Support NeoGAF

[seanoff]

having trouble staying upright today.

so many crashes for a dry stage, they must be really nervous.

Boonen is really hurt too!!

 

[Leonsito]

Cavendish bitches!

 

[Pacbois]

LOL Cavendish trolled Jalabert who thought he'll get loose during the finish

Gilbert must be gutted.

 

[Kabouter]

Was a great finish, and a valiant attempt by Voeckler. Overall, certainly not the boring stage I was expecting.

But still, the lasting impression is that so many teams are made up of, or at least led by, giant dickheads. Hope Leopard Trek and Garmin win nothing for the rest of the tour. I always liked that cyclists would wait, or at least not raise the tempo, when people were falling left and right. Seems those days are over.

 

[seanoff]

Was a great finish, and a valiant attempt by Voeckler. Overall, certainly not the boring stage I was expecting.

But still, the lasting impression is that so many teams are made up of, or at least led by, giant dickheads. Hope Leopard Trek and Garmin win nothing for the rest of the tour. I always liked that cyclists would wait, or at least not raise the tempo, when people were falling left and right. Seems those days are over.

no leader it seems. no one would do that with Armstrong/Indurain/Hinault etc, Armstrong waited on mountains, Indurian nuetralised a stage like this one day.

with so many contenders they seem to be taking any advantage. next attacking at a feed station.

 

[kottila]

apparantly boonen and rojas has been declassified from the intermediate sprint putting Gilbert in green. I understand Rojas, but not boonen

 

[kottila]

Another hilly stage today with a small climb the penultimate kilometer, which could leave the sprinters behind, if they go full speed.
Stage looks perfect for Gilbert, Rojas, Hushovd, Petacchi etc. although it's not as tough as stage one.
Maybe even Edvald can go for this one, since his legs looked great in the sprint yesterday, he actually went 300meters early, since he thought the finish line was closer than it was.

 

[kottila]

Looks like this will be todays breakaway:

Anthony Roux (FDJ)

Leonardo Duque (Cofidis Le Credit En Ligne)

Adriano Malori (Lampre)

Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil)

Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil)

and with 196 km left, nothing much of interest will happen for the next 4-5 hours.

 

[Kabouter]

Hopefully Hoogerland will be able to take the polka dot jersey

 

[kottila]

Hopefully Hoogerland will be able to take the polka dot jersey

he can only equal Evans points, so not sure if he'll get to wear it or not

 

[Kabouter]

he can only equal Evans points, so not sure if he'll get to wear it or not

With two class 3 and one class 4 climbs? Evans only has two points iirc, and Hoogerland already has one.

 

[kottila]

With two class 3 and one class 4 climbs? Evans only has two points iirc, and Hoogerland already has one.

You're right, for some reason I was still looking at yesterdays profile

edit: and he got two points at the first climb, so I guess the jersey is his as long as he dosen't disappear for the two next climbs

 

[Wes]

This breakaway is getting caught rather easily. I imagine we'll see another smaller one near the end with that climb.

 

[kottila]

This breakaway is getting caught rather easily. I imagine we'll see another smaller one near the end with that climb.

only 15 km left now. 13 km to the short climb starts and it seems like the whole pack will be together when they reach it and the weather is said to be quite bad.

 

[seanoff]

if someone falls in this rain, it's going to be NASTY.

 

[kottila]

Leipheimer went down all by himself. slippery

 

[kottila]

EDVALD!!!!!!!!!!
THOR no3!

 

[Pacbois]

Nice clean win by Boassen Hagen, well done you nordic giant.

Contador really want those seconds back or what ?

 

[kottila]

Team Skys first win in TdF

 

[kch]

Powerful display by Hagen. Such strength in those legs from the slow-mo, awesome stuff. Grats to him and Team Sky, great effort today. And Thor at third, defending the yellow. Must be a good day for norwegians I felt really sorry for Leipheimer, although it was his own fault. He got lucky though, it could have ended really bad. Rojas and Gilbert keep getting top 10's..pretty impressive.

Great tour thus far imo! Bring on the mountain stages

 

[bjaelke]

Nice clean win by Boassen Hagen, well done you nordic giant.

Contador really want those seconds back or what ?

i think he was just trying to control the situation. when he saw the other gc contenders behind him he sat up. great win by hagen

 

[questionmark]

Powerful display by Hagen. Such strength in those legs from the slow-mo, awesome stuff. Grats to him and Team Sky, great effort today. And Thor at third, defending the yellow. Must be a good day for norwegians I felt really sorry for Leipheimer, although it was his own fault. He got lucky though, it could have ended really bad. Rojas and Gilbert keep getting top 10's..pretty impressive.

Great tour thus far imo! Bring on the mountain stages

Has been a pretty freat Tour overall. It is great to see that when Arvesen and Hushovd are getting older, a young rider is ready to take up the reins.

 

[Broder Salsa]

People have been throwing beef at Saxo Bank sungard cars according to Bradley McGee.

 

[la_briola]

Georgie hincapie's legs after riding 15 editions of the Tour de France
what is that?

edit: and how does he shave that thing?

 

[davidnic]

Georgie hincapie's legs after riding 15 editions of the Tour de France
what is that?

edit: and how does he shave that thing?

There are called varicose veins. the assume he has use veet removal cream or something like that

 

[Kafel]

The Tour starts in my city today.

I hope I'll be able to drive home from work this afternoon.

 

[speedpop]

People have been throwing beef at Saxo Bank sungard cars according to Bradley McGee.

I shouldn't laugh, but I did.

Georgie hincapie's legs after riding 15 editions of the Tour de France
what is that?

God damn. Poor George, massively bad case of varicose veins. I remember as a kid wondering what they were on my Nan's legs. My younger brother has them pretty badly on his right leg, and I have small showings of it on my left. They're nasty but treatable/disappearable.

 

[kottila]

Todays stage just started and this is todays breakaway:

* Yannick Talabardon (Saur-Sojasun)

*Pablo Urtasun (Euskaltel-Euskadi)

* Gianni Meersman (FDJ)

* Mickael Delage (FDJ)

Most boring stage so far and no reason to watch untill they 30 km before the finish with the intermediate sprint. Probably an easy win for Cav today as long as he gets a reasonably ok position in the bunch.

Farrar, Rojas, Feillu and Boasson Hagen are candidate for top 5 positions

 

[Kabouter]

Yeah, not going to watch most of today's stage. I still have no idea why they insist on putting stages like today's in at all. Boring as shit to watch.

 

[kottila]

Yeah, not going to watch most of today's stage. I still have no idea why they insist on putting stages like today's in at all. Boring as shit to watch.

And Cav was claiming that the organizers were trying to prevent him from winning by putting in more interesting stages.

 

[bjaelke]

We can just hope for some action at the intermediate sprint. Good day for me to finish some other stuff!

 

[bjaelke]

Big crash. Wiggings down!

Boonen abandoned the race earlier today.

 

[bobnowhere]

Wiggins is gone, very sad. Horner down as well.

 

[captscience]

Damn. Not looking good for Wiggins.

What the hell is going on with all the crashes this year!

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

Big crash. Wiggings down!

Boonen abandoned the race earlier today.

Yeah, more nasty crashes and they're taking their toll on the peloton. Sad.

 

[kottila]

Bradley Wiggins officially out, but Horner is back on the bike. Sad, he was a top 3 contender.

 

[i_am_ben]

how gutting

 

[bjaelke]

Talk about night and day. Yesterday Sky won their first stage victory in the Tour and today they lost their podium contender :/

 

[kottila]

Remember Cancellara nullifying the stage last year when Schleck went down and now they're doing the opposite. Hypocrites

 

[kottila]

Not surprising that Cav takes this one as well.

 

[Kabouter]

Sucks that Wiggins is out, and a predictable win for Cavendish. Boooooring stage, the only unexpected thing was all the falling, which just makes the stage worse.

 

[speedpop]

Missed the whole race cause I slept like a bear. Seemed to be a boring stage with a bad crash

 

[Chris R]

Anyone have any video of the pre race stuff on the Circuit de Sarthe? Versus doesn't join coverage until like 45-60 mins in (and f them, even with half an hour extra on my dvr I still missed the finishing 2km) and that was basically all I wanted to see today

Bring on some hills/mountains already!

 

[bjaelke]

Super Besse today. I've been looking forward to this one!

Stage profile (video):

Finish:

Anyone have any video of the pre race stuff on the Circuit de Sarthe? Versus doesn't join coverage until like 45-60 mins in (and f them, even with half an hour extra on my dvr I still missed the finishing 2km) and that was basically all I wanted to see today

Bring on some hills/mountains already!

ASO only provides full coverage on 6-7 stages this year. Your best chance to find any video is to head over to cyclingfans.com.

 

[Tarazet]

Is it "super bess" or "super bess ay"? I've always heard the second from Phil & Paul, but I don't see an accent, so my years of French tell me it's really the first..

 

[Kabouter]

Really looking forward to today's stage, should be great.

 

[bjaelke]

Is it "super bess" or "super bess ay"? I've always heard the second from Phil & Paul, but I don't see an accent, so my years of French tell me it's really the first..

"super bess". 15 years ago Rolf Sørensen won the stage on Super Besse and Riis wore yellow. Hopefully we can also get some Danish success today!

 

[Kabouter]

"super bess". 15 years ago Rolf Sørensen won the stage on Super Besse and Riis wore yellow. Hopefully we can also get some Danish success today!

As far as Dutch success goes, I just hope Gesink can avoid losing too much time, doubt he'll be doing much else than trying to prevent losing time given his fall earlier this week.

 

[Tarazet]

As far as Dutch success goes, I just hope Gesink can avoid losing too much time, doubt he'll be doing much else than trying to prevent losing time given his fall earlier this week.

He'll still do better than Michael Boogerd did, I'm sure. Also, isn't Bauke Mollema a pretty decent climber? Anyway USA has no hopefuls left either, Tom Danielson is too far behind, Levi Leipheimer is too far behind, Chris Horner probably won't start tomorrow, and Tejay van Garderen has been working for Cavendish.

 

[Kabouter]

He'll still do better than Michael Boogerd did, I'm sure. Also, isn't Bauke Mollema a pretty decent climber? Anyway USA has no hopefuls left either, Tom Danielson is too far behind, Levi Leipheimer is too far behind, Chris Horner probably won't start tomorrow, and Tejay van Garderen has been working for Cavendish.

Christian Vandevelde hasn't fallen yet this year right?