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Le Tour

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Looks like Clarko crossed with Craig Lowndes I reckon.
 
Next Wednesday night the L'Alpe d'Heuz stage and Saturday night's Time Trial should be the critical stages as to who is going to win this year. Tonight and tomorrow night are relatively dull compared to next week's action in the Alps. It will be about avoiding trouble rather than trying to set up the tour victory. Sunday night the first stage in the Alps the race gets interesting again.

Look at these sensational photo's of this years tour from The Boston Globe's website.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/07/2008_tour_de_france.html
 
Cadel is eight seconds off the lead after Stage 15. Two mountain stages to come where Schleck has to attack Cadel to build a lead as Cadel is expected to be too strong for him in the time trials. Kohl is a danger if he attacks in the mountains as a solid time trialler. Menchov is a very good time trialler too so Cadel will want to keep some distance ahead of him in the mountain stages.

Overall standings (after 15 stages):

1. Frank Schleck (Lux/CSC) 63hrs 57mins 21secs
2. Bernhard Kohl (Aut/GST) + 7secs
3. Cadel Evans (Aus/SIL) + 8secs
4. Denis Menchov (Rus/RAB) + 38secs
5. Christian Vandevelde (US/GAR) + 39secs
6. Carlos Sastre (Spa/CSC) + 49secs
7. Kim Kirchen (Lux/COL) + 2mins 48secs
8. Vladimir Efimkin (Rus/AG2R) + 3mins 36secs
9. Alejandro Valverde (Spa/GCE) + 4mins 11secs
10. Samuel Sanchez (Spa/EUS) + 4mins 34secs
 

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A great stage up and down the Cime de la Bonnette-Restefond. At 2,800m they reckon its the highest road in Europe. Not sure about that but obviously the highest cycling mountain to be climbed.

Evans was brilliant in matching his main rivals. Menchov his main rival in the Time Trial on Saturday struggled on the decent and lost 35 seconds to Cadel. He now is 1min 5 sec behind Cadel. For Cadel it was good to see Popovych in the lead group and finished 4th, three seconds behind the stage winner and finally find some form. It looks like he will be able to help Cadel in the L'Alpe d'Huez stage. It will be worth staying up for that one sports fans tomorrow night along with the time Trial on Saturday. This is where this years race will be won and lost.

Watch the video of poor John-Lee Augustyn go over the edge early in the 24km descent. He broke away from the lead group up the final climb of Cime de la Bonnette-Restefond in the last 2kms but a couple of kms down the descent the guys he broke away from caught him and the young 21 yer old South African wasn't concentrating and went over the edge. His bike ended down the valley about a thousand metres away and he ended up about 50 metres down the valley. If it wasn't for the shale sand that he could dig into he may well have ended up with his bike. A bloke from the crowd helped him up the hill as he struggled to not slide down further and then climb up it.

http://www.letour.com/2008/TDF/LIVE/us/1600/videos.html?target=125214

But a new bike eventually rocked up and he finished 35th five and half minutes behind the leaders. Standings after stage 16.

Standing Rider Rider number bib Team Time Gaps
1. SCHLECK Frank 17 TEAM CSC SAXO BANK 68h 30' 16"
2. KOHL Bernhard 115 GEROLSTEINER 68h 30' 23" + 00' 07"
3. EVANS Cadel 1 SILENCE - LOTTO 68h 30' 24" + 00' 08"
4. SASTRE Carlos 11 TEAM CSC SAXO BANK 68h 31' 05" + 00' 49"
5. MENCHOV Denis 131 RABOBANK 68h 31' 29" + 01' 13"
6. VANDEVELDE Christian 191 GARMIN CHIPOTLE 68h 33' 31" + 03' 15"
7. KIRCHEN Kim 41 TEAM COLUMBIA 68h 33' 39" + 03' 23"
8. VALVERDE Alejandro 31 CAISSE D’EPARGNE 68h 34' 27" + 04' 11"
9. SANCHEZ Samuel 27 EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI 68h 34' 54" + 04' 38"
10. VALJAVEC Tadej 109 AG2R-LA MONDIALE 68h 35' 39" + 05' 23"

Tune in tonight for a classic stage sports fans.
 
Yep, I'll be staying up for that one. Watched a couple of stages in the Pyrennees but it does become a bit time consuming.

Good to see Cadell finally getting a bit of support in the mountains. If he does win the Tour it will have been a huge, huge achievement given that he's had to survive on his own wits and ability through most of the toughest stages.

Thanks for the updates guys.
 
Great stage to watch last night, all the leaders together in a group basically with about 6 others so it was easy to see who was doing what. A rider would try and break away and the pack just followed. Every time they went away CAdel just tacked himself on the back and did not look to be struggling to do so. It actually looked more like ok boys you have to breakaway from me if you want to win this thing so I am going to sit in fourth spot and when you go I will go with you and to be honest If I wanted to I could break away from you guys. Some of that climbing was rediculously steep (people running alongside the bikes quicker than the boys could ride). However the decent that is another thing. The last 25 km was basically a downhill salem ride at high speed (commentator said up to 90km/hr) with cliff walls on one side and cliff edges on the other, no guard rails or anything like that. A couple of the sharp corners they put up some tempory fences. Those guys are mad on the decent, I think I had my heart in my mouth for the first 15km of the decent where the cliff edges were a permanent fixture.

I think Cadel would have the mental edge after last night going into tonights climb as he looked like he could handle whateve they could throw at him.

I never thought watching bike racing could be so good.
 
Gripping stage last night. Cadell Evans really gutsed it out on two brutal climbs to stay in contention for the tour win. He's 1:34 behind the yellow jersey holder a guy called Carlos Sastre from the CSC team who are far and away the best team on the tour. Sastre is a superb climber and he had been nursed along through the tour so far to try and establish a winning lead on last nights final mountain stage. The thinking is that Cadell may well be able to mow him down in the last time trial.

I really hope he takes this out now. Prior to last night I supported him because he's an Aussie. Now he's won me over on an emotional level with the sheer determination he showed not to be broken while fighting on his own and against all the clever mixture of attacks and delaying tactics from the rest of the CSC team after they'd orchestrated Sastre's breakaway on the last long brutal climb.

Go Cadell. If he wins now he will deserve to be Australian sportsman of the year by a massive margin IMO.
 
Not only has Cadel ridden brilliantly, he's managed to hit a cop, take a swing at a journo, yell at a TV presenter and headbutt a cameraman. Plus fall off his bike but not break anything. Not quite McEnroesque, but certainly an entertaining sideshow on his own.
 
Poor Cadel if he had two mates to help him like CSC he would have this race in the bag. He is obviously a huge chance still but he has really got his work cut out for him though. Mind you other than the winner of the stage last night and new leader Cadel improved his likelyhood of beating the rest of the field. It is now looking as though worst case result is to finish second and a slight favourite to win overall.

CSC ****ed Cadel around good and propper on the last climb last night as you would expect they would, the surprise is that they did not do it the night before.
 
Tonight's the night for Cadel in the Time Trial.

Sastre had a great ride in the L'Alpe d'Huez stage and after pathetic support by Popovych in the stage, Cadel wa still able to hang on and be only 1min 34sec behing Satre. Gat say the last 2 stages have been boring. Pumped for tonight but got a school reunion so I might have to do a bit of a runner around 11ish to watch the TT.

Thanks to a poster on the SBS TDF forum this is the recent history of TT by Cadel and Sastre.


Can Sastre time-trial?

Let's look at the results from the past three tour time trials.

Cadel beat Sastre by 1'16" in the 29.5km time trial this year and by 2'33" in the 55km time trial last year


Stage 4, 2008 - 29.5km
1. SCHUMACHER Stefan 111 GEROLSTEINER 35' 44"
4. EVANS Cadel 1 SILENCE - LOTTO 36' 11" + 00' 27"
28. SASTRE Carlos 11 TEAM CSC SAXO BANK 37' 27" + 01' 43"

Stage 19, 2007 - 55km
1. LEIPHEIMER Levi 111 DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM 1h 02' 44"
2. EVANS Cadel 41 PREDICTOR - LOTTO 1h 03' 35" + 00' 51"
16. SASTRE Carlos 31 TEAM CSC 1h 06' 08" + 03' 24"

Stage 13, 2007 - 54km
1. VINOKOUROV Alexandre 191 ASTANA 1h 06' 34" Blood Doper kicked off after this stage
2. EVANS Cadel 41 PREDICTOR - LOTTO 1h 07' 48" + 01' 14"
26. SASTRE Carlos 31 TEAM CSC 1h 10' 35" + 04' 01"
 
I'm assuming Sastre would start last by virtue of being the tour leader? That would give him an advantage if he's good enough. Hopefully Evans can set a blistering time.

Carn Cadell. :thumbsu:
 
Cadel the new Greg Norman? Not looking good.
 

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Now that is harsh, he's basically been one guy against a superb team. To come second given the lack of support he's had from his team mates at the important times it's a huge achievement to come second.
 
Cadel, get some decent back up. Popovych isn't even as useful as a Chernobyl Nuclear Power plant. Where the **** was Chris Horner who rode with the Lotto team in 2007 and busted a gut to help you out in 2007??? Popovych is just a Lance pay me the $$$$ type of rider. He contributed less to Lotto than what a Northern Territory river system contributes to the Murray-Darling system!!!
 
So was it a case of Cadel not having a great time trial, or Sastre producing the time trial of his life or a bit of both?

Cadel added 29m 44s to his Stage 4 time trial result and Sastre 28m 57s to his Stage 4 result.

Just as a little comparison, Menchov added 29m 27s and Schumacher who won both stages 28m 06s.
 
I think this is a good summary on the TDF other sports board thread, of why Cadel would have struggled with the TT.

ubolt said:
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.
Click to expand...

1998 was the Festina drug scandal and several teams were pulled out of the Tour.
 
Also don't forget Evans had a pretty bad crash in Stage 9. Whilst he recovered the next day in Stage 10 to take the yellow jersey, it would still be having some impact on him and wouldn't have helped his cause.
 

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His lack of support in the mountain stages showed up in the time trial unfortunately. He just didn't have the "legs" that Sastre had.

Well done Cadel, but I hope he gets into a stronger team next year so he can win the darn thing because he sure as heck deserves to.
 

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