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Tour de France Preview and Discussion thread
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 15-01-2011 17:50
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Always going to be a matter of time before Schleck woke up this season, but another good showing by Uran - a tad annoying to just miss out on the Top 3 time bonuses, but there is at least a gap there between him and Spilak, Dekker and Contador - and at the end of the day, he has kept hold of all 3 jerseys 
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| Crommy |
Posted on 15-01-2011 17:53
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Awesome for Popovych - how he does really will save our season or get us relegated
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| Levi4life |
Posted on 15-01-2011 17:57
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Did I miss something? or is Menchov sucking for kicks and giggles?
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 15-01-2011 18:03
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Levi4life wrote:
Did I miss something? or is Menchov sucking for kicks and giggles?
Caruso is your designated leader, so Menchov automatically wont do much - its not often that 2 riders from the same team will attack on a mountain stage.
In hindsight for Lafarge, it would have been much more lucrative to split the GTs up 1 per leader, rather than making your best 2 share the Tour, and your #3 getting 2 GT leadership roles.
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| Levi4life |
Posted on 15-01-2011 18:06
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Damn you with your logic SN.... 
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 08-12-2025 04:05
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| fenian_1234 |
Posted on 15-01-2011 19:10
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Hoped for a bit better from Gomez Marchante there. Moved further up the rankings, but we'll need some more crashes to break into the top 10.
Oh, and thank you Smowz for the regular and to schedule TdF posts.
Edited by fenian_1234 on 15-01-2011 19:11
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| rjc_43 |
Posted on 15-01-2011 19:14
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I had a good run. Now it's just a skip to the break of the day, and if I ain't in it, down to the results. |
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| mattiasgt |
Posted on 15-01-2011 19:52
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Thats more like it. At least Pedraza tried to do something.
Ps. Smowz, Öste – McDonald is not dutch, he is swedish 
(Previously) Manager of Koenigsegg
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| dave92 |
Posted on 15-01-2011 22:03
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well the slight hope of a dramatic fight back from phinney is gone, but he's not doing too terribly. Not too sure what to make of it really.
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| SotD |
Posted on 16-01-2011 08:40
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Contador going for polka dot. Not really a big fan of that. Seemed to cost him the first move today. Luckily he still seems strong enough to hang on... 6th GC. I'm happy with that.
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 16-01-2011 12:17
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Lost the stage win there thanks to the crappy gameplay, but I cant complain too much - Uran being the stongest climber of all, and gaining on everyone except Pluchkin - with the Moldovan a little further back anyway (and its only 8 seconds). And the key thing of course, gaining back time on Schleck, who was dangerously close prior to the stage.
And thats the 3 jerseys held on to - albeit now sharing the KoM with Contador. It does seem odd that Contador seems to have shifted somewhat to a KoM focus, rather than all for GC though - he is good enough to podium here, it just isnt working out. (Of course, not helped by the fact that theres about 10 riders here, maybe a couple more, who can be good enough to podium on their day).
Oh and nice to see Iglinski there in 17th, maintaining the place as the best rider who doesnt go with the daily attacks, AKA the best 2nd rider in a team. And with Medvedev and Kvasina alternating duties as best 3rd finisher, it seems I may actually be able to challenge for a teams classifaction, for once.
So, hilly stage next - good that Uran is in the race lead, as that helps to offset the potential weakness, although Uran is better than Intxausti in this respect. Of course speaking of Intxausti, I remember well what happened last time I led a GT going into a hilly stage! Youd expect Spilak to be right up there, while Uran also needs to fight hard to maintain a good advantage over Fothen, Schleck and Dekker - who can all call on better recovery when we hit the Pyrenees.
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| CrueTrue |
Posted on 16-01-2011 12:49
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Well, that was a bit better - now in top 3 which is what my team goal is.
Still a long way to go, though. |
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| Setzel |
Posted on 16-01-2011 13:11
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Schleck attacked and managed to grab the victory that's too much for us , i liked the mediocre andy 
Eating my daily Breakfast at 9 pm
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| SotD |
Posted on 16-01-2011 14:20
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It pisses me off that Contador has decided to go for the mountains jersey. He had a real shot at top 5 here it seems, but instead he uses all his energy on grasping low-key mountain points, in a competition he can't win anyway.
He should focus on attacking to gain positions instead of throwing 1 spot away each day because of those lame pointchases.
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| fenian_1234 |
Posted on 16-01-2011 14:35
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At least Contador seems to be going after some goal. Gomez Marchante is just confusing me. |
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| SotD |
Posted on 16-01-2011 14:58
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fenian_1234 wrote:
At least Contador seems to be going after some goal. Gomez Marchante is just confusing me.
Well on paper, Contador should also be quite a lot better. And with the peloton here I would be amazed if Marchante could do top 10 anyway :-)
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| niconico |
Posted on 16-01-2011 15:21
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Important win! Hopefully Pluchkin has a lot of juice left now for the remainder of this one!
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 17-01-2011 09:30
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An aggressive stage was never going to be good for me, so as soon as Contador went, damage limitation. Just a shame that both Dekker and Schleck got with Spilak to gain time also.
Pyrenees is going to be an awesome fight then. 4 within 40 seconds, and Fothen, Contador and Pluchkin all just needing 1 big solo stage performance. Glad I can at least rake in some more ranking points for leading through the transition stages!
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| SotD |
Posted on 17-01-2011 10:59
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I wouldn't expect Contador to do anything but lose spots from now on. He has a horrible recovery stat, and seems in love with polkadots... So I would expect him to spend his energy on picking up lowkey amount of points from now on, only to be weakened in the end. I guess my best shot, at a stagewin or gaining time will be on a downhill end...
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| Crommy |
Posted on 17-01-2011 11:15
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Fan-fucking-tastic from Popo 
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