Tour de France

[SixRings]

Talansky crashes and loses more time. He has got to be very frustrated. Nibali is looking more and more like a champ. Contador couldn't shake him on the steep climb.

 

[junglehusky]

Looks like it'll probably be Nibali's tour to lose with Contador crashing out of the race. There was some confusing footage of the crash aftermath that seems to have sparked some conspiracy theories about the bike manufacturer on Twitter. But it looks like they figured out what happened. Eventually.

As far as Americans in the race, Ted King had to abandon, unfortunately. van Garderen and Talansky's fortunes seem to have switched over the past few days; Tejay looks to be getting over his crash injuries and climbed back in the top ten while Talansky lost ten minutes and his aspirations of a podium are done, probably. Oh, and Old Man Horner did well today.

 

[junglehusky]

So... that wound up being the biggest snoozer that I can remember, at least as far as the yellow jersey goes. I suppose having two French youngsters battling it out for podium positions was probably a big media story in France, but I'd bet the TV ratings on English language networks is probably down this year. Oh well. I think Nibali would probably have been able to beat Contador and Froome this year, I think his Astana team looked better than Tinkoff and much better than Sky this year.

By the way, if you haven't caught 30 for 30 "Slaying the Badger", it's really good. It was interesting to see the crazy approach to athlete and ego management - or rather, the lack of it - on the La Vie Clair team. interesting to compare that to Brailsford's approach to Sky, which is totally different but just flawed.

 

[Fishy]

It was an entertaining Tour - if nothing else, it's good to see an aggressive winner.

Nibali was the anti-Wiggins.

 

[Palatine]

Weird tour. Cavendish, Froome, Contador, Talansky all crash out. Wiggins doesn't make the team.

BTW, Phil Ligett is the best announcer in any sport.

 

[junglehusky]

Weird tour. Cavendish, Froome, Contador, Talansky all crash out. Wiggins doesn't make the team.

BTW, Phil Ligett is the best announcer in any sport.

He is way over the hill. If a rider had a dad or uncle who used to be a bike racer, it's guaranteed that Liggett will screw up his name. And he used to carry water for Armstrong back when Lance was smearing anyone who dared question him.

But anyway, congrats to Nibz.

 

[ZooCougar]

He is way over the hill. If a rider had a dad or uncle who used to be a bike racer, it's guaranteed that Liggett will screw up his name. And he used to carry water for Armstrong back when Lance was smearing anyone who dared question him.

But anyway, congrats to Nibz.

I agree with this. He's been immersed in the sport for forever, but all you have to do is watch the Eurosport feed or BeIN Sports to see that the American audience is getting shafted with P and P making the call. It's been like a half century since Paul Sherwin raced and his insights as a former racer are hopelessly outdated. Why do you think NBC brought Christian Vandevelde in to balance that?

Grades:

Nibali: A-

Raced to win from early on. Even took back the Yellow Jersey when there was no need to. Would be an A or better if he beat Froome, Contador, but Valverde is no schlub. In my own mind, he won the race in northern France on the cobbles. Might have been the ride of the year from a guy who had little experience on those roads.

Valverde: B-, but at least he seems to be racing clean now.

Teejay: B, not impressed with him just racing for 5th. He should have gone for it.

Talansky: Incomplete. Next time don't hang around for bunch sprints, but we love the spirit. No doubt if Andrew had traded places with Teejay we would have seen a gamble in the mountains. The Pitbull isn't satisfied with Podiums.

French GC Contenders: Welcome back.

Team Sky: HHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, the only British Team having a worse summer than England's soccer team. Rot in Hell.

Garmin: B+, rode with courage trying to win after Talansky withdrew. Ramunas' stage win was a clinic on teamwork in cycling.

SAXO-Tinkoff: Hope you

Tony Martin and Svein Tuft (honorable mention to Sylvain Chavanel): A+, even though Tony was the only one to win a stage, these two are the true bad mofos of the peloton. Anybody who races will know what I am talking about. When riders like these hit the front, EVERYBODY HURTS. Say what you want about the showboat GC contenders, but they almost never have to put their nose in the wind like these guys. RESPECT!

Sprinters:

CAV: F, has become something of a crash magnet, needs to get back on track soon, because his days of double digit wins in a season are likely over because he is being outclassed by...

The German Speed machines.. Kittel, Degenkolb, Greipel. A!


And the true winner of the Tour de France is:

La Vuelta a Espana..

Runner up. The World Championships.

Second runner up: German Cycling

 

[junglehusky]

The Tour of Utah, billed as North America's toughest stage race, starts today, followed later on by the USA Pro Challenge in Colorado. Should be good battling between Garmin and BMC in both races, and we'll probably see Old Man Jens go for some breakaways as these will be his last races before he retires.

You can watch Utah online here :
http://www.tourofutah.com/race/live-coverage/
And USA Pro is usually on Tour Tracker as well as NBC.

 

[ZooCougar]

The Tour of Utah, billed as North America's toughest stage race, starts today, followed later on by the USA Pro Challenge in Colorado. Should be good battling between Garmin and BMC in both races, and we'll probably see Old Man Jens go for some breakaways as these will be his last races before he retires.

You can watch Utah online here :
http://www.tourofutah.com/race/live-coverage/
And USA Pro is usually on Tour Tracker as well as NBC.

I'll be in Colorado for the race. Should be at the Colorado Springs stage.

 

[junglehusky]

I'll be in Colorado for the race. Should be at the Colorado Springs stage.

How was it in person? Colorado Springs always looks amazing on TV. Had to fast forward the DVR to the end of Friday's stage in Breckenridge as the planes couldn't go up in the weather to relay the video from the moto cameramen. Looks like Tejay's all set to dominate the ITT today.

 

[ZooCougar]

How was it in person? Colorado Springs always looks amazing on TV. Had to fast forward the DVR to the end of Friday's stage in Breckenridge as the planes couldn't go up in the weather to relay the video from the moto cameramen. Looks like Tejay's all set to dominate the ITT today.

It was three hours away, we were having too much fun where we were to do a six hour round trip.