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tour de france 2010
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| i watched the important hour today... |
| posted by: horsebeater |
12:47 7.24.10 |
... and thought the same thing about the 39 seconds. I was shocked it wasn't mentioned (at least in the 10-15 minutes post-finish that I watched). It didn't help that the announcer, Liggett, was doing the math in his head wrong and kept saying that he thought Contador had won by 22 seconds (subtracting the 8 from 30 instead of adding it).
How bizarre was the times getting sooo much longer throughout the day. I realized the weather changed, but if you assume that contador should have been in the top 5 in the time trial, that's nearly a 10% change due to the weather. I wouldn't have thought it would be so extreme.
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| so predictably enough... |
| posted by: publius |
11:25 7.24.10 |
contador beats andy schleck in the last time trial and for all "intensive purposes" wins the 2010 tour de france.
interesting note: contador beat schleck by 31 seconds in the time trial to give him an overall winning margin of 39 seconds.
amount of time contador picked up when schleck's chain flew off and contador attacked?
39 seconds...
we'll be hearing about that ad nauseum in the upcoming days... |
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| this battle... |
| posted by: publius |
11:23 7.22.10 |
is some of the best action i've seen in the tour in the last decade...
watch if you can...4km to go... |
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| as (more or less) expected... |
| posted by: publius |
11:14 7.22.10 |
| it's contador vs. schleck alone on the final climb up the col du tourmalet...the tour may very well be decided on this climb (though one time trial does still remain....) |
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| double confusion! |
| posted by: publius |
17:02 7.20.10 |
| i relinquish any credibility i may have had with regards to comments about this year's tour de france |
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| actually.... |
| posted by: horsebeater |
16:54 7.20.10 |
.... tormalet WAS today. they are going up both sides this year. today they went up the "easy" side in the middle of the stage. thursday they go up the "hard" side to end the stage.
regarding contador, i subscribe to the view that schleck and his "i didn't get to eat my favorite ice cream so you aren't allowed to pass me today" attitude should shut up.
this article has a take that suggests that the "unwritten rule" in cycling is that you don't take off on crashes, and that there's no real rule on mechanical problems.
And I think any "rule" is lessened in the midst of the last big uphill climb of the day. you ride the whole stage for the ability to attack there, and stopping and sitting for 30 seconds (and letting everyone elses' muscles recover for those seconds) can make a big difference.
And then the chain fell off Contador had already accellerated (to match Schleck's attack), so it's not like he saw Schleck's chain fell off and THEN went.
http://www.realclearsports.com/blognetwork/beyond_the_peloton/2010/07/fair-play-or-unsporting.html
in any event, per broken english on twitter, they're best buds again after sleeping through today's stage:
***
Nasty haed day in TDF@albertocontador apologize 2 me today really big from him!!we re good again! End of story!
***
http://twitter.com/andy_schleck
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| errrrr..... |
| posted by: publius |
14:10 7.20.10 |
screwed that up....today wasn't tourmalet...that's thursday...
shows you how closely i'm paying attention this year |
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| lance... |
| posted by: publius |
11:31 7.20.10 |
is way way too far back to be any sort of contender for the overall tdf title. he has said in the last few days that he is conserving energy to try to get a stage win as his swan song..
and today he tried do it in one of the classic stages over the col du tourmalet...he was part of a breakaway that finished almost 7 minutes ahead of the peloton, but in the end he ended up 6th...my guess is that was his last hurrah, and unless the peloton allows him to win a stage for old time's sake he's not going to get another chance...
the big story of the last day or so has been contador taking the overall lead from andy schleck yesterday. he was down 31" going into the day. then on the last climb schleck's chain flew off and contador attacked and ended in yellow with an 8" lead over shcleck. generally when the race leader has a mechanical problem the other riders don't attack unitl he is back up on his bike and back towards the front. contador is being criticized pretty strongly for violating that bit of cycling etiquette and even apologized in a youtube video after the stage.
schleck is irate.
could be an interesting last few days.... |
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| you don't see this every day.... |
| posted by: publius |
15:56 7.17.10 |
mark renshaw, the setup rider for sprinter mark cavendish, is thrown out of of the tour for headbutting other riders out of the way during the final sprint...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_L8VLgLX7AM
i suppose headbutting is a pretty strong for what renshaw did...it was more like head nudging (or "serious argy bargy" according to the brit commentator) but you still can't do that...
as for the tour in general...i've given it a glance every day but haven't been able to get into it this year.
lance is way way back
schleck and contador are battling it out at the top of the gc. if contador rides like he did last year i think he's going to be tough to beat and will be able to make up the 30" or so schleck has on him in one of the upcoming mountain stages...maybe stage 17 up the col du tourmalet?
i'm trying to get into this...i really am...it's just nor working...
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