Tour De France 2008

[Ari Gold]

Poor start for valverde IMO. Wasting too much energy in that sprint yesterday - certainly not showing the maturity of a tour winner at this stage. That being said, his team is working exceptionally well for him. ITT will be interesting, because Valverde is going to need all the energy he has to limit his losses.

Soler also got an injury and looking like no hope of winning the mountains classification.

Watch for Cavendish tonight, it's his stage =)

 

[m1c]

Well Valverde put all that pressure on himself to win the first stage, i guess with the similar incline at the finish he might have liked his chances again. Glory hunter? haha

Cadel will be happy just to stay out of trouble until he gets into the mountains where he can hit his straps.

Feel sorry for Solar, he killed it last year for Barloworld. Hopefully it';s just a niggle and he can ride it out.

 

[Jeza23]

Stage 3 winner: Romain Feillu (random who brokeaway and didnt get caught)
Stage 4 (individual time trial) winner: Stefan Schumacher, he absolutely came from nowhere to blitz everyone including Cancellara who is the world champion at this discipline! Cadel came a credible 4th, his ride was super too.

Overall Standings after stage 4:

1. Schumacher (yellow jersey)
2. Kirchen (green jersey)
3. Millar
4. Evans
5. Cancellara

Funnily enough those were the top 5 place getters in the time trial! Looks like greater emphasis has been put on them in this years race.

Valverde fluffed it (like I knew he would) and lost 1min 7secs to Cadel and is 18th overall I think

 

[m1c]

That's almost Valverdes tour over, he won't out climb Cadel. Kirchen has the be the main threat, he's always been there abouts and you'd argue him and Cadel are the 2 most well rounded riders.

After a disastrous previous stage, Menchov didn't do too badly so he's not completely out of it yet either.

 

[Ari Gold]

Valverde probably wont out climb Evans but he can outsprint him at the finish. He made 30 seconds on him last year into Pau when he sprinted away. He also put a fair amount of time into a couple of other riders back in 2005 when he beat Armstrong to the finish. If he time trials as badly again he wont win, but he can make back time on Evans in the mountain finishes.

 

[Jeza23]

Riccardo Ricco won the 6th stage just recently.

Cadel finished 3rd and is now up to 2nd overall just 6 seconds behind Kim Kirchen (who also leads the green jersey competition).

Valverde and Menchov are still over a minute behind. I think they will find it hard to get that time back from Cadel! Looking good for Cadel in that regard.

 

[Coxy]

He's going well! So much can happen though. Just one mistake and a crash and he falls right back. Let's hope for clean racing!

 

[Jeza23]

Louis Sanchez of Caisse Depargne just won the 7th stage.

Cadel came 12th and was in the group containing the yellow jersey (Kirchen) so nothing has changed in the overall standings.

 

[Jeza23]

Riccardo Ricco burst away from the peloton on the first of the Pyranean stages to win.

Gained about a minute of the big guns which got him a few places up the rankings but he is still 3mins behind.

Cadel crashed, got taken out by an Euskatel-Euskadi rider apparently. Got cuts, grazes and so on, could also have damage to his collarbone. Not good for Cadel!

Hopefully he is ok!

 

[m1c]

He seems alright from all reports. Thank god!

Ricco was unreal last night, geeze he can accelerate on an incline can't he. He has future tour winner stamped all over him, the kid is a class act.

They said he averaged 40k going up there last night.

Tonight's stage will be a corker, one of the best of the tour. Love the ones with the incline finishes, the heads of state will be forced to make their moves. The tour winner should stand up tonight.

 

[ningnangnong]

Ricco had some insanely quick acceleration up the mountain, left everyone in his wake. Amazing stuff.

Hopefully tonight we see a few of the big teams start to attack.

 

[Ari Gold]

Cadel will lose massive amounts of time against his rivals tonight IMO. At least 2mins on the stage, maybe more.

 

[ningnangnong]

Piepoli takes out the stage and Cadel is into yellow.

He's going to have a lot of pressure on him now.

 

[Jeza23]

Piepoli takes out the stage and Cadel is into yellow.

He's going to have a lot of pressure on him now.

Just what I was going to post NNN!! Beat me to it.

He doesnt need to attack now, just needs to watch that CSC dont get away from him...as well as Menchov!

I think he can win _woohoo_

 

[Denny Crane]

I love the Pie.

 

[Coxy]

Cadel will lose massive amounts of time against his rivals tonight IMO. At least 2mins on the stage, maybe more.

icon_thumbs_u

Piepoli takes out the stage and Cadel is into yellow.

[icon_lol1. Remind me never to take a tip off Leo icon_thumbs_u

 

[BroncoMatt]

Cadel will lose massive amounts of time against his rivals tonight IMO. At least 2mins on the stage, maybe more.

icon_thumbs_u

Piepoli takes out the stage and Cadel is into yellow.

[icon_lol1. Remind me never to take a tip off Leo icon_thumbs_u

Leo declared to his band of loyal followers that Piepoli would win stage 10 last night icon_thumbs_u

 

[Coxy]

Ah well, he got it part right then! :P