levi and a weekend at bernie's

[Fixed]

levi and a weekend at bernie's
bro watching levi race reminds me of that movie imho
cheers

i think he's pretty tough though just not very exciting imho
__________________ :beer:i know it's not his style

[cadence90]

Now I'm no movie buff and all that, but to me Levi is the Julie Andrews of the peloton. Maybe the Anne Bancroft, or at best the Susan Sarandon, to Cadel's Geena Davis. :rolleyes:

I like Vino. He knows that in the reality-TV age it's important to be tough and exciting. :beer:

And the Kid Contador Rock(s). :beer:

[jeffg]

that both Levi and Contador light it up on Stage 16.

Contador said he would go out blazing trying for the win ("second place is nothing"). If Levi takes that approach, they could send him up the road on the second to last climb to put pressure on the Chicken, Contador can sit on Rasmussen and then try to roast him on the Aubisque if they come back to Levi. Levi has his chance to make up the time he lost, and Contador has the chance for a real 1-2 punch.

[sspielman]

Poor Levi....thrown under the Discovery team bus by D.S. Bruyneel yesterday...That is, he ordered Hincapie to work with Rasmussen and Contador, which opened up the time gap to Levi. He must feel like crap that the team has lost confidence in him....

[Climb01742]

i don't mean to be harsh to levi, but has he done anything to inspire more confidence? yes, he can follow wheels but anything else? plus, johan is looking for a new sponsor. would you want to sponsor levi or contador?

[Kevan]

from Levi to Contador?

[stevep]

from Levi to Contador?

wait another week.
be positive.
s

[dauwhe]

I'm genuinely curious about why so many people are fans of Levi. I wonder if he's someone most of us can identify with, the rider we could imagine ourselves being. I know I can't imagine being Eddy Merckx, or others with an inexplicable, outsized talent. But Levi seems to be the little guy who was more dedicated and tried harder. And he even looks like us, if skinnier...

But for me there's no panache. I'll always root for those to light up the race, or those maddening characters who soar one day and sink the next. Some people ride with passion, some riders have conspicuous strengths and glaring weaknesses. That's who I'll root for--Robbie McEwan fighting back after being dropped because of a crash and winning the stage, Vino almost all the time! And so now I'll root for Contador, who seems to have the passion, and who we just know is going to be on the attack on Wednesday...

Dave

[93legendti]

'Cuz his wife is 6' (6" taller than him!) and blonde? Oh yeah, she rides a motorcycle (OK, it might be a Vespa)!

[flydhest]

Dave,
Interesting. He annoys the living crap out of me. He's whiny and yet arrogant at the same time. I wanted to like him more. He did some classy riding in the Dauphinee IIRC, but then starts mouthing off about what a beautiful race it is and how people should be more impressed with him for having won it. I was like, "hmmm, I was about to give some props to Levi for that great win, but now . . . perhaps not."

I personally like the slogging style of Indurain and Ullrich where others attack and they motor back on and eventually drop people. Leipheimer just ain't that. He can't keep up with the accelerations AND he can't ride people off his wheel.

Not so high in my book. I'd like to meet him in person to find the interesting bits that have to be there because as it is, whenever his mug is on TV, I just hit fast forward on the Tivo.

I'm genuinely curious about why so many people are fans of Levi. I wonder if he's someone most of us can identify with, the rider we could imagine ourselves being. I know I can't imagine being Eddy Merckx, or others with an inexplicable, outsized talent. But Levi seems to be the little guy who was more dedicated and tried harder. And he even looks like us, if skinnier...

But for me there's no panache. I'll always root for those to light up the race, or those maddening characters who soar one day and sink the next. Some people ride with passion, some riders have conspicuous strengths and glaring weaknesses. That's who I'll root for--Robbie McEwan fighting back after being dropped because of a crash and winning the stage, Vino almost all the time! And so now I'll root for Contador, who seems to have the passion, and who we just know is going to be on the attack on Wednesday...

Dave

[Grant McLean]

I'm genuinely curious about why so many people are fans of Levi.

Levi has fans? From the general kicking he takes from the comments here,
i didn't think he had any. Everyone seems to want Levi to attack, and ride
more aggressively. I've always assumed that when he doesn't attack, it's
becuase he can't. There's nothing wrong with riding a smart race, in my books.

Levi is having a great Tour. He's riding his race, using his head, and will
get the best result possible. Sometimes your best just isn't enough to win.

g

[darylb]

No one wants doping in sports but everyone wants a guy like Levi to attack at every opportunity. He is one of the top handful or riders in the world but that isnt enough. We cant be happy with him until he races like Lance. Oh wait, you didnt like Lance either. :rolleyes:

Everyone wants more home runs so we have to look at Barry and legions of linebackers in the DH slot. We want world track records at the Olympics ............ well?

I do love watching Contador race though. He certainly adds some major excitement. I am starting to think he was the leader all along but Johan kept it on the low down to keep the pressure off of him. Levi might just be playing the leader on TV when in reality he is working a plan to put Contador on top.

[93legendti]

Levi has fans? From the general kicking he takes from the comments here,
i didn't think he had any. Everyone seems to want Levi to attack, and ride
more aggressively. I've always assumed that when he doesn't attack, it's
becuase he can't. There's nothing wrong with riding a smart race, in my books.

Levi is having a great Tour. He's riding his race, using his head, and will
get the best result possible. Sometimes your best just isn't enough to win.

g

Agreed. He might even finish 3rd.

[rpm]

I believe Levi grew up in Butte. By definition, that makes him tough, even if he has acquired a California veneer. He's Peter Principled though--as team leader, he's one level above his competence level. The truth is he doesn't have the legs and lungs to climb with Contador and the Chicken, or to TT with Kloden and Evans.

He's done pretty well with what's he got, but what he's got isn't enough to win the Tour this year or any other year. Maybe today Johann will have a come to Jesus meeting with him, and they'll figure out what he can do tomorrow to help Contador.

[Climb01742]

No one wants doping in sports but everyone wants a guy like Levi to attack at every opportunity. He is one of the top handful or riders in the world but that isnt enough. We cant be happy with him until he races like Lance. Oh wait, you didnt like Lance either. :rolleyes:

Everyone wants more home runs so we have to look at Barry and legions of linebackers in the DH slot. We want world track records at the Olympics ............ well?

I do love watching Contador race though. He certainly adds some major excitement. I am starting to think he was the leader all along but Johan kept it on the low down to keep the pressure off of him. Levi might just be playing the leader on TV when in reality he is working a plan to put Contador on top.

i think what i look for is style/panache and excitement. to follow on your baseball analogy, instead of more juiced up homer hulks, i'd love to see a return to small ball and a jackie robinson/willie mays style of baseball. was anything ever more exciting than seeing jackie dancing off third, threatening to steal home or willie stretching singles into doubles, and doubles into (who cares?) being thrown out at third. my .02 is...sports isn't to find out who can win but who can find greatness by doing something wild and extraordinary. :beer:

[dbrk]

i think what i look for is style/panache and excitement. to follow on your baseball analogy, instead of more juiced up homer hulks, i'd love to see a return to small ball and a jackie robinson/willie mays style of baseball. ...snip...

Ichiro, 262 hits in '04, no?, not many of them out of the park, but nearly all of them waaaaay more exciting. Contador makes the watching-the-paint-dry endurance of most pro bike racing these days something worth an hour. Sure, I admire how far, how hard they go, how they do it like Immortals ---but with the radios, support cars, and calculations down to each red zone of heartbeat and power, there's a lot less to love, imhoatmo. Levi may be playing by the book but it's like watching the Titanic and not expecting the boat to sink. Predictable isn't all that great for sports entertainment.

dbrk

[skyflash]

Levi is far from exciting on the road, but what have Evans or Kloden done? Neither of them have done anything of note except winning back a little time in the TT. And Levi did finish more than 1 minute up on both of them on Stage 14. And Evans keeps blaming his lack of team support for him not doing anything.

It seems that Contador and Rasmussen are the only two battling for the win, and the others are just hoping for a podium.

[sbornia]

Poor Levi....thrown under the Discovery team bus by D.S. Bruyneel yesterday...That is, he ordered Hincapie to work with Rasmussen and Contador, which opened up the time gap to Levi. He must feel like crap that the team has lost confidence in him....

I wonder if he caught Johan's interview in which Johan said that Contador could be the next Lance. <rubbing salt in>

[darylb]

i think what i look for is style/panache and excitement. to follow on your baseball analogy, instead of more juiced up homer hulks, i'd love to see a return to small ball and a jackie robinson/willie mays style of baseball. was anything ever more exciting than seeing jackie dancing off third, threatening to steal home or willie stretching singles into doubles, and doubles into (who cares?) being thrown out at third. my .02 is...sports isn't to find out who can win but who can find greatness by doing something wild and extraordinary. :beer:



I definitely agree with the idea of small ball being much more entertaining and more interesting to me. What I like about it though is that it is the thinking man's brand of ball. I see it as strategic and calculating as opposed to wild and extraordinary.

This is why I certainly like attacks in the mountains but prefer what appears to be calculated strategy from Discovery and Rabo and others as opposed to pure kamakazi missions like Vino.

Here's to having a :beer: at a ballgame. :banana:

[93legendti]

I definitely agree with the idea of small ball being much more entertaining and more interesting to me. What I like about it though is that it is the thinking man's brand of ball. I see it as strategic and calculating as opposed to wild and extraordinary.

This is why I certainly like attacks in the mountains but prefer what appears to be calculated strategy from Discovery and Rabo and others as opposed to pure kamakazi missions like Vino.

Here's to having a :beer: at a ballgame. :banana:

I think the calculated strategy is small ball. Kamakazi attacks are swinging for the fences regardless of the score. Vino is Dave Kingman in lycra. :)

[Grant McLean]

No one wants doping in sports but everyone wants a guy like Levi to attack at every opportunity. He is one of the top handful or riders in the world but that isnt enough. We cant be happy with him until he races like Lance. Oh wait, you didnt like Lance either. :rolleyes:

Everyone wants more home runs so we have to look at Barry and legions of linebackers in the DH slot. We want world track records at the Olympics ............ well?




Given the news that Vino tested positive.... you get the Nail on the Head award!!!!

g

[darylb]

I think the calculated strategy is small ball. Kamakazi attacks are swinging for the fences regardless of the score. Vino is Dave Kingman in lycra. :)



I never thought I would see a Dave Kingman reference on this forum. Well played. :)

[93legendti]

I never thought I would see a Dave Kingman reference on this forum. Well played. :)

Thanks...I've been drinking lots of cough syrup, otherwise I would have said Rob Deer or Pete Incaviglia.

[darylb]

Thanks...I've been drinking lots of cough syrup, otherwise I would have said Rob Deer or Pete Incaviglia.



I played against Pete in college. That swing had to be seen in person to truly be appreciated. Great baseball references. I like that you didnt go with the more obvious.

I definitely like your style but fear you may fail an anti doping control due being hopped up on cough syrup.

[93legendti]

I played against Pete in college. That swing had to be seen in person to truly be appreciated. Great baseball references. I like that you didnt go with the more obvious.

I definitely like your style but fear you may fail an anti doping control due being hopped up on cough syrup.

Thanks, but please don't make me laugh--laughing during a coughing attack is a downward spiral...

Must have been fun playing college ball. I was an all-star catcher in little league. I topped out at 5'6"--not exactly a prototypical catcher.

I forgot how good Inky was in college. Wilkepedia lists him as perhaps the greatest college player of all time:

"Pete Incaviglia, perhaps the best college player of all time, was a low-average slugger in the majors whose highest home run total was as a rookie.

...In 1985, while playing for Oklahoma State, Incaviglia hit 48 home runs and drove in 143 runs in just 75 games. He ended his career at Oklahoma State with an NCAA-record 100 home runs...

In 1999, he was named College Player of the Century by a team of experts. As of 2007, Pete continues to hold the NCAA Division I baseball records for most home runs in a season (48, in 1985, in 75 games), and in a college career (100, 1983-85, in 213 games). He also holds the single-season college records for slugging percentage and RBI.

He is the top home run hitter and RBI man among major league players whose last names start with "I"..."

He played in Detroit for a spell.

[mschol17]

Thanks for that mental image of Dave Kingman in lycra. Or Pete Incaviglia, even worse. Ugh. :no:

[sspielman]

I'll tell you what....If the testo patch could bring Floyd back the way it did last year...and the transfusion could bring back Vino the way it did this year...What a huge endorsement for PED use!!! They definitely do their job....It really is an impossible thing for an athlete to resist...that is if he wants to be competitive.

[darylb]

He may have been the most productive college slugger of all time and his numbers are amazing for sure. I wouldnt call that type of player the best player of all time simply because he was very much just that, a slugger.


I always thought he was enormous until I had to face Frank Thomas. :confused:

[93legendti]

Thanks for that mental image of Dave Kingman in lycra. Or Pete Incaviglia, even worse. Ugh. :no:

It could have been worse--how about Mickey Lolich? His gut puts David Wells' gut to shame. Or Rusty Staub?

[93legendti]

He may have been the most productive college slugger of all time and his numbers are amazing for sure. I wouldnt call that type of player the best player of all time simply because he was very much just that, a slugger.


I always thought he was enormous until I had to face Frank Thomas. :confused:
Did you strike him out on 3 pitches like Roy Hobbs did to the Whammer? (Frank Thomas--great player, I always preferred Dave Parker, Boog Powell and Frank Howard--but I am dating myself.)

OK, I have to stop, this could consume my day. G-d I love baseball. I miss Stratomatic.

[Fat Robert]

cecil fielder

boomer scott

what we need is a clydesdale-class (250 and up) keirin league

i would so watch that

[Fixed]

bro maybe clean cats race like evans and levi ..like mortals
cheers imho
did you see evans after the race yesterday? he was wiped imho

[93legendti]

cecil fielder

boomer scott

what we need is a clydesdale-class (250 and up) keirin league

i would so watch that

Have you seen Prince Fielder's gut?

[Fat Robert]

or maybe pucc thinks like johan -- yesterday had too much potential for disaster if you send levi. let him get closer, then send him off tomorrow when you want to set up a knockout blow with contador....

who knows

i certainly don't

[cadence90]

Thanks for that mental image of Dave Kingman in lycra. Or Pete Incaviglia, even worse. Ugh. :no:
John Kruk.
Ouch.

[Fat Robert]

All-Fat Team (80s-90s vintage)

C: Floyd Rayford
1B: Cecil Fielder
2B: Glenn Hubbard
3B: Bob Horner
SS: Ron Cey
LF: John Kruk
CF: Kevin McReynolds
RF: Manny Ramierez
RHP: Terry Forster
LHP: Sid Fernandez


ok, so the middle infield is not *that* fat...and some of these guys were pretty good...we'll make Dario Pieri the groundskeeper....

[93legendti]

All-Fat Team (80s-90s vintage)

C: Floyd Rayford
1B: Cecil Fielder
2B: Glenn Hubbard
3B: Bob Horner
SS: Ron Cey
LF: John Kruk
CF: Kevin McReynolds
RF: Manny Ramierez
RHP: Terry Forster
LHP: Sid Fernandez


ok, so the middle infield is not *that* fat...and some of these guys were pretty good...we'll make Dario Pieri the groundskeeper....

That's pretty good. I keep thinking of the red headed pudge ball that played for the Cubs in the 80's and then came to Detroit. I think he had 100 rbi on less than 10 homers one year. Keith Moreland, right?

Rob Dibble for relief pitcher?

How about Tony Gwynn???

[mschol17]

An all-fat team without "El Guapo" Rich Garces!?!?

All this baseball talk... it's the first time I've felt knowledgable on the Serotta board.

[stevep]

if only levi could attack on the aubisque.
would set up contador who could rapidly put the chicken man into the soup.

dont think levi can make those guys sweat even.

alas.

jeeez, vino looked good on the mountain stage though, huh? flying.

they need blood dipsticks for these guys...
"oh, you're up a pint- you gotta turn in yr number..."

[cadence90]

Watch out for Cadel too...he just might pip the gruppetto for 23rd tomorrow, if he keeps riding the way he has.... :rolleyes:

[93legendti]

if only levi could attack on the aubisque.
would set up contador who could rapidly put the chicken man into the soup.

dont think levi can make those guys sweat even.

alas.

jeeez, vino looked good on the mountain stage though, huh? flying.

they need blood dipsticks for these guys...
"oh, you're up a pint- you gotta turn in yr number..."

Levi needs to try to attack before the last climb, get time and try to make it stick...but that's not so easy. That said, isn't he the best TT rider of the top 4?

[stevep]

dont see it.
the top 10 guys get to the base of the last climb together...
and then they start to drop...
one by one...
love to see the chicken roasted though...
could happen, he was put on the ropes monday.
this close...
mebbe this time 5 k to go.