Tour de France

[Dodge]

Yeah, but why didn't he have the strength compared to the others? Was it that he wasn't good enough, or the fact he couldn't compete being clean? I suppose we'll never know the answer to that one.

Well there's not too many track specialists that come into the road races and do well. Good for prologues certainly and the odd time trial but he was never going to do anything in the mountains as these lads train all their life for it. Boardman came into Road racong fairly late on and admitted himself that he didn't know to much about it having focussed completely on the track

[WeAreRovers]

journalist david walsh of the sunday times is a champion of the cause of the "clean riders" and is reviled by the likes of armstrong for his investigative questions/methods.

Give me Lance Armstrong over David Walsh any day. When Walsh has beaten cancer and won 5 Tours de France (and shagged Sheryl Crowe )he can lecture a great athlete like Lance Armstrong.

KOH

[Dodge]

Give me Lance Armstrong over David Walsh any day. When Walsh has beaten cancer and won 5 Tours de France (and shagged Sheryl Crowe )he can lecture a great athlete like Lance Armstrong.

KOH

Yeah but could he have beaten cancer without the drugs?

Cheat

And Walsh has shown no evidence of any kind...

[the 12 th man]

And Walsh has shown no evidence of any kind...

he doesnt need to,we all know its endemic in the sport.the laws of libel
restrain people from speaking openly about it.
now if the tour really wanted to clean itself up.................well that would be someting to aspire to.

btw,how do you know he is actually shagging miss crowe

[liamon]

When Walsh has ..won 5 Tours de France ..he can lecture a great athlete like Lance Armstrong.

KOH

And so no one should ever have questioned Michele Smiths performance in Atlanta unless they had themselves won multiple gold medals?
Anyone who uses drugs to achieve a performance enhancement doesn't deserve to be referred to as a "great athlete".

[Peadar]

btw,how do you know he is actually shagging miss crowe

Her brother, Glen, was saying it down the pub

[WeAreRovers]

And so no one should ever have questioned Michele Smiths performance in Atlanta unless they had themselves won multiple gold medals?
Anyone who uses drugs to achieve a performance enhancement doesn't deserve to be referred to as a "great athlete".

Comparing Michelle Smith and Lance Armstrong is only showing your ignorance.

BTW When has Armstrong "used drugs to achieve a performance enhancement"?

KOH

[drinkfeckarse]

Anyone who uses drugs to achieve a performance enhancement doesn't deserve to be referred to as a "great athlete".

Haven't read his book or anything but has he admitted using performance enhancing drugs?

[Metrostars]

Regarding Armstrong, his recovery from cancer is quite a remarkable story in itself. He is one tough motherf-er. Everyone will have suspicions about him taking performance enhancing drugs but he has been tested and nothing has been found yet.
BTW I have read Armstrong's book but no mention of him taking banned drugs.

[Dodge]

Armstrong's book is great and he's easily one of my all time idols.

Europeans got suspicious of him because he was so damn good and have tried everything to find dirt on him (with no success) (BTW I can't believe I'm siding with an American sport star over a european...) In the book Walsh just makes wide sweeping generalisations and concludes that Armstrong has to be on drugs (from what I've heard, I haven't read the book)

[WeAreRovers]

Armstrong's book is great and he's easily one of my all time idols.

Same here, truly one of the greats and I usually hate your All American idols (Sampras, Tiger Woods )

As regards Armstrong taking drugs, Dodge alluded to it above. In his book he points out the irony of the many banned drugs he took in his battle against the big C.

Since then he's been tested and tested (by sniffy Europeans) and always been clean and as I write He's just moved into yellow after the team time trial. It's all over already.

KOH

[Pauro 76]

Yeah US Postal just won the Team Time Trial... whats the story with the new rules about the TTT? In fact why bother having one, cos the top 10 is now between nearly all riders between 2 teams, which kinda blows the competition away?

[the 12 th man]

Yeah US Postal just won the Team Time Trial... whats the story with the new rules about the TTT? In fact why bother having one, cos the top 10 is now between nearly all riders between 2 teams, which kinda blows the competition away?

believe it or not they changed the rules to try and make it a closer race!!
in the team time trial now,the gap between 1st & 2nd in the ttt is limited to 20 seconds ,even if the team thats 1 st beats the team thats 2nd by say 2 mins.
yesterday the us postals won the ttt by over a minute but because of the new rule they only got a 20 sec gap to the 2nd team.

i could be wrong but i think the ttt was held early this year for some reason and because of the nature of it (as in all team members get same time)this caused the team members of the winning team to hog the top 10 spots.

not a great day for mark scanlons team as they paid for their efforts in the previous 3 days and lost time.
he slipped to 4th in the young rider category (white jersey) but i think he still has a lot to give

[Macy]

i could be wrong but i think the ttt was held early this year for some reason and because of the nature of it (as in all team members get same time)this caused the team members of the winning team to hog the top 10 spots.

Nah, it's normally held first week, so most teams have at least most of the team. There were a few years when there was no ttt.

The 20 second rule defeats the purpose of the ttt - no point in it.

Re: Postal dominating the top 10: They'll just send a man in every break and then they won't have to defend the jersey until the Pyrenees, so be suprised if Armstrong holds yellow for too long...

[Dodge]

I think the TTT is just there for the sponsors. The whole team in sync with no other sponsors to clutter your view...

And half of Armstrong's winning margin last year was through the TTT so some people were saying that the new rules were brought in to make it harder for him to win his 6th. I definitely don't think a rider should lose 4/5 minutes on his rivals becaue his team can't ride a time trial so in that respect the rules aren't too bad

Oh and Scanlon actually moved up from 5th to 4th in the White Jersey comp.

[the 12 th man]

Oh and Scanlon actually moved up from 5th to 4th in the White Jersey comp.

my mistake so,
i thought he was in 3 rd to 4th,so thats good news

[NorthoftheLee]

The TTT is crap and should never have been brought back in a few years ago.it is well unfair on riders who are not in strong teams. At least the new rule limited the amount of time riders lost.......

The tour will only really get going for the serious contenders once the tour hit the mountains.....this is when talk of placings should really begin because up until then placings mean absolute nothing in the overall aspect of the race...Its for the sprinters to get their heads and sponsors into the media...

looking forward to the mountain stages because I think Mayo will now have to attack armstrong at every opportunity to try and get back all that lost time...its gonna be great.....I can see armstong being attacked from all quarters this year which will make it a great race....

hopefully Scanlon will be able to handle the mountains....

[WeAreRovers]

hopefully Scanlon will be able to handle the mountains....

That's the big question. Does anyone know if he can climb? My (always pessimistic) old man reckons he won't even make it to the mountains.

KOH

[Dodge]

He's not a climber cetainly but he's far stronger than most sprinters. He'll get over them alright but don't expect any heroics

[Schumi]

Quality stage today! Five guys 15 mins ahead with about 12k left. Looks like Thomas Voeckler will be miles ahead of all the favourites after today.

There's commentary off the TV on letour.com, very handy.