Tour de France 2008

fucking SPOILERS

Cavendish had an unusually high opinion of himself before today (one that seemed at odds with reality.) What's he going to be like now?

Cavendish had an unusually high opinion of himself before today (one that seemed at odds with reality.) What's he going to be like now?

the same - fucking fast - who gives a shit about the egos if it throws up racing like this.

Cavendish had an unusually high opinion of himself before today (one that seemed at odds with reality.) What's he going to be like now?
He's been a world track champion aged 20. He won 11 races in his debut pro season on the road and has now won 8 so far this season, including stages in both the Giro and the Tour.

He's probably justified for thinking he's quite good.

What is with this country that as soon as someone is successful that we have to snipe away at them?

i saw him the tour of britain a few years ago as a stagiare for T-Mobile.

scarily quick. and about 19 years old. won the points jersey.

after last year's scheldepris it was like, fuck, this guy's going to be huge. then the two giro wins. he has the capacity to become big outside of the sport, sort of like boardman after the barcelona olympics. and what he says tends to be the same 'right now i'm the quickest in the peloton' - which he pretty much is.

andyp - i guess we are just not used to it. personally, i like it when people believe in themselves and their abilities and are not afraid to let people know about it.

i'm glad he's won a stage early, hopefully he can relax a bit and now win more this year, next year, and so on, knowing that he's got one in the bag.

He looks like Alfred E. Neuman in that photo, PJ.

who is alfred e neuman?

Is this a set-up?

no it wasn't. i googled it, i wasn't familiar with low-rent american satire. i remember some film or something where everyone went crazy.

Self-belief is one thing, cockiness is something else. The interview on ITV - the one where he said that he would always win if he was in the mix at the business end of races - that just rubbed me up the wrong way. It sounded so arrogant. I can't even remember him showing in a sprint in this event. I suppose that's all different today, though.

Haven't seen the race yet. Looking forward to the highlights.

I don't remember a film. I don't remember MAD magazine being all that great either, but I was born at very early age, and didn't pick up humour too quickly as a child. Albeit low-rent seppo satire.

man, letting frenchies, now brits winning stages this year?!? what next, an aussie winning the tour? ;)

you have to attack to win the Tour...that counts wheel-sucker Cadel out I'm afriad.

who is alfred e neuman?

I thought it was a line from a Beastie Boys song.

awesome racing.

not that i saw much of it.

thanks ITV4 for bothering to cram in a bitty 20 minutes of the tour de france into your 1hr strange cycling competition, commentator knee touching and french lifestyle program

yeah not to sure about the highlights package, but a great sprint finish

you have to attack to win the Tour...that counts wheel-sucker Cadel out I'm afriad.

armstrong sucked hincapie's wheel for years...mountain and flat stages (not incl team TTs!)

good win for cavendish. dont think he's the fastest tho. he had two very good leadouts and pretty much nothing in front of him. mcewen got boxed in and started in middle of pack and yet finished just two bike lengths behind cav. cooke and hunter finished strong despite getting squeezed in at the start of the sprint.

zabel's amazingly consistent.

ah man, don't want to get in to a this rider did this, this rider did that. but you have to say armstrong attacked - ask pantani or ullrich. i have never seen cadel evans attack anything.

really sucked that vogondy missed out on the stage win. brave effort and went for it with 1.3kms to go. the finish was just 20-30m too far! heartbreaking considering he, plus two others, were in front for 210+kms

Armstrong definitely attacked. He copied the Indurain blueprint - gain an advantage in the time trials, attack on the first mountain stage and narrow your rivals down to 1 or 2 then defend until the next time trial.

Evans is a follower.

zabel's amazingly consistent.

It almost looked like he may be gaining on Cav. Great finish though very tense.

Thing is now, Evans doesn't need to attack, seeing as he's already in front of the rest of the main GC contenders.

Ullrich was the ultimate wheel sucker IMHO. The only thing he's ever attacked was a row of parked bicycles while driving his Porsche pissed out of his brains.

+1
maybe evans will change though this year, in a wild crazy moment
wild crazy moments make the tour interesting, like starting the break from so far out on a pure sprinters stage

Armstrong definitely attacked. He copied the Indurain blueprint - gain an advantage in the time trials, attack on the first mountain stage and narrow your rivals down to 1 or 2 then defend until the next time trial.

Evans is a follower.