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Le Tour De France 2009

Red Devon

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Shaping up to be a good race - 2 stage wins for Britains Mark Cavendish already and Armstrong up to 3rd in the overall standings - should be an interesting 3 weeks.
 

Mr Jan Yeo

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Expecting Lance to fade during the mountains and TBH not sure that Cav has the strength or the guts to get through both ranges. If he can make it to Paris then I would expect him to win the green jersey on stage wins alone :-O
 

International

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You have got to be impressed with Garmin yesterday considering that they rode half of the course with only 5 riders. I am wondering what is going through the mind of the Directeur Sportif of the Astana team, with so much fire power and at least 3 riders with the potential of winning the tour and that is without Alexandre Vinokourov. Does Johan Bruyneel actually know who is his 'team leader' and who are the domestiques?
 

Mr Jan Yeo

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Astana won't have a team leader until the mountains, far better to hedge you bets when you have such fire power in Leipheimer, Armstron and Contador. I'm surprised HTC weren't quicker in the TTT but then suppose they did a lot of work the day before and also nice to see Lotto doing badly because Evans always comes across as a **** whenever someone interviews him :D
 

International

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Looking forward to the Brighton Marathon
Astana won't have a team leader until the mountains, far better to hedge you bets when you have such fire power in Leipheimer, Armstron and Contador.
Leipheimer is possibly one of the strongest domestiques the tour has ever seen. I still believe Johan Bruyneel must know who his team leader is, otherwise I feel they may get to the mountains and still be debating this very point.

also nice to see Lotto doing badly because Evans always comes across as a **** whenever someone interviews him :D
Amen to that. The Lotto team are truly awful this year :)
 

denzel

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Tomorrow's stage should sort them out, be interesting to see if Contador can pip Armstrong.

Interestingly no one is talking about Sastre, who has to be in with a shout.
 

International

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The conditions today really made it difficult. David Millar gave a valiant performance at the front and if there was ever a day where a lone rider from the pack had a chance to keep away from the peloton today was it.

The finish is an impressive 2240m above sea level. The old Lance Armstrong would usually use the first mountain stage to stamp his authority on the rest of the field, so that could make it very interesting indeed. Menchov will be the first to attack. Once they have lost their ‘up the road helper’ expect the likes of Evans, Sastre, and Schleck working together to try and break the Astana dominance. Contador will ride the last climb like he is the race leader.

What kind of sadist puts two sprints on the slopes of an HC climb?
 

LOG

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The, sorry, Le Tour de France, is such a contradiction.

On one hand, it's one of the most dull and drawn out "races" there is.

On the other, it's an unbelievable test of endurance that mere mortals like 99.99%, if not more, could not even ever contemplate.

As Jeremy Beadle once said, on one hand i've got a small c*ck, but on the other, it's quite big.

I go with big, as it were.
 

Poultice

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Cavendish pretty comfortable going up a hill and Wiggins fifth in the GC, it would seem that British class on the track is starting to translate onto the road, could we see a Brit win the Tour once Murdoch gets Team Sky GB going ?
 

edindevon

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Together We Are Stronger.
Wiggins was superb today, but I think the Alps might get the better of him. I've got a feeling this could be Andy Schleck's year.

TV highlights never really show what's happening behind the peloton, which is a shame as we miss out on seeing the specialist sprinters and the injured floundering up mountains, falling further and further down the leaderboard. You can keep up with the race for last place on the excellent Lanterne Rouge blog.

http://tdflr.blogspot.com/

Wim Vansevenant, who finished last overall in 2006,2007 and 2008 (an unprecedented feat) has retired from cycling to become a farmer.
 
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