Tour de France 2009

why do you only pick one week to watch?!

great stage today, tough luck for Wiggo though.. Can't wait for the TT tomorrow

chapeau F Schleck, and you were voted the worst descender in the peloton, too..

GC

1. Contador
   
2. A Schleck 2m26s
   
3. F Schleck 3m35s
   
4. Armstrong 3m55s
   
5. Kloeden 4m44s
   
6. Wiggins 4m53s
   

Interesting listening to 606 they said "Today wasn't about breaking the Schlecks for Astana, it looks like it was about getting Bradley out of top 3 because he is the threat."

i had ridden roseland saises and colombiere, and they all hurt like hell.. i must admit armstrong was good today, shame about kloden and wiggins, but the schlecks rode brilliantly,

someone please shoot sarkozy i'll pay 10,000 euros..

Interesting listening to 606 they said "Today wasn't about breaking the Schlecks for Astana, it looks like it was about getting Bradley out of top 3 because he is the threat."

Wasn't that always the case? I don't know a great deal but aren't the Schlecks rubbish in the TTs?

They're not the best. But a TT in the third week is a hard one to gauge, as any natural advantage a good time triallist may have is negated somewhat by all the climbing they've done. I'd expect that the time gaps tomorrow will be less than many expect.

Contador was saying the same last night on ITV4.

Hope Twiggo (he's lost weight innit) can pull it out the bag tomorrow.

Not sur eif they're 2 to 2.5 mins worse than a tired Wiggins though. Plus he's unlikely to get close to 'em up Ventoux. Good effort from Bradley this tour though.

Wiggins can still do a job in the TT.

Andy was 41 seconds behind Bradley in the Stage 1 TT and Frank 1 minute 17 behind.

The TT tomorrow is 40k so they could loose a lot more time...fingers crossed ;)

Full of admiration for Wiggins, think he has had a great race.
I think the miles might have taken too much of a toll for a big gap buster tomorrow though?
Still, should be exciting.

I meant in terms of Astana's game plan. Surely they wouldn't be worried about the Schlecks taking time out of Contador on the TT.

Great stage. Still think Thor was fucking amazing winning two KOMs, and the intermediates. Shame about Wigs...

Wiggins did well but that pen climb was savage, the changes of pace and gradient and the talent in that leading pack is as tough as it's going to get for the man. with little help he did well. i hope he kept some in reserve for tomorrow

Fuck Thor. If he was good enough to win the jersey on the road, why didn't he just do that instead of putting in spurious protests? Where was this level of energy and speed before?

I always hated Alain Prost for the same reason. Not good enough to beat Mansell or Senna in a fair fight on the track he resorted to politics, poaching engineers, cosying up to engine suppliers - whatever he could do to win before the race was run.

Hushovd would be leading the green jersey competition even if Cavendish hadn't been disqualified. Winning it is about consistency and whilst Cavendish has shone brightly on 4 stages, Hushovd has been the most consistent.

quote from Bradders twitter
"Thor Husovd, what can I say, after a certain persons comments today, Thor sticks two fingers up in a way that only Thor can. A true Gent"

wiggo to win the TT, let's shout for that, only cancellara and contador as main threats for the stage.. expecting Annecy to look spectacular... the organisers have got it so right for the final week..

I wouldn't rule Kloden out for tomorrow's stage. There is every possibility that Dov's prediction of an Astana 1-2-3 will be a reality in the GC tomorrow evening.

Hushovd would be leading the green jersey competition even if Cavendish hadn't been disqualified. Winning it is about consistency and whilst Cavendish has shone brightly on 4 stages, Hushovd has been the most consistent.

+1, totally deserves it..

The only thing that annoys me about Thor is all the positive talk about his 'this jersey is mine' signals.. Seems like double standards to me, if Cav had done the same, people would be carping on about how arrogant he is.

from Cath Wiggins twitter : "tomorrow tho Wiggo's in his element..."

Will be interesting to see how much he still has in the tank after all his efforts over the last couple of weeks and especially today

It will. He's also lost a lot of weight and that may affect him too. I hope he can pull some time back on those ahead of him but, whatever happens, he's done himself proud so far.

still hoping contador will come a cropper sometime, sour grapes or what.. i dislike him intensely.. more smug than that ladyboy C Rinaldo IMHO.. maybe he'll get busted soon..

I look at the top 5 on GC tonight and wonder how effective the biological passport is. A couple of Puerto's clients, Dr Ferrari's most famous client and someone involved with T-Mobile and the Freiburg clinic. Lovely.