nochain

Thanks to Carte Blanche every time I meet with non cyclist family and friends over the next couple of months I will have to talk about Lance...

Definitely do something about it, but why focus on Lance? The problem for me here is really if you look at what guys like Jorge said last night. All teams had organized doping and he tried to give the facts to the UCI but they did nothing. The team bosses and the doctors should be the ones that should be focused on , now everybody just wants to crucify Lance and I don't think that will improve cycling...it will just make the Public feel better about him. Same thing happened with Puerto, Valverde needs to admit to what he has done. But still to today nobody wants to know how he got to be a client of Puerto.

Agree100% I also don't understand this Lance thing, why should he now admit? Why not Merckx or Indurain or Contador and many more "Hero's" If you listen to what many has now said like Jorge last night......Every team he was on had organised doping in it.....Every team. So did Levi state and many more. Is it only because he made the most money and was the most successful? What about all the team bosses that made big money out of this sport and the sponsors themselves...everybody made money while the cyclist did what they did and most of the fans knew what was going on.

Was a bit irritated when they referred to Operation Puerto and did nothing to mention the fact that it involved many other athletes from other sports. Many people/non cyclist needed to hear that because it puts some perspective on other sports

Nog altyd happy gewees met die diens wat ek van Anton en Cyclehouse gekry het!Gaan Atyd uit sy pad uit om te help.

He is basicly saying what all the other riders are saying....including Contador now Quote from cyclingnews Lance has been very correct all through his career," Merckx had told La Dernière Heure. "What more can he do? All of the controls that he has done - over 500 since 2000 - have come back negative. Either the controls don't serve any purpose or Armstrong was legit. The whole case is based on witnesses, it's deeply unjust."

Have not read this whole tread but as far as Indurain goes and for that matter Valverde and Sanchez has made similar commends on the fairness of LA being stripped from he's title. The way I see it is, to them(Pro bunch now and before 2005) it is not about doping it is about passing the tests. To them LA did what they asked of him during he's career....Race your bike, win races and pass all doping tests. Today it's probably the same just a lot harder to pass the test but the principal is the same. I don't think Indurain is saying LA did not dope, he is saying he complied with the rules of the day and was the best bike racer within those parameters. What amazes me mostly about this whole thing is most People seem to think LA is the big problem. He was only the best at it...maybe... we will never know how good the other teams were at this. Most of these riders that have now started talking have admitted to being part of organised doping within other teams. Team mates of Merck’s has said publicly they had organised doping in the team, we know Indurain was no Angel yet everybody want to take down LA and blame him for the sports problems all the sudden.

Agree!!Great event and route!! Was my first time at Hilton and I love the area. Mud and lots of climbing made it probably the hardest Marathon I have done this year. Suffered like a dog those last couple of k's!

What were the criteria? So is being National Champ is not enough to at least make a group of 3? How can winning Nationals or being on the Podium at Nationals not be part of the Criteria?????

Thanks for the effort to start a new race in PTA!Yes there were problems...most have mentioned them already but and I am sure you guys will work on it.Not even the 94.7 had a perfect first couple of years so just keep on working at it and hopefully this race will turn out to be a big success. As far as the route goes,for now I would not chance anything.It is a good hard route and we need more races like that...maybe in the future you can even have the long route going over klapperkop but please just don't make it any easier....we have more than enough flat races out there.

Yes for sure!Boonen,Wiggens and Sagan would be the top 3 riders of the year for me!! Nibali also had a very good year so I would put him next to J Rod for being consistently up there at the Classics and the tours(1 week and 3 week )

Not a Fan at all but bliksem that Conto can race!!Have always rated him as one of the best but have always also doubted he's ability to attack long range because he is so potent over sort bursts!!Man has he proved me wrong! Really wanted Rodriquez to win this one but the best man will win it after that stage for sure!!Would love to see the whole stage because from what I read it was one hell off a stage from start to finish!!!! Rodriquez I think was seriously let down by he's team on the day and a stronger team like Sky at the Tour would have made a big difference to the time he lost. Especially loosing 2nd to Valverde happened mostly because he had to do so much work himself that he ended up cracking. Also Great seeing Valverde riding well, have always been a fan!! Froomedog well yes most people would have known that it was never going to be a fair fight, you can only go and look at the last 10 years of tour results and it will show you he is actually doing very good by holding on to 4th.He has now done Tour de Romandie, Dauphine, Tour de France, Olympics and the Vuelta in a little more the 3 months. As for TheHub……man I would love if there was a ban on any doping related commends when it comes to racing discussions…..one can only dream!!

Great ride by Froome!! Froome has a lot more explosive power than people think.....don't know where the diesel thing comes from....must because he spends so much time in front of Wiggens during the tour..) ,but he has shown last year how fast he is when he goes in the mountains. But it is expected for him to be strong during the first week,it is the last week that worry me....seriously hoping he can stay strong!! I do egree with kranswurm....odd rider,he gives me a hard attack every time i watch him climb because he looks to have very bad patches of suffering and then the next moment he goes like hell...today with about 2 km to go It looked like he was very close to getting dropped by he's own teammates and then Uran goes like a bullet and he just takes over and drop conto!!

Really don't think it will be a fair fight this....would have loved to see a fresh Froome go up against Conto on this route!! I hope Froome proves me wrong but I don't think it is fair to ask him to go up against the best stage racer of the last 5 years when he has done a tour and Olympics less than a month ago. It is bound to catch up with him during a hard tour like this but yes there is always hope.....I will say this if he gets even close that will be one hell of an effort .Two 3 week tours and a Olympics in less than 10 weeks?? I did love the way Conto attacked and Froome just closed him down taking his time,with Conto looking back alla Shlecks the whole time.One thing to make the gap if you have that type of power.....complete different thing to sustain it if the guy chasing you is a world class climber. Makes for some very good racing!!!

So lets see if they let Hincapie ride onto the champs elysees on his own. He has had a great career and the most tdf starts ever...

I really hope they don't try and put Froome up for this years Vuelta? Anybody know the plans? To expect him to go and ride against a fresh Conto after a tour like this within 2 months will just not be right. They should let him maybe focus on the Giro for next year...he will love those steep climbs!!

Beat Wiggins in the Vuelta long TT last year, not sure by how much...?? We also have to remember Froome lost most of the the difference due to a puncher. Without that incident things might have been very very interesting for Sky...Think the difference would have been like 40 seconds now. In the end it does not really matter to Sky,they win the tour and even better they have a first and second on GC. Something that has not happened for many years!!

I see Porte was about a minute back so I agree it would have been a risk. But I don't understand Wiggins charging up for the first km or 2 like a madman and then they decide that it is risk to let Froome go. Maybe he felt good and felt like he could stick with Froome and they could still get a stage win like that. The Problem is yesterday Froome did not look like a 100% team man that he maybe is because it must have frustrated him big time. Accelerating like that time after time and looking back and showing your "boss" to get a move on has left a bad impression. Many of the big names in cycling is now saying it's not the way to do it....sit there and set a pace that Wiggins can keep and do your job and hope you still win the stage or go full gas because they gave you the go ahead. It must be really hard for Froome to do these things when the adrenaline is flowing...lets go for a stage win....great I have the legs lets go...........no wait for Wiggins and then go....ok don't go just pace.....

Don't really understand what happened yesterday....just some things that don't make sense to me. I think both Wiggens and Froome wanted to go for a stage win? They had a chat on the col de balles and they pretty much went flat out. For example why would Wiggins pace so hard at the bottom of the climb? The only real reason I could see was to help close the gap to Valverde for Froome. But then why did Froome not go when they got rid of Nibali? Surely Wiggins knew he was strong enough to keep the tempo on the climb and still finish ahead on the climb? Only thing I can think of is they wanted to go for the stage win but not by taking the risk that Wiggins might puncher and loose time without support? The problem yesterday was it ended up looking bad for Sky if you ask me. Froome got a bit eager and if you go and look at it again...it is never good when a helper tells the Boss to move he ass!!Not once but many times. The right thing would have been to either let Froome go full gas or make him stay in front of Wiggins without any complaints and forget about the stage win. It was extremely frustrating to watch that last climb!!!!

1000% agree!!! Would just love to see him go all out on a mountain top finish, because like I said before the tour I think he is on perfect form for the 3rd week and with form like that I think even he wants to let the legs go...just once! But we will see that plenty of times to come in the future. I think the climbs in this year does not really suit him anyway, he seems to be better on the HC climbs...the high mountains and this year all the finishes are on cat 1 climbs. He will be better on a alpe d'huez type of finish. Maybe he should go for the Giro next year and the tour the year after?

For me the tour has been double as bad!!All the guys I like ended up being useless...Gesink, Sanchez,Valverde, Andy( not even riding) and Froome not being able to ride he's own race. So it has been like watching the worldcup final without SA playing....I still enjoy the sport but I am not glued to the tv. On the Gc side I am glad Nibali is still there because if it was not for him I think the tour organizers would have had a big problem on their hands, from a GC perspective this tour is dangerously close to the most boring in a very long time. What I do like however is the breakaway guy's and sprinters this year making thing interesting for sure...Sagan,Greipel,Voeckler,LL Sanchez,Jens. Think the organizers again made a big mistake with Goss and the 30 points...they basically just killed the green comp and that was one of the things keeping the race interesting. Especially because it was a borderline call in the first place. Enjoying Jens at the moment big time, the guy can't go on forever like this so I love watching him race now more than ever.

Hehe yes he has to do something and if he does not try today it is because he does not have the legs.I simply can't see BMC sending 2 guys to go and just spend some time in the break for nothing.They have build the whole team to just ride for Cadel so if they go in a move it must be to help him somehow...otherwise they would just be wasting energy?

Maybe he wants to go on the Colombier and with them 5minutes ahead they might wait for him close to the top and pace him on the downhill section as long as possible...only a cat 3 climb left then so they should be usefull. But he needs to get away first...

2 BMC guys in the break , they must be planning something.Cadel will not let he's guy's ride for nothing.

Bliksem but Sky is strong!!! When last did we have a 1,2 results on the podium in Paris for a team?Ever? Think we might just see that this year... I think we are going to see a very boring race now,Evans I am sure will try and maybe Nibali but really it will take something very special to take down Sky now. What we need now is a Conto/Andy combined attack or something.....