Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
- Thread starter limerickman
- Start date
I think it's between Evans and Contador, unless a freak breaki gets away with big time gaps, I dont rate Valverde at all, to much faith in him latley and he has only come up short. Contador is the better climber and has improved greatly in the time trial ( hate to say this but suspectly ) so may be the favourite but Evans is a good all round rider. As for tonights stage Contador or Valverde
Managed to get to see Thurs stage to Mount Ventoux.
(delayed highlights shown at midnight Thursday!)
Impressive ride by Valverde - he looked really good with Scmidz (spelling) of Liquigas.
Cadel climbed well although the right shoulder was a little bit more pronouced than usual.
Weather looked really good for the stage - although the breeze appeared to be strong given the tautness of the flags at roadside.
Interesting stage and the first of the climbing stages.
Rabobank looked really strong.
(delayed highlights shown at midnight Thursday!)
Impressive ride by Valverde - he looked really good with Scmidz (spelling) of Liquigas.
Cadel climbed well although the right shoulder was a little bit more pronouced than usual.
Weather looked really good for the stage - although the breeze appeared to be strong given the tautness of the flags at roadside.
Interesting stage and the first of the climbing stages.
Rabobank looked really strong.
Looks like Valverde's in top form, going to have to say he looks like he'll win this. Contador was probably holding back, Evans needs to chill out and think about the Tour next month.
Todays stage, small time gaps to form on the kick up to the finish, Valverde will take more time out of the others. Break will win the stage though. Could see some people trying to attack over the Izoard to make things interesting....
Todays stage, small time gaps to form on the kick up to the finish, Valverde will take more time out of the others. Break will win the stage though. Could see some people trying to attack over the Izoard to make things interesting....
Eldrack said:
Yeah good point.
It looked to me that Contador was marking Evans and vice versa.
Everytime, one of them applied a little more pressure on Ventoux, the other would react.
Other than that, they rode side by side throughout.
For a man who was out of the sport for a long time Basso is riding very impressively.
Gap - Briancon is a difficult stage, even though it is only a little over 60 miles in length, todays stage is tough.
Just watching todays highlights now - beautiful images from Izoard.
Not a cloud in the sky - lovely sunshine - snow on the mountainside.
Magical!
Not a cloud in the sky - lovely sunshine - snow on the mountainside.
Magical!
Interesting stage today : Astarloza managed to peg back a lot of time of GC.
Evans/Contador/Valverde marked each other.
Was hoping Goubert (AG Deux R) would win todays stage : oldest pro in the peloton but has never won a stage in a race.
Evans/Contador/Valverde marked each other.
Was hoping Goubert (AG Deux R) would win todays stage : oldest pro in the peloton but has never won a stage in a race.
is it possible that the rumors surrounding contador's jump over to caisse d'epargne had something to do with his not really attacking for yellow? perhaps as a gesture of good will to the man that he might essentially replace for the tour? obviously this is in the realm of conspiracy theories for now, but it would be a cool story
Yes well it was clear that Contador didn't lift a finger to win this race. So obviously he was in sympathy with AV and gave him a free ride, or your theory that he's moving to C d'E. There's no pother explanation because he absolutely rode within himself.LewisBricktop said:
Feel sorry for Evans in all this. He really broke his balls to do something but was just shadowed pretty easily by AC and AV, and its quite clear he will never beat Contdope at the Tour.
BTW the performance of Valverde on Ventoux was astonishing. Way off the radar for him. Anyone else think that?
