tour de france

[Jene]

yep, thats true.....the team thats comes in 2nd can lose no mor than 20seconds, 3rd can lose no more than 30seconds and so on....
anyone no what time it starts?

[Braddie]

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Why would a cyclist take EPO ? why not just do altitude training, its legal and presumably much safer.
Its probably almost impossible in Europe to do sufficient altitude training, If you are going to do several hours a day then you are going to be up and down, up and down. I guess you'd need to be over in the States, somewhere like Colorado, to do your training at altitude.

Why is Armstrong so strong ? According to his book, and on his early results he was always destined to be one of the best. I also wonder if the cancer has had an effect, not the cancer itself, but perhaps the treatments, am I right in thinking that steroids form a part of cancer treatments - to re-build the body after the cancer drugs have half destroyed it ? This is legitimate use of steroids to keep the guy alive. Armstrong himself recogises that the cancer and treatment changed his body. Perhaps to the good.
Other factors -
Armstrong will have a different perspective on life and on pain.
One of the most interesting points in his first book is that racing for Armstrong hurts, he just handles it, his attitude is that he will take more pain that his challengers.

(1) These guys do altitude training anyway - why not use EPO to get another edge????

(2) Cancer treatment decimate your body - the steroids may help rebuild - but I look at it as this , Armstrong was triathlete for years and had a big build. The therapy meant he lost a lot of muscle, so once he started training again, his muscle build was perfected to that of a tour de france cyclist.

[Jene]

lol.....and that so could of been quoted from his first autobiography.....it says it in there dont it, bout how he thinks having cancer is the best thing that could of ever happened to him....

but when does the TTT start????

[krocks]

1st team off at 1.15, last off at 2.55. Should finish around 4.10 or so. The change of rule for the TTT means that time loss is limited to 2 mins 30 secs, which was supposed to stop climber's teams losing so much so early in the race. It means that if your team is 2'30" down at halfway, you could just cruise gently into the finish, unless you think you can recover time.
Armstrong has deserved to win his Tours, but i like to think that last year has motivated the likes of Ullrich, Heras, Hamilton, Mayo, Basso etc. to push themselves that little bit more (without going down the doping route, of course). If in doubt, just attack!
& pinches - i'd be up for watching the highlights on your magic box, though its street-O this evening.

[Jene]

last off is actually 3.55 with the us postal team......

[krocks]

Yes, 3.55 CET, which is 2.55 GMT.
But the rule changes are a wee bit more complicated than i thought, with the time limit depending on the team position. Mayo is out of it anyway, bar miracles

[Jene]

yep, thats what i sed b4,

the team thats comes in 2nd can lose no mor than 20seconds, 3rd can lose no more than 30seconds and so on....

still think its crappy tho, whats the point of limiting time....if say the us postal get 3 mintues here but then he ends up losing by 5 seconds overall, doesnt that mean that the only reason he's gonna have lost is because time was limited here.....whats the point?!

[krocks]

Point is to try to make the race more exciting in the mountains, so more riders feel its worth attacking as they still have a chance to win. What has happened previously has been teams who have better time-trialists end up taking 3+ mins out of the others, with their riders then losing all hope of going for the overall so early in the race. Not sure if it the right way to solve that, though

[Jene]

ye but like half the field lost over 3 mins yesterday when the pack split so most of them are going to be giving up on winning already, i say keep the times as they are, if you cant win all the stages , or at least do well in all stages then you shouldnt win the tour.

[Supersaint]

true, but then if you are your team's best rider by miles, then you're going to be at a disadvantage. You might be able to go much faster than the rest of your team mates, but cos it's a team time trial you have to stick together. Limiting the amount of time lost gives those talented individuals who are in poor teams a fighting chance of still winning.

[the duncan]

any one know of a good site for live audio? can't get eurosport to work, and the official site keeps 'buffering' so it really stop start, well annoying.

[Jene]

oooooh, 1st team finished.....EUSKALTEL....done just under 1 hr 15, hahaha, cofidis are over 2min down at the third check.....lol



edit: oooh, us postal have jus started (GO ARMSTRONG) hehe

[Jene]

woop woop and armstrong's in the yellow!!!!! yey

[Matt p]

Not anymore. Big Maggy for the tour. All his training in the South Wales mountains will gear him up for the Alps. Even if he is a bit of a chubber.

[Jene]

i no, gutted.....lol, o well, he never expected it this early anyway did he. he'll get it back in the mountains.