Tour de France 2010

Congratulations Contador.

Will be interesting to see how many Tour de France victories he ends up with when he retires. My bet is many.
 
Congrats to El Pistolero. At the end of the day it'll be well deserved. Andy gave it his best, but eventually there was nothing he could do to shake Contador.

They are without a doubt the best two mountain goats in the world, but until Andy finds a way to nullify Contador's time trial-advantage, he will always come in second best in the big tours.
 
Dyslexic Untied said:
I didn't want to be too bold, but my point was that he could realistically get three or four more given his age.

I don't want that to happen, but it could.
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Yeah he's still just 27, I would say as that he could realistically keep his competitors at an arm's length for at least another five years. Isn't it normal for climbers to peak around 32-33? That's just an assumption on my end, based mostly on what I've seen during the years of Tour de France.

Let's hope Andy tightens the gap long before that, though! :smirk:
 
RedLars said:
Yeah he's still just 27, I would say as that he could realistically keep his competitors at an arm's length for at least another five years. Isn't it normal for climbers to peak around 32-33? That's just an assumption on my end, based mostly on what I've seen during the years of Tour de France.

Let's hope Andy tightens the gap long before that, though! :smirk:
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He has already. Last year he was off by 4mins and this year so far only 8 seconds. Everything suggests that Andy's improving and until we see his performance in the time trial tomorrow, we can't be too sure of his real form. He feels good he says and he thinks he can give Contador a run for his money. I hope he's right.

I retract my statements regarding Contador being a tit, he salvaged the little dignity he had left yesterday. Sitting up after Sanchez crashed and letting Andy win after Andy did all the work up hill. Great to see them embrace after the race and I think these two are going to push each other for the next few years. Contador is a fantastic bike rider and champion. Andy could be next big thing though...
 
Stretch said:
He has already. Last year he was off by 4mins and this year so far only 8 seconds. Everything suggests that Andy's improving and until we see his performance in the time trial tomorrow, we can't be too sure of his real form. He feels good he says and he thinks he can give Contador a run for his money. I hope he's right.

I retract my statements regarding Contador being a tit, he salvaged the little dignity he had left yesterday. Sitting up after Sanchez crashed and letting Andy win after Andy did all the work up hill. Great to see them embrace after the race and I think these two are going to push each other for the next few years. Contador is a fantastic bike rider and champion. Andy could be next big thing though...
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Realistically, Andy should be leading by 30 some seconds.
 
kouroux said:
Based on what ?
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I supposed he's taking chain-gate into account. We'll never know though how much more Contador could have pushed had he not gone ahead in that stage. Schleck certainly gave it all he had in recent days. Did Contador?
 
WTF is going on?!?! This is insane! I've never been this excited and anxious about a sport that's not football!!!

COME ON ANDY, GET IN!!!!
 
I hope I'm dead wrong, but I thought it kinda looked like Andy was getting a bit tired on the last pictures.

He still looks more comfortable on the bike than Contador at the moment though.
 
Looks like I was right :/

Edit: Yes 6 seconds, so that means Andy lost 12 since the last checkpoint (where he was 6 ahead.)
 
kouroux said:
18 seconds now
I just checked Cancelara's time :eek:, he's ridiculous
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Yeah, he and Martin were in a class of their own in the time trials this year. Measuring them agains the latest riders today is a bit pointless though, because the wind conditions are completely different.

I think under the same conditions Menchov would have been a lot closer than he was in the end!
 
RedLars said:
Yeah, he and Martin were in a class of their own in the time trials this year. Measuring them agains the latest riders today is a bit pointless though, because the wind conditions are completely different.

I think under the same conditions Menchov would have been a lot closer than he was in the end!
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Too bad for him in the Tourmalet.It's where he lost a lot of time
 
kouroux said:
We'll never know indeed that's why when he said "realistically" it surprised me a bit
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Schleck was up what was it 38 seconds? He was riding away from Contador on that attack when his chain slipped.

Let's just assume that they finished together as usual. Contador has not shown any signs of being the superior rider in the mountains and the last mountain stage Contador was in my opinion showing signs of stressing in the last kilometer.

So, after today, Contador if he wasn't a complete douchebag would be up by 1 second, again I am going on the belief Andy had 38 before the chain incident. Contador knew exactly what he was doing when he attacked and Andy was derailed coasting in the middle of the road.

Fair enough, Contador goes on to win by a second. Andy is young and improving all the time. This very well could be Albertos final tour victory.
 
Take out the cobblestones disaster and Contador wins this thing no problem, the whole thing from stage 15 is a non-issue really. Hopefully it doesn't end up being a one-way batter for the next few years like Jan and Lance was though.
 
Zen said:
Take out the cobblestones disaster and Contador wins this thing no problem, the whole thing from stage 15 is a non-issue really. Hopefully it doesn't end up being a one-way batter for the next few years like Jan and Lance was though.
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Why would you take that out? It's just as much a part of cycling as climbing or time trials are. I am glad they add the cobblestones to the Tour every now and then.
And if you do want to disregard that stage, don't forget that there was the fall of Fränk Schleck. Who knows what would have happened if he stayed in the race. I really believe one of the Schlecks would have won this tour.
 
Great ride from Menchov today. Riding under the same conditions, he took a couple of minutes out of both Schleck and Contador.

I agree with Zen about the cobblestones. Contador lost time that day through bad luck, just like Schleck did with the chain. Contador never lost any significant time to Schleck in the mountains and is the faster time triallist, so he has been the better rider overall.
 
Nucks said:
Schleck was up what was it 38 seconds? He was riding away from Contador on that attack when his chain slipped.

Let's just assume that they finished together as usual. Contador has not shown any signs of being the superior rider in the mountains and the last mountain stage Contador was in my opinion showing signs of stressing in the last kilometer.

So, after today, Contador if he wasn't a complete douchebag would be up by 1 second, again I am going on the belief Andy had 38 before the chain incident. Contador knew exactly what he was doing when he attacked and Andy was derailed coasting in the middle of the road.

Fair enough, Contador goes on to win by a second. Andy is young and improving all the time. This very well could be Albertos final tour victory.
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How come many previous winners of this race and riders said Contador did his job and had no gentleman obligation to wait for Schleck ? I'm no expert regarding this sport but it surprises me to see the real experts/journalists not as shocked and as "disgusted" with what Contador did.
 
Contador is a winner, three time now, and he acknowledged he was wrong. It's quite unsatisfactory surely too, you want to know you've beaten everyone else because you're better than them, not because of the lottery of mechanical failure

Sadly in todays society, it's all just about the winning. And in cycling with the drugs history its had, it's perhaps no suprise that's all many care about. That's absolutely nothing to be celebrated though
 
surf said:
Great ride from Menchov today. Riding under the same conditions, he took a couple of minutes out of both Schleck and Contador.

I agree with Zen about the cobblestones. Contador lost time that day through bad luck, just like Schleck did with the chain. Contador never lost any significant time to Schleck in the mountains and is the faster time triallist, so he has been the better rider overall.
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But the time Contador lost that day wasn't because of bad luck though, was it? He lost a little bit of time at the very end because of some mechanical issues, but that was only a few seconds. Most of the time he lost that day because Schleck had one of the best cobblestone-riders riding for him that day (Cancellara).
To be honest, I was quite surprised how well Contador did on the cobblestones since most Spanish riders are rubbish on the cobbles. Especially climbers like Contador.

I do agree though that Contador seemed to be the best rider overall of the two. Although the difference this year was much smaller than last year. Promising for the future.
 
kouroux said:
How come many previous winners of this race and riders said Contador did his job and had no gentleman obligation to wait for Schleck ? I'm no expert regarding this sport but it surprises me to see the real experts/journalists not as shocked and as "disgusted" with what Contador did.
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I wouldn't say it is unanimous this feeling. How many times have the experts or commentators rehashed the idea that the winner of the tour should be the BEST rider, not the recipient of some elses misfortune? How often have they lauded Jan or Lance or whomever for holding up the race when the yellow or his nearest rivals have crashed?

Andy's bike broke. He was pulling away from Contador. Contador may or may not have known Andy was in trouble when he launched his attack, but to suggest he didn't see that Andy had a bike problem is rubbish.

Many of these guys are involved in the sport and they can't come out and fry someone. This is like kicking the ball out when someone is injured, or even faking injury for a long enough period of time. You don't HAVE to do it, but you should. It is the honorable, right thing to do.

I'm glad Contador has made up the margin he stole from And, so that the talking point is moot. It doesn't matter now. However, if Alberto edged Andy by a couple of seconds in Paris, you know that this victory would be tainted. Everyone would be talking about it not just until next year, but whenever you mentioned Contador.
 
Nucks said:
I wouldn't say it is unanimous this feeling. How many times have the experts or commentators rehashed the idea that the winner of the tour should be the BEST rider, not the recipient of some elses misfortune? How often have they lauded Jan or Lance or whomever for holding up the race when the yellow or his nearest rivals have crashed?
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But Lance didn't always wait as well. In 2002 or 2003 Iban Mayo (definately the best climber that year, maybe after Armstrong) went down on the cobblestones and Armstrong didn't wait for him. On the contrary, he set his team to ride.

Nucks said:
Andy's bike broke. He was pulling away from Contador. Contador may or may not have known Andy was in trouble when he launched his attack, but to suggest he didn't see that Andy had a bike problem is rubbish.

Many of these guys are involved in the sport and they can't come out and fry someone. This is like kicking the ball out when someone is injured, or even faking injury for a long enough period of time. You don't HAVE to do it, but you should. It is the honorable, right thing to do.

I'm glad Contador has made up the margin he stole from And, so that the talking point is moot. It doesn't matter now. However, if Alberto edged Andy by a couple of seconds in Paris, you know that this victory would be tainted. Everyone would be talking about it not just until next year, but whenever you mentioned Contador.
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You can't just stop racing everytime somebody has a mechanical problem or everytime somebody is on the ground. He didn't steal anything from Andy. That's also the general feeling in the peleton. Most of the people I heard in the cycling world thought that the polemic and outrage about Contador's decision there (which only seemed to come from Saxo Bank's direction) was ridiculous and unnecessary. There's a big chance that Andy's mechanical problems were his own fault because he mis-changed gears.
Shit happens, it's sport. People get bad luck or good luck sometimes.
 
Nucks said:
I wouldn't say it is unanimous this feeling. How many times have the experts or commentators rehashed the idea that the winner of the tour should be the BEST rider, not the recipient of some elses misfortune? How often have they lauded Jan or Lance or whomever for holding up the race when the yellow or his nearest rivals have crashed?

Andy's bike broke. He was pulling away from Contador. Contador may or may not have known Andy was in trouble when he launched his attack, but to suggest he didn't see that Andy had a bike problem is rubbish.

Many of these guys are involved in the sport and they can't come out and fry someone. This is like kicking the ball out when someone is injured, or even faking injury for a long enough period of time. You don't HAVE to do it, but you should. It is the honorable, right thing to do.

I'm glad Contador has made up the margin he stole from And, so that the talking point is moot. It doesn't matter now. However, if Alberto edged Andy by a couple of seconds in Paris, you know that this victory would be tainted. Everyone would be talking about it not just until next year, but whenever you mentioned Contador.
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When there is someone or something to criticize they don't refrain from it tbh.
Like King_Eric said, mechanical problems is not accident so there is no moral obligation to wait for the opponent.Plus apparently (I'm not sure of it) it was Andy's fault so why should Contador have waited for him ?
 
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