Tour de France 2010

Looking at it again, I think Dean should have been sanctioned. Watching the overhead, he moves over on Renshaw, leans in so that so that his hip makes contact with Renshaw's shoulder. All Renshaw does is push him back so that he doesn't get forced into the barriers.

Anyway, completely mad finish - the kind of thing not seen on the Tour since Kelly & Vanderaerden.

My take is that Renshaw felt impeded, reacted to protect Cavendish, who had to sprint off early as a consequence of the interaction. At some stage Renshaw saw red mist and carried on with his head and then impeded. That said, others have done worse with far worse consequences at earlier stages. Very harsh decision.

My favourite post-stage tweet was from DZ, though:

Followed by the equally awesome:

Anyone else think Zabriskie is a cock?

The thing I don't get is why Farrar was behind Renshaw and not on Cav's wheel. He moves over to the left at first as Cav goes, but then seems to drift back right to sit on Renshaw's wheel. It seems to me that even if Renshaw had stayed where he was there was no way Farrar was going to catch Cav, so it wouldn't have changed the result. So kicking him off seems pretty harsh

I'm with Hippy on this. Blatant blocking it was not - and Farrar did what he should have done - pushed him out the way....
Renshaw could have done the same to Dean as Dean "leaned into him" (which he did), but at sprinting speed had to use his head...... O.K., the very last headbutt was too much, but fatigued in that heat - his passion and deisre to get Cav across the line overpowered him.
Cycling needs to HTFU some more...

Zabriskie is awesome.

I'm with Hippy on this. Blatant blocking it was not - and Farrar did what he should have done - pushed him out the way....
Renshaw could have done the same to Dean as Dean "leaned into him" (which he did), but at sprinting speed had to use his head...... O.K., the very last headbutt was too much, but fatigued in that heat - his passion and deisre to get Cav across the line overpowered him.
Cycling needs to HTFU some more...

Dead right.

I reckon we should see these mounted on the bikes to prevent this from happening again...

1 Attachment

FTFY
in team colours FTW

Anyway, completely mad finish - the kind of thing not seen on the Tour since Kelly & Vanderaerden.

Yesterday's finish was handbags compared to that finish. There's a summary here but Kelly's descriptions are better as he always mentions that he started on Vanderaerden only because he didn't want to end up in a shop window! (Vanderaerden tried to force Kelly into the barriers, so Kelly punched him, Vanderaerden responded in kind and they rode the last few hundred metres trading blows).

Is Cav French? There's your answer.
I'd like to dispute this, but I have a sneaky suspicion you're right.

Queue Hippy's "I'm always right" comment.

Given how pumped these guys are in the sprints it's hardly surprising there's some argy-bargy. After-the-fact rationalisations are difficult. And throwing people out of the race is harsh.

Re the xenophobia etc, it's worth noting that from a certain French point of view HTC are a 'brash American team largely focused around their arrogant sprinter'.

And Buffalo Bill - did I see you at the rather awesome Hofesh Schechter gig last night?

I thought that Mark Renshaw guy was excellent. He is exactly the sort of person you want in your team. Shame he got thrown off for doing it though, seems a little harsh.

Was way too harsh, headbutting was justified without a doubt, going off his line was slightly dodgy, but to be chucked off is mental. Like Dulwich Tom says, American team with arrogant sprinter. If he was French, or on a French team I wonder if they would have had a different attitude.

After stage six in Gueugnon a serious brawl erupted between Quick Step's Carlos Barredo and Caisse d'Epargne rider Rui Costa; Barredo attacked Costa with his front wheel and clearly tried to hurt him. Both riders eventually received a fine of 200 Swiss Francs each for their behaviour.
Curchod wasn't keen to compare both cases, however. "The case from four days ago is already the past. Nobody was reclamating [sic] after that. It was a good solution because none of our commissaires saw it happen. We had to take that decision based on interviews. The day after we saw some photos... Today is another day and we had to send him home."

ASO are cunts. The race jury are wrong.

I've changed my mind now. Cav for the Green jersey to stick it up 'em (unless McEwen does something magic).

And to tell Cav this on the finish line in front of live tv cameras! He was gutted.
Its not going to help his anger management issues is it? I hope he wins again and sticks up his fingers while throwing garlic at the judges and shitting in a beret.

surely cav now just grabs pettachi's wheel in the last 200m and sprints past him on the line
obviously having a lead out man like renshaw is second to none but if you can follow petachi to the line his lead out man is no shonker

And to tell Cav this on the finish line in front of live tv cameras! He was gutted.
Its not going to help his anger management issues is it? I hope he wins again and sticks up his fingers while throwing garlic at the judges and shitting in a beret.

lol

Last night I dreamt that I was in a school playground with my kids, and Robbie Mcewen was riding slow laps around the playground, waving and cracking jokes.
The kids loved it, and I decided that I was wrong to think of him as a whinging little cunt.
I approached him to get a photo so I could post it on here for Hippy, but when Robbie got off his bike he was three feet tall, and even when I squat down I was too tall to fit in a picture with him.
I sat on the ground, and Robbie was a bit taller than me, but when I looked across he had actually turned into Hippy, but the only picture I've seen of Hippy is the one with him in the Rapha shop ogling the croissants so he just stared at me with a weird greedy expression and I got frightened and woke up.
I feel tired this morning.

The General, earlier today.

Last night I dreamt that I was in a school playground with my kids, and Robbie Mcewen was riding slow laps around the playground, waving and cracking jokes.
The kids loved it, and I decided that I was wrong to think of him as a whinging little cunt.
I approached him to get a photo so I could post it on here for Hippy, but when Robbie got off his bike he was three feet tall, and even when I squat down I was too tall to fit in a picture with him.
I sat on the ground, and Robbie was a bit taller than me, but when I looked across he had actually turned into Hippy, but the only picture I've seen of Hippy is the one with him in the Rapha shop ogling the croissants so he just stared at me with a weird greedy expression and I got frightened and woke up.
I feel tired this morning.

this is hippy

Barredo attacked Costa with his front wheel and clearly tried to hurt him.

60kg climber armed with a 500g wheel probably doesn't count as assault.

Yeah but the other bloke wasn't exactly Backstedt was he?

Anyone fancy catching some of the action this arvo? Was thinking about heading up to that place we've been going over the last coupla years on City Road... I find it hard to concentrate on the race at LMNH, too many non-cyclists...

i could be persuaded, do they have the skanky bar staff and the crackly tv? if so i'm in and so is balki.