Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Off Topic => Sports Arena => Topic started by: TopDeck113 on June 12, 2011, 04:34:23 PM
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What for me is the greatest annual sporting spectacular starts in three weeks time.
I'll give you my predictions for the four classifications in due course, but for fans of British cycling it is worth noting that Bradley Wiggins today won the Critérium du Dauphiné - a good guide to form prior to the Grand Depart in the Vendée.
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Really looking forward to it this year, the Vendee is one of the most picturesque Departs in France, and the fourth stage passes down the road from where I holidayed in Dinan last year.
My predictions:
1. Schleck
2. Contador
3. Kreuziger
4. Samuel Sanchez
5. Wiggins
Green Jersey - Cavendish
Polka Dot Jersey - Schleck
White Jersey - Kreuziger
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The new Green Jersey rules will hopefully see Cavendish deservedly win that.
Overall, can't look past Contador, Wiggins has a chance but I don't think Sky have the domestiques to help him.
Agree that a Schleck will win the polka dot.
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How's the green jersey rules changed Dave?
I for one hope the winner is clean and untarnished. i am disappointed Cantador's case is not being heard until after July. Further opportunity for cycling to be dragged through the mud.
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How's the green jersey rules changed Dave?.
They've dispensed with most of the intermediate sprints and will instead give a lot more points for one sprint out on the road and at the finish.
This is a rare example of the French actually doing something that could be of benefit to a Brit: the consensus amongst the organisers is that Cav's haul of fifteen stage wins in three Tours should have been rewarded with at least one Green Jersey victory and want the emphasis of the competition to be about who is the fastest sprinter, not who can squirrel away points here and there at the intermediates.
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How's the green jersey rules changed Dave?.
They've dispensed with most of the intermediate sprints and will instead give a lot more points for one sprint out on the road and at the finish.
This is a rare example of the French actually doing something that could be of benefit to a Brit: the consensus amongst the organisers is that Cav's haul of fifteen stage wins in three Tours should have been rewarded with at least one Green Jersey victory and want the emphasis of the competition to be about who is the fastest sprinter, not who can squirrel away points here and there at the intermediates.
Cheers. He's still susceptible to the likes of Hushovd on the undulating stages I think.
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I for one hope the winner is clean and untarnished. i am disappointed Cantador's case is not being heard until after July. Further opportunity for cycling to be dragged through the mud.
Obviously any form of suspected doping is unfortunate, but considering the amount found in his system was 40 times below the WADA level required, and even further below the level required for it to have any beneficial effect, I think Contador would have been cleared if the hearing was before the Tour.
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Hipkiss. You don't get off for being below a certain level. A positive is a positive. He should be banned as it looks like he was micro-dosing TM Floyd Landis.
Anyway Bert Cont to win. Basso 2nd. Schlek (A) 3rd.
Wiggins top 10.
Cavendish marked to death so no green.
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They tried marking Cavendish to death last year, he won five stages.
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Dave, very true. His lead out isnt as strong this year though and whilst I still think he'll win a good number of stages I cant see him winning the Green.
He is far and away the best sprinter out there though. That is not in question. And he is a massive loud mouth which I think is great. Dont mind a big gob on a big talent.
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Who are HTC missing from last year? They were easily the best lead-out ream then.
I haven't looked at the teams yet.
Someone as gobby as Cav would normally be very annoying, but when you can back it up with fifteen le Tour stage wins you are allowed to be gobby!
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Just looked through the teams and it looks like no Sastres (former winner) and Menchov (podium last year) who both race for Geox TMC. The Tour, in their wisdom have used a wild card for Saur-Sojasun (Jimmy Caspar).
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/cycling/8592360/Tour-de-France-2011-Mark-Cavendish-says-peloton-more-nervous-following-accidents-while-eyeing-green-jersey.html
Greipel is the main loss to the lead out.
BTW look out or Philippe Gilbert in stages 1,4,7. He could win them all as they are similar to one day classic stages of which he is the king.
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Goody, goody. Here we go.
Predictions for the podium in Paris:
Yellow: Andy Schleck
Green: Cav
King of the Mountains: David Moncoutie
Young rider: Rein Taaramae
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excuse my ignorance but how english lads are in it this year?
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excuse my ignorance but how english lads are in it this year?
There's a few and they've all got gorgeous shaved legs and pert bottoms. You'll love it spk
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excuse my ignorance but how english lads are in it this year?
There's a few and they've all got gorgeous shaved legs and pert bottoms. You'll love it spk
And even better, none of them want to get married in a church.
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Hope you had money on Big Phil today. Told you so. Leopard Trek tomorrow. Cancellara will pull them round.
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Good call Rexy.
Cracking first day, nice to see the drug cheat Contador lose 1'20" as well.
Garmin will win tomorrow but I reckon Sky could push them close.
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Great shout for Garmin Dave. Frank Schleck swallowed a bee and it stung him after 4k so their time wasn't bad. Cav time tomorrow.
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Fantastic TTT. Except, of course, if your name is Contador.
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Agreed. Contador now has a lot of people riding against him rather then limiting their losses against everyone else. Its going to be a good tour I think.
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Is it going anywhere near Grasse this year? I had the mother & father of all hangovers when it came past our house last year so I was in a zombified state in the swimming pool with all the helicopters & commotion going on. If it does come past again, I'll try not to get quite so shitfaced this year.
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Not that near:
http://www.letour.fr/2011/TDF/COURSE/us/le_parcours.html
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Crashes, fights, british success, and great racing. This has been a great start. Looking forward to a Cav win again tomorrow.
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It has made it more interesting this year, it has even made Sportscentre over here.
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I don't really understand it but it seems that the Brits are doing very well.
Are they likely to be near the top at the end or have the races so far just been been in conditions/terrain that they like?
Seeing as we always win loads of cycling medals in the Olympics, we should win this every now and again shouldn't we?
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I don't really understand it but it seems that the Brits are doing very well.
Are they likely to be near the top at the end or have the races so far just been been in conditions/terrain that they like?
Seeing as we always win loads of cycling medals in the Olympics, we should win this every now and again shouldn't we?
Road racing is vastly different to track cycling, there really is no comparison except that in both disciplines you ride a bike! Traditionally us Brits haven't bothered too much with road racing, a Brit used to be a real rarity in the TDF.
Bear in mind though that a lot of the talk of British success is about Team Sky, who are a British team but have a lot of foreign riders. Sky finished first and second on yesterday's stage but the winner was Norwegian (Edvald Boassen Hagen) and an Australian was second (Matt Goss- no, not the one who was in Bros).
Only Bradley Wiggins has any real chance of a high finish, and a lot depends on how he goes up the really big mountains and also how his team mates perform their own roles in helping him. He could drag Geraint Thomas up the climbs with him, Geraint has a great chance of getting the white jersey for best rider under 25 if he carry hold on in the mountains.
Cavendish will of course win another stage or two, he should be up there today, but he's an out and out sprinter who just survives in the hilly stages so he can go for the flat ones, he'll finish close to last in the overall classification but might win the green (points) jersey.
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Oh, and I forgot ex-drug cheat David Millar! He's going well and might grab a stage but is probably not quite a good enough climber to finish top twenty, he'll be blown away on one of the mountain stages eventually.
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Do you know of a good website that explains the tour nice and simple for a total noob?
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Do you know of a good website that explains the tour nice and simple for a total noob?
I think Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_France) does it as well as anybody.
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Big crash and it looks like Wiggins is out with a broken collarbone.
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Cavendish wins the stage though, of course he does.
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Sad for Wiggins. This is good for Thomas in a way as it frees him up to go for a stage win. He looks in top form.
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Very painful looking crash for Flecha and Hoogerland, all the drivers fault.
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Very painful looking crash for Flecha and Hoogerland, all the drivers fault.
These guys must be as hard as nails! I'd have quietly bled at the side of the road feeling sorry for myself after that one.
As a first time watcher of Le Tour, are incidents like that and the motorbike dragging the Danish rider along, just part and parcel of the race?
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Very painful looking crash for Flecha and Hoogerland, all the drivers fault.
These guys must be as hard as nails! I'd have quietly bled at the side of the road feeling sorry for myself after that one.
As a first time watcher of Le Tour, are incidents like that and the motorbike dragging the Danish rider along, just part and parcel of the race?
Incidents with vehicles on the road are very rare, especially like todays one, and tbh I've never known a Tour like this one for crashes and incidents in the first week.
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Very painful looking crash for Flecha and Hoogerland, all the drivers fault.
These guys must be as hard as nails! I'd have quietly bled at the side of the road feeling sorry for myself after that one.
As a first time watcher of Le Tour, are incidents like that and the motorbike dragging the Danish rider along, just part and parcel of the race?
Incidents with vehicles on the road are very rare, especially like todays one, and tbh I've never known a Tour like this one for crashes and incidents in the first week.
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It's been a bad year all round, what with Wouter Weylandt dying on the Giro d'Italia and the Swiss cyclist (can't remember his name) looking like he may not fully recover after being placed in a medical coma.
Spills are part and parcel of road cycling, but considering the speed they ride at and the obvious dangers there are relatively few really nasty accidents.
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Soler is the guy you are thinking of Dave. He is Colombian but had his accident on the Tour of Switzerland. He is still in a coma after 4 or 5 weeks. If you look at Cavs and Geraint Thomases twitter feeds they blame the riders as much as anyone.
Still been a bad year for crashes mind.
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Yes, cheers Rexy, that's the bloke.
Just been reading up on the news feeds, he's been bought out of his medically induced coma but doctors fear that he might have brain damage.
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A good crash does help though.
Remember these?
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More carnage yesterday, the bloke who got flung into the barbed wire fence made me cringe a bit, that must have hurt,
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More carnage yesterday, the bloke who got flung into the barbed wire fence made me cringe a bit, that must have hurt,
Have you seen these Dave
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/gallery/2011/jul/11/tourde-france-2011-crashes
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Any live streams anywhere for today? Cheers!
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ITV 4 have coverage on their website i believe, if not try TVcatchup.com
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Sorted, cheers Mac, golf and cycling now getting in the way of work.
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Massive day today. Look for the top ten to be transformed if not in personnel then time gaps. Expect lots of lone breaks too. Someone like Chavanel might have a go today.
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Today is the day of the Schlecks, this is where they tie up this race between them.
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A quite unbelievable performance from Andy Schleck today.
If he doesn't win the tour after that there is no justice in this world.
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Stunning.
It's down to the time trial then.
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How much time do you reckon Schelck will need on Evans going into the time trial Dave?
About a minute and half?
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What a great day and congratulations to The Schlecks, Evans and especially Voeckler for making it the best Tour for years.
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What a great day yesterday. Looking forward to another one today. Pleased Contador looks out of it, don't mind who wins now.
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How much time do you reckon Schelck will need on Evans going into the time trial Dave?
About a minute and half?
More than that to be safe, it remains to be seen if Andy Schleck has got the legs to attack up Alpe d'Huez after yesterday's exertions but I reckon he needs another 45 seconds. The Schleck's are going to have to work together to try to break Evans.
Voeckler's not a bad time triallist you know, if he can just hang on for one more stage.
I don't reckon even the organisers thought that the time trial could decide the winner.
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Damon's comments on twitter re the TDF are worth reading!
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Congrats to Mark Cavendish on being the first UK winner of the Green Jersey (and on winning the final stage once more)
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Chapeau Mark Cavendish.
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75 kmh on cobbled streets, they must have knackers of steel
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Congrats to Mark Cavendish on being the first UK winner of the Green Jersey (and on winning the final stage once more)
Ahem. He's not from the UK.
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Superb performance from Cavendish and the HTC Team, three straight wins in Paris is a tremendous achievment and it never looked in doubt yesterday.
I've really enjoyed the coverage of this year's tour.
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Congrats to Mark Cavendish on being the first UK winner of the Green Jersey (and on winning the final stage once more)
Ahem. He's not from the UK.
Ok, British then.
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Congrats to Mark Cavendish on being the first UK winner of the Green Jersey (and on winning the final stage once more)
Ahem. He's not from the UK.
Apologies
I actually did a quick check on the IOM's status and read UK. I guess that my source was wrong.
Can we agree on "British" ?
BTW, what about the IOW, Shetland, Lundy etc. Are those in the UK ? They're not on/in the "Great Britain" part of "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland"
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Congrats to Mark Cavendish on being the first UK winner of the Green Jersey (and on winning the final stage once more)
Ahem. He's not from the UK.
Apologies
I actually did a quick check on the IOM's status and read UK. I guess that my source was wrong.
Can we agree on "British" ?
BTW, what about the IOW, Shetland, Lundy etc. Are those in the UK ? They're not on/in the "Great Britain" part of "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland"
IOM has it's own Parliament, The Tinwald IIRC, all the others are just islands.
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Cav's development in his early days was under the auspices of British Cycling.
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... at T mobile??!!
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No, on the track prior to that.
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In addition to the Green Jersey, this afternoon Cav won the World Road Race Championship in Denmark.
An outstanding achievement and the first winner from these islands since Tom Simpson in 1965. On the back of that, Simpson went on to win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award. By rights - and barring a last minute drop goal by an Englishman in the Rugby World Cup final or an orchestrated campaign by the supporters of Man Utd for Rooney - Cav should do the same.
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What a superb race and what a finish from Cav!!
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I don't know too much about cycling but I reckon winning the World Championship and the Green Jersey in the same year is a fantastic achievement. He should really win Sports Personality of the Year now but I bet he doesn't.
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What a ride by the whole team. Bossed it all day and that's a great feat.
We also finished top of the World Champs medal table 2 golds, 2 silvers, 2 bronzes.
We are officially the best cycling nation on earth!
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I don't know too much about cycling but I reckon winning the World Championship and the Green Jersey in the same year is a fantastic achievement. He should really win Sports Personality of the Year now but I bet he doesn't.
Coudln't agree more, but you know it will be Rooney or some twat like that .
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The whole GB Team were superb, Miler called the tactics correctly and Wiggins put in a magnificant performance and Cav was Cav- a legend.
Cavendish very rarely chokes, the expectation is that he will win every significant bunch sprint finish and he does - pampered "golden generation" footballers please note.
The GB team and Cavendish should be a shoe in for Team and Sports Personality of the Year, but it probably won't happen.
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Note how Cav, in his post-rate interviews, rarely used the word 'I'. It was all "We did superbly, the team were fantastic, we raced perfectly." He is by far the fastest sprinter out there but he knows he needs his team to deliver him to the finish.
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I don't know too much about cycling but I reckon winning the World Championship and the Green Jersey in the same year is a fantastic achievement. He should really win Sports Personality of the Year now but I bet he doesn't.
The BBC don't show cycling so he won't get plugged.
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It was a team effort. Wiggins cycled like a monster.
Too much prominent Sky advertising on kits if you ask me though.
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Sky are putting an awful lot of money into 'Team GB' (Ugh! Hate that term but there you go). Can't blame them for wanting their logo splashed all over the place in return.
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Which is ironic in a sense as they don't have any real cycling coverage.
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Which is ironic in a sense as they don't have any real cycling coverage.
Don't worry. I'm sure the days of being able to enjoy the Tour on free-to-air will be behind us soon enough...
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I don't know too much about cycling but I reckon winning the World Championship and the Green Jersey in the same year is a fantastic achievement. He should really win Sports Personality of the Year now but I bet he doesn't.
He should have won it last year after all the tour stage wins. If he doesn't win it will be an absolute disgrace. At least he has a media profile now.
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Which is ironic in a sense as they don't have any real cycling coverage.
Don't worry. I'm sure the days of being able to enjoy the Tour on free-to-air will be behind us soon enough...
Ironically, I don't think they will. They want maximum publicity from the money they pump into the sport. If they only have it on sky they're preaching to the converted.
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Its unlikely that the big races (both multi day and one day races) will ever go onto pay TV. The teams that race are essentially moving bilboards advertising their sponsors goods/services and reducing audience figures would disrupt the entire team funding model. The Tour de France is on free TV pretty much everywhere and the organisers (ASO) have said that this won't change.
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I'll keep it in here because we haven't got another cycling thread.
Tour of Beijing started today with a short time trial, Brits finished in 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th behind the awesome Tony Martin. In order: Millar, Dowsett, Froome, Cummings.
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And Mat Hayman won the Paris Bourges. Mountains in china tomorrow. It might be good to watch on eurosport over breakfast!