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Tour de France 2013 |OT| Celebrating 100 Years

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Z

Zeekaas

Member
kmag said:
Exciting? It was set up for one of the best sprints in recent history as all the major contenders where there, fit and in good position, and all of them had the one in a lifetime carrot of the yellow jersey to go for. Instead we got a clusterfuck of second raters dribbling over the line because some bus driver can't count.
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I find stages where a mass sprint is unadvoidable kinda boring yes. They always follow the same pattern. A few riders escape, the big sprinting teams wait until a few kilometer before the end and then they haule the escapers back in and end it with a mass sprint.

Also I wouldn't call Kittel second rate.
 
K

kmag

Member
Zeekaas said:
I find stages where a mass sprint is unadvoidable kinda boring yes. They always follow the same pattern. A few riders escape, the big sprinting teams wait until a few kilometer before the end and then they haule the escapers back in and end it with a mass sprint.

Also I wouldn't call Kittel second rate.
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But you still got 95% of that, the one exciting bit just didn't happen. Kittel isn't second rate but apart from Goss every single person around him was, it ended up a non race. Kittel won by default, it wasn't an even competition, you had a bunch of lead out men searching for their sprinters who were out of contention. Nice for Kittel but he doesn't deserve the yellow he won a sprint where there were no other sprinters and that's 100% the fault of the tour organisers. Feel sorry for Sagan who looked like he was really hurt.

You can't move the finish, then literally 30 seconds after the tour radio had announced it move it back. Half the peloton were sprinting for a finish in 2km while the other half were setting up for a finish in 5km, the disparity in speed in the peloton was always going to cause a crash. It ended up about as dull a finish as you can get.

It was madness, and the 3km finish looked completely unsafe as it was.
 
K

kmag

Member
gregor7777 said:
Yeah but between that and a bus...
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You simply neutralise the race, as it causes the least amount of disruption. They've half done that with the time neutralisation but tell that to Sagan who looks hurt. The 3 km finish wasn't safe, but once it was changed, you can't change it back.
 
H

Hawkie

Member
Green, white and yellow for Kittel.

From Liquigas twitter:

Bruises and abrasions on back, legs and arms for @petosagan, but the morale is high
 
K

kmag

Member
Looks like Dan Martin has a broken collar bone. Geraint Thomas is away for an x-ray. Contador hurt but not know how serious it is.

Well done to the incompetent fucks in charge.
 
Z

Zeekaas

Member
kmag said:
But you still got 95% of that, the one exciting bit just didn't happen. Kittel isn't second rate but apart from Goss every single person around him was, it ended up a non race. Kittel won by default, it wasn't an even competition, you had a bunch of lead out men searching for their sprinters who were out of contention. Nice for Kittel but he doesn't deserve the yellow he won a sprint where there were no other sprinters and that's 100% the fault of the tour organisers. Feel sorry for Sagan who looked like he was really hurt.

You can't move the finish, then literally 30 seconds after the tour radio had announced it move it back. Half the peloton were sprinting for a finish in 2km while the other half were setting up for a finish in 5km, the disparity in speed in the peloton was always going to cause a crash. It ended up about as dull a finish as you can get.

It was madness, and the 3km finish looked completely unsafe as it was.
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Because of the madness nobody was in control and because nobody was in control it was finally exciting. Sagan and the others sprinters didn't fall because of the bus and replacing of the finish. Where they fell it was because of a stupid caffefour billboard thinghy. They were just unlucky. Ultimately falling (and not falling) is a part of the tour. When unexcpected things happer riders who you didn't excpect get a chance.

Kittel derserves the yellow just as much as any rider.
 
C

ComputerMKII

Banned
CNN are calling the race the 'Tour de Farce' already :lol

For non-French speakers:

Tour de France 2013: It was impossible to win Tour without taking drugs, claims Lance Armstrong

Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong has returned to haunt the Tour de France on the eve of the 100th running of the race, once again raising the spectre of doping.

The Texan, stripped of the record seven Tour titles he won between 1999 and 2005 after admitting to using performance-enhancing drugs, created a storm by giving an interview to French daily newspaper Le Monde and then claiming his comments were presented out of context.

A bold headline on the newspaper this morning read: "The Tour de France? Impossible to win without doping", with Le Monde reporting that, when asked whether it was possible to win without taking performance-enhancing drugs, Armstrong replied: "That depends on the races that you wanted to win.

"The Tour de France? No. Impossible to win without doping because the Tour is an endurance event where oxygen is decisive.

"To take one example, EPO (erythropoetin) will not help a sprinter to win a 100m but it will be decisive for a 10,000m runner. It's obvious."

However, Armstrong then took to Twitter to insist he had only answered questions relating to the years in which he was competing for the famous yellow jersey, while saying he was "hopeful" current riders could win by legitimate means.

"99-05. I was clear with @StephaneMandard on this," Armstrong wrote, referring to the Le Monde journalist.

"Today? I have no idea. I'm hopeful it's possible (to win without drugs)."

Armstrong's comments, and the initial portrayal of them as relating to the Tour today, had earlier brought a strong response from Pat McQuaid, the president of the sport's world governing body the UCI.

In the interview, Armstrong suggested that doping had been so widespread in the sport a decade ago that only those involved could hope to contend.

"My name was taken out of the palmares (list of achievements) but the Tour was held between 1999 and 2005 wasn't it?" he said.

"There must be a winner then. Who is he? Nobody came forward to claim my jerseys."

Armstrong spent years vehemently denying repeated claims that he had doped, pointing to the fact he never failed a drugs test.

But the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) continued to pursue a case against him, and last year published a report describing his doping programme as "the most sophisticated in the history of sport".

Armstrong subsequently admitted doping and was stripped of his Tour titles, while being banned for life. The Texan feels like he was made a scapegoat by USADA chief Travis Tygart, and hit back in the interview.

"I did not invent doping. Sorry, Travis," he said.

"And (doping) has not stopped with me. I just took part in the system.

"The USADA 'reasoned decision' perfectly managed to destroy a man's life but it has not benefited cycling at all."

The 41-year-old also hit out at McQuaid, claiming the Irishman - currently facing a re-election challenge from British Cycling's Brian Cookson to remain as the UCI's figurehead - must go if cycling is to clean up.

"(UCI president) Pat McQuaid can say and think what he wants. Things just cannot change as long as McQuaid stays in power," Armstrong said.

"The UCI refuses to establish a 'truth and reconciliation commission' because the testimony that everyone would want to hear would bring McQuaid, (his predecessor) Hein Verbruggen and the whole institution down."

McQuaid then released a statement of his own which read: "It is very sad that Lance Armstrong has decided to make this statement on the eve of the Tour de France.

"However, I can tell him categorically that he is wrong. His comments do absolutely nothing to help cycling.

"The culture within cycling has changed since the Armstrong era and it is now possible to race and win clean.

"Riders and teams owners have been forthright in saying that it is possible to win clean - and I agree with them.

"Cycling today has the most sophisticated anti-doping infrastructure in sport. Measures such as the introduction of the blood passport, the whereabouts system and the 'no-needle' policy are the backbone of our relentless fight against doping.

"Armstrong's views and opinions are shaped by his own behaviour and time in the peloton. Cycling has now moved on.

"The key thing is that the whole culture in cycling has undergone a complete sea-change. We may not yet have eradicated doping completely - unfortunately there will always be some riders who persist - but we are catching them, and the attitude in the peloton has switched against them.

"We will never turn back - and my work to ensure that we have a clean sport is unrelenting.

"In addition, the UCI is totally committed to conducting an independent audit into its behaviour during the years when Armstrong was winning the Tour. The UCI's invitation to WADA (the World Anti-Doping Agency) to work with us on this stands.

"If WADA will not, however, the UCI will press ahead itself and appoint independent experts to carry out this audit.

"Once the audit is completed, the UCI remains totally committed to some form of 'truth process' for professional cycling.

"As I have said on numerous occasions, I have nothing to hide and no fear of any investigation or truth and reconciliation process. If Armstrong - or indeed anyone else - has evidence to the contrary, he should produce it now and put a stop to this ongoing damage to cycling."
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ot...hout-taking-drugs-claims-Lance-Armstrong.html
 
K

kottila

Member
This is why cycling is one of the greatest sports. There's always something completely unpredictable that happens. Don't like that they made a sprint stage as te first stage and to be frank, the tour has to many boring stages. Should do more hilly classics-like and less flat sprinter stages. Ps. Kristoff is not a second rate sprinter either.
Ps 2. Swapped out kittel from my fanatsy team yesterday :(
 
I

Ikuu

Had his dog run over by Blizzard's CEO
934945_10151745716566972_2108541260_n.jpg


Ouch.
 
S

subrock

Member
Dead Man said:
I think I could watch anything with Phil Ligget commentating.
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I used to be addicted to Phil, and I'd get upset when it wasn't him, but in recent years I've switched to David Harmon and Sean Kelly for more advanced commentary. Way way better.
 
S

Savitar

Member
Congratulations to the winner.

I look forward to hearing about you getting busted down the road for whatever you took.
 
I

Ikuu

Had his dog run over by Blizzard's CEO
Savitar said:
Congratulations to the winner.

I look forward to hearing about you getting busted down the road for whatever you took.
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Obviously isn't working for him if he's only managed a single win in 5 years.
 
i_am_ben

i_am_ben

running_here_and_there
rhfb said:
The best part is how quickly his head hits his hands. He knew right away. Also liked how he only got fined for showing up to the finish late and not for hitting the scaffolding.
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well to be fair the bus driver was apparently being waved through by Tour officials so I doubt they could fine him when he got stuck.
 
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