Starts tomorrow with the prologue in Rotterdam and finishes in Paris on 25th July.
This is Armstrong's last tour.
Boring........
Can't wait... been looking forward to it for weeks....Go Lance ;D
Looking forward to it myself. The course looks perfect for Contador although i cant imagine Lance being too far away now that he's not on the same team. Should be peaking at the right time. 52km time trial could be interesting if there isnt more than a minute between them on the second last day. Cavendish should do well over the first 5-6 days. Tyler Farrar could be the one to challenge him in the sprints. Hopefully Roche will be able to improve on his impressive debut last year (finished 23rd overall)
Quote from: Minder on July 02, 2010, 11:55:26 PM
Boring........
Why take time out of your life to post that ???
Looking forward to the tour :)
What chance does Bradley Wiggins have? Always admired think he is a fantastic athlete hope he goes well again this year. I'm sure Cavendish will win his usual few events as well. Any interviews I have seen him in he always seems to be more honest and articulate than your usual sportsman.
Decent start for Contador and Armstrong. Early days but I'm sure the auld fella was happy to gain a psychological advantage over his team member and foe from last year.
Bit of a balls up by Team Sky sending Wiggins out in the bad weather!
Prologue result:
1 Fabian Cancellara (Swi/Saxo Bank) 10 minutes, 0 seconds
2 Tony Martin (Ger/HTC-Columbia) +10 seconds
3 David Millar (GB/Garmin) +20"
4 Lance Armstrong (USA/RadioShack) +22"
5 Geraint Thomas (GB/Team Sky) +23"
6 Alberto Contador (Spa/Astana) +27"
7 Tyler Ferrar (USA/Garmin) +28"
7 Levi Lepheimer (USA/RadioShack) +28"
Selected others:
77 Bradley Wiggins (GB/Team Sky) +56"
127 Mark Cavendish (GB/HTC-Columbia) +1'10"
Quote from: Tony Baloney on July 03, 2010, 10:14:25 PM
Decent start for Contador and Armstrong. Early days but I'm sure the auld fella was happy to gain a psychological advantage over his team member and foe from last year.
Bit of a balls up by Team Sky sending Wiggins out in the bad weather!
Prologue result:
1 Fabian Cancellara (Swi/Saxo Bank) 10 minutes, 0 seconds
2 Tony Martin (Ger/HTC-Columbia) +10 seconds
3 David Millar (GB/Garmin) +20"
4 Lance Armstrong (USA/RadioShack) +22"
5 Geraint Thomas (GB/Team Sky) +23"
6 Alberto Contador (Spa/Astana) +27"
7 Tyler Ferrar (USA/Garmin) +28"
7 Levi Lepheimer (USA/RadioShack) +28"
Selected others:
77 Bradley Wiggins (GB/Team Sky) +56"
127 Mark Cavendish (GB/HTC-Columbia) +1'10"
tony you forgot someone, surely we have seen enought brits with the footie and tennis
Irish:
47, Nicolas Roche (Ag2r La Mondiale) at 49 secs
Quote from: gerry on July 03, 2010, 10:18:36 PM
Quote from: Tony Baloney on July 03, 2010, 10:14:25 PM
Decent start for Contador and Armstrong. Early days but I'm sure the auld fella was happy to gain a psychological advantage over his team member and foe from last year.
Bit of a balls up by Team Sky sending Wiggins out in the bad weather!
Prologue result:
1 Fabian Cancellara (Swi/Saxo Bank) 10 minutes, 0 seconds
2 Tony Martin (Ger/HTC-Columbia) +10 seconds
3 David Millar (GB/Garmin) +20"
4 Lance Armstrong (USA/RadioShack) +22"
5 Geraint Thomas (GB/Team Sky) +23"
6 Alberto Contador (Spa/Astana) +27"
7 Tyler Ferrar (USA/Garmin) +28"
7 Levi Lepheimer (USA/RadioShack) +28"
Selected others:
77 Bradley Wiggins (GB/Team Sky) +56"
127 Mark Cavendish (GB/HTC-Columbia) +1'10"
tony you forgot someone, surely we have seen enought brits with the footie and tennis
Irish:
47, Nicolas Roche (Ag2r La Mondiale) at 49 secs
Apologies offered to Roche. Hoked out from BBC Sport so he'll not be a "selected other".
looking forward to this more so than the world cup, hopefully nicolas can push on from his great tour last year.
three crashes within the last mile with the road totally blocked 500 yards from the end
A crash-strewn final three kilometres of the first road stage of the Tour de France was won by Alessandro Petacchi in Brussels on Sunday.
Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) and Oscar Freire (Rabobank) went wide on a right-hand bend with 3,000m to go of the 223.5-kilometres first stage from Rotterdam to the Belgian capital, before a second - and this time more major - crash one kilometre later wiped out Tyler Farrar's hopes of an American success on Independence Day.
Petacchi was the major benefactor, winning the sprint for the line with the 20 or so riders to emerge unscathed from the second collision.
Cavendish's HTC-Columbia lead-out man Mark Renshaw was second and third went to Thor Hushovd (Cervelo Test Team), the winner of the points classification in 2009.
Petacchi takes the green jersey from Briton David Millar (Team Garmin-Transitions), whose progress earlier in the day was temporarily halted by a collision with a dog.
As the major incidents happened in the final stages, all riders were awarded the same time, so there was no effect on the general classification standings.
Fabian Cancellara (Team Saxo Bank) retained the race leader's yellow jersey, with Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia) second, Millar third, Lance Armstrong (Team RadioShack) fourth, Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) fifth and race favourite Alberto Contador (Astana) sixth.
Team Sky leader Bradley Wiggins and Andy and Frank Schleck (both Team Saxo Bank) remained around one minute off the pace.
45. ROCHE Nicolas 81 AG2R LA MONDIALE 5h 20' 27" + 00' 49"
More carnage again today in the wet.
The organisers got hammered for making them ride on narrow wet roads. There are even a few
cobblestones tossed into the mix - nice to ride on in the wet no doubt!
------------------------------
Crashes marred or enlivened the second day in succession of the Tour de France, depending on whether you were involved in them or watching them.
Many of the favourites for the race hit the ground at some point (sometimes more than once) during a topsy-turvy, 125-mile (201km) run across Belgium from Brussels to Spa in persistent rain. A French rider, Sylvain Chavanel from the Quick Step team, took advantage of the chaos to beat the main field by almost four minutes and claim the yellow jersey in the process.
It was a supreme, partly solo, effort by Chavanel, who became the first Frenchman to claim the maillot jaune since 2008, but most of the post-stage chatter focused on who had gone down and how. The amiable American rider Christian Vande Velde, who is so accident-prone these days it is surprising he has not fitted his bike with stabilisers, was inevitably the main casualty. Lance Armstrong, Bradley Wiggins, David Millar and Cadel Evans also fell. But the greatest drama involved Team Saxo Bank's Andy Schleck, the runner-up in the 2009 Tour, who crashed twice in 200 metres with 25km to go.
The more serious of the two incidents saw a Quick Step rider face-plant on a slippery descent, a motorcyclist follow him down and then Schleck collide with him. The 25-year-old from Luxembourg was bloody, his kit was shredded and he was holding his left elbow. He mainly looked as if he wanted his mummy to come and pick him up in the car. He was also now three minutes behind his rivals, a deficit that would have been insurmountable considering the woeful time trial he rode on Saturday. "I had a real shit day!" he tweeted on that occasion.
To his credit Schleck rode like a maniac and managed to reconnect with the main group. This was partly because the peloton had become disorganised following the crashes but mostly because his Saxo Bank team-mate Fabian Cancellara neutralised the pace, thus surrendering his hard-won yellow jersey.
The peloton often shows an unlikely collective unity. In the same spirit it was "decided" not to contest the sprint for second place after Chavanel as a protest to dangerous riding conditions in Holland and Belgium. The South African sprinter Robbie Hunter was particularly forthright on the subject: "I say it again, no Grand Tour has any business in these northern countries and f**k anybody who says different. See how much you guys like hitting the deck at 60kph."
Lance Armstrong was, unusually for him, more measured. "There was something on the road and we just couldn't stay on our bikes, I've never seen anything like that," said the 38-year-old. "We kept passing guys all the way down, it was surreal. Mine was more of a slide; I've got some good abrasions but it was so slippery you just slid, there was not much impact. On days like today I wonder why I came off the beach but I will be back at it tomorrow."
It was a sad way to end another day of racing in the Low Countries that had mostly been notable for the ferocious passion of the roadside support. The crowds were out again today, lining the course three-deep for much of the route, despite it surely being one of the more spiteful 136 days of rain they are said to experience each year. On the six climbs that dotted the last 40 miles the intensity was more like what you would expect for a decisive Alpine ascent in the final week of the Tour.
Going into the stage there had been high hopes for the British contingent. Mark Cavendish awoke to a headline in L'Equipe that called him "Le Pyromane", which translates either as "the arsonist" or, if you want to be more charitable, as "the rabble rouser" for his role in one of the crashes on stage one. However, there was an expectation that, if he made it over the final bumps coming into Spa, he could claim a sprint victory. The other scenario for the day saw 40 of the lead riders testing each other out on the first hills of the 2010 race, and Team Sky talked bullishly of having all nine of their contingent in the decisive group.
Of course Chavanel got the jump on all of them after leading a breakaway of eight riders almost from the off. It is hard not to be moved when any of these long-suffering escapees has his day. "The happiest day in my career," he said sweetly. "It's great today because I have been unlucky so many times, always attacking, but the race catches me 1-2km from the line. Today the bunch decided not to chase me but that's life."
For you gerry....
34. ROCHE Nicolas 81 AG2R LA MONDIALE 10h 05' 11" + 03' 46"
Quote from: Tony Baloney on July 06, 2010, 12:26:55 AM
For you gerry....
34. ROCHE Nicolas 81 AG2R LA MONDIALE 10h 05' 11" + 03' 46"
he is half french anyway
nick had a great cycle today with a 11th place finish and now 12th overall
Nick did indeed have a good stage today, and he is doing well.
Lets hope he keeps it up.
Young Roche playing a blinder.
Is there a guy from Letterkenny on the Tour?
11, Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale) at 1 min 42 secs
Nicolas Roche retained his eleventh place overall in the Tour de France today, finishing the 153 kilometre fourth stage in the same time as bunch sprint winner Alessandro Petacchi of the Lampre-Farnese Vini team. The Italian was quickest into the finish in Reims, edging out New Zealand's Julian Dean (Garmin Transitions) plus the rest of the peloton.
Roche picked up several top twelve finishes last year in similar bunch gallops but said before this year's Tour that he wouldn't waste energy this time round. He is aiming for a high general classification result and consequently will hold back on the flatter stages.
"I am sticking to what I said before, keeping safe," he said afterwards. "It was a bit dangerous coming towards the end, but it was okay. Nothing too bad. There were a few roundabouts near the end, but lucky enough it was really strung out with the tailwind. If there was a headwind it would have been much more dangerous.
"I felt fine today after yesterday's cobbles," he continued. "I felt a bit stiff, but nothing too bad."
another good day for nicolas
"The Manxman picked up his first stage of this year's Tour and eleventh of his career, while Nicolas Roche sprinted in a fine 14th."
Quote from: Norf Tyrone on July 07, 2010, 06:42:41 PM
Is there a guy from Letterkenny on the Tour?
The guy your talking about is Phillip Deignan. He was in it last year but unfortuantly didnt make it this year/ Think he had to finish in the top 40 or something like that in the Tour of Switzerland a couple of weeks ago to qualify. He was well out of it I think.
Ireland's Nicolas Roche continued with his plan to save energy for the hillier stages and didn't contest the sprint. He rolled in 42nd and remains eleventh overall, one minute and 42 seconds behind Cancellara.
video posts here http://www.youtube.com/user/nicolasroche1984 (http://www.youtube.com/user/nicolasroche1984)
Cavendish seems back on form. I thought the crash in one of the earlier stages had fucked him up.
now in the top ten
Ireland's Nicolas Roche had a strong showing on the stage, sprinting in towards the front of the group of favourites, and placing 11th.
He consequently moved up the general classification and is now a superb eighth overall, two minutes 28 seconds behind Chavanel.
http://www.letour.fr/2010/TDF/LIVE/us/800/classement/index.html (http://www.letour.fr/2010/TDF/LIVE/us/800/classement/index.html)
roche doing a great job.
Was interesting yesterday to see that contador does actually look human in the mountains. He had no answer when Schleck put the hammer down. This one could be set for all out battle between the two in the pyrenees. Great tour so far, some great countryside to see as well, going to drive down there some time for sure.
Schleck made the last metres look easy, should be interesting the next few days with more mountains to come. roche still doing well, lets hope he keeps lady luck on his side compared to lance.
Ireland's Nicolas Roche (Ag2r La Mondiale) rode courageously but lost time on the final climb, placing 23rd and conceding two minutes 18 seconds to Schleck. He is now sixteenth overall, three minutes 11 seconds behind Evans.
"It was a very tough day, I had a hard one," he told Irishcycling.com afterwards. "I felt okay early on but at the end I didn't have it – I completely cracked in the last three kilometres. I just tried to limit my losses from there.
"I am looking forward to the rest day tomorrow, that will give me a chance to recover a little."
Roche said that he would continue riding in the same way as he has done up to now, remaining with the general classification contenders as long as possible rather than striking out early in the hope of a stage win. "For the moment, I am sticking to my plan," he said.
Ireland's Nicolas Roche suffered on the climb and finished 25th, 4 minutes 55 seconds back. He drops one place to seventeenth overall, but remains well within reach of his pre-race goal of a top 15 finish in Paris.
Contador showed what he'smade of today. I get the feeling there's a certain inevitability about it but I hope I'm wrong. Would very much like to see Schlek win.
Roche doing well. Still young and will learn from the experience. Wiggins not backing up his first good tour and Lance appears to have bit the dust too.
Schleck should give Contador his fill of it over the years. Armstrong's time is gone.
Astana absolutely ruined Evans today although it turns out he was riding with a fractured elbow. He looked ill climbing Col du Madeleine.
Heard them say after it that Evans forgot to eat and hit the wall.... it's not the first time he's made that mistake,
Barring any bad luck, Contador will simply stay on Andy's wheel from here on out and bate him easily in
the time trial to win her...long road to go though and hopefully I'm wrong!
I stayed in the same hotel as lot of the participants back in 1996 (I think it was). They came through Lourdes when I was on a Pilgrimage there. Class seeing them and the bikes up close.
Quote from: ziggysego on July 14, 2010, 01:04:18 AM
I stayed in the same hotel as lot of the participants back in 1996 (I think it was). They came through Lourdes when I was on a Pilgrimage there. Class seeing them and the bikes up close.
What did the bikes look like? Two wheels, handlebars, chain, gears, pedals etc.? :)
No sign of Roche letting up. Another fine day in the saddle.
Cycling
Nicolas Roche gains time finishing seventh
Wednesday, 14 July 2010 18:19
Nicolas Roche broke away from the peloton in the closing stages of the 10th stage of the Tour de France to finish seventh and gain valuable time back from the yellow jersey.
As a result, Roche has moved up four places in the overall standings, now sitting 13th, six minutes 23 seconds behind race leader Andy Schleck.
Bastille Day delivered a victory for Portugal as Sergio Paulinho was first to finish in Gap.
Paulinho (Team RadioShack) was in a six-man break before accelerating away with Vasili Kiryienka (Caisse d'Epargne) in the final 15 kilometres and beating the Belarus rider in a sprint finish.
The 179km 10th stage from Chambrey to Gap as the 97th Tour left the Alps behind was ridden at a sedate pace, half an hour behind the slowest anticipated schedule issued by race organisers.
The four remaining escapees finished over a minute behind.
More than 13 minutes behind was Ag2r La Mondiale's Roche in seventh and Remi Pauriol of Cofidis in eighth.
Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) finished ninth in the peloton's sprint for the line to collect 12 points in his race for the green jersey.
However, points classification leader Thor Hushovd (Cervelo Test Team) won nine points by finishing 11th, with his nearest rival Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese) finishing 10th.
The top of the general classification standings were unchanged, with Andy Schleck (Team Saxo Bank) retaining the race leader's yellow jersey with a 41-second advantage over Alberto Contador (Astana).
Their closest rival is more than two minutes behind.
Great day for nick after losing time the past few days, what a tour he is having. lets hope he stays injury free as we could have a tour winner in a few years.
Headbutting incident today. Lovely stuff.
Quote from: orangeman on July 15, 2010, 10:36:05 PM
Headbutting incident today. Lovely stuff.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/8826502.stm
Weird. Headbutting in Cycling
Quote from: gerry on July 14, 2010, 11:33:39 PM
Great day for nick after losing time the past few days, what a tour he is having. lets hope he stays injury free as we could have a tour winner in a few years.
I applaud the optimism but this will never happen.
Quote from: gallsman on July 15, 2010, 10:39:49 PM
Quote from: gerry on July 14, 2010, 11:33:39 PM
Great day for nick after losing time the past few days, what a tour he is having. lets hope he stays injury free as we could have a tour winner in a few years.
I applaud the optimism but this will never happen.
hopefully top 15 on his second tour, so why not
Quote from: Hoof Hearted on July 15, 2010, 10:37:33 PM
Quote from: orangeman on July 15, 2010, 10:36:05 PM
Headbutting incident today. Lovely stuff.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/8826502.stm
Weird. Headbutting in Cycling
can't believe he got kicked of for this, cavendish would not have won a stage this year without him
Quote from: gerry on July 16, 2010, 12:25:21 AM
Quote from: Hoof Hearted on July 15, 2010, 10:37:33 PM
Quote from: orangeman on July 15, 2010, 10:36:05 PM
Headbutting incident today. Lovely stuff.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/8826502.stm
Weird. Headbutting in Cycling
can't believe he got kicked of for this, cavendish would not have won a stage this year without him
It's forbidden Gerry, what would you expect? One's head cannot be used to gain advantage, he's an idiot.
he was only making room for his colleague mark, its a mountain out of a mole hill if you ask me. suppose the tour official that kick him of was sludden from dromore
tour not a cavendish lover, so i gúest the officials not lose any sleep tonight with his lead out man missing
Quote from: gerry on July 16, 2010, 12:43:00 AM
he was only making room for his colleague mark, its a mountain out of a mole hill if you ask me. suppose the tour official that kick him of was sludden from dromore
Doesn't matter, and it doesn't matter who his team-mate is -- da rules is da rules.
Quote from: Fear ón Srath Bán on July 16, 2010, 12:55:22 AM
Quote from: gerry on July 16, 2010, 12:43:00 AM
he was only making room for his colleague mark, its a mountain out of a mole hill if you ask me. suppose the tour official that kick him of was sludden from dromore
Doesn't matter, and it doesn't matter who his team-mate is -- da rules is da rules.
aye but if he was french nothing would be said
11 seconds in
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoZkNbxojKw (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoZkNbxojKw)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oen6ZcoVOa4
Yea, didn't seem that bad.
But I see yer man Renshaw in the overhead shot tried the same thing himself (force another into the barrier) afterwards.
it looked worst overhead but we seen as bad in previous stages
After the headbutts and Cavendish has set out, Renshaw clearly looked to his left and saw Tyler Farrar following Cavendish's line and moved across to the left to block him off and force him up against the barrier. At that speed it's incredibly dangerous and he's been rightfully kicked out.
Cavendish doesn't come across as particularly charismatic...
Itw as really moving across the other guys line he was kicked out for - dirty act. The headbutting wasn't that bad. The other guy put his arm across him anyway and he was shunting him out of the road. The last 2 or 3 headbutts perhaps a little unnecessary mind.
Quote from: gerry on July 16, 2010, 01:00:52 AM
Quote from: Fear ón Srath Bán on July 16, 2010, 12:55:22 AM
Quote from: gerry on July 16, 2010, 12:43:00 AM
he was only making room for his colleague mark, its a mountain out of a mole hill if you ask me. suppose the tour official that kick him of was sludden from dromore
Doesn't matter, and it doesn't matter who his team-mate is -- da rules is da rules.
aye but if he was french nothing would be said
Nail on the head. I dont think it merited a banning, placed last on the stage and a fine would have been sufficient.
some craic yesterday with "chaingate" and bad luck also for nick having a punturure on the climb, with his team mate not stopping to help him. with the last day for the climbers coming up we should see the tour winner soon.
nicolas not a happy man in todays indo
'I wanted to smash his head in. I couldn't stand to be near him' (http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/cycling-i-wanted-to-smash-his-head-in-i-couldnt-stand-to-be-near-him-2264978.html)
Some mental carry on with the cyclists.
Have to say I've never warmed to roche, possibly due to daddy but his column is unmissable, has been this year and last. He really tells it like it is.
He had a point today, last yr he was in a breakaway and had to hold them up so his team leader could catch up & while he whinged like f**k about it after, he thought he could have led the team, he towed the team line. He was screwed yesterday