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Tour de France 2012 (spoilers)

interlooper

interlooper

Wishing I was golfing now
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The tour is set to start in a few hours. And, of course, I will be watching. Hope it is going to be good, but looks like the overall is down to only a couple of riders already. Hope king of the mountain is interesting though.
 
I'm with you man... I haven't missed it since 2002 I think. Watching he preview right now ;)
 
Pretty excited about it, really looking forward to watching it this weekend. Unfortunately, where I am staying doesnt have NBC sports, so my Father-in-law will be rigging the tv up so we can watch our laptops on the big screen!
 
I have the tv all to myself until late sunday afternoon when the family gets back, then I'll have to get up at 5 am to catch coverage if I want to see... Pro cycling isn't a legit sport in my family.
 
Coverage on NBCsports (was Versus) right now...

Stage 1 Prologue - Liege

I love this!
 
So do I man. I DVR every stage and watch it very late every night.

Stage 1 (after the prologue) was pretty fun and a good indication who will be up for the sprints. Looks like Cavendish is going to try his same tactics... not sure it will work this year with all the pre-tour team shifting.

Hincappie looks like he still wants to be a work-horse, even at his old age. Kudos.
 
I may fall over in a dead faint....

Saturday stage coverage on the regular network channel (NBC). I'm amazed!
 
Stage 8 was a pretty exciting one to watch. The young Frenchmen, Pinot with a Stage win, Wiggins and Evans still battling it out. Wiggins holds on to the yellow jersey for another day.

That climb looked absolutely ridiculous, but Pinot seemed to fly up it, absolute crazy.
 
Yes! It was pretty great to watch... I always cheer for the breakaway guys even when one of my favorites is in GC contention. A great day for France and that young rider!
 
Awesome stage today! To see Wiggins break out in a spring like that to try and sling his teammate to a Stage Win was awesome to watch, and something you rarely ever see out of the rider in the yellow jersey at this point in Tour. Im still pulling for Evans and Team BMC, but they have a lot of ground to make up, and Wiggins and Team Sky are just that freaking good.
 
Can't believe the stage this morning. Evans and 3 flats???? What jackass threw tacks/nails out on the course?
 
Ryan555 said:
Can't believe the stage this morning. Evans and 3 flats???? What jackass threw tacks/nails out on the course?
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They said overall that there were 30+ riders with flats today. Very cool move on Team Liquigas and Team Sky to slow the pace and allow Team BMC to catch up to the palaton. Definitely shows good sportsmanship, even though some jackwagon Frenchman through tacks in the road.

How pissed did Evans look when his teammate just blew past him when he had that flat?
 
War Eagle said:
They said overall that there were 30+ riders with flats today. Very cool move on Team Liquigas and Team Sky to slow the pace and allow Team BMC to catch up to the palaton. Definitely shows good sportsmanship, even though some jackwagon Frenchman through tacks in the road.

How pissed did Evans look when his teammate just blew past him when he had that flat?
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I saw that. And then Tejay said he didn't understand what he was saying? Yeah, I call shenanigans. But I'm not sure when Evans looked more pissed, when he got passed by a teammate, or when he had to get a push for the 3rd flat in the front. Very cool for Wiggins to say afterward that he didn't want to take advantage of someone's misfortune. I was a little surprised that Liquigas hung back for him tho. I mean, their best guy was already across the line basically, so why not just push a couple more through? But some of the best sportsmanship I think I've seen in a long time from any sport. I mean, it's been Evans and Wiggins for quite some time now, and they could have just demolished Evans, but instead they hung the lead of the peloton until he could catch up. Awesome as far as I'm concerned. Both teams just moved up in my eyes for that alone.
 
This stage totally pissed me off. Who does that? Hopefully team BMC can recover from the extra work they had to put in today to catch up... And good on the peloton to slow it down a notch!
 
Am sure Teejay was soundly reprimanded.

Now Rolland... That's a guy who will be made to suffer by almost every team out there.
 
Im not reading the past few posts, as I have not caught up on today's stage just yet! :alien:
 
War Eagle said:
Im not reading the past few posts, as I have not caught up on today's stage just yet! :alien:
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No worries WE... They're talking about yesterday's stage (Sunday).
 
Ryan555 said:
I saw that. And then Tejay said he didn't understand what he was saying? Yeah, I call shenanigans. But I'm not sure when Evans looked more pissed, when he got passed by a teammate, or when he had to get a push for the 3rd flat in the front. Very cool for Wiggins to say afterward that he didn't want to take advantage of someone's misfortune. I was a little surprised that Liquigas hung back for him tho. I mean, their best guy was already across the line basically, so why not just push a couple more through? But some of the best sportsmanship I think I've seen in a long time from any sport. I mean, it's been Evans and Wiggins for quite some time now, and they could have just demolished Evans, but instead they hung the lead of the peloton until he could catch up. Awesome as far as I'm concerned. Both teams just moved up in my eyes for that alone.
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I was really surprised that those teams slowed the pace so BMC could catch up. I understand not wanting to capitalize on others misfortune, especially when something like that happens...BUT, if Evans were to somehow win the Tour now, wouldnt people look back to that and say that if it wasnt for the groups slowing their pace he would have been left for dead?
 
I don't think so... It's kind of traditional that if one of the GC contenders suffers a misfortune on a stage, but is able to continue, the leader will call for a cessation of action until the rider can pull himself up...

Except for Contador... He broke tradition and was vehemently roasted for quite a while afterwards.
 
War Eagle said:
I was really surprised that those teams slowed the pace so BMC could catch up. I understand not wanting to capitalize on others misfortune, especially when something like that happens...BUT, if Evans were to somehow win the Tour now, wouldnt people look back to that and say that if it wasnt for the groups slowing their pace he would have been left for dead?
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I agree. Even though it might be an unspoken rule to slow pace to allow time for the fallen to catch up, I would think that any of the teams out there would want to gain as much ground on the defending champ as possible.
 
War Eagle said:
I was really surprised that those teams slowed the pace so BMC could catch up. I understand not wanting to capitalize on others misfortune, especially when something like that happens...BUT, if Evans were to somehow win the Tour now, wouldnt people look back to that and say that if it wasnt for the groups slowing their pace he would have been left for dead?
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Remember the thing with Contador a few years back when Andy Schleck broke his chain??? Contador was scorned by many in the media... and that was a 50-50 situation, because it wasn't caused by outside third parties. If the maillot jaune were to do that under the "tack" circumstances, he would immediately become the most-hated man in cycling. And in cycling, when you become hated, you start developing other issues, such as rumors of doping, mini-engines in the bike tubing, etc., etc.
 
To heck with rumors... You pull a stunt like Contador and now Rolland and literal pain can happen to you out on the road. It gets VERY physical in the peloton and bunch sprints.
 
interlooper said:
Remember the thing with Contador a few years back when Andy Schleck broke his chain??? Contador was scorned by many in the media... and that was a 50-50 situation, because it wasn't caused by outside third parties. If the maillot jaune were to do that under the "tack" circumstances, he would immediately become the most-hated man in cycling. And in cycling, when you become hated, you start developing other issues, such as rumors of doping, mini-engines in the bike tubing, etc., etc.
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Good points.
spazzdog said:
To heck with rumors... You pull a stunt like Contador and now Rolland and literal pain can happen to you out on the road. It gets VERY physical in the peloton and bunch sprints.
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Rolland has taken some grief in the interviews I have seen/read, not too many are happy with him right now.
 
What a great last stage. Awesome to see Cav win the stage led out by Wiggo! Brilliant!! A bit of a shame that Leslie Garrett had to put a bit of a downer on proceedings though with that cringeworthy rendition of God Save The Queen.


Tapped via tapatalk
 
Mark_UK said:
What a great last stage. Awesome to see Cav win the stage led out by Wiggo! Brilliant!! A bit of a shame that Leslie Garrett had to put a bit of a downer on proceedings though with that cringeworthy rendition of God Save The Queen.


Tapped via tapatalk
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Yeah; the last stage was awesome... and good to see wiggins doing a few for the team.

In general though, this tour de france was a snooze fest. For me, the only remotely exciting parts were Sagan dominating early and the "tacks" stage. I guess this tends to happen though during an olympics year.
 
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