Tour de France 2009

Hey Carlos, Alberto raced in almost all those same races but WON them all...

giro/off/vuelta/off/tour
vs.
tour/vuelta/giro/tour

theres an end point problem, but over the period sastre mentions, ac raced 1/2 of the number of gts.

OK, so I am watching Ventoux stage from start to finish at work. WTF is Phil's "The one thing that Mont Ventoux is is WRONG"?

long?

Contador rules out move to Team RadioShack

Also, guess the Twitter:

Hung over and tired today, The Jack Daniels was a bad idea
about 7 hours ago from mobile web

Clue - not Andy Schleck.

well done Bradley

contador: i hate lance armstrong

not quite hate, and really understandable.

setting oneself up to be la's voodoo spite doll guarantees the awez next year.

now (Team Livestrong jr development team rider) Taylor Phinney is backing up LA via twitter. Early angling to get onto the Radio Shack team? some serious soap opera business going down.

not quite hate? because AC can win TdF on his own?

whatever. AC looks like a punk now.

idk they're both assholes (tm ddb) but LA did AC no favors by questioning AC's:

(a) experience
(b) loyalty
(c) commitment

almost daily in the press and then instead of celebrating his teammate's victory, he bails on him and parties with his bros kinda shows LA in a sad, graying ex-champion light:
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46117000/jpg/_46117135_cont282.jpg
"the preciousssss"

also: versus and american media is 99% pro-LA which i "get" ("ah, noble-cause asshole vs. young, cocky asshole is the epic Disney battle of good vs evil") but AC was seriously understimated by a whole lot of people, getting little to no respect in a TdF most likely to be remembered as "Lance's comeback".

LA is just another entitled dbag imo

xpost, and to add insult to injury, the TdF org played the Dutch (Danish?) anthem instead of Spain's when honoring AC... dude gets zero respect~

When AC wins as many in a row as LA he can make shitty comments about how he doesn't respect LA. Until then, LA is the best TDF participant in the history of the Tour. Fuck an egotistical Spaniard. I hope he loses both balls.

why would he respect LA after what LA said about him?

Because LA is a better rider/Tour participant than he will ever be.

AC's statements left out of the American press:

+ "(Armstrong) was a great champion, and is still a great rider..." (ed: but is a dick)
+ "(Johan) gave Lance preferential treatment, because everything he has is due to Lance's success. It is normal behavior and I understand that."

lance doesn't deserve respect imo if he treats people like that

http://www.sfu.ca/~stscott/pictures/dealwithit.gif

....aaaaaaaaaand back to reality, AC has 2 TdF victories at age 26. He coulda/shoulda/woulda had 3 but age 26.

LA at age 26 was recovering from cancer and yet to be the rider that we know him as.

anything is possible, amigito.

lancearmstrong
hey pistolero, there is no "i" in "team". what did i say in March? Lots to learn. Restated.
about 2 hours ago from web

bradwiggins
Hey Cav, your a star, remember what we said, fuck Bob, life goes on, dont let sponser politics affect freindships.
12:41 AM Jul 27th from mobile web

wegelius
Saw one of those massive Airbus thingy planes in Paris. Wowchie!
about 11 hours ago from TwitterBerry

Twitter: it's like Dawson's Creek never ended.

quote included in the American press:

Even if he is a great champion, I have never had admiration for him and I never will," the 26-year-old Spaniard admitted.

Makes no sense. BTW AC, did you or did you not blow off direct orders during the TdF this year?

maybe he secretly never liked him because he'd heard about what a total dbag LA is and then found out for himself, therefore confirming it and now he feels comfortable saying it in public?

maybe theyre both preening macho dbags who are only interesting insofar as they provide soap opera theatrics to the aspie biker set?

lol, i thought that lance's tweet was fiction but it was sadly not... kinda wish he would have stayed retired (or off twitter).

barry bonds: 7 mvps
roger clemens: 7 cy youngs
LA: 7 TdF titles

maybe theyre both preening macho dbags

twitter exists to enable people to achieve this status. however, in this case there's probly much truth.

which elite cyclist are not preening macho dbags? Oh wait, Greg LeMond isn't. Just ask him.

I assume Lance was "following team orders" when he ordered his guys to the front on Stage 2 and gained 40 seconds on AC/Kloden, but of course AC didn't understand that there was no "i" in "team" when he attacked the Schlecks and dropped Amstrong/Kloden. Since when has protecting your teammates' top 10 GC placings been more important than, uh, trying to WIN the Tour? Ah, I get it now ... during all those years when Armstrong kept Landis/Beltran/Popo/Heras/etc. neutered while he was winning Tours, he was actually trying to protect them! Armstrong is a joke.

When AC wins as many in a row as LA he can make shitty comments about how he doesn't respect LA. Until then, LA is the best TDF participant in the history of the Tour. Fuck an egotistical Spaniard. I hope he loses both balls.

― brotherlovesdub, Monday, July 27, 2009 11:53 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

Wow... this really gets to you doesn't it?

Eddy Merckx is still the best TdF participant in the history of the Tour de France, by a long shot. Lance winning a title more only statistically ranks him above Merckx, but looking at the sheer heroism and jaw dropping way Merckx had to fight for his titles, this really is no competition.

this discussion between AC and LA gets boring now, AC should've acted like a champ and just forget all about it, he won anyway. (complaining and whining afterwards, meh)

meanwhile the doping allegiations* have finally started, it seems be a new TdF guide line to have doping cases AFTER the tour, so while it's going it can appear to be "clean".

*4th generation EPO, and some kind of fatburner, also insuline etc. etc.

Ludo, any links on that?

ha i'm loving this AC/LA itch tbh

In Lemonde.fr, Pierre Bordry of the french anti doping agency says it's AICAR (aminoimidazole carboxamide nucleotide, a muscle strengthening and fat burning substance) and Hematide, EPO of the fourth generation that is still in development and will probably be available commercially in 2011.

Both aicar and hematide have wikipedia articles if you want more info.

yeah i got that info from the Belgian tv text.. so no link.

still can't believe (even though it's been true for a 100 years) that cyclists are willing to take all these risks with medicine/drugs still in development.

Finally watched ventoux, then made E watch it from the tree line. Awesome stuff, contador never looked in trouble. Shame he didn't let the. Win do the talking and shut up about lance. Lance should have kept more gnomic as well. Looking forward to the vuelta now, although I presume Lance won't be there, I'd be surprised if he pulls on an astana jersey again.

Wondering what will happen to wiggins, will he lead for garmin or will they continue with Menchov? I'm really excited to see how Wiggins develops, I'm sure he can get better in another year, I'm also sure that the schlecks will as well and tony martin looked good on the ventoux and earlier in the race as well.

Glad cav and hushovd made up as well, that's going to be a great rivalry. Cav and columbia have either got to shut down hushovd on the breaks or get cav to be able to go out with him when he goes for intermediates.

See you all in a month for the vuelta.

good thing this risk taking cheating gene is isolated to cycling or wed be in heaps of trouble

xpost

lol.

Wondering what will happen to wiggins, will he lead for garmin or will they continue with Menchov?

Aren't you confusing Garmin and Rabobank here? Both orange jersey's though, so it's understandable :)

I think it's over between Menchov and Rabo though, he really blew it this Tour. I can see him heading back to Russia, there's lot's of rumours that Katusja want him.

If Cavendish put his mind to it, I reckon he could improve his climbing. Not to KotM standard, but good enough to rival Thor on those inter-col sprints.

I can't help feeling a teeny bit sorry for Menchov.

I am indeed, I blame it on being up at 3:30 am this morning.

I think it's over between Menchov and Rabo though, he really blew it this Tour. I can see him heading back to Russia, there's lot's of rumours that Katusja want him.

Ed got me thinking Menchov was making a very unexpected move. (also unexpected from Garmin, don't see what they need him) Katusja would be a wise choice.

Astarloza. EPO. 1 week before the start of the Tour.

http://www.watoday.com.au/breaking-news-sport/tour-stage-winner-suspended-over-doping-20090801-e4nz.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/aug/04/bradley-wiggins-interview-donald-mcrae

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/voigt-can-start-riding-again-in-two-weeks

Matt White has been directing us around southwest France for the last week. Allez allez allez!

Team Sky name six British riders but wait on Bradley Wiggins