2009 TDF stage 18: Annecy - Annecy 40.5 km

[steve]

Stage 18: Annecy - Annecy 40.5 km

MOUNTAIN PASSES & HILLS

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

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZodQKOqLPA"]YouTube - Analysis of the stage 18[/ame]

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

 

[Eldrack]

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.

 

[Grater]

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.

 

[steve]

Hi there

You should post in the tipping thread: http://www.cyclingforums.com/2009-t...1-tipping-stage-18-annecy-annecy-40-5-km.html

 

[limerickman]

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

Going for Cancella for the win.

 

[nonns]

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

 

[nonns]

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

 

[beloki]

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

 

[JAPANic]

Unstoppable!

 

[limerickman]

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

 

[williambrown]

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.

 

[nonns]

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

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

 

[williambrown]

The team has given Alberto so much **** 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.

 

[beloki]

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.

 

[nonns]

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?

 

[nonns]

I would agree that Contadors ride was epic. Absolutely blinding. I'd love to see his ITT training.

 

[nonns]

I kept seeing the riders, Lance was especially bad. I'm sure he didn't use to do this. But they kept looking down. This forces the helmet up into the airstream. Conti did this far less than most. I can't believe its good for aerodynamics. Could this have cost vital seconds for LA and others Bradley Wiggins was very polished in comparison. LA still looked a bit like he was fighting the bike

 

[beloki]

When it comes to the cancer he has done great things. But when it comes to racing lance is not a nice guy whatsoever.

 

[Grater]

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?

You need to wake up and smell the roses. The facts are there!

Ullrich, Riis, Zabel etc never tested positive but they admitted to it.

Ricco was tested 13 times last year and only 2 showed he was positive when all 13 should have.

You can dope and not be caught. That's a given.

Armstrong is not doing anything worthwhile. He has a lot of followers that worship him.

He is getting "Blood Money" for his charity. He is parading around like he never has done anything wrong and cashing in on it for charity. That is a sign of a loser. Someone who loses at life. Lance is that person. He's a horrible person doing what he is doing.

The sooner he gets caught, the better.

How can you beat guys that were doped up clean? It's impossible! There's plenty of circumstantial evidence against him.

1. From 1999 - 2005 look at the tour podiums. Everyone that finished on the podium cheated, expect Lance? Come on!

2. His 1999 samples tested positive. Why won't he get them re-tested? He is guilty! That's why. Contamination yeah right. That's an excuse.

3. His former team-mates have admitted using EPO. Even if he rode clean he still had his team-mates helping him on EPO - that is cheating also.

There are many many reasons why this guy is a cheat! Those are 3 of them. I'm sure people can list another 15.

 

[nonns]

OOOh errrrr LA has to look out for both Frank Schleck and Bradley Wiggins.
I think Frank is almost more of a threat to him than Bradley on the Ventoux.