Stage 11 TDF :Courchevel - Briancon Spoiler

jhuskey

Well I am a Lance fan as most of you know, but I am told and can't confirm this because he won't admit it, that Jan is hurting a lot worse than he will admit to.
Not to make excuses for him but I don't beleive he would quit now if he lost a leg.
I am a JU fan too...so sue me.
While on my ride this evening it came to me,the ideal scenario, Lance will win without Jan losing.
Lets all put our heads together and work this out.

Seriously, I am looking forward to Wednesday and the mountains again,no matter who prevails the sport lives on. Allez!

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Sobriety is over rated!

nonameboy

i dont think he likes those climbs very much it was there that he lost thetour when ilpirata marco pantani gained 6 minutes on him but that was asome years ago and i hope he has a great stage tomorrow.

nonameboy

i agree with you the ullrich of 96/97 was never seen again,i dont know if it was the fame of being the first german to win the tour that got to his head or he just didnt train hard,in those years he could climb with the best guys like pantani and virenque and he could atack too then in 98 and the following years he just couldn´t follow the best guys in the mountains there would be a stage or two were he would show some flashes of his former self but nothing more.

homeycheese

I am an LA fan for many reasons, including the Tdf. I was a JU fan first however and have been greatly disappointed, always an excuse, an accident, a drug, a girl, lack of preperation, unwilling to do the wind tunnel work,team turmoil.... whatever....given the "out of nowhere" performance of Rasmussen, we can only hope for some exciting attacks over the remaining stages with others to show their true colors...

tinks

I was quite impressed with Kloden yesterday; even though he got dropped, he looked very good pacing Ullrich. He might surprise us yet.

jitmo

I haven't looked at the profile for tomorrow, what kind of km are left after the Galibier descent? Will there be a mad rush to catch up for an elite sprint? I would assume we'll see a few who take off like pea soup vomit to open up things at first, perhaps Rasmussen, but that would demand a response. MY predictions for excitement?? Levi, Horner, and Moncoutie.

tcklyde

Yes, I agree. Kloden is in much better form than everyone has assumed. But I think Ullrich will be back. Probably not tomorrow, but by the end of the week I expect to see improvement.

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Harry

sonicman

But by the end of the week it might be to late for Ullrich, if he doesn´t do something until Ax 3 Domaines it´ll be his end IMO.

Kloden looks to be in a much better shape, if he didn´t have to pace Ullrich in the last kms he could have done something better there.

sopas

Hi limerickan,

Actually I think JU was still in very good shape in 1998 but he had a bad day and Pantani took advantage of that, but if you remember the next day Ullrich attacked Pantani and proved to be still very strong. Then in 1999 JU did not participate in the TdF but won the Vuelta. In my opinion JU started began to decline in year 2000. I think he won the TdF too young, just like Fignon that won the tour twice very young but neve again did so.

I think that is the difference between a good talented rider and a super talented rider: The ability to mainting a high level for many years like Indurain or Armstrong. Other riders have a good year (ex. Riis) or even two, but then they dissapear.

sopas

I think you are right again.
During the Indurain years, many foregin people said that the TdF was boring. I thought are you crazy? Being an Spaniard myself I had a lot of fun wacthing Miguel win. But now wacthing Armstrong win all the time, and not being an American myself, makes me understand why these people thought Indurain's year's were boring.

Dead Star

Far too many Discos at the front for them to be clean

thebluetrain

So Discovery is dirty because they have 5 guys at the front of the peleton? Thats funny. Try not to let it ruin your day.

limerickman

Naturally, Spaniards in the 1990's, and Americans now, would find the TDF exciting because their respective champions are (were) winning.

Is the TDF boring ?
Maybe saying the TDF is boring is the wrong expression : in the 1990's and now it seemed that the winner had such a stranglehold on the top spot that it outcome was not in doubt.
As a cycling fan, I would like to see the race contested more, perhaps.

cheapie

or.....they have a lot of money and can afford to pay really REALLY good riders to pull for lance.

drugs. what a weak argument. i've come to believe it's the cycling version of Godwin's law. He stated: http://As a Usenet discussion grows...approaches one.

here, i'd say that as any discussion of LA grows, the probability of someone accusing him of doping approaches one.

weak. seriously week.