokoerov. They ended without any difficulty in front. So today could be their day. And CSC is going for Sastre in the mountains, Cancerala doing great job already for him. I expect Caisse d'Epargne with Valverde going in the attack well.
And what a performance of Gerdemann. So young and such a big effort. He looked really exhausted at the end, the way he finished and stepped off his bike..he must have gone very deep.

[attilahun]

What a day for M. Rasmussen !!!. That is what he gained today :
1. He won the stage
2. He took the yellow jesey
3. He took the polka dot jersey
4. He became the most combative rider and
5. He is the first danish to wear the yellow jersey in almost 10 years.
incredible day for him.

On the other hand T-Mobile lost in this stage the yellow jersey and, more important they lost their leader, Michael Rogers, who had to retire due to a fall. And i think that he had a good chance this year because he started this stage so well and because in this edition there are 2 IT's( individual time trial) and he won the ITT World Champs in 3 occasions. Bad Luck for the german team.

Vinokurov is finished i think and when the team asked Kloden to wait for Vino they made a great mistake because they ruined Kloden's chances as well.

After today's stage the overall standings are :
1. Rasmussen
2. Gerdemann at 0'43
3. I.mayo at 2'39
4. Valverde at 2'51

[Blondie]

Hey Wim,

........and a fantastic stage 8 win for Michael Rasmussen and Rabobank, and a little danish congratulations message below...

"Tillykke hen til Michael Rasmussen nemlig gevinst en utroligt scene 8. Skon Michael, og nuvel gennemstegt hen til jer og Rabobank.."

[and hope I've written that correctly, , just really congratulating Michael on his incredible win... ]

And I think Michael was awarded the 'King of the Mountains' classification in tour de france 2006, so to an extent the mountains are his speciality, and interesting to see how things progress as I think as well that they still have the Pyrenees to go through...

And I notice that David Millar is now 88th in the overall standings, so good luck to David in the next stage too. And that Tom Boonen is 124th, and a good luck message to Tom as well..

"Et la bon chance Tom Boonen, Innergetic d'Etape Rapide, vous pouvez le faire toujours, et vous souhaiter beaucoup de force et le courage dans le stages prochain.." [and hope that's right.. ]

And looking forward to stage 9 now, Val-d'isere - Briancon, and what a great, exciting race....

Lol.....xx

[Wim]

Great reporting from my fellow tourmates about yesterday's stage !!

And Blondie I didn't know about your hidden talents. A very international approach of facts by speaking different languages. The perfect daughter-in-law as we should say here. Translating Quick-Step (Innergetic) in Etape Rapide was very original!!

No cycling today. What idea to invite the women/girlfriends during this day off, as if they hadn't enough mountains to climb already

Tomorrow the tour will go over the l'Iseran and the Galibier, both having their summit at 2700 m...

[Nanon]

On the other hand T-Mobile lost in this stage the yellow jersey and, more important they lost their leader, Michael Rogers, who had to retire due to a fall.

And they lost their helper Patrick Sinkewitz because he crashed into a spectator after the race and have to back out of the Tour.

Vinokurov is finished i think and when the team asked Kloden to wait for Vino they made a great mistake because they ruined Kloden's chances as well.

I can't unterstand the "tactic" of the Astana Team and I think it wasn't a sporting decision but an instruction of the sponsor or something like that.

[attilahun]

[QUOTE=Nanon]And they lost their helper Patrick Sinkewitz because he crashed into a spectator after the race and have to back out of the Tour.

That means T-Mobile are reduced to only 6 men. They lost Rogers, Sinkewitz and Cavendish, all three in yesterday stage. Wow.