Stage 14 - Sunday, July 22: Mazamet - Plateau-de-Beille, 197km
- Thread starter steve
- Start date
My point exactly. There is no evidence against Kloden. There is no evidence against Contador. If you are going to suspect Contador based upon the team that he rode for, then you can also suspect Kloden based upon the last two teams that he rode for and the guys that were his close friends (Ullrich). My preference is not to suspect either of them until there is evidence. White Trash's preference is to suspect Contador because he rides for Disco and Trash is an anti Disco fruitcake.Klodifan said:
Kloden's interview in Procycling was self incriminating as well as his dubious affiliations with dopers:saluki said:
T-Mobile
Ulrich
Zabel
Aldag
Bolts
Vino
Astana
Kloden appears as dity as it comes.
Very tough for Cadel now. I tipped in another thread he would slip behind Contador before the end of the Pyrenees, and also suggested in this thread he should accept a 30sec gap today, but in effect he has lost all the time he had up his sleeve (plus some?) on day 1, and therefore needs to ride pretty well for the next two days to ensure he loses no more time. 3 mins to Ras in a long TT is a remote possibility, but any more time lost will spell the end.
I agree with other comments - he should've given up on trying to cover every Ras/Contador attack and just ridden within his abilities (ie with Sastre and LL).
Should be a great couple of days with Contador going all out to break Ras!
Wonder where Kloden is at? He dropped early looking ordinary, but looked to be getting back into form as the climb went on.
Interesting GC right now - two climbers leading well, but three pretty good TTers behind them, any of whom could have just one good mountain day and make the rest up in the last TT.
I agree with other comments - he should've given up on trying to cover every Ras/Contador attack and just ridden within his abilities (ie with Sastre and LL).
Should be a great couple of days with Contador going all out to break Ras!
Wonder where Kloden is at? He dropped early looking ordinary, but looked to be getting back into form as the climb went on.
Interesting GC right now - two climbers leading well, but three pretty good TTers behind them, any of whom could have just one good mountain day and make the rest up in the last TT.
limerickman said:
Popo's turn on the front isolated everyone, and cracked Kloden. Then Ras and Contodor rode of and cracked Evans. Leipy's experience with a steady tempo pulled him past Evans in the end and he almost caught the Columbian. Levi gained significant time on both Kloden and Evans as well as did Contodor.
And yes Ras gained time as well, but he was in for the attack no matter what the outcome. Contodor will easily make up his deficite to Ras in the last TT, and he may yet crack Ras on one of the last two mountain stages. Contodor is the man to beat now. To me he looked fresher at the finish than almost any of the main contenders as they arrived at the top.
When was the last time a team had two men on the podium, anyone know?
are you referring to the comments klodi made about kessler pretty much saying matze wouldnt be so stupid as to take testosterone right before a race he was planning on winning b/c it would still be detecable, or words to that effect? link please.Doctor.House said:
You're kidding?jhuskey said:
No---obviously drugs busts have ZERO effect on anti-doping whatsoever:
T-Mobile anti-doping public relations and practice
Ulrich
Zabel
Aldag
Bolts
Riis
Vino (Michele Ferrari)
Kloden
Phonak: Landis, Hamilton, Perez, Gutierrez, Camenzind, Botero, Guidi, Urweider, Gonzalez
No doping means no results, no tempo no selection no sponsorship.
Contador wasn't able to take that kind of time out of Ras in the first ITT. And it's tough taking time out of Ras in the mountains. Even for a climber as good as Contador. Bruneel made a huge mistake when he let Ras go up the road unchallenged in the Alps. So did all the other DSs. Bruneel had Hincappie and Paulinho pacing the second group on the road. It was a complete waste of energy, since neither of those two were going to take a stage win from Ras or Rogers before he crashed. Bruneel would have been much better off bringing them back and letting them help pace the peloton where Levi and Contador were. Instead, everyone was allowing T-Mobile to pace the peloton while Rogers was on a breakaway. Now that is truely stupid. How hard do you think that T-M was going to pace with Rogers out there. It wasn't until Astana finally went to the front that the peloton moved faster than a crawl. By that time Ras was way too far gone. I didn't think that Ras could make it stick. But I figured if he had one or two more breakaways, he would be a true threat.davidbod said:
Must have been a little too close to the truth about you, eh?
Bro Deal said:
No it doesn't, as his soigner said his muscles may be OK, but the unseen toll its taking is the huge chunks of energy his body is diverting to fight the infection and heal the wound. Too bad for Vino.
saluki said:
The last ITT is flat, we'll have to see how Ras does, but my guess is he won't do well. Your right on the other points, but I doubt any of the DSs thought Ras was a serious threat, it also seems they didn't feel Rogers was a threat either. I think they were more waiting for Vino and Astana to react based on Vino being the odds on favorite. Ras hasn't gone on mutli day attacks like this in past Tours, so if have have 2 more stages like 14, then we may see something interesting.
Whatever the final outcome it was a great stage to see unfold. I look forward to the next 2.
You have a point there, and I agree that Ras might not have quite as great a final ITT. But keep in mind that climbing ITT's are also to Contador's advantage.davidbod said:
I watched Evans in the Dauphine, and I saw that he was in very good form already at that time. So I wondered if he could hold his peak from then all the way through the Tour. Today it looks like he finally showed a chink, and so we may have seen his best already. I'm thinking that he's got too much time to make up on Ras.
Right now it looks like Ras is in great position to take it all. But I'm almost sure that we haven't seen every surprise yet in this Tour. In Ras's mind he can take the yellow home, and that's why he's not trying to defend the KOM.
Tomorrow's profile looks great for early attacks. It could be a real jail break.
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