Cycling 2010

[Macy]

Dan Martin finished 9th in probably the best ride of his life

A great result, given who he was up with. Top 10 on a stage like that is some achievement. I had been a bit disappointed to see him in and around the bus, but I guess that's more to do with my expectations not with managing his career!

[Stuttgart88]

Mechanical doping. Discuss.

http://cozybeehive.blogspot.com/2010...tor-power.html

Plenty of media references too.

[Stuttgart88]

Spectacular crash at end of today's Tour of Switzerland, Cavendish deviating offline in a sprint and getting taken out at high speed.

Any Irish been racing recently?

[Stuttgart88]

Update on Roche in this Indo interview:

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/co...e-2220696.html

[Dodge]

Spectacular crash at end of today's Tour of Switzerland, Cavendish deviating offline in a sprint and getting taken out at high speed.

He was totally at fault. No doubt British cycling media will come to his aid again...

Any Irish been racing recently?

martin taking time off since Giro. Roche and Deignan both doing tour de suisse on the back of injuries. Roche was 9/th or 10h on a hilly stage yesterday and made a bold bid to win it. Deignan's form has been poor and although he was named in Cervelo's final 12 for the Tour, he thinks he won't make it with this form.

Great to see Roche pre-selected (as he was last selected last year)

[outspoken]

Unreal crash yesterday not a cycling fan but seen the crash on SSN and it was spectacular

[Macy]

Martin isn't doing the Tour, unless Garmin are desperate. Disappointing to hear that about Diegnan. It'll be interesting to see Roche does - he's talking alot about the GC (not necessarily the Tour GC) these days.

[Mr A]

Le Tour starts today- interesting piece by Roche here: http://www.independent.ie/sport/othe...s-2244773.html

[Mr A]

Roche in 11th. So far so good although he's had a few spills. He's doing a daily piece in the Indo, which is cool.

Sounds lie the stages have been mental to date.

[Stuttgart88]

He's doing well given how mental the race has been so far. Is he a contender for the best young rider category, or is he too old?

[Real ale Madrid]

Cycled the ring of Kerry last weekend, 176kms - have a whole lot more respect for these lads watching them this week after doing that!

Anyone think Roche has the potential to actually win the tour at some stage in the future. He seems to be getting better every year.

White jersey is for u-26, Roche was 26 last week I think , so he is not eleigible afaik.

[Dodge]

He's too old (and wouldn't be a contendor anyway as Andy Schleck is still eligible). A bit too much was made of that one stage where every crashed too. The other was basically a classics type day (which they dion't normally have in the Grand Tours).

Roche is saying he's aiming for a high GC (Top 15). Decent start but this weekend will tell a lot

[Macy]

Anyone think Roche has the potential to actually win the tour at some stage in the future. He seems to be getting better every year.

He seems to be up for testing himself anyway. It'll be certainly interesting to see how far he can go with the leaders in the high mountains, and then it may be a question of his preparation in the future.

[Dodge]

The problems are the Contador is of similar age and Schleck is younger and both are significantly ahead of him at the moment.

If he got the position of being in top 10 in a few GTs then he might focus on the Vuelta or Giro to avoid that pair

[the 12 th man]

What did people think of the Belgian stages,maybe the cobbles were a bit too dangerous but it certainly livened it up a bit.Interesting to see how Stephen Roche handles it on Eurosport if his son does well.

[Dodge]

I loved it tbh. The stage Hushovd won was a cracker. I'd like to see more classic type stages like this in the TDF. The Giro hada a smilir one (no cobbles this time) this year when Evans had a great stage win. Probably the stage into Barcelona last year was the closest in recent times with a very tough uphill finish

[Macy]

What did people think of the Belgian stages,maybe the cobbles were a bit too dangerous but it certainly livened it up a bit.

I thought they were great - more please! GC in a grand tour should be about more than climbing and time trialling imo. Pity the oil on the second stage spoiled that one. Only thing would be maybe a couple of more stages in, so the peleton would be thinned out a bit more. I think my favourite stages of the last few years was this years Pavé and last years one in the south of France with the crosswinds, and was it '07 when Astana killed Moreau again with the med crosswinds?

Actually, in normal conditions, stage 1 would've had the crosswinds too - it would've been really mental start then, but I guess that would've thinned things out for the second and third stages...

[the 12 th man]

Great stage yesterday, the last 30 kms were pulsating,Armstrong like a shadow of his former self,pity Roche lost some time though as I thought he was looking good for a finish in that group he fell off the back of.
I'd love to see him get back in the top 10 tommorow

[Dodge]

He collapsed at the end of the stage apparently. Still in 16th overall which is decent. Some long hard days ahead though

[Real ale Madrid]

He looked absolutely shattered when the camera's zoomed in on him as he lost touch with the main peloton with about 5kms to go.

Id say top ten is a longshot now for him. Top 20 should be the aim.

Yesterday's stage was compelling viewing imo. Lots of subplots with all the crashes, Armstrongs poor day, probably signaling the end of his career as a top competitive cyclist, and then the contenders up front. It could be genuinely very very close come the end this year between Schleck, Contador and Evans. It may come down to the time trial, but there's a hell of a long way to go yet before that.