2009 TDF stage 18: Annecy - Annecy 40.5 km

Stage 18: Annecy - Annecy 40.5 km

MOUNTAIN PASSES & HILLS

Km 28.5: Côte de Bluffy - 3.7 km climb to 6 % - Category 3


General classification after stage 17 ( top 25 )

1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 72:27:09
2 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:02:26
3 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:03:25
4 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana 0:03:55
5 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana 0:04:44
6 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream 0:04:53
7 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas 0:05:09
8 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Garmin - Slipstream 0:08:08
9 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Française des Jeux 0:09:19
10 Mikel Astarloza Chaurreau (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 0:10:50
11 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas 0:10:52
12 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 0:11:38
13 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Cervelo Test Team 0:11:39
14 Sandy Casar (Fra) Française des Jeux 0:11:52
15 Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Team Katusha 0:12:08
16 Stéphane Goubert (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:15:29
17 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Silence - Lotto 0:17:23
18 Alexandre Botcharov (Rus) Team Katusha 0:19:20
19 Brice Feillu (Fra) Agritubel 0:21:50
20 Christian Knees (Ger) Team Milram 0:24:15
21 Pierre Rolland (Fra) BBOX Bouygues Telecom 0:25:07
22 George Hincapie (USA) Team Columbia - HTC 0:25:38
23 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quick Step 0:25:45
24 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale 0:28:38
25 Linus Gerdemann (Ger) Team Milram 0:28:49

Attached Thumbnails

     

__________________
Steve
CyclingForums.com

1. Cancellara
2. Wiggins
3. Armstrong
4. Kloden
5. Contador

Schlecks will finish outside the top ten but probably in the top 20. They should loose a good bit of time though because most of this course is pancake flat, something the don't do well.

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"Hope is the first step on the road to dissapointment."

I'm judging mine on the basis that Cancellara gets told to take it easy to help the Schleck's. Saxo are already down Voigt. They need all the help they can get on Ventoux and to lead them to Ventoux considering they lose minutes tonight.

1. Grabsch/Contador
2. Contador/Grabsch
3. Martin
4. Evans
5. Armstrong

Contador has a point to prove tonight to send a message out that it's not all about Ventoux.

Hi there

You should post in the tipping thread: http://www.cyclingforums.com/2009-to...y-40-5-km.html

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Steve
CyclingForums.com

i'd like to see Kloden win this............but I think yesterday will have taken it's toll.

Going for Cancella for the win.

__________________
.."But finally the last thing I’ll say to the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics. I'm sorry for you. I’m sorry that you can’t dream big. [I]I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles. You should believe in these athletes, and you should believe in these people. I'll be a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live. And there are no secrets - this is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it" - Armstrong 2005 TDF
morelike hypocrisy.

Ooohh t'heck doesn't Wiggins look smooth. Armstrong not quite so fluid but still good.

And Contador now smokes everyone. Tell me he isn't taking something!
Armstrong looks like he might be blowing a little

they all take something. Thats the only way you finish this race. Lance is the biggest cheater of all ( I hate the way he acts like Bonds "I never took anything" yeah right you cant tell me you can blow away Beloki,Ulrich,Basso,Kloden and they all took soemthing.


Lance is the biggest two face SOB I have ever seen

Unstoppable!

__________________
Find your ideal riding partner. Anywhere in the world!!!

Difficult to see anyway back now.
Unless Contador has a sans jour of monstrous proportions, the 2009 Tour de France is his.

__________________
.."But finally the last thing I’ll say to the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics. I'm sorry for you. I’m sorry that you can’t dream big. [I]I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles. You should believe in these athletes, and you should believe in these people. I'll be a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live. And there are no secrets - this is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it" - Armstrong 2005 TDF
morelike hypocrisy.

Contador is really vindicating himself today.
Kloden was cooked. He was going to be dropped anyway; Alberto did nothing wrong. Frank or Andy would have raised the pace anyway and Kloden would have been dropped. I don't see all the big deal, and today proves it.

Yeah yeah yeah old news. We all agree with you but he's not doigna bad ride for an old guy with a single 'icle

The team has given Alberto so much crap it is hard to believe.
Lance and Levi training together in Aspen.... doing twitter videos every day ...please. Lance was just trying to get Levi to ride for him.
I can't believe that Levi came out on his twitter and said that Alberto's move yesterday was a bad move. Kloden was done, he was going to be dropped anyway. Alberto even waited and Kloden could not come back.
I think that Alberto does not trust Johan completely; maybe for good reason.

here we go with the old guy thing again. He has said numerous times he is better this year than he was for 3-4 of his tour wins. Folks he pretyy much very very close to the best LA ever was. Dont get get me wrong he is still one of the best. The climbers are better now when they were when they Lance was racing. The Schlecks,AC have acclerations that Lance never raced against.

AC was trying to help Kloden yesterday. AC could've left the Schlecks anytime he wanted to. He waited as much as he could. He tried an acceleration to may crack the Schlecks and bring Kloden. Kloden coudln't do it. People need to watch the video again when AC toof off he did a mild attack and then he almost came to a complete stop stood up and looked back to see which of the 3 came to him. Kloden didn't and then AC was caught in no mans land. He couldn drop back and wait for Kloden then the brothers would have took off.

Have you ever ridden the Tour?
Have you ever become a Tour champion having suffered from a near temrinal illness experience?
Have you ever started a cancer charity?
Have you got the wit/nouse charisma etc. to pull together sufficient people to support you?

What a foul record LA has. Truly disgusting. I for one would kill to have such a CV. Blimey a grand champion and an all round good guy.

If he was such a terrible person people would steer clear. Enough people seem to wish to associate with him that whilst I can see that he might be a tiresome big mouth he's probably not all bad and by golly he can put up a fight.

What's he done that probably most of the pack hasn't other than won 7 times. Taken drugs? OK so every day we find yet another so called innocent being proved to have taken them in spite of claiming otherwise.

I fully support the guy. At least he's doing something worth while. For sheer entertainment he's good value and he's showing balls (err ball) in adversity also.

Whilst I'm certian that a lot of the stuff is hype enough of it is good that frankly I think he's to be lauded.

Why do you have such an epic chip on your shoulder about him? SOB is very strong. Has he hurt you?