VeeshanVault

The Tour de France '04 will start July 3rd. As someone who has followed cycling for quite a while, I can tell you that this has the potential to be one of the most exciting tours of all time. Lance Armstrong is going for a record sixth Tour win. The mountain time trial up Alpe d'Huez. The field of contenders is very well balanced; Lance is going to absolutely have his hands full no matter what form he's in. For my money, the people with the ability to win this years tour are:

• Lance Armstrong
• Jan Ullrich
• Tyler Hamilton
• Iban Mayo
• Roberto Heras
• Several guys on the CSC team depending on their form...

After that there are a handful of guys, but those are the main contenders.

A few other subplots:

• Jan Ullrich's right hand man Alexandre Vinokourov (3rd last year) crashed in one of the warmup races, and unfortunately won't be able to compete in the Tour.
• Joseba Beloki, who's dramatic crash last year caused him to abandon will not be back this year.
• Ullrich is alledging that Armstrong held back in the mountain time trial on Mont Ventoux in the Dauphine Libere about a month ago so that people wouldn't know what good shape he was in.

At any rate, the course and the competition this year are extreme and I feel it should make for one of the most interesting Tours in recent years.

Quite a bit of the fun was taken out of it with Vinokourov and Millar out. With Vino helping Ullrich would have been dangerous. That was a HUGE hit for him.

Have the French started bitching about Lance's alleged doping yet, or are they holding off until he's actually winning this year?

No more than in the past Masteen.

Kelsh, I liked Millar, but I read yesterday that he admitted to taking EPO. ><

He admitted to it? Hum I read today that he was charged for storing yet claimed it was all false.

Storing it in his blood?

Yeah, he admitted to it. I really like him. This is a huge disappointment for me.

Cyclingnews.com wrote:Millar confesses
According to Friday's edition of L'Equipe, World Time Trial Champion David Millar (Cofidis) has allegedly confessed to taking EPO. Millar allegedly made the confession to French police while he spent 48 hours in custody in Biarritz this week.

L'Equipe reported that empty ampoules of Eprex (EPO) were found by French police in Millar's house whilst he was being detained, writing "Millar has recognised that he used Eprex (erythropoetin) in the practice of his profession which puts him in the same position as a positive rider in the eyes of the UCI."

If this is the case, Millar will likely be charged by Nanterre judge Richard Pallain, who is heading the investigation into the Cofidis team, with illegal possession and use of toxic substances. So far, eight others have been charged in the affair which began early this year: Cédric Vasseur, Philippe Gaumont, Robert Sassone, Médéric Clain, Marek Rutkiewicz and Daniel Majewski (all riders), Boguslaw Madejak (ex-Cofidis physiotherapist), Oleg Kozlitine (former directeur sportif of Oktos).

Then fuck him. Sad day for the Tour though.

On a side note.. who the hell uses "whilst" in a sentence??

vn_Tanc wrote:Storing it in his blood?

I'd like to sign up to be a demerol storage unit!

Is this the new and juiced Lance or is it the clean and won't make it up the first hill without being dragged by a car Lance? Barry Bonds should join his cycling team.

Lance claims to never have taken a performance enhancing drug. Additionally, he's threatened libel on the author of the recent book about that claims he did. The author of the newest book has been likened to Michael Moore in terms of accuracy.

And I still wont buy it

I was just trying to get you going.....my effort has failed

Audie Murphy was gay

LOL Voro.

Kelsh/Kilm... No way for me to prove it or deny it. Only thing I can say is that like a lot of other people who are currently being investigated for alledged performance enhancing drugs, Lance has never tested positive.

That is to say, there's no way to know for sure. Sad, really.

My guess is we'll be seeing at least one Gillette Mach 3 Power Razor commercial every break in the action! This is like the Superbowl for razor companies.

looking forward to the start...and with my work schedule, this is one sport I'll actually get to watch!

I've got my money on Seabiscuit.

I like longshots.

Jörg Jaksche out of CSC Tour team after crash

God damnit. You might remember that Jorg was the highest placed ONCE rider after Joseba Beloki at last year's Tour, but he was the one that waited when Beloki crashed and had to abandon, so he lost a shitload of time. Given the wonderful start of his season (Paris Nice and a good showing everywhere else...) this is a real disappointment.

heh if any more good riders pull out Lance can ride backwards and win.

Btw, what channels here in the US will send it?

Outdoor Life Network is showing it... I believe 3 times a day.

Early morning, mid-day and prime-time.

Well poop.. I don't have that.

it's like channel 12,584,391 on basic cable.

OLN is doing the detailed day to day coverage, and I believe some major network (ABC?) is doing Sunday coverage of the Tour.

Plus the Tyler Hamilton Foundation is sponsoring a live feed to selected movie theatres in the country of stage 13 on July 17. This stage should be a great one to see on the big screen, with a finish atop the Plateau de Beille.

noel wrote:Ullrich is alledging that Armstrong held back in the mountain time trial on Mont Ventoux in the Dauphine Libere about a month ago so that people wouldn't know what good shape he was in.

Haha, Jan figured out Lance's ubar sekrit strategy! It would make no sense for Lance to go all out in the Dauphine (as he did last year) and risk losing some fitness edge so close to the TdF.

Joseba Beloki, who's dramatic crash last year caused him to abandon will not be back this year.

I was very disappointed by this. Beloki has always been a classy racer and showed a lot of heart in getting back to form after that awful crash last year when Lance went off roading. Still don't understand why the French federation or the Boulangere sport director would not allow Beloki to use allergy medication he has depended on for years adn is allowed by most every other cycling federation.

Prologue complete, and Lance is exactly where he'd want to be. You don't need to win early stages, you just need to not lose time to your main rivals.

I was pretty surprised to see Ullrich and Hamilton out of the top ten and ~15 seconds down on Armstrong.

In summation: Go Lance!

It was somewhat amusing to see Lance in the green sprinter's leader jersey after the prologue...

Todays update: Sucks to be Iban Mayo or Christophe Morueau!

I don't wish that anyone crashes in the Tour, but looked to me like a bit of Karma for the change to the rules for the team time trial. If Mayo had a stronger team, he never would be in this position. Props to Phonak, Telekom and Postal for spanking Euskatel and Credit Agricole. One annoying spanish climber down, one to go.

Bah Hushovd lost the yeollow jersey due to bike problems after the excellent stage yesterday (got taken out and still got back to the front). Sucks.

Honestly.. I don't even have any interest in watching this year. It seems way less competitive than last year with all the riders that have been taken out. Might as well hand the win to Lance now.

Kelshara wrote:Bah Hushovd lost the yeollow jersey due to bike problems after the excellent stage yesterday (got taken out and still got back to the front). Sucks.

Honestly.. I don't even have any interest in watching this year. It seems way less competitive than last year with all the riders that have been taken out. Might as well hand the win to Lance now.

I frankly disagree. I don't know how you can hand the win to Lance now. Though I love him, I'm scared to death of Tyler Hamilton. Heras will be a factor, but likely only in the mountains, and Christian VanVelde is not going to change the fact that Heras will lose a lot of time tomorrow in the TTT. Team CSC has looked incredibly strong all year, Simoni is still only a minute down... And then there's Ullrich who is always a factor.

If today showed anything, it was that USPS has excellent tactics, and a strong-assed team. Having Eki and Hincapie to pull you across the cobbles is a pretty nice position to be in, and having a team manager that does more than run off at the mouth (HI MANUEL) and instead just provides brilliant tactics doesn't hurt either. The thing I've learned over the last 7 years of watching the Tour is that ANYTHING can happen on any given day, so I won't crown anyone a winner yet.

I was bummed for Hushovd as well, but I can still see him being a factor in the points competition. Anyway, it was great to see him in Yellow yesterday, and I'm sure he's on form to pick up a stage or two.

Losing Marco Velo must suck for Fassa Bortolo and Alessandro Petacchi. Velo did a great job of leading Petacchi out to his record nine Giro stage wins this year.

Robbie McEwen sucks. He's a cheater and a user of dirty tactics that should have been suspended from cycling after his hand sling and repeated hooks to other sprinters in the Giro.

Yes McEwen sucks. I've read some of Hushovd's comments to Norwegian papers about McEwen and a couple of other sprinters and it is insane what they will do to win.

Yeah I fucking hate McEwen. He's the whiniest little bitch when things don't go his way. I hope he doesn't win the points competition again.

I saw this comment on a cycling forum regarding Euskatel, and I have to agree completely:

I don't think they had either the strength OR the heart to pull him back. They were sitting up on the bar tops and looking very beaten, all of 10 mins into the chase. It's typical for Euskatel, unfortunately. Because they insist on being an all-Basque team, their talent pool is not deep, and their strategies/execution are always more driven by nationalistic emotion than brain. Having said all that, I feel bad for Iban....it's a real shame. He should have known better than to be at the back. I still hope he puts on a good show in the big mtns, though.

Oh and one other thing...Al Trautwig must die ><

Lol. There's a reason I watch the Tour Live, and it's not to watch it live. It's so I can listen to Phil and Paul instead of Al and Bob!

I'm loving this Jan Ullrich quote:

Jan Ullrich (GER / T-Mobile) -- 18th on the stage wrote: I regret that Mayo lost so much time because of a crash. My objective today, however, was to be sure that certain riders [including Mayo] were distanced. Mission accomplished..."

Meh Ullrich lost so much when Vinokourov crashed out.. bleh.

Having Vino in the race would have changed so much, and levelled the playing field considerably between the two titans of modern cycling.

I still think Lance's biggest challenge this year is Tyler.

noel wrote:Lol. There's a reason I watch the Tour Live, and it's not to watch it live. It's so I can listen to Phil and Paul instead of Al and Bob!

couldn't agree more!
Today's stage was exciting...i'm really surprised they haven't done anything about the cobbles yet....that's a major liability.

holy shit.. just read an interview with Hushovd and damn.. he goes after the people running the Tour with the strongest words I have ever heard from him. Basically, he is saying that all the riders are extermely nervous for all the way up until the cobbles which lead to accidents etc. And that it is ridiculous and pathetic that the Tour goes over that kind of pavement.

And that was a very shortened and censored version

Yeah honestly, I don't see the point. There's a precedent for having the cobbles in from past tours, but in modern cycling, the Tour is the Tour. It's not the Spring Classics. During the first week, the riders are nervous enough without the cobbles.

The opinions of the actual riders seemed to be mixed, but not overly negative.

I can say that as a fan, it made what is normally a relatively boring first week relatively exciting. Normally I'm just sitting around hoping that nothing bad happens to the riders I'm rooting for, and hoping that the sprinters I like have good rides. Yesterdays stage was for sure something different to watch.

meh.. not liking today's team trial at all.. CSC

The conditions suck ass. Euskatel has to be really happy with their time, but it's looking like a Armstrong, Heras, Ullrich Tour from this point on. I haven't seen the last check for Phonak, but they were down to 6 men last time I saw them. I feel horrible for CSC... just one thing after another.

Edit: Holy fuck, Phonak are down to 5 men, and have the second best time at the last penultimate time check!

Edit2: Phonak with best time!!!! Go Tyler!

Also Rabobank put in a good time!

Edit3: CSC put in a fantastic time. My hat is off to them. Horrible luck for them to have crashed.

Edit4: Strongest team wins! Grats Lance on yellow. Doubtful he'll defend it at this stage, but still an excellent showing. I fucking hate the new TTT rules, but USPS's victory of over a minute is only going to be 20 seconds over the second place team, 30 seconds over 3rd, 40 seconds over Ullrich's Tmobile team, and a maximum of 3 minutes for the loser.

Edit 5: Ullrich 55 seconds down (I think that's official) Hamilton around 20 seconds down, and no word on Heras yet.

As I said, it is already over. Of course, the sad thing is that US Postal wasn't the most impressive one by far today.. I feel bad for CSC and Kurt Asle Arvesen.. this was his shot at doing good.

Kelshara wrote:As I said, it is already over. Of course, the sad thing is that US Postal wasn't the most impressive one by far today.. I feel bad for CSC and Kurt Asle Arvesen.. this was his shot at doing good.

I think staying up in those conditions and winning by a full minute is pretty impressive. If CSC had gotten first, and USPS had been down to 5 riders and gotten second, you wouldn't be saying that CSC wasn't the most impressive by far... I know where you're coming from, Kelsh, but give a little credit where credit is due...

I'll add that had Noval not had his troubles, USPS time would have been even faster...

Actually I consider Phonak to have the most impressive ride today.

Which is why I referenced the finishing with 5 riders...

I referenced CSC because they seemed to be your team of choice after perhaps Credit Agricole

Phonak was freakin awesome today. Especially when you consider they are a first year team (not first year in the Tour, but first year of existence)! Postal was that much better however...

Excellent to see Lance in yellow so soon, but I doubt he'll want to defend it until the mountain stages commence.

Nah I back up the two Norwegians Don't really care that much about teams to be honest.. I just want to see both of them having a decent Tour, especially since both have faced problems leading into it (Hushovd being sick and loosing a lot of training etc).

If I had to pick a team it would probably be CSC.. but I honestly don't support any of them. I wish Lance wouldn't win since I hate pure domination of a sport, but eh.. I think we can give him the title already.

I am a huge underdog supporter

wow never seen this many accidents ever that I can recall. US Postal has an advantage in that regard since they are in the lead and can choose where to ride. Harder for people behind them.

Edit: Holy crap that young French champion guy is truly impressive. Talk about all heart!