2008 Tour De France Stage 15 - Sunday, July 20: Embrun - Prato Nevoso, 183km



fscyclist said:
Menchov looks to be the one CSC has to pay more attention to.

Well Menchov now has a bruised glut. Something to consider. Certainly didn't help him today obviously. How the hell he fell, even with the wet road...? He was not even leaning over all that much. Nice bit of luck for his competitors.
 
b1_ said:
Well Menchov now has a bruised glut. Something to consider. Certainly didn't help him today obviously. How the hell he fell, even with the wet road...? He was not even leaning over all that much. Nice bit of luck for his competitors.
Love to know the type of tires, wheels, and pressures he was using.
 
classic1 said:
I get a bit tired of the 'Evans is a weak as **** wheelsucker' rhetoric. His style is not exciting but he has to race to his strengths. If he started jumping up the road everyone would start saying 'what a ********, his attacks are too slow'. As it is at the moment the bloke is at his absolute friggin limits. He showed that tonight. In his condition he should have lost minutes, not seconds. Plus he is a diesel, not an explosive type rider (as are Vandevelde and Menchov). Evans is trying to win a Tour de France, not please the gallery. He is still an ugly ******* though.:p
I don't fault Evans for riding to his strengths. He's just boring to watch. As a spectator, I'd rather see a more dynamic rider win, that's all.
 
earth_dweller said:
6. start testing Kohl every day too

I also think that Pate is the real deal.
They should test Kohl in the morning and eveneing and a couple of times during each stage.

Pate is a tough guy that toiled in the US for too long. The guy has ability. He was beatin the **** out of the Americans for years. Kind of like Chris Hooornerrrr. Wasn't he an U23 world TT champ?

I am so surprised by Vande Velde.
 
fscyclist said:
Love to know the type of tires, wheels, and pressures he was using.
They said it had just started raining on that section, and if there was any oil, that is the worst time. It floated to the top and hadn't washed off yet.

Really too bad because it looked like the others were all looking to see who would chase it down. I haven't heard anyting about a brused gut (would make sense), but if it isn't top bad, he does have a rest day. It was also nice to see they waited for him. He didn't appear to have any punch after that. (either because he blew his load, or he was hurt)
 
earth_dweller said:
another tidbit from today is that Devolder abandoned
Yea, what was that about....my skeptic thought was that they told him over radio that he had tested positive.
 
thoughtforfood said:
Yea, what was that about....my skeptic thought was that they told him over radio that he had tested positive.
well the cynic in me thought the he's leaving before testing positive
 
earth_dweller said:
looked like a chain problem
No, the road was slippery, plus he took the turn a bit too sharp and so the tire slid out under him. If he had taken a slightly broader turn, then he would have been ok.
 
earth_dweller said:
looked like a chain problem
Yeah. He could be in yellow if weren't for that, no one could follow. Hopefully he didn't get hurt. If he's 100% Tuesday and Wednesday this could be his Tour.
 
thoughtforfood said:
That was just after. His front wheel just slid out, and he wasn't leaning very far at all. Really did look like oil.
ah okay.

menchov looks really strong to me, we'll have to see if he'll have a bad day like he's had in the past
 
Malkmus said:
They should test Kohl in the morning and eveneing and a couple of times during each stage.

Pate is a tough guy that toiled in the US for too long. The guy has ability. He was beatin the **** out of the Americans for years. Kind of like Chris Hooornerrrr. Wasn't he an U23 world TT champ?

I am so surprised by Vande Velde.
Yea, Pate is an old dude...says the 40 year old.

Vande Velde is riding to not get dropped right now from what I see. I hope he will chance falling out of the top 10 for an attack. He can TT, so playing it safe isn't a terrible idea....just boring.
 
earth_dweller said:
well the cynic in me thought the he's leaving before testing positive
He was suffering today and popped in the first climb. So, either he had a bad day today, or maybe some doping experiment went wrong?
 
thoughtforfood said:
Yea, Pate is an old dude...says the 40 year old.

Vande Velde is riding to not get dropped right now from what I see. I hope he will chance falling out of the top 10 for an attack. He can TT, so playing it safe isn't a terrible idea....just boring.
Pate is 29
 
earth_dweller said:
well the cynic in me thought the he's leaving before testing positive
Funny, my other thought was that his team was informed that there was a good chance he would be tested today.....randomly <cough> <cough>
 
TheDarkLord said:
He was suffering today and popped in the first climb. So, either he had a bad day today, or maybe some doping experiment went wrong?
or he went cold turkey?

he has been having a bad tour
 

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