i sure hope so because i need to go shopping for a new mattress so it seems only fitting

any predictions on today? any excitement? or will everybody be taking it easy, nursing their wounds, and pretty much taking a nap upright?

on paper, it looks so dull that i almost think it would be a perfect place for someone who lost time yesterday to try and get some back -- if they have any gas left in the tank.. which they probably don't, hence my bed buying excursion.

freire

vino

Cav



This is champagne territory not vino territory

Reims was the location of my favourite Tour de France bunch sprint, coming on Stage 6 in the 1985 Tour from Roubaix:

Sean Kelly was in the red hot spot sprints jersey and Eric Vanderaerden in green. For some reason they were having a boxing match all the way down the home straight (at some speed), yet still crossed the line in first and second place. No one else was impeded.

However, the jury decided to relegate both so that Frenchman, Francis Castaing, could finally win a stage....

The sprint at Bordeaux was pretty good that year too. Very close

Sandy Casar

Zzzzzzzzzz....

Touché

Petacchi!!!

Cavendish all noise and bluster this year.

Yes! Ale-Jet! For all his misses in the Giro Petacchi is having a fabolous Tour. Neither Cavendish nor his lead out has it.

Ale-Jet!

yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!!!

GRANDE ALE!!

That move by Hondo inside the last km to mess up the HTC train was simply magnificent, and Ale Jet capitalised perfectly. Brilliant stuff!

Cav hasn't got the legs at all.

Neither has Thor.

All true. I'm hoping for Petacchi, of course. He not at all a bad climber, and if he keeps this up he might catch Hushovd relatively quick. A shame about Tyler Farrar, cause I really feel he could have taken his first Tour-stage this year. On a large he has been the seasons best sprinter, so its a shame he isn't able to show so now when everybody is watching. Prior to the Tour I had him pegged as the biggest favourite for the Green.

WHAT A SPRINT BY ALE-JET!!!

And impressive by Edvald.

Petacchi in green at the end of the Tour would please me to no end! do you really think he has a chance?

regarding Farrar: luckily it was only his wrist he broke -- the elbow was merely bruised. he says the swelling is going down daily and he hopes to be competitive by next week (just in time for the mountains?)... hopefully, he'll be able to hang in there and strut his stuff.

Don't think he has ever finished it ... has he even started it more than once previously??

Funny thing about him and Super Mario, both have/had no problems in finishing the Giro (well, most Giri)

I can recall him starting three times (2001, 2003, 2004) and finishing once (2001). But back then he wasn't anywhere near the level he has been since then, he wasn't really green jersey/stage win contender. I think he was even on a breakaway one day.

In 2004 he and Cipollini abandoned the Tour after same stage. It was before mountains IIRC. Similarly in 2003 he abandoned once mountains began.

if he isn't going to finish the Tour, any chance of him dressing like Caesar?

GO ALE JET!!!!!! My favorite rider. I remember him crying on his bike after his first victory at the Giro in Sardenia after his return from the fractured patella.

He handled the climbs well in Milano - San Remo, as well as the Giro. I think he and Freire are the best sprinters in terms of going over the mountains in the last week now. If he is close to the green or wearing it, I don't think he will quit. He has one more year left on his contract, and the way he is feeling, I am sure he must be dreaming of a good possibility of taking the stage in Paris.

He had a good prologue, which, at 10K, can be a good indicator of his form.

Yes, how good to see a resurrected Ale Jet showing his stuff at the TdF!

What a shame Tyler Farrar broke his wrist. I think Garmin is jinxed.

Great result for the Lampre team as well. After a horrible Giro, their Tour is already a success, no matter what happens from here.

Jeez, what's the sound of one handing clapping in New Zealand?

Shouldn't Ale-Jet have retired long ago (will he even make it to Paris?), but noooo - he has to come and spoil the Kiwi party: Julian Dean winning the first ever stage by a NZ-er...

someone obviously told Petacchi that he really should tweet (his first since September):



some will call it arrogant, but i am just amused... the Friends unnerved me a bit, though, after my Caesar comment

World Cup: New Zealand 1, Italy 1.

And now you want more Italian blood?

Here's a rather interesting stat from Eurosport:

Frustration from Cav

http://www.sporza.be/cm/sporza/wielrennen/...ndish_reacties#

(top video is the best - wait for the helmet)

Trouble with the saddle and the chain???

That's more like it- a traditional 1st week tour stage. Nothing of interest until the last 3K. Where yesterday it took me 2 hours to get through the coverage, I whipped through today's stage in 15 minutes. [Now, onto the World Cup, as my personal media blackout was a success.]



And the rest of the race won't be nearly as exciting, as the attempted spectacle of today's stage claimed one Amets Txurruka, as his crash dimmed his GC hopes.



For safety purposes (I'm sure Burkni's with me), riders racing for the GC should be transported directly to a hotel just off the start line of the first big mountain stage and exempted from the requirement of completing any stages without a Cat 1 climb.

It's a shame for his team for this guy to give up trying if he sees he wont win the sprint. The race is still young, and finishing position matters when there is a green jersey to fight for.

That means something for his team and sponsors.

Lack of maturity.

He's a fiery little squirt!

I just love the sprinters. The risks they take ... the speed and power they pump out. It is awesome.

Cavendish is a super sprinter ..... unfortunately he is also a "tosser".

I really tink that HTC would have been better served by leaving him at home to stew about how immature he is and maybe after the tour was over he would have been able to get his head through a doorway.

Greipel perhaps would have been a much better choice but he went off the boil a bit too after a great start to the year.

The dropping the bike bit was just pathetic. The throwing the helmet .... well thats what a "tosser" would do I suppose.

Anyway go Robbie Mac. Just one more stage win to end your career.

Thanks,

Buddy

+1
+1

Priceless stuff from Blazin' Saddles on Eurosport:

see??? this was what i meant when i was heaping the love on all of you in that other thread... saw the above this morning and started roaring. repeated it to the BF who gave me a look to kill (if it's possible to despise cycling, he does). and sheepishly went back to my coffee... sigh.

(and i will probably get into trouble for it again, when i start giggling if i have to travel Ryan Air and try to explain my amusement.)

It is high time that VdB, smug and I had a little "chat" with this BF of yours

Edit:
A similar incident comes to mind: In the days of the old forum (eons ago) there was a wonderful fake-name poster who called himself Marco Pantani. The real Pantani (RIP) was riding the Vuelta a Murcia and was about half an hour down after 2 days of racing, but forum Pantani posted a thread saying that with the help of his doctor and his "special" breakfast, he would easily win the race the following days. I was reading this at a friend's place and almost fell of my chair laughing, and he of course asked what was so funny.
To this day I haven't even considered trying to explain.

Have you ever considered the a solutions to many of your problems could be replacing this so called BF?

weren't you the smart one? the problem is, he gets cranky if i don't explain...

anyways, i want you to know he must have felt your threat! or maybe it was just deep guilt after seeing me dripping whilst listening to Eurosport, sorting out my papers in a room hot enough to melt cheese... i came downstairs to get more water and guess what was on? the tele, showing the TDF

i'm betting it was this: and your telepathic ganging up -- so major to all of you!

Little does Wildeone know that I made a quick train ride Brussels-Ghent-Brussels during my lunchbreak, on Burkni's orders...

This scenario shockingly mirrors another well-documented one, with the analogies :

wildone - Ullrich
VdB - Fuentes
Burkni - Pevenage

how lucky am i to have you all?

I prefer to ignore the thought of the existence of this boyfriend or to write it off as a phase.