2008 Tour de France :Stage 11 - Wednesday, July 16: Lannemezan - Foix, 167.5km

[Wayne666]

You should be used to boring stages after 7 years of Lance Armstrong anyway.

True but I think you also can't discount putting rolling and middle mountain stages early on and a lack of Sprinter's teams fully commmitted to the bunch gallop. And probably also a cleaner peloton so teams don't have a cadre of domestiques who can be counted on to go the front and shut down most any break day after day.

The Tour as compared to the Giro and Vuelta usually suffers from a relatively boring design, in no small part due the geography of France. Unusually this year it has been much better mix.

 

[Bro Deal]

The Tour as compared to the Giro and Vuelta usually suffers from a relatively boring design, in no small part due the geography of France. Unusually this year it has been much better mix.

Yup. This year's course has been one of the best ones in a long time.

It is too bad the organizers want to stick to a circle around France design.

 

[b1_]

I have a feeling we're gonna get our fair share of exciting stages this year, fear not. There's still plenty of racing to come and Yellow's got a mere 1 second lead.

 

[TheDarkLord]

Yup. This year's course has been one of the best ones in a long time.

It is too bad the organizers want to stick to a circle around France design.

How would you do it Bro?

 

[Andrija]

I wonder how will they do it next year...
The race starts in Monte Carlo and should go clockwise. They'll hit the mountains very early if they don't want long transfers.

 

[Cobblestones]

He won 2006 but no one even rates him much as a threat. Granted he is not the Caisse leader... but still.

I can kind of picture the Caisse team meetings. The DS lays out plans for the domestiques how to best support Valv on his quest for yellow. Oscar gives his opinion on some minor point. The others disagree. Then Oscar puffs up and says 'Remember I won this thing once!'. The others turn toward him laughing: 'Yeah, right'.

Poor guy.

 

[Capt.Injury]

Danke!

Delighted with that.
Arvesen is one of my favourite riders.

I rememebr the 18th stage in 2005 (I believe into Pau) that he looked like he had a similiar type of victory but Salvodelli came back to him in the last 400 meters and got him on the line, he worked so hard that day. Very Good win, meaning that both Norweigans have gotten a stage win
(I believe there are only 2, I could be wrong)

 

[Grater]

Grater is on the mary jane ...

I need to catch up with you so I can get more of it. Your supply doesnt' last me that long.

 

[SkipIntro]

I only caught snippets of the highlights but can someone explain why Pereiro was shaking his head when he realised his lone effort was blown - what was he dissapointed by?

 

[Andrija]

I only caught snippets of the highlights but can someone explain why Pereiro was shaking his head when he realised his lone effort was blown - what was he dissapointed by?

He was convinced peloton will let him in a 30 min. breakaway, so he could take the yellow jersey and try to defend it through the Alps, where someone (probably Evans) would take it back from him, so he could finish second in Paris and hope the winner will be disqualified.
I think that was his plan and that's why he was so disappointed.

 

[TheDarkLord]

I need to catch up with you so I can get more of it. Your supply doesnt' last me that long.

Looking at your posts in the stage 12 thread, looks like you got a fresh supply.

 

[RAGT]

The Norwegian commentators went bananas...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgFhiIK7wyk&feature=related

It's mostly "com on, Kurt" ("kom igjen, Kurt"), and "yesssss" ("jaaaaa"). Former tour stage winner Dag Otto Lauritsen contributes by repeating "Satan heller", Ill leave that translation to someone else.