Lance in Belgium

steve007

Just watched Eurosport and the start. Slightly dissapointed in Lance being 2 seconds down, but after all it was only two seconds and the road was damp

Lance seemed to be pushing hard and i was suprised he was beaten by cancellara. Ullrich was way off, I think 8 seconds.

Anyone got any predictions so far?

limerickman

Ullrich is 15secs down on LA after the prologue.
If you look at Hamilton, Basso, Ullrich, Mayo (the so-called favourites) non of them broke the 7 minute barrier.

Armstrong looked like he was going very hard to me - certainly harder than Ullrich.

I wouldn't read too much in to the prologue result.

keydates

Yeah, there's 20 stages still left. But, as one article put it, this 15 second lead could prove decisive in the end. But we shall see. The mountains and big time trials still lay ahead.

steve007

I agree with both points. Lance was definitely attacking pretty hard and looking pretty strong i think also.

Anyway, yes 20 stages left and more excitement, I'm not sure I can cope!

gntlmn

Consider also that finishing almost first is usually better than finishing first if the first place rider is not a GC contender. Cancellara is a rookie, his first Tour de France and 23 years old. Now he will see what it's like to be barraged by the press.

Getting 2nd will take a little bit of press pressure off Lance, but not much because he's going for number 6 and certainly in front of all the major contenders.

I was particularly surprised with Bobby Julich's ride. He was very strong and lost time around one turn, wobbling but not quite biting the pavement. He may do very well this Tour if this is an indication. He has placed on the podium at the end one year in the past but didn't ride that great in 2003 Tour.

jhuskey

Lance doesn't takes the yellow jersey before the mountains usually anyway.It think he made a hell of a statement today. I hope he gets cat calls and boos the whole race. I can understand his motivation.
If today is an indicator Lance is taking this tour very seriously.
Please "Frenchy" piss him off all you can and let the chips fall where they may!

All due respect to the other great riders that are participating of course. I am just really fired up about this one. It is cutting into my training time already and it has not even got into the good part yet. As they say in football "GIVE HIM SIX".

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Whenever I can't get excited about riding I just fantasize about someone else's bike.

nurblieh

it started to rain not too long before ullrich and armstrong hit the course. also, you could see that lance took the turns very gingerly, this stage wasn't important enough to risk crashing on in the rain.

glad to see that hincapie and ekimov made a good showing as well. they're not over the hill just yet


go postal!

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nurblieh

limerickman

Very early days all round.

Ullrich still has the last ITT 2003 on his mind when doing todays
prologue (when he crashed in 2003).
It is far too early to read in to todays result be it good or ill
for LA.

I still contend that LA will not win the 2004 TDF nor will Ullrich.