Bos Posted July 22, 2010 Posted July 22, 2010 The moment weve all been waiting for. The ride onto the dreaded "col du Tourmalet" The stage is set, and 4 champions remain. For Andy Schleck, 25 years young, this is his last chance. He simply has to attack. He has come 2nd before, but it was never this close. Perhaps he wont come this close again. There will be no second chances. 2 minutes minimum is what he needs. Most doubt he has the strenght to do this.But there is hope yet. He has been strong in the mountains. Perhaps strong enough. Dont forget he won his 1st grand tour stage a week ago. The mountains are his playground. He will be in no mood to lay down, not with the painful memory of 2 days previous still fresh in his mind. Perhaps this will prove to be enough to move the young Luxemburger into cycling history. THis will be hard. This will be painful. And make no mistake about it, if Schleck is to win, he will need to pry the yellow jersey from his rivals cold, dead hands. And to win he will have to beat the one. The great champion of our time. He will have to beat the 4 time Grand tour winner, the man from madrid who has not been beaten in a GC battle yet, and perhaps never will. The defending champion. Alberto Contador Velasco. Make no mistake, it is he who is in pole position. Contador has been king of the mountains for the last 3 years. No one has come close to him. With the stage set on the Spanish border, he will be favourite to ride away from the competition and prove once again that he has simply to much class. But with his speciality the time trial coming up, might he hesitate to take that risk? For remember, he does not need to gain any time on his rival. Perhaps defense will be his best option. All he has to do is stay with his young pretender. If he can manage this he will only need to reach out his hand and a historic 5th grand tour will be his. But there are others remaining in this race. For Dennis Menchov and Sammuel Sanchez, the maillot jaune was never a realistic possibility. And yet going into the big one, they lie a mere 2 minutes behind the leaders. The Russian knows what it takes to win grand tours. Hes done it before. The Time Trial might suit him more than the others. A podium spot at the very least seems to be his to lose. But dont rule out the Olympic Champion. In the deep dark mountains of the Basque country he is a hero. This is his territory. Early on, it was only he who managed to stay with the top 2. And in the last few days, there have been signs that these are the 2 riders peaking for the main event. They finished 15 seconds ahead of the top 2 on a lesser stage a few days ago. Could this be a sign of things to come. Or might their rivals commit the fatal mistake of only marking eachother. There are those who will be quick to pounce on such an event. There are more than 2 men in this race yet. The stage is set. Once all the dust is settled, once all the smoke is cleared... who will it be? I stole this from another thread but referenced the origional poster below. I dont have time to wright this stuff..Last edited by The Hitch; 07-20-10 at 17:03. From Cycling news Forums My personal bets.. Im a Conto fan, but my pals are swetty as I type this, Im reconing Andy has what it takes, but this move will have to be masterminded to pefection, man, I wish I could take the day off!!
stewie911 Posted July 22, 2010 Posted July 22, 2010 Can't wait for this. Came in 3hours earlier this morning so that i can leave work early and go and watch the showdown on HD
BeegMig Posted July 22, 2010 Posted July 22, 2010 Popcorn. checkDrinks. checkPone off. checkBlinds shut. check
Cyclewizz Posted July 22, 2010 Posted July 22, 2010 Going to be good but I think Contador has it in the bag.Astana also seem to be stronger than Saxo Bank.Andy S also need's to be careful as the other 2 riders are only 2 min behind. Let the games begin
reteid Posted July 22, 2010 Posted July 22, 2010 ok i'm leaving office on the pretext of having some other urgent business.(i do not feel bad doing this as many did this during swc me included)phone off the hook,cel switched off,wife and kids sent to visit relatives until i phone them,dog's food put out,home visitor bell disconnected,creepy crauly on timer,enough biltong and some good coffee as well as cooldrinks(read windhoek light) in the cooler.not missing this.over and out.
Spinnekop Posted July 22, 2010 Posted July 22, 2010 ok i'm leaving office on the pretext of having some other urgent business.(i do not feel bad doing this as many did this during swc me included)phone off the hook,cel switched off,wife and kids sent to visit relatives until i phone them,dog's food put out,home visitor bell disconnected,creepy crauly on timer,enough biltong and some good coffee as well as cooldrinks(read windhoek light) in the cooler.not missing this.over and out. Note to self.....get some biltong on the way to home.....
Bos Posted July 22, 2010 Author Posted July 22, 2010 Im having to settle for Popcorn and the live feed, I blew the internet caps off on tuesdays stage, now Im paying for it:( by having to deal with this... http://gaps.letour.fr/us.html keep me posted you luckey bastards!
nickc Posted July 22, 2010 Posted July 22, 2010 15:21 BST (31km remaining from 174km)We're closing in the start of the Tourmalet. Around 12km to go until the foot of the final climb of the day, of the Tour. 15:22 BST The gap to the break is 5.26. That will come down dramatically once we reach the climb. SITUATION Marcus Burghardt (BMC Racing Team), Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky), Remi Pauriol (Cofidis), Kristjan Koren (Liquigas-Doimo ), Juan Antonio Flecha (Sky), Alexandr Kolobnev (Katusha) and Ruben Perez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) Carlos Sastre (Cervelo TestTeam) at 3:13 Peloton at 4:55
fandacious Posted July 22, 2010 Posted July 22, 2010 Im having to settle for Popcorn and the live feed, I blew the internet caps off on tuesdays stage, now Im paying for it:( by having to deal with this... http://gaps.letour.fr/us.html keep me posted you luckey bastards! aaah.. i'm loving my 4mb uncapped. live tour streaming while downloading a queue of 100gb in the background
gummibear Posted July 22, 2010 Posted July 22, 2010 Sean Kelly holds the record for the descent at col du Tourmalet @ 124km/h.There are some cars that don't even go that fast.
Bos Posted July 22, 2010 Author Posted July 22, 2010 aaah.. i'm loving my 4mb uncapped. live tour streaming while downloading a queue of 100gb in the background "stare and drule with fly on the lip" icon
fandacious Posted July 22, 2010 Posted July 22, 2010 "stare and drule with fly on the lip" icon i think afrihost sell for R19/gb or somehing.. cant u buy 1gb to watch this afternoon?
fandacious Posted July 22, 2010 Posted July 22, 2010 who you with Fand, and how much are you paying ? mweb. 539/month Tried afrihost. slightly cheaper, but they throttle hectically after 100gb
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