Le Tour De France 2009

Spectator killed today.....hit by a police motorbike apparently.
 
Its as you were. Surely someone is going to attack tomorrow.....
 
Appearantly Cavendish has been disqualified in todays race for changing lanes in the finish.

Thor is now nr. 13 in todays finish, Cavendish is not in the list.

1. IVANOV Serguei 165 TEAM KATUSHA 4h 37' 46"
2. ROCHE Nicolas 89 AG2R LA MONDIALE 4h 38' 02" + 00' 16"
3. ROULSTON Hayden 9 CERVELO TEST TEAM 4h 38' 02" + 00' 16"
4. MAASKANT Martijn 55 GARMIN - SLIPSTREAM 4h 38' 02" + 00' 16"
5. MINARD Sébastien 127 COFIDIS LE CREDIT EN LIGNE 4h 38' 02" + 00' 16"
6. RIGHI Daniele 136 LAMPRE - N.G.C 4h 38' 02" + 00' 16"
7. LE MEVEL Christophe 106 FRANCAISE DES JEUX 4h 38' 02" + 00' 16"
8. HINCAPIE George 74 TEAM COLUMBIA - HTC 4h 38' 02" + 00' 16"
9. BENNATI Daniele 92 LIQUIGAS 4h 38' 02" + 00' 16"
10. CIOLEK Gerald 182 TEAM MILRAM 4h 38' 08" + 00' 22"
11. TIMMER Albert 198 SKIL-SHIMANO 4h 38' 12" + 00' 26"
12. WILLEMS Frederik 99 LIQUIGAS 4h 41' 27" + 03' 41"
13. HUSHOVD Thor 6 CERVELO TEST TEAM 4h 43' 22" + 05' 36"
14. RENSHAW Mark 78 TEAM COLUMBIA - HTC 4h 43' 22" + 05' 36"
15. HUTAROVICH Yauheni 104 FRANCAISE DES JEUX 4h 43' 22" + 05' 36"
16. ROJAS Jose Joaquin 117 CAISSE D’EPARGNE 4h 43' 22" + 05' 36"
17. DE KORT Koen 193 SKIL-SHIMANO 4h 43' 22" + 05' 36"
18. BANDIERA Marco 132 LAMPRE - N.G.C 4h 43' 22" + 05' 36"
19. LANCASTER Brett Daniel 8 CERVELO TEST TEAM 4h 43' 22" + 05' 36"
20. ROY Jérémy 107 FRANCAISE DES JEUX 4h 43' 22" + 05' 36"






http://www.letourdefrance.com/2009/TDF/LIVE/us/1400/classement/index.html
 
If the jury keeps that stance it will leave Thor with 218 points and Cavendish with 200 points in the race for the green jersey.
 
Hincapie the big winner today. I still expect Armstrong to make a move at some point.....maybe tomorrow.
 
To think Hincapie was five seconds away from starting tomorrow with the yellow jersey.


Based on his career he would have deserved to have a day in yellow.
 
Leader of the jury on the telly now. The verdict on Cavendish is final, and he is disqualified from todays sprint.
 
Is Cavendish british? I thought he was American. He seems like a cnut. I almost care enough to hope that Hushovd will win the green thingy.
 
Laphroaig said:
Is Cavendish british? I thought he was British. He seems like a cnut. I almost care enough to hope that Hushovd will win the green thingy.
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Hes from the Isle of man. Funny not a lot of people seem to like him....
 
Laphroaig said:
Is Cavendish british? I thought he was British. He seems like a cnut. I almost care enough to hope that Hushovd will win the green thingy.
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Isle of Man, thats British.
Good to see the dickhead disqualified today.
 
He`s a cnut allright. But all sprinters are cnuts, they have a big ego. Like sprinters in athletics and a bit like some strikers in football.

Hushovd is a cnut too IMO, but he`s a Noggie cnut, so I like him.
 
Great race today!

Contador shot up like a bullet on the climb, left Armstrong and the others behind for dead. Kudos to Wiggins too, very good day for him.
 
Hell of a kick from Contador last 5k or so, fair dues to him. Hes got to be favourite now, but there are still a few tough days left in the alps.

Im still hoping Armstrong can dig deep and produce something special though.....
 
He'll only increase the gap now; Armstrong will do well to finish in the top 5 let alone winning it.
 
Yeah, today showed that Armstrong just isn`t where he was, who can blame him? One thing is letting Contador go, but the Schlecks, Wiggins, Evans, Sastre and others also went without him following.

He said in the interview after the finish that he wasn`t sure what to expect before the climb, and that he couldn`t follow. He also said that "it would be very difficult" for him to win it now, and that Contador was the best rider in the Tour.

Good to see Wiggins and Andy Schleck doing so well today.
 
The experts on the Noggie channel, who love Wiggins by the way, thought he would struggle in the longer climbs. Let`s hope not.
 
A remarkable day today, Armstrong had predicted fireworks in the morning and we got them. Contador has won the race today, unles something happens mechanically on a climb over the next few days. I doubt Armstrong will say this till after the race, but he probably knew that Contador would win the tour all along.

However, I applaud the whole of the top 3, Contador for a outstanding climb, that was something special, Armstrong, as to be where he is, at his age and to be climbing as well as that is outstanding and to Wiggins, keep this up, a climber we thought you weren't but at this rate, he could be a winner of this race in a couple of years.
 
I was watching the sprint finish the other day, and I think it's bollocks

The idea that Hushovd was outsprinting Cavendish and blocked off on the line is a joke in itself!!!

Cavendish will have 4 stage wins to his name, possibly still 6, I think likely 5 on the Champs-Élysées, and he'll finish within 13 points of Hushovd, so we'll know that on the track, he is the true Green Jersey winner
 
Very impressed with Wiggins, he looks the real deal, how'd he do in individual time trials, I'm thinking since he was a pursuit rider he'd be quite good, I fancy a podium finish for him at this rate!
 
5 climbs tomorrow, it could be decisive if one of the big boys can get away.

But I have just had a look at the climb on saturday into Ventoux. Holy shit that looks an incredibly steep climb, so if it is tight enough this could all come down to saturday and the final climb.....
 
Someone needs to put Contador's yellow jersey under pressure. He's been serene so far. Today's attack by Schleck junior appeared half-hearted.
 
Nothing to do with this years tour but check out this crash by Frank Schleck on the Tour of Switzerland - OUCH!!

Just gets up and dusts himself down.....

 
Rooney24 said:
Nothing to do with this years tour but check out this crash by Frank Schleck on the Tour of Switzerland - OUCH!!

Just gets up and dusts himself down.....

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He's very lucky, but at least he was wearing a helmet. It reminded me of Casartelli in '95, when another rider went over the side in a descent.

Tour rider killed in mountain crash

ROBIN NICHOLL with the Tour de France

Wednesday, 19 July 1995

Fabio Casartelli, Italy's Olympic road race champion, died in hospital yesterday after a crash during the 15th stage of the Tour de France.

Casartelli, the first competitor to die during the Tour since Britain's Tommy Simpson in 1967, was in a small group of riders who fell on the descent from the Col de Portet d'Aspet in the Pyrenees, the first climb of the day.

The 24-year-old sustained critical head injuries when he hit the road and lay unconscious with blood pouring from head wounds before being taken to Tarbes hospital by helicopter.

"His heart stopped three times in the helicopter but it was brain trauma that caused the death," a hospital spokesman said. "He died 30 minutes after reaching hospital." Casartelli, from Como, was married last year and recently became a father.

The tragedy highlighted a long-standing controversy about crash helmets. The former world champion Hennie Kuiper, the Dutch manager of Casartelli's team, insisted that a helmet would not have saved his rider.

"There would have been no sense in it because he fell with the right side of his head hitting a concrete post. His helmet was in the back of my car. Most riders would not wear them because it was too hot. I don't think cycling is dangerous if you compare it with Formula One racing. There are a lot of risks but these men are professionals."

Depending on the nerve of riders and the weather conditions, they can touch 80kph (50mph) as they sweep through the bends on a 15-kilometre swoop from mountains such as the Tourmalet, 2114m above sea level. Riders protested successfully two years ago about having the right to choose whether they wear crash helmets while racing. In France and Italy they have the option but not in the United States, Belgium, the Netherlands and Britain.

Yesterday's accident saw Casartelli hit a post, causing several others to crash. The Frenchman Dante Rezze fell into a ravine, seriously injuring his leg. Germany's Dirk Baldinger broke his hip, and he and Rezze went by ambulance to hospital.

Tony Rominger, ranked No 1 in the world, expressed concern over rider safety in the Tour of Italy, complaining about unlit road tunnels and spectators.

"I had been worried about safety then because riders are racing so much faster these days. Safety becomes an even greater factor, but on the Tour they are conscious of this. However there should have been more warning if the descent was dangerous."

Rominger was in tears after discovering the tragedy when he saw television coverage in his team bus at the Cauterets finish. "It's very bad that we were not told during the race. After this Tour I want a break from racing."

Bernard Thevenet, twice a Tour winner in the Seventies, said there were greater risks taken in finishing sprints at 60kph. "It is not a matter of speed or mountain descents, but the risks that are taken."

Miguel Indurain, the race leader, said: "It is a tragedy for his family and the sport. We take so many risks we are lucky it doesn't happen more often. It is unbelievable how high the mountains are, but when you are descending you don't think about it."

The stage winner, Richard Virenque, said: "I was taking all sorts of risks. I was unaware of what had happened, otherwise I might have eased off. When I heard what had happened, it finished my celebrations. I dedicate my victory to his family, who must be in terrible pain."

Eddy Merckx, the Belgian who won five Tours, was angry because the victory ceremony continued in spite of Casartelli's death. "A fatality is the worst thing that can happen in the Tour and the sport, but I would wish that people would respect the dead. The ceremonials after Virenque's victory were unnecessary."

Gianni Savio, Casartelli's team manager last year, said: "Although he won an Olympic title he remained the same likeable guy with the same humility. Last year he had an operation for tendinitis in his knee, so not too much was seen of him."

Casartelli is only the third Tour rider to die in the race's 92 years. The first was Spain's Francesco Cepeda, who fell while descending the Alpine pass of the Galibier in 1935.

In 1967 Simpson collapsed in extreme heat on the Provencal mountain of Ventoux, known as the Bald Mountain because of its exposed, rocky and tree-less summit, although there were traces of amphetamines and alcohol found at the autopsy.

Motorola said they would continue in the Tour. "They felt they wanted to carry on in his memory," team spokesman Paul Sherwen said. There will be a minute's silence for Casartelli at the start of today's stage.
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Last I heard about Jens Voigt was that he was flown by chopper to a hospital where they will check him from top to toe. Already they could say that he had "severely injured his elbow" and that he was unconscious (spg) at times during the flight, and almost went into shock.

Horrible accident today. Faceplant in 80-90 km/h.
 
marchi-91 said:
Armstrong proved today that he's far from done with.

What a man, what an athlete. Shades of 99 with just that pure power! If he can get away on a mountain stage, they won't catch him.
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I think it's far too early and the deficit is far too insignificant for him to be playing the super domestique to Contador. I mean sure he rode away from them on the Verbier, fair play to him but he's having it a bit too easy IMHO.. I'd like to see all the favourites have a go at him tomorrow.. especially Armstrong, 1'37'' is not 3'30'' -- let's see someone putting the yellow jersey under pressure ffs!
 
surf said:
Someone needs to put Contador's yellow jersey under pressure. He's been serene so far. Today's attack by Schleck junior appeared half-hearted.
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He's looked bloody good so far, he's had an extra couple of gears in the mountains over everybody else, when he kicks there's just no answer from anybody. Team Astana is not going to let the Schlecks or Wiggins or Sastra out of their sites now, I dont see how its gonna happen to be honest
 
Just saw Voigts crash, pretty bad, he landed right on his face. It was like his bike just folded underneath him.

I think its underplayed how dangerous cycling can be, especially on the high descents.....
 
Fantastic from Hushovd today. Showed that the green jersey is as much about being smart and tough as it is being the quickest in the sprint. Would have liked to see Cavendish do what he has done today.


Also - funny comments from Eurosport live:

74km - Menchov has hit the floor again!!!! Twice in five minutes, he crashes more than a Commodore 64. Both he and Txurruka have lost contact with the chase group that is two minutes behind Hushovd.

14:05 - 78km - The course continues to descend and Menchov hits the floor, taking Txurruka down in the process. Does anyone crash more than the Russian? Both are back on their bikes.
 
The Schlecks were fantastic today, getting themselves into 2nd & 3rd in the overall is quite an achievement, Andy is so young, he will win a tour at some point
 
Van Den Broeck has been excellent as well the last week or so. 3 times in an early breakaway in 4 days. And still doing very well in the general classification. If only he hadn't fallen in the team time trial, he could have been top 10 now.

Belgium finally has some climb talent again.
 
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