Tour de France 2012

['Dale]

Rest day's suck - what am I going to stream now......

 

GTRDWS

 

 

 

 

 

Grand Tour Rest Day Withdrawal Syndrome:

 

Happens at least 3 times a year with the most severe onset in July.

Moodiness.

Sense of boredom.

Restlessness.

Bouts of T Rex frustration.

 

Treatment:

Go ride your bike until you fall over.

['Dale]

Interesting read about the Wiggo:

 

http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/07/news/from-the-pages-of-velo-pursuing-bradley_228564

[TNT1]

Smoke.. fire...

 

or a case of fat on the fire?

 

Like I said, Lance was cofidis rider long before this...

[T-Bob]

Just off on a different thread, but anyone else think the podium girls in this years tour have been well below par from previous years and especially compared to, say, the Tour of Cali?

 

Someone should ask Sagan as he's spent a bit of time on the steps during both.

[Cav']

Just off on a different thread, but anyone else think the podium girls in this years tour have been well below par from previous years and especially compared to, say, the Tour of Cali?

 

Someone should ask Sagan as he's spent a bit of time on the steps during both.

Been in switzerland - they love them some lindt truffles

[T-Bob]

Chris Froome focused on Bradley Wiggins at Tour de France [Article]

-----------

Chris Froome believes he can win the Tour de France in the future but will continue to help team-mate Bradley Wiggins in this year's race.

Froome also believes he will not have to leave Team Sky to fulfill his ambitions.

"I know my time will come one day and that this team will do for me what they're doing for Bradley now," he said.

"But to be on the podium by his side would be a fantastic satisfaction."

--------------

[Agteros]

Strongs to Delilah Grace's father and other like him. Stay ahead of the cut-off guys, and do not grab hold of the cars along the way!

[TNT1]

Allez Wiggo, Allez the f**king w**kers

It was only a matter of time before Bradley Wiggins was asked about doping during the Tour de France. He knew it, his team knew it, and so did the millions of fans watching at home. Served on a plate and with the opportunity to address the matter head on Wiggins scored nil points with his attack on those questioning him on Twitter. Part of Wiggins’s argument was fair, those that hide behind pseudonyms are able to throw mud but the wider aspect of Wiggins’s behaviour needs further examining.

The unfounded murmurs online – and in the press room too – have clearly rattled him. But compare his statements with Armstrong's during his seven year reign. The American was measured, composed, rehearsed but lacking a level legitimacy, and while Wiggins still has more to do in this year’s Tour to clear up his stance on doping, at least he spoke from the heart. There’s no doubt he has worked hard, perhaps harder than all of his rivals, but the next time he’s offered the doping topic lets hope he has the maturity and quite frankly the respect for the yellow jersey to deliver something with a little more substance.

The sport has suffered greatly in the last 20 years with a number of Tour winners knocked off the podium due to doping. That’s not Wiggins’s fault but in this culture it’s perfectly reasonable for the yellow jersey to be questioned on their ethics and while the press and the fans are not asking Wiggins to apologise for 20 years of lies and cheats they would like more concrete assertions.

Edited July 11, 2012 by TNT1

[Lucky Luke.]

Allez Wiggo, Allez the f**king w**kers

It was only a matter of time before Bradley Wiggins was asked about doping during the Tour de France. He knew it, his team knew it, and so did the millions of fans watching at home. Served on a plate and with the opportunity to address the matter head on Wiggins scored nil points with his attack on those questioning him on Twitter. Part of Wiggins’s argument was fair, those that hide behind pseudonyms are able to throw mud but the wider aspect of Wiggins’s behaviour needs further examining.

The unfounded murmurs online – and in the press room too – have clearly rattled him. But compare his statements with Armstrong's during his seven year reign. The American was measured, composed, rehearsed but lacking a level legitimacy, and while Wiggins still has more to do in this year’s Tour to clear up his stance on doping, at least he spoke from the heart. There’s no doubt he has worked hard, perhaps harder than all of his rivals, but the next time he’s offered the doping topic lets hope he has the maturity and quite frankly the respect for the yellow jersey to deliver something with a little more substance.

The sport has suffered greatly in the last 20 years with a number of Tour winners knocked off the podium due to doping. That’s not Wiggins’s fault but in this culture it’s perfectly reasonable for the yellow jersey to be questioned on their ethics and while the press and the fans are not asking Wiggins to apologise for 20 years of lies and cheats they would like more concrete assertions.

 

I quite enjoy Wiggins barking profanities at the press, certainly livens things up. At the same time there is considerable inconsistency there in terms of his previously uncompromising stance against doping.

 

If you compare the angry outspoken rider of 2007 - Wiggins actually considered retiring from cycling - after being forced to abandon the tour due to another Cofidis doping scandal.. compare his words to the guy we see today who - inexplicably - is tended to by Dr Geert Leinders, the same doctor in charge of putting Rasmussen on the podium in that very same year. A doctor who has not denied that he presided over team doping at Rabobank. A doctor whose relationship with Rasmussen led to perhaps the most farcical dope damaged tour of all time.

 

"Leinders was team doctor for Sigma, Histor, Panasonic and Lotto before becoming team doctor for Rabobank in 1996. He left Rabobank in 2009 citing 'dissatisfaction with the policies of the new management of the cycling team'.

 

According to Rabobank one of those new policies bought in between 2007 and July 2009 was a 'zero tolerance' attitude to doping, a policy that followed an internal investigation into the use of doping within the team during the period Leinders was the team doctor, an investigation that was triggered by Michael Rasmussen’s expulsion from the Tour de France"

 

In no way does the presence of Leinders amount to evidence of any wrongdoing. But at the very least, it does merit a reasoned stance on the very real and damaging issue of doping at the tour, from the rider who looks very likely to win it.

 

That's just the team doctor. I'm not going to go into the history of their DS Mr Sean Yates.

Edited July 11, 2012 by Lucky Luke.

[scotty]

Mountains today 194.5km , including the Col du Grand Colombier.

 

Now i gotta think of a reason to leave work early.

[Tumbleweed]

Mountains today 194.5km , including the Col du Grand Colombier.

 

Now i gotta think of a reason to leave work early.

 

Need a doctor's note?

[Lucky Luke.]

Need a doctor's note?

 

maybe just stay home and then backdate one

[Tumbleweed]

maybe just stay home and then backdate one

 

I do have a saddle sore at the moment…

[Wyatt Earp]

 

Chris Froome focused on Bradley Wiggins at Tour de France [Article]

-----------

Chris Froome believes he can win the Tour de France in the future but will continue to help team-mate Bradley Wiggins in this year's race.

Froome also believes he will not have to leave Team Sky to fulfill his ambitions.

"I know my time will come one day and that this team will do for me what they're doing for Bradley now," he said.

"But to be on the podium by his side would be a fantastic satisfaction."

--------------

 

Kinda sums up what we have been saying.

[Lucky Luke.]

Personally I agree, my feeling is Froome will not leave Sky in the near future, as long as the winning trajectory continues uninterrupted.

['Dale]

Mountains today 194.5km , including the Col du Grand Colombier.

 

Now i gotta think of a reason to leave work early.

 

 

Yeah, a big one.

The Tour’s handbook lists this as one of only three étapes de grande difficulté or “stages of great difficulty” owing to the climbing and the distance.

 

 

 

http://www.letour.fr/PHOTOS/TDF/2012/1000/PROFIL.jpg