2008 Tour de France

[B-HAWK 26]

heaped extra pressure upon himself IMO by hitting policeman and headbutting cameraman, just showed that he could not handle the baggage

 

[boom crash opera]

heaped extra pressure upon himself IMO by hitting policeman and headbutting cameraman, just showed that he could not handle the baggage

Results wise, how did he not handle the baggage??? He has acquittedded himself well against a whole team dedicated to breaking him. While his time trial was not as good as expected, it was a result of cadel doing his all giving his heart to the cause against a whole team in the mountains.

 

[B-HAWK 26]

Results wise, was the heavy favourite all the way up to the final time trial, 2 years in a row has gone into the final time trial chasing pure climbers, expected to make up time and has failed. The emotional baggage that comes with being australias great white hope clearly has affected him

 

[ubolt]

Results wise, was the heavy favourite all the way up to the final time trial, 2 years in a row has gone into the final time trial chasing pure climbers, expected to make up time and has failed. The emotional baggage that comes with being australias great white hope clearly has affected him

a lot more pressure on him this year than last year. Not so much from Australia either. More from wearing the No.1, from the European media intent on getting a "clean" tour, the riders favourite and the fact that most of his "opposition" were not even in the tour (Kloden, Contador and the like).

On the road where did he go wrong? His results in the time trial were still very very good. Cadel's problem this year? Next to no team-mates to help him, and the fact that the guy who is just about to win it did nothing for 15 and a half days, let his team do all the work, then rode well in the time trial. Unfortunately, NO-ONE can compete with that. If Cadel had that type of help, he would have won easily, but sadly, he had to do it all by himself.

Everyone who wins the tour de france has brilliant team mates to help him. Since Miguel Indurain started winning, only Marco Pantani did a lot of it by himself in '98, but Pantani did have a depleted field to contend with when only 95 riders made the finish. That's why it is a team game.

 

[AndSmithMustScore]

What I find interesting also is that there's alot of focus on Silence's riders not supporting Cadel at all for the most part and yet Rabobank seems to have escaped the same crticism in regards to Menchov and his team doing sod all for him when in the same situation as Cadel.

 

[bigburger]

heaped extra pressure upon himself IMO by hitting policeman and headbutting cameraman, just showed that he could not handle the baggage

That headbutt was nothing. Serge was pushing him down the path at the finish/start (?) and a camera man failed to get out of the way so Cadel simply put his head down and prepared for impact. Fair enough imo riders should always have right of way in the Tour.

 

[bigburger]

Jeeze that was hard to take. Is that it for Cadel? Theres so many up and coming riders can he make it for a win now in the tour de france?

 

[jmkendall]

Im very proud of Cadel what a great effort. I hope he doesnt change teams and instead they spend up big and get some better riders. the reason for this thinking is my missus just brought me a Silence-Lotto jersey for my bday to frame and put it in my sports bar.

Also can someone give me a website link so i can follow the rest of the season and also what happens wih the teams and riders.

 

[Juddism]

Im very proud of Cadel what a great effort. I hope he doesnt change teams and instead they spend up big and get some better riders. the reason for this thinking is my missus just brought me a Silence-Lotto jersey for my bday to frame and put it in my sports bar.

Also can someone give me a website link so i can follow the rest of the season and also what happens wih the teams and riders.

http://www.cadel.com.au/

http://www.yellforcadel.com/

 

[jmkendall]

http://www.cadel.com.au/

http://www.yellforcadel.com/

Thanks Juddy. Do you have any for the cycling season in general?

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Thanks Juddy. Do you have any for the cycling season in general?

http://www.cyclingnews.com/
It's an Australian website but apart from Australian EST clock in the top left hand corner, you would never know.

http://www.velonews.com/
An American site. It has links to every major race and info about them under the "Races" tab.

Both these sites have lots of videos at their .tv websites which are linked on their front pages

 

[Juddism]

geeez I tell you what some Australian's are a bunch of vitriloic w***ers, now they're cutting Cadel down and calling him a choker because he finished second in the worlds toughest sporting event.

it really does make you ashamed to be Australian when shit like this makes it into the paper.

 

[kenrosewall]

Slightly off topic, but can anyone tell me if any Australian has ever won one of the Grand Tour or Monument events beside Stuart O'Grady when he won Paris-Roubaix in 2007?

Thanks in advance

 

[YOTC]

geeez I tell you what some Australian's are a bunch of vitriloic w***ers, now they're cutting Cadel down and calling him a choker because he finished second in the worlds toughest sporting event.

it really does make you ashamed to be Australian when shit like this makes it into the paper.

Accepting 2nd is an English thing to do.

You failed Cadel!!

 

[Juddism]

Accepting 2nd is an English thing to do.

You failed Cadel!!

still about 10 places better than the Brits ever manage in any sporting event...

 

[bigburger]

Slightly off topic, but can anyone tell me if any Australian has ever won one of the Grand Tour or Monument events beside Stuart O'Grady when he won Paris-Roubaix in 2007?

Thanks in advance

Besides Olympic gold medals which we have plenty of (almost all from the track) I am pretty certain that the answer to your question is no.

 

[bigburger]

Does anyone agree with me when I say I think Cadel must leave Silence-Lotto to win a tour now? I don't think they can supply him with the resources or the culture to win. That said if he stays a Cancellara/Voigt or two would be very nice and a mountain specialist who can ride a fast tempo is definately neccessary.

Also just on the L'Alpe-d'Heuz stage I honestly think Cadel could have gone with Sastre but he was too worried that Schleck would counter attack him and go away. After he decided to sit it out those little attacks all the way up the mountain cost him so much time the tour was lost. I know hindsight is a wonderful thing but if you look at Schlecks performance in the time trial it probably would have been better to catch Sastre and let Schleck attack him and simply keep to a minimum the amount of time lost.

 

[kenrosewall]

Besides Olympic gold medals which we have plenty of (almost all from the track) I am pretty certain that the answer to your question is no.

Thanks BB

 

[ashley12]

geeez I tell you what some Australian's are a bunch of vitriloic w***ers, now they're cutting Cadel down and calling him a choker because he finished second in the worlds toughest sporting event.

it really does make you ashamed to be Australian when shit like this makes it into the paper.

Slightly off topic but that is a pretty big call.'

The Hawaiian Ironman and the Iditarod say hello...

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Slightly off topic, but can anyone tell me if any Australian has ever won one of the Grand Tour or Monument events beside Stuart O'Grady when he won Paris-Roubaix in 2007?

Thanks in advance

No Australian has won either the Giro, the Tour or the Vuelta.

Evans 2 x 2nd is the closest in any of the big 3. He has placed 4th in the 2006 Tour or 4th and a half as he calls it after Landis was disqualified. He finished 4th in the 2007 Vuelta .

Phil Anderson finished 5th twice, 1982 and 1985 in the Tour.

The Monuments are:
Milan-Sanremo ( Italy) – the first true Classic of the year

Ronde van Vlaanderen ( Belgium) – also known as the "Tour of Flanders", the first of the 'Spring Classics', is raced in early April..

Paris-Roubaix ( France) – the Queen of the Classics

Liège-Bastogne-Liège ( Belgium) – late April.

Giro di Lombardia ( Italy) - is held in October.

Apart from Stuart O'Grady's win in the Paris-Roubaix in 2007, no Australian has won any of these races.

Phil Anderson is the best performed Aussies in these races.

1983
3rd Liège-Bastogne-Liège
1984
2nd Liège-Bastogne-Liège
1985
2nd, Ronde van Vlaanderen
1986
3rd, Giro di Lombardia
1988
2nd, Ronde van Vlaanderen
1989
3rd, Liège-Bastogne-Liège

There are other Classics which Anderson has won.
1983
1st, Amstel Gold Race
1984
1st, Zuri-Metzgete
1986
1st, Paris-Tours

 

[i_hate_scams]

There is talk of him (Cadel) moving to the new russian team next year, along with McEwen, apparantly they have a 30 million euro budget but that includes an under 23s team, a womens team and other infrastructure costs.

 

[jmkendall]

There is talk of him (Cadel) moving to the new russian team next year, along with McEwen, apparantly they have a 30 million euro budget but that includes an under 23s team, a womens team and other infrastructure costs.

I cant see the point in this move. He needs a team totally devoted to winning the tour and not having sprinters in it. I think its a great move for Robbie but Silence now should have some spare cash to throw around and should look at climbers and strong tough riders.

 

[Unwritten_Law]

Steegmans is supposedly signing for the Russian team as well isn't he? Robbie has struggled a bit since he went to Boonen's team. Age is catching up with him a bit too now.

 

[ubolt]

Age has definitely caught up with McEwen. But he was up there for most stages: a lot of time he just got boxed out completely and couldn't find a way through. He needed the team to help him, and they didn't for obvious reasons.

He can't beat those young legs of Cavendish...not too many can. But hey, Zabel was up there for most of it too and just fell short on most stages. Not much you can do. Robbie probably has one more season left in him.

 

[pieman123]

on cycling news it says mcewen is leaving silence lotto article here:


Robbie McEwen of Silence-Lotto didn't win a single stage at this year's Tour de France. This was partially down to the fact that he had little to no support from his team, and this may have something to do with the fact that he has announced he is leaving the Belgian team at the end of the year. In fact, he said, he already has a new team lined-up.
"I've signed with a new team for next year but I'll wait until later in the year to make any announcements about what I'm doing and let the new team announce it," McEwen said, according to The Australian News. " According to the newspaper, it is the new Russian team Katusha, which is the follow-up team to Tinkoff.
The little Australian was disappointed that he didn't win anything at the Tour this year. "That's what I came here to do, but the team was a whole different set up," he said. "It's been a difficult Tour for me because riding the sprints on your own is very, very hard when you've got to try and do the job of three guys alone. But that's something I knew coming into the Tour."
Tinkoff was financed by Russian Oleg Tinkoff. Signings for the new squad include Italian Filippo Pozzato as well as Belgians Gert Steegmans and Kenny Dehaes (SW)