Tour De France 2011

Did he? Most of the leg work was done by Lars Bak and Danny Pate. Martin used to pop up for a couple of kilometres in the final 5 kms.

He was pretty anonymous in this Tour, there are many, many more riders who deserve more credit than he does.

Favorite domestiques of the tour?

Navardauskas
Geraint Thomas
Vanendert
Pierre Rolland
Evans BMC minders

He was world champ in 2009. He rode the giro in 2010, which wiped him out.

Should of stayed at home award goes to Katusha.

Or to Phil and Paul.

easy now

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/07/2011_tour_de_france_part_1.html
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/07/2011_tour_de_france_part_2.html

some fantastic shots there, thanks for the links.

some fantastic shots there, thanks for the links.

Yeah, very good. They capture pretty much everything about the tour. You won't see such a range of varied images/environments for many/any other sporting event.

this one's such a great image:

Found this on Twitter :) thought it was relevant.
"@cipothelionking: I'd just like to remind Australia that this isn't the Olympics. He won for an American-Swiss team and its sponsors. http://t.co/v8nGIAQ"

Oh fuck off you stupid cunt.

How did those English riders go? Thomas, cavendish, wiggins?

Oops

andy schlek really does just look like a child compared to the rest of them; can ride up them mountains though.
Some of the riders don't look like they should even be cyclists, body shapes/positions that look like they would never work, but voeckler being 99% what you would expect a pro cyclist to look like, and the schleks like two gangly baby faces.

http://inapcache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/2011_tour_de_france/bp10.jpg
thats just a whole bunch of DO NOT WANT
yuk. George Hincapie of team BMC seems to be the popular concensus.

I was wondering, and I mean wondering as I don't know too much a about it. Last year Cadel was world champ right? he looked like he was suffering like hell on the tour. This year, do you think he focused more on the tour, having ticked world champ off last year? or is this a load of tosh cos I don't know what I'm talking about?

To be fair Cadel had a smash early on last year and broke his elbow, but continued on and actually took the yellow jersey on that stage. He then finished the rest of the tour with a broken elbow, so I think he could be excused for looking like he was suffering a little bit.

http://www.sporza.be/cm/sporza/videozone/MG_Tour/MG_vive_le_velo/Tour2011_dag_4/1.1074363

Should of stayed at home award goes to Katusha.

i didnt even realised quickstep were riding this years tour until i saw a jersey in paris

Great to see Cav finally get his Green jersey.
Other than Cadel, Voeckler's ride is probably my favourite performance this year.
The Alps are awesome - ride them if you get a chance. Take warm kit.

The thick forested climb & descent on stage 17 was my favourite. Love that scenery.

I don't think that doping was the sole reason for the boring races of the Indurain/Armstrong era.

true. If Andy Schleck had any sense he would have attacked in the pyrenees. Can't blame Armstrong and Indurain for knowing how to win and setting about it properly.

If it was that simple, Schleck would have made an attack stick in the Pyrenees. He didn't drop the others because he couldn't.

Attacking is a lot easier when you and your team are supercharged.

so he couldn't attack in the pyrenees but he could on the galibier? I think that one of the reasons the race was so exciting was because of a lack of tactical nouse from the Schlecks. We'll never know who is and isn't doping. There is circumstantial evidence to suggest it's on the way out but I personally doubt it. makes for good debate though

there's 'a couple of' agencies/authorities dealing with (less and less of) these problems in the sport, I for one suggest to leave it up to them to accuse, judge and punish.

One of which has recently been accused of corruption with regard to an alleged covered up test of a multiple Tour winner.

I wonder how common clenbuterol contamination in food really is. Apparently the 50 pg/ml concentration found in Mr Contador isn't enough to have any effect.. if it's common then there could be thousands of people walking around with a dose, but no one would know because normal non-pro-cyclist people aren't tested for it.

Clenbuterol usage is banned in cattle destined for the food chain in the EU. It is common in other countries, notably south American and China and contamination is widespread.

Contador has to show that the meat he ate was contaminated for his story to have credibility yet so far he has provided no evidence of this.

btw guys there's a doping thread >>>> http://www.lfgss.com/thread42429-10.html

so he couldn't attack in the pyrenees but he could on the galibier? I think that one of the reasons the race was so exciting was because of a lack of tactical nouse from the Schlecks. We'll never know who is and isn't doping. There is circumstantial evidence to suggest it's on the way out but I personally doubt it. makes for good debate though

I thought Schlecks were very tactical.
When Andy won that stage solo, LE-O-PARD had Gerdemann and Monfort early in a breakaway to help him a bit and then of course Frank was on the wheels of other GC contenders sitting in waiting to strike.
During interviews after that stage both brothers emphasized that they were taking a big risk doing this instead of saying something along the lines of "Fuck Yeah, we are the champions" :)
I can't call Andy and Frank naturally exciting riders, they are too worried about losing and hold back too much.
On contrary look at Contador, I think he anticipated Shlecks to attack on Galibier and launched an unexpected solo attack on Telegraph only after first 10k during short d'huez finish stage. Nobody expected that and it was fun to watch.

Schlecks are boring and don't possess or exhibit any [ panache]('http://www.cyclingtipsblog.com/2011/03/panache-an-open-letter-to-professional-cycling/')!*

Voeckler, Rolland, Roy, Gilbert, Hushovd, Thomas, Vanendert, Hagen do.

*I can't stand rapha.