Tour de France 2009

I think Astana.

Don't discount Saxo though.

yeah what the fuck was witht the telephone victory salute?

^

one of his sponsors I believe is a phone company.

sponsors innit

I doubt whether what happened today will affect leadership of Astana, this will be decided by who's strongest, not because Armstrong got lucky today, those 30 or so seconds may mean zilch when it comes to some hard climbing....we'll see.

I don't think Popo and the other one were riding against Contador either, it's great team tactics to have so many riders near the top of GC, other teams don't know who to attack and you've got plenty of cards up your sleeve, it may even take the pressure off Alberto.

It was interesting to see Hincapie (ex Armstrong super-domestique) pulling so hard in Lance's group though....

Astana are basically going to sack Bruyneel, Armstrong, Leipheimer et al next season and keep Contador; so why would they do anything to help Contador win this year? Bruneel is saying 'oh, the wind direction was a big surprise' and Armstrong is saying 'it was obvious we were coming up to a corner and the direction would change so I moved up 20 places' (and presumably 'forgot' to advise Contador to do likewise). Bruyneel also said he only got his guys to work in the break when the gap was coming down. Today was a pretty direct way of telling Contador where he stands; win it on your own or with anyone on the team who you think will be with you next year because we are going to fuck you every chance we get.

Can someone give me the gist of this yellow jersey business. I'm finding the tour exciting to watch but it's bloody confusing for someone who only watched it occasionally last year.

Ridonculous question alert How come Cav's won the last coupla stages but he's only 142nd? Could someone point me towards a 'Tour de France for Dummies' website please?

Ridonculous question alert How come Cav's won the last coupla stages but he's only 142nd? Could someone point me towards a 'Tour de France for Dummies' website please?

Because he lost 3 minutes in the time trial. Yellow = aggregate time competition, Green = placing competition

you get the yellow jersey if you have the lowest cumulative time of all the stages completed; so Cav won two stages but the time he has taken to cover all the stages is greater than that of the guy in yellow.

Could someone point me towards a 'Tour de France for Dummies' website please?

I think you've already found it...

But, bear in mind that if the yellow jersey holder is caught off-side then he loses the jersey to whoever wins the tie-break.

But, bear in mind that if the yellow jersey holder is caught off-side then he loses the jersey to whoever wins the tie-break.

Unless he lands on the 'Go Straight To Jail' corner, (Michael Shields-style). In that case he has to try to escape to Mornington Crescent...

But, bear in mind that if the yellow jersey holder is caught off-side then he loses the jersey to whoever wins the tie-break.

I thought that had been altered in the latest Stovold so that it only applied if the polka dot was in Nidd?

Can someone give me the gist of this yellow jersey business. I'm finding the tour exciting to watch but it's bloody confusing for someone who only watched it occasionally last year.

Ridonculous question alert How come Cav's won the last coupla stages but he's only 142nd? Could someone point me towards a 'Tour de France for Dummies' website please?

My gf asked me the same question tonight.

Seriously though I'd try wikipedia.

you get the yellow jersey if you have the lowest cumulative time of all the stages completed; so Cav won two stages but the time he has taken to cover all the stages is greater than that of the guy in yellow.

Yellow is explained already. The green one is worn by the best sprinter. How do you find out who is the best sprinter? Well, winning a flat stage will give you lots of points in the sprinter table. And there are often little sprints in between where you can get some extra points, too.

The is also the polka dot jersey for the best climber - if you're first up the hill you'll get points there.

Ha! I did try Wikipedia. I guess I was thrown by the time trial part. I got a bit bored watching it and didn't realise that Cavendish was so far down in the standings. Anyway, now I know.

So, this offside rule...

I don't think it helps just watching the highlights. Unfortunately I'm unable to sit on my bootay all day watching the tour so I only get to see the final few kms of a stage. If I got to watch the intermediate sprints and various climbs I'm sure it'd all have clicked a lot sooner.

Yellow is explained already. The green one is worn by the best sprinter. How do you find out who is the best sprinter? Well, winning a flat stage will give you lots of points in the sprinter table. And there are often little sprints in between where you can get some extra points, too.

The is also the polka dot jersey for the best climber - if you're first up the hill you'll get points there.

but you can win any jersey without winning a stage; harder for the sprinters but possible.
then there's the blue jersey for best looking rider; the pink jersey for, well; the brown jersey which is the least popular amongst the podium girls and so on. In total there are 78 different jersey competitions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfgRGW9Ghik

Ha! Joe was back in the shop today complaining about his MOOF. Don't think he's made any fans this week.

what izt MOOF?

yeah what the fuck was witht the telephone victory salute?

He was indicating that stage wins are so easy for him that he just phones them in

he wanted a pizza ready for him when he got off bike. its all in the timing.

what izt MOOF?

the modern comedian's bike of choice; till the lights don't work and you want a refund and this really isn't good enough and blah blah blah...

i bet that makes for some great material.