Support NeoGAF

[subrock]

No problem by me.

thread is safe, fuck ya.
8 hours of giro for me tonight. I'll be caught up soon

 

[Kabouter]

We had a fast downhill in the middle of the stage and we were comparing top speeds, heard JJ Haedo hit 117kph!! That's 72.7mph to be exact.

Done with stage 6. Uh...wow. That was the craziest last 30k I've ever seen. Long, fast decent at 80k (50pmh) plus then a tight circuit.

Not sure that's necessary really. Tomorrow is the same kind of finish. It's bike racing, not moto gp..

Some serious speed there.

 

[bjaelke]

Bjarne was asked afterwards what he made of Haedo's speed. All he did was roll his eyes :lol

I remember going 80kph once coming down a hill and that scared the shit out of me! Another +37kph must be insane...

 

[Tarazet]

Bjarne was asked afterwards what he made of Haedo's speed. All he did was roll his eyes :lol

I remember going 80kph once coming down a hill and that scared the shit out of me! Another +37kph must be insane...

That's just demented. You hit an errant sheep at that speed and you're done.. instant minced mutton.

That kind of stage favors a breakaway, though, because the bunch can't chase. And that results in things like

Spoiler

Michele Scarponi winning today after 200 km in the front. Wow.

 

[subrock]

just caught up to day 5 on the eurosport coverage. shame to see lance taking a beating, part of me wonders if he is playing mind games but taking 3 minutes is a hell of a way to psyche the other guys out. you can tell the eurosport guys really want lance to blow a gasket.
I sure wish versus was doing this race

 

[Tarazet]

Today's stage was neutralized. The riders felt the circuit was too dangerous, and so the day's results didn't count towards the overall classification, just stage honors. We had an English speaking 1-4 on the day, by the way. We loves us some criteriums.

 

[subrock]

pedro horillo's crash sounded horrific. 60 metres, holy hell. glad he is alive. lance's heart must've sunk hearing about that given that he lost a close friend and teammate in similar fashion in the 90s.

 

[Tarazet]

Pedro Horrillo will recover and may even return to cycling, though it's too early to say for sure..

Cool stage today. 60 km time trial, that's insane. The winners were around an hour and thirty minutes.

Spoiler

In Soviet Russia, time trial wins Menchov!

 

[Tarazet]

And Valverde continues to win races even though he's been banned by the Italian commission.. (nevermind that he's Spanish. Don't ask, I don't know either)

 

[subrock]

for some damn reason my eurosport feeds have dried up. anyone have a good source of a non streaming version?

 

[Tarazet]

for some damn reason my eurosport feeds have dried up. anyone have a good source of a non streaming version?

I've been watching on http://www.justin.tv/ ... don't know about a non-stream.

Maybe this: http://www.universalsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=3734597&DB_OEM_ID=23000

 

[subrock]

sweet man, although I will miss the amount of times that they say "certaintly (sic)" on eurosport

 

[bjaelke]

Looks like I've underrestimated Menchov. He's been looking quite sharp. I think the jersey will be a duel between him and Leipheimer - Di Luca has been using too much energy in the first 1½ week.

 

[Kabouter]

Looks like I've underrestimated Menchov. He's been looking quite sharp. I think the jersey will be a duel between him and Leipheimer - Di Luca has been using too much energy in the first 1½ week.

I don't think it'll be between Leipheimer and Menchov if today's amazing stage was any indication

 

[bjaelke]

Menchov "only" lost 25 seconds today. I think he'll be fine

 

[bjaelke]

14.4 km time trial today.

The top 10 before today's race looks like this:

1 Denis Menchov - Rabobank 85.44.05
2 Danilo Di Luca - LPR Brakes - Farnese Vini 0.20
3 Franco Pellizotti - Liquigas 1.43
4 Carlos Sastre - Cervelo Test Team 2.44
5 Ivan Basso - Liquigas 3.37
6 Levi Leipheimer - Astana 4.59
7 Stefano Garzelli - Acqua & Sapone - Caffe Mokambo 8.44
8 Michael Rogers - Team Columbia - Highroad 9.36
9 Tadej Valjavec - AG2R La Mondiale 10.46
10 Marzio Bruseghin - Lampre - N.G.C. 11.36

Levi better deliever on this stage. He has already disappointed (me)!

 

[Tarazet]

Spoiler

Menchov crashes in last kilometer - still finishes in 19:06, comfortably better than Di Luca. Menchov winner of Giro. A 23 year old Lithuanian, Ignatas Konovalovas, won the stage thanks to the rain.

 

[Kabouter]

That was the greatest time trial EVER.
And what an amazing Giro it was this year. There is no way I can see the Tour de France being better than this. Also feel like quoting this:

Menchov is a horse and it wouldn't surprise me if he isn't going all out in this Giro.

Spoiler

And yes, I was just as wrong for predicting Leipheimer would win. He was very disappointing. And saying Menchov wasn't a top favourite. Fuck, I know jack shit about cycling! If he was still competing, I'd call Wim Vansevenant as the winner of this year's Tour de France to solidify my shitty prediction skills.

 

[Tarazet]

Any prior GT winner should be considered a favorite, that goes for both Menchov and Di Luca as well as older players like Garzelli and Simoni. Leipheimer is an eternal runner-up. Lance did OK but it's clear that the Giro wasn't his focus. But Johan Bruyneel said he would do something special today in Rome, and he was very anonymous. He didn't look very smooth or assured on the bike either.

 

[Kabouter]

Any prior GT winner should be considered a favorite, that goes for both Menchov and Di Luca as well as older players like Garzelli and Simoni. Leipheimer is an eternal runner-up. Lance did OK but it's clear that the Giro wasn't his focus. But Johan Bruyneel said he would do something special today in Rome, and he was very anonymous. He didn't look very smooth or assured on the bike either.

Well, there is of course the difference between a favourite and a top favourite.

And I think Armstrong did really well this Giro considering he'd broken his collar bone earlier in the season. Him saving Leipheimer from losing several minutes more was quite something to see.

 

[Kabouter]

http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/518981/56dc3e29/menchov_valt_in_giro.html
Video from the Rabobank bus yesterday. :lol

 

[bjaelke]

Former Gerolsteiner rider and Tour de France podium finisher Bernhard Kohl is now an open book on doping practices in the peloton after he was caught for blood booster EPO-CERA in August last year and recently announced his retirement from the sport. In an exclusive interview with L'Equipe, the Austrian detailed how he "prepared" himself for last year's Tour and received blood transfusions from his manager during the event.

As he had already confessed earlier, Kohl had two litres of his own blood available for re-injection at the Tour, of which he used 1.5 litres. "Nothing else," he said. "Too many surprise controls. No testosterone patch, nothing, except caffeine, pseudo-ephedrine and some analgesics. EPO, growth hormone, insulin - I took that before [the Tour], not during the race."

The blood transfusions took place in the evenings at the team hotels. Kohl's manager, Stefan Matschiner, flew to France three times during the Tour to meet the cyclist and provide him with a pouch of 0.5 litres of blood. "He sent me an SMS: 'You can come to my room'. I disappeared for 20 minutes, nothing more. Nobody noticed anything," Kohl stated.

The rider continued by saying that the anti-doping controls taking place at 7AM on the mountain stages could be outsmarted. "By re-injecting half a litre of blood, the blood parameters are not subject to suspect variation. My manager also injected me with albumin to dilute my hematocrit. Moreover, I always practiced the transfusions 48 hours before the decisive stages: you're not at the top on the next day, you have to wait two days for the effects to be felt."

The International Cycling Union 's (UCI) biological passport failed prevent Kohl from practicing blood doping on a regular basis during his career, he said. "The top riders are so professional in their doping that they know very well they have to keep their blood values stable not to be detected. The UCI sent us the values resulting from the controls: we thus referred to those to mark the next ones. In a way, the passport almost helped us."

As to his positive control for third-generation EPO, CERA, Kohl did not know why it was him who tested positive - along with teammate Stefan Schumacher and Riccardo Riccò - and not other Tour de France riders.

"Everybody in the cycling scene was convinced that this EPO was not detectable. Many more riders had taken it. Oddly enough, we were only three to fall. I am convinced that the top ten could have been positive," the Austrian said. "It just happened to be me, tough luck. I didn't ask for a counter-analysis: this masquerade was over."

Kohl also pointed at the omertà within the peloton, giving the impression that everybody knows about doping. "I did not cheat anyone in the peloton, be sure of that. When I was a young rider and did not win anything, I didn't take the costly products because I didn't have the money. I knew what the 'big ones' took, but that's just how it was. There is like a social organisation within the peloton, these things are accepted. The guys appreciate and respect the efforts of others without taking doping into account."

The young Austrian became a 'big one' and could afford top level performance-enhancing products and methods like CERA and autologous blood transfusion. After admitting to doping, Kohl is now collaborating with Austrian police and anti-doping authorities, and wants to do the same on an international level with the UCI and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). He does not think of a comeback.

"I know the rules in the scene: those who really speak out do not come back. Therefore, I move on to something else, without regrets."

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2009/jun09/jun09news2