***Official Tour de France Thread***

[Bobby Wong]

Today's result brings up a very interesting prospect for the rest of the week. Will we have the rare pleasure of seeing the yellow jersey sprinting for points, or even sacrificing himself to help lead out his teammate Tyler Farrar? Tomorrow's stage will certainly come down to a field sprint, and with no time bonuses available Hushovd will remain in the yellow jersey for the time being. But Thor is a very real contender to be in the green jersey in Paris, and he would also like to help Farrar rack up a few stage wins or a mess of points on the very flat finishes like tomorrow's.

I've seen some discussion about heavy crosswinds affecting the field tomorrow, and a well-organized team certainly can fracture the peloton if that is the case. The film Chasing Legends provided excellent documentation of HTC-Highroad pulling this off in spectacular fashion on the way to Mark Cavendish's win in Stage 3 of the 2009 Tour. I don't think that we'll see anything that dramatic tomorrow because the course just isn't difficult enough, but there will be several big crashes.

About four kilometers before the intermediate sprint the course takes a sharp right-left-right chicane and a few riders will likely go down, particularly with the fast pace that will be set by teams jockeying to get their man into the green jersey. letour.fr fails to provide a detail map of the finish, but from the stage overview it appears that there are some nasty corners as the course enters Redon six kilometers from the finish. A crash there could really hurt a GC contender's chances, so the peloton will be especially nervous and probably suffer a massive pileup.

The only climb of the day is actually a bridge 56 km from the finish. With only one point available for a Category 4 climb, the first rider across here will be tied in the KoM competition with Philippe Gilbert by virtue of his win on the small hill at the finish of Stage 1. I would imagine that the tiebreaker is based on GC, but in any event nobody is likely to contest it very hard. Probably a Belgian will be the first up it. Those bitches love bridges.

Garmin-Cervelo will try to ride their rush from Sunday and get the stage win and green jersey for Tyler Farrar. Everyone likes to see an American win on the Fourth of July and tomorrow would be no exception. The amount of help he gets from Thor Hushovd may ultimately determine whether he can succeed. Farrar rode to the front of the peloton at the intermediate sprint of Stage 1 thanks to an absolutely fantastic leadout from Julian Dean, but the rest of his train was extremely suspect. He definitely has the legs to sprint with the best, but if team strategy dictates that Hushovd keep the yellow jersey safe I think that Farrar will be caught out more often than not.

[Bobby Wong]

We still don't have a true indication of Tyler Farrar's form because he withdrew from the Giro d'Italia following the death of his friend Wouter Weylandt. Prior to that, he appeared to falter behind a well executed but poorly timed leadout train. From the brief look we got on Saturday he certainly looks to have the legs, but only time will tell how well Garmin-Cervelo can or will support him.

The tragedy in the Giro disrupted the other field sprint contenders as well. Mark Cavendish threw a hissy fit after feeling that Alessandro Petacchi rode dangerously in beating him to the finish of the Giro's Stage 2, but that was forgotten in the days following. Cavendish went on to win stages 10 and 12 and both men quit the race in the mountains of the thirteenth stage.

In the intermediate sprint of Saturday's Stage 1 the HTC machine was almost flawless in dragging Cavendish to the front, even casually disrupting Petacchi's sprint. Cavendish completely failed to pull it out, and he may not be in the best of shape. Petacchi's Lampre team looked great as well in that sprint, but because he got boxed in we didn't get a good look at how he is going.

The wild card contender on the flat stages this year is Andre Greipel. The Omega Pharma-Lotto team did a great job getting him positioned for the intermediate sprint on Saturday, and he was the only on to even stay near to Tyler Farrar. They are a very opportunistic team and have Greipel for the flat stages, Philippe Gilbert for the lumpy ones, and Jurgen Van Den Broucke with a chance to sneak into a high overall finish if some of the favorites have bad luck. Look for them to be working hard for Greipel on Monday, but if he doesn't prove to be a contender the team may quickly shift their focus to their other riders for the rest of the race.

Prediction: Cavendish will win the stage despite himself, but Farrar will place highly enough in the intermediate sprint and the stage finish to take over the green jersey competition.

[Bobby Wong]

My transfers in the ride.cc fantasy league were Tom Boonen for George Hincapie and Maciej Paterski for Geraint Thomas. The first was to free up some points for trades that I'll make after Stage 3, and the second was to grab some points for Thomas's high GC standing and lead in the young rider classification. After today's stage I will see about maybe getting Cadel Evans as my team leader or dumping Hushovd for a real standout sprinter.

[Steerpike]

Exciting finish today, Farrar with an emotional win on Independence Day.

USA USA USA!

[Hillbilly Jim]

im thinking about making a concept album based on miguel indurains career

[Bobby Wong]

In other news, Frank Schleck has been accused of farting in the elevator.

[Bobby Wong]

Jens Voigt reports that chronic flatulence is the least of Frank Schleck's problems.

http://bicycling.com/blogs/hardlyser...stage-2-diary/

Quote:

And that is after my buddy Frank Schleck avoided catastrophe on two separate occasions. First, as we were starting our warm-up on the course this morning, we crossed the start line and this television camera that was suspended on a beam, suddenly fell on Frank’s head. I mean it just fell right on his head! It hit him square on the head, forcing his helmet down and jamming the sun visor into his nose. Fortunately he didn’t fall, but boy, that could have been a lot more serious.

And then during the TTT, Frank swallows a bee, or some kind of insect that actually stings him in the throat as he swallows it. I mean why do these freak things happen to Frank?

[Steerpike]

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 2 (2 members and 0 guests)
Steerpike, Bobby Wong

Bob, I want you to know that you're doing God's work here and it's truly appreciated.

I saw Shooz trying to upstage this thread on Boris, we all know what he's up to, don't let him shove his bald head up your ass Bob.

[Bobby Wong]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bobby Wong

Laurens Ten Dam has been making me lol all spring because every time I see him he looks more and more like a hobo.

This guy is just lucky as shit that he hasn't been arrested for vagrancy and suspicion of bicycle theft.