Le Tour de France

[Zlatan]

Coming Saturday it starts in Strasbourg. This year the tour will also go all the way to Holland yay!

No Armstrong, so that means it will be interesting again, main contender is:

Ivan Basso:

Outsiders are:

Alexandre Vinokourov:

Levi Leipheimer:

and many more

I'm looking very much forward to it indeed.
​

 

[nor-rbk]

Yeah, going to be interesting to see who will win now when there is now Armstrong around. Ivan Basso is my favourite, but Ullrich is going to give him a tough way to Paris that's for sure. Basso will need to have some seconds (maybe up to a minute) down to Ullrich before the last Time Trial, or else he won't win it, I can't imagine Basso beating Ullrich on a TT.

 

[Hendrik]

With all the doping crap floating around we can't even be sure if Basso and Ullrich are allowed to participate this year.

 

[Zlatan]

Yes, that's true.

Here's the list of suspects BTW:

- Equipo Astaná Wurth:

MICHELE SCARPONI (ITA)

MARCOS ANTONIO SERRANO RODRIGUEZ (ESP)

DAVID ETXEBARRIA ALCORTA (ESP)

JOSEBA BELOKI DORRONSORO (ESP)

ANGEL VICIOSO ARCOS (ESP)

ISIDRO NOZAL VEGA (ESP)

UNAI OSA EIZAGUIRRE (ESP)

JAKSCHE JOORG (GER)

GIAMPAOLO CARUSO (ITA)



- C.S.C.:

IVAN BASSO (ITA)



- Caisse D'Espagne Illes Balears:

CONSTANTINO ZABALLA GUTIERREZ (ESP)



- Saunier Duval:

CARLOS ZARATE FERNANDEZ (ESP)



- AG2 R:

FRANCISCO MANCEBO PEREZ (ESP)



- T-Mobile:

JAN ULLRICH (GER)

OSCAR SEVILLA RIVERA (ESP)



- Phonak:

JOSE ENRIQUE GUTIERREZ CATALUÑA (ESP)

JOSE IGNACIO GUTIERREZ CATALUÑA (ESP)



- Comunitat Valenciana:

VICENTE BALLESTER MARTINEZ (ESP)

DAVID BERNABEU ARMENGOL (ESP)

DAVID BLANCO RODRIGUEZ (ESP)

JOSE ADRIAN BONILLA (ESP)

JUAN GOMIS LOPEZ (ESP)

ELADIO JIMENEZ SANCHEZ (ESP)

DAVID LATASA LASA (ESP)

JAVIER PASCUAL RODRIGUEZ (ESP)

RUBEN PLAZA MOLINA (ESP)

JOSE LUIS MARTINEZ JIMENEZ (ESP)

MANUEL LLORENT (ESP)

ANTONIO OLMO (ESP)

DAVID MUÑOZ (ESP)

JAVIER CHERRO (ESP)

JAVIER PASCUAL (ESP, ex corredor y actual técnico)



- Unibet.com:

CARLOS GARCIA QUESADA (ESP)

 

[nor-rbk]

Ullrich and Basso out of Le Tour

Also Oscar Sevilla from T-Mobile is suspended.

 

[Johnny_Big]

Idiots. Go for Giro, can't get fit to the Tour, and then use doping sh*t to get form...assholes.

 

[nor-rbk]

Prolog - Strasbourg (7,1km)
1. T. Hushovd (NOR/C.A.) 08:17
2. G. Hincapie (USA/DSC) +0,7"
3. D. Zabriskie (USA/CSC) + 4"
4. S. Lang (GER/GST) +5"
5. A. Valverde (ESP/CEI) +5"
6. S. O'Grady (AUS/CSC) +5"
7. M. Rogers (AUS/TMO) +6"
8. P. Savoldelli (ITA/DSC) 8"
9. F. Landis (USA/PHO) 9"
10. V. Karpets (RUS/CEI) 9"


Awesome!!!!

 

[Johnny_Big]

Thor Hushovd? Wth...I never though he was so good at this...I know he's good at sprinting and stuff, but TT?

Anyway, congrats :P

 

[Zlatan]

Valverde really impressed me, I think he has a big chance to win it now I think.

He was supposedly bad at time trials.

 

[Zlatan]

Damn Valverde is out. That was about the last star left.
Also Erik Dekker got injured, which means he has rode his last kilometres in the tour de france in his career.

And last but not least a German wins in Holland.

Damn can it be worse?

 

[Hendrik]

Kessler won it for Jan.

 

[nor-rbk]

Glad to see that Kessler finally won in his 3rd try to go for a stage win in that way, he has been caught up only meters before the finish line in his two previous attempts.

Too bad that Valverde had to step off, he could have gone all the way.

 

[nird]

zzzzzZZZZzzZZZZzzZZzzzZZZzzzz

 

[Zlatan]

Well you better wake up. What a great stage it was today.

Michael Boogerd, what a f*cking legend! And Menchov for yellow! Rabobank FTW!

Stage 11:
1 Menchov (Rus, RA 6:06:25
2 Leipheimer (VS, GST) +00:00
3 Landis (VS, PHO) +00:00
4 Evans (Aus, DVL) +00:17
5 Sastre (Spa, CSC) +00:17
6 Boogerd (Ned, RA +01:04
7 H. Zubeldia (Spa, EUS) +01:31
8 F. Schleck (Lux, CSC) +01:31
9 Klöden (Dui, TMO) +01:31
10 Moreau (Fra, A2R) +02:29

Yellow jersey after stage 11:
1 Landis (VS, PHO) 49:18:07
2 Dessel (Fra, A2R) +00:08
3 Menchov (Rus, RA +01:01
4 Evans (Aus, DVL) +01:17
5 Sastre (Spa, CSC) +01:52
6 Klöden (Dui, TMO) +02:29
7 Rogers (Aus, TMO) +03:22
8 Mercado (Spa, AGR) +03:33
9 Moreau (Fra, A2R) +03:44
10 M. Fothen (Dui, GST) +04:17

Looking forward to the alpes, for more action.

 

[Hendrik]

Seems like Klöden doesn't have the form of 2004, top 5 is the best he can hope for now.

Jan would have owned this year.

 

[Zlatan]

With a bit of "help" yes.

If Der Jan would've been there there wouldn't be 2(and until this days stage 4) in the top of the classification. Same goes for A2R, they show alot more potential than they would've with their cheating main man...

 

[Zlatan]

How strange is this? Pereiro has taken over the yellow jersey after getting back from almost 30 minutes. Phonak(with Landis) just let them ride. They just let a competitor back into competition.

 

[Hendrik]

Pereiro lost liked 20 minutes in the first mountain stages, he won't be a threat to any of the top ten cyclists. It's actually good for Phonak as they don't have to lead the peloton tomorrow and on Tuesday so they can safe some energy.

I'm looking forward to L'Alpe d'Huez.

 

[Zlatan]

Meh I think Pereiro actually has a chance now. While he hadn't at the beginning of today.

Anyway me too.

 

[rpvankasteren]

Perreiro Sio has performed poorly as long as this Tour has lasted. Even today he looked to be the weakest of the 5 escapees. He might be faking it, but I think it's a good guess from the favourites that he will lose another 15/20 minutes in the Alps.