Tour de France 2003

[M2]

Hay guys, the Tour de France bike race starts in a couple days...do you
think Lance Armstrong can do it again and kick some French/German/
Spanish/Brit/Aussie//Canadian/Mexican/Italian/Suisse/Belgium butt???
Now he's attempting to break the record of Miguel Indurain (Spain) for
winning the Tour 5 times. What do you think?

[coriolis]

Armstrong Rules. Will he tie or break Indurains record? I though Miguel had 5 and Lance had 4, along with the 3 others.

[M2]

Well Chris Carmichael, Lance's coach is on the Outdoor Life network right
now talking about how they trained on each of the climbs, etc. including Halp'du'Huez - - I LOVE IT! Get the tapes ready! He's hopefully going to tie
Indurain. I still wish Miguel was riding though; would have been a really
cool competition. Who is there to challenge him this year...

[coriolis]

Yeah, I'll need to get busy and get caught up.

[David]

I think Armstrong will prevail once again.

[M2]

The Prologue starts Saturday/today - and although there are two recaps of
each day's race, the latter one contains the best commentary by Phil Liggett,
Paul Sherwin, Bob Roll & company plus additional footage. Yahooo! It's here.
Oh, oh-Jan Ulrich...
(Just remember to take a 3-minute break for the Running of the Bulls on the
San Fermin holiday around the 15th...in Pamplona. :o )

[Colin]

I'm betting on Armstrong...

[weatherwunder]

I can't wait for it to start. I will be following it ever so closely.

Armstrong is a personal hero to me. He inspires me to try harder when things seem bad.

Being a biker myself, the tour is a highlight of the year for me.

[M2]

1) German Jan Ullrich is now in the lead of the Prologue - - riders still up
and Armstrong hasn't gone out yet.

2) Brad McGee, 27, the World Persuit Champion from Australia won the
Prologue Time Trial. He's riding for a French team.

3) David Miller from Cofidis would have won but his chain dropped.

4) Armstrong came in 7th. It's only the first day of many days on the
flats and in the mountains.

Congrats to the Aussies - they have 7 riders in the Tour this year although
all are not riding for Australia, just like not all our American riders are
on US teams either.

Winner Prologue - Brad McGee, Aus

[coriolis]

[quote="M2"][color=darkblue][list]

3) David Miller from Cofidis would have won but his chain dropped.

I thought that chain problems increased as they went to 8, 9, and 10-speed cassettes. Do the increased number of gears outweigh the decreased reliability? It must, since EVERYBODY is riding a 10-spd cassette.

[M2]

On a 8-speed cassette with 3 chain rings at the front, you’d have 24 gears
available to use if configured and assembled correctly; 27 with a 9. Mixed
components not designed to work together or improperly configured may
cause improper shifting (chain drop). Chains drop frequently during fast
shifts or multiple shifts from the front hub to the back – it happens to just
about everyone at some point. Unfortunately for Dave, it was during a
Tour stage – ouch. I’m sure he’s feeling really down and awful because a
little slip of the ring so to speak cost him the stage – just a couple tenths
of a second really (.08). Plus he was using only one front chainring with no
front derailleur. Look at Armstrong. He’s 7 seconds back – and in 7th
place. Blow your nose wrong, fall off taking a whiz on wheels, a flat tire
– anything that costs time, a few seconds, hopefully not MINUTES – could
cost the stage or the Tour. I think the two competitors to watch closely this
year are Armstrong and Ullrich. We’ll see who else floats to the top after
the flat stages this week. All the sprinters will be out in force now pushing
for the time bonuses – then they’ll ‘retire’, drop out or sit back …and the climbers
will take the lead in the Pyrenees.

[Derek Ortt]

The two Postal contenders, Heras and Armstrong, sur ehad poor prologues yesterday. Armstrong is still OK he should get hat back and much more on stage 7 into Morzine. However, Heras lost more than 30 seconds yesterday. Way to fail GC 101 by Heras. His tour hopes were set back somewhat on the opening day

[Derek Ortt]

After Heras falied GC 101 yesterday, both Armstrong and Heras failed GC 102 today. A GC contender should NEVER be in the middle of the peloton in a mass sprint, but near the front. Both ended up crashing. Thanks to an illogical UCI rule where if there is a time gape in the final km due to a crash, everyone gets the same time, they were not affected. Had the crash been 500m earlier, both would have lost about 3 minutes today

Would like to add that those two were not the only two who failed GC 102. Ullrich also went down, along with Beloki. Of more serious note, I have been hearing rumors that Tyler Hamilton is in the hospital with a shoulder injury. If this is true, looks like one GC contender is eliminated

As of about 1:30 p.m. EDT, Tyler Hamilton has a broken collarbone and is OUT of the Tour. This very well could turn into the Armstrong vs Heras battle as this will eliminate one source of the feared attacks

[M2]

Armstrong failed GC102? I don't think so but everyone has their own
opinion on how to race. He's 8th overall - and he will hang near there or
fall somewhat as the sprinting days progress. All the true top leaders will.
It's bad strategy if you try to win all the stages - can't be done. Lance may
win a few here & there but probably the time trials and in the mountains. Let
the sprinters have the flat stages - that's why they're there. The 'big heavies'
- the main contenders will hang back. And no, I wouldn't want to be near the
front in a sprint; as long as I'm in the upper section of the main peleton, no
problemo. This 35-person pileup today downed alot of riders and that also
it to be expected. You'll see most the large crashed on the flats as they're
getting aggressive and want to take bonuses. Just don't be in the back! All in
all, it's a normal stage, and standings are reasonable. Tyler Hamilton used
to ride for Postal and then split off to make his own name instead of be a
domestique for Armstrong. Can't blame him really. Armstrong's main attacks
will come from his main competitors, but they'll try to block the whole Postal
team where they can with their riders. It will be a nip & jab stragegy all
the way to the mountains.


Winner Stage 1: Alessandro Petacchi, Fassa Bortolo / GC: Brad McGee, FDJeux.com
(Armstrong, US Postal 8th GC)

[M2]

Whoa-oha - the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona to
celebrate la Fiesta de San Fermin begins TOMORROW, July 7 thru
July 14. Every day the bulls (and people) run together through the narrow
streets to the bullring. Ernest Hemmingway wannabees anyone....

[M2]

Just first as an aside...I am mentioning Pamplona & the Running of the Bulls
in this post for a specific reason - Miguel Indurain who won the Tour 5 times
is from a town near Pamplona and always lamented that he was missing
the Festival San Fermin' due to Tour...So the one year in the mid-90s that
Le Blanc the Tour Director actually routed the Tour through Indurain's
hometown because he was so loved and picked to win a "6th" time - well,
that was the last year Miguel rode because he cracked - and instead of riding
into his hometown victorious for one of the last stages, he was being defeated
by a bad sport and a jerk of a person: Bjarnie Riis. (sorry if anyone
likes that guy) It was also during Pamplona, and we always associate one of
the Greatest Cyclists in the World (Indurain) with the Bull Running. OK -

Congrats again to the Australians today - - Baden Cooke won the stage.
Good for them; they have not been fully represented in recent years in the
Tour. And look who's back - Tyler Hamilton, the American riding for the CSC team
who was in the pileup yesterday and fractured his collarbone, well -
he's back in the race and is 8th overall!
Nice recovery although it must hurt like heck...

Winner Stage 2: Baden Cooke, FDJeux.com / Overall GC: Bradley McGee, FDJeux.com
(Jan Ullrich, Team Bianchi 5th GC)
(Tyler Hamilton, Team CSC 8th GC)
(Lance Armstrong, US Postal 10th GC)

[coriolis]

Hamiltons decision to continue riding will capture the hearts of the American fans. That's a courageous decision. That's good for him, good for America, and good for the sport. I don't see how he could climb though with a broken collar bone. It's not going to heal in time. Maybe it didn't fracture all the way through.

[M2]

Sorry about not posting the results –computer glitches & missed the Tour.
You guys can jump in anytime you know, lol.
OK, who do we have the past 2 days….

Stage 3: Winner: Allessandro Petacci, Team Fassa Bortolo / Lance was 69th!
The GC classification was interesting for stage 3: Jeaen Nazon (Team Jean Delatour) took
the yellow jersey away from the Aussies. Jan Ullrich (Bianchi) was 9th, Armstrong 12th in GC.



Stage 4: Wow – what a change. US Postal likes those small numbers!…ruled the stage today.
Jose Rubiera (USPostal) won the stage
Lance came in at #2
Roberto Heras was 6th

----- so ----

Overall General Classification (GC) currently:

1. Victor Pena (US Postal) wears the yellow jersey
2. Lance Armstrong
3. Vjatceslav Ekimov
4. George Hincapie
5. Roberto Heras
6. Pavel Padrnos (from Czech Republic riding for USPS)
7. Floyd Landis

Congrats to the US Posties for a great ride today. This time I’ll have to watch it. ...Coriolis, where is Tyler Hamilton - still in? I didn't get a chance
to look for him...

[coriolis]

Tyler finished 70th today.
I never have enough time to get all the way through the websites. Ive been looking at:


http://www.letour.fr/

and ESPN.com

Guess what, ESPN put a direct link to the TDF from the home page. No more clicking on "Olympic Sports." That was a joke.

[M2]

Thanks Ed. The Internet was like a dog last night and I couldn't move around
anywhere, let along go to a bunch of websites... Normally I do use the
main Tour de France site (fr) and get the latest up to the minute results.
Actually it's finally on OLN here as we speak....

THE TEAM TIME TRIAL! No wonder US Postal did so well. Should have known.
Anyone that can master the TT and the mountains together has it made.

They're lookin' good, feelin' good - riding Large in France today. Finish
times were outstanding - Good for them.

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