TdF Stage 3 - oh baby!

[tv_vt]

Won't spoil it for anyone, but looks like we've got ourselves a little race going on here. (Or is it a race within a race?)

[cmg]

been trying to follow it on cyclingnews. it has been painfully difficult. guess i'll do a search.

[jlwdm]

Stages like this are why it is so great to watch the Tour. A flat stage full of excitement.

Those people who put down watching the Tour are really missing out.

Jeff

[KJMUNC]

Haven't seen it, just read the report but sounds like LA taught AC a lesson about how to "lead" from the front of the race rather than the rear.

[Erik.Lazdins]

Here is a question...

Bob Stapleton the GM of Team Columbia Highroad - was Lance's manager back in 99.

Do we have a case of 2 partial teams riding for one leader?

Can't wait to watch the re-broadcast tonight!

[Marcusaurelius]

Great stage race. Phil and Paul said a break could happen--and it did. I was biting my nails. I was surprised so many were caught out but anything can happen I guess.

[dekindy]

Lance and Alberto 1-2 after tomorrow?

It is still early in the race, so let's not get too carried away, yet!

[jlwdm]

Here is a question...

Bob Stapleton the GM of Team Columbia Highroad - was Lance's manager back in 99.

Do we have a case of 2 partial teams riding for one leader?

Can't wait to watch the re-broadcast tonight!

Absolutely not. There was a clear purpose for Columbia.

Jeff

[dekindy]

Here is a question...

Do we have a case of 2 partial teams riding for one leader?



Not unless Astana is going to fire half their team after the season and hire half of Columbia High Road's squad. Cycling is unique in that rider's get hired by other team's during the season and their is a division of loyalty's. However these are two of the top teams with mostly veteran professionals that will not get caught up in this type of behavior. You can bet your bottom dollar that all team members of both teams are loyal.

[tv_vt]

I wasn't too impressed with Cyclingnews live coverage the last few days, although I've used them for the last few years. But I kept having it load backwards so I'd have to read it scrolling UP rather than down.

Tried Velonews live coverage yesterday and have to say I'm liking it more this year. Easy to follow, pretty quick updates.

T

[johnnymossville]

George to Lance with 30km to go,...

"You might want to stay up near the front the next couple miles if you know what I mean."

That was some great racing today!

[William]

DANG!!!

Takes experience to know when opportunity in winking at you. Kudos to Lance and the gang! :beer:


Now I'm pumped and going for a ride.... :banana:




William

[gearguywb]

Old age and wisdom overcome youth and strength once again......

[kgreene10]

George to Lance with 30km to go,...
"You might want to stay up near the front the next couple miles if you know what I mean."

That's exactly what I was thinking. All it takes is a subtle gesture between old friends.

[I Want Sachs?]

That's exactly what I was thinking. All it takes is a subtle gesture between old friends.

LA wins TDF again with big GH's help! :D

[cody.wms]

Lance and Cancellara moved into the top 30 with something like 80 or 100k to go. In other words, ridiculously early for a flat stage. Its smart racing and paying attention - everyone is going insane, since its the Tour, and you know some effing crosswinds are about to hit. Why not be in the front if your a contender?

Sucks for Sastre. 1:47 back on Cancellara, and over a minute behind Lance and almost a minute behind Evans and Contador. Wonder how far he will be behind after tomorrow.

[rwsaunders]

Old age and wisdom overcome youth and strength once again......

Supposed quote from Fausto Coppi...“Age and treachery will overcome youth and skill.”

[jlwdm]

I am just surprised there were not more Astana riders up front.

Bruyneel did a great job dropping some contenders during the Tour a number of years ago for Discovery with echelons. This was in the first week also. Jan and his team were up front also.

I recall a similar echelon situation in the Tour of Spain by USPS or Discovery with echelons.

Jeff

[johnnymossville]

Phil Liggett's Daily Report is saying that George ordered the move. Not saying that's what directly caused the break to happen, but I'm sure it helped.

http://www.worldcycling.tv/july-6-phil-liggett039s-daily-report

[Bruce K]

GH's post-race interview claimed that Columbia was PO'd that other sprinter teams weren't helping at the front.

It seemed like this was a big F+++ You to some of the other teams.

How cool would it have been if the High Road break had gone out and stuck?

Still a pretty amazing shuffling of the standings with the TTT tomorrow.

Hopefully Lance and the Astana boys have some serious gas in the tanks for tomorrow.

Who says fireworks only happen on the 4th of July?

:banana: :banana: :banana:

BK

[indyrider]

Haven't watched the Tour since the Landis debacle....After today's stage, I've got the fire back. Gonna go for a spin....

[Len J]

Velonews is quoting a rider saying that Contador was the 30th wheel who let the split happen:

"The post-race polemics continued on Monday, with Christophe Le Mevel (Française des Jeux) blaming Contador for the split. "When the split happened I was right on Contador's wheel," he said. "If it's true there were 29 guys in front he must have been 30th and I was 31st. It was him who caused the split. I saw the gap opening up just in front of us and we just couldn't close it. With a lot of leaders stuck, it was complete panic."

Seems like he was brain dead.

len

[dogdriver]

Yeah, goes right in line with Hinky's rather annoyed mood in the post stage 1 interview.

As for LA being in the mix, it reminds me of the old parable of the young bull and the old bull...

[thwart]

Supposed quote from Fausto Coppi...“Age and treachery will overcome youth and skill.” 1+

If you don't quite have 26 year old legs, you must use what's between the ears a bit more.

Great press... LA now in 3rd, drops Contador.

[rustychisel]

1+


Great press... LA now in 3rd, drops Contador.


Ah, but what would Greg leMond's take on it be?

"Lance made the attack to help Contador win the tour..."

Yup

[johnnymossville]

Lance made a funny comment afterwards. I'm wondering if it wasn't a jab at AC in some small way. Something along the lines of,...

"It doesn't take brains to know you have to be near the front in winds like this."

[Steve in SLO]

Great to see our local team doing such big things in the TdF.
Cav is on fire (with some really good help)!

[Lifelover]

Velonews is quoting a rider saying that Contador was the 30th wheel who let the split happen:

"The post-race polemics continued on Monday, with Christophe Le Mevel (Française des Jeux) blaming Contador for the split. "When the split happened I was right on Contador's wheel," he said. "If it's true there were 29 guys in front he must have been 30th and I was 31st. It was him who caused the split. I saw the gap opening up just in front of us and we just couldn't close it. With a lot of leaders stuck, it was complete panic."

Seems like he was brain dead.

len

Maybe part of a plan to land Astana 1, 2 and 3. This weekend in the mountains, Lance and Contador will let Levi try an escape to get in the 3 spot.

Amazing race so far.

Lance saves cycling in the USA again.

[Ray]

I'm sure Alberto would have liked to be in it, but I don't see it as all that big a deal. He's 19 seconds down on Armstrong, about what he was up on him by after the prologue. That's not gonna mean squat one way or the other if one is particularly stronger than the other in the mountains. If one is stronger in the hills, that'll be the leader. If they're very close, they can play attack counter-attack and wear out the other contenders from a team perspective. I just don't see this meaning a whole lot in the long run. Alberto sure didn't look panicky or upset back there.

We'll see, but I wouldn't get all that worked about what happened today, except from Columbia's perspective, because they put a smack down on the other sprinter's teams and taught them a lesson.

-Ray

[jlwdm]

If AC had been in the break it would not have done Astana any good. The other GC contenders teams would have brought everything back together. It was not worth the effort with the TTT tomorrow to bring back the move just for Armstrong.

Great racing to watch but not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Great move by Columbia HTC - they need to win stages.

Jeff

[Steve in SLO]

How about a scenario where Lance were back on an American team...say Columbia-High Road?
Hmmm...

[GuyGadois]

Great write-up from Stephen Roche about the biggest loser - Team Saxo Bank...

<snip>

Tour de France - Roche: Saxo Bank missed a trick

Eurosport - Mon, 06 Jul 18:40:00 2009

Eurosport expert Stephen Roche believes the Saxo Bank team missed a big chance to put serious time on race favourite Alberto Contador on stage three of the Tour de France.
CYCLING 2009 Tour de France Cavendish 3e étape SLIDE - 0
More Stories

* Full reaction to stage three
* Eurosport Player

With 30 kilometres to go, the Columbia-HTC team put in a big acceleration that split the peloton in two, and the Saxo Bank team were left with only yellow jersey Fabian Cancellara in the lead group.

"Contador was no big loser as all the main contenders were back with him, but Cancellara would have been in a good position if he had one or two team-mates with him," Roche said.

"He ended up not riding in the break, as Andy Schleck was behind, but he could have helped drive the lead out to a minute or a minute and a half on Contador.

"We talked about them [Saxo Bank] today, and said they were the ones to watch with the open fields and crosswinds, but in fact they were all caught out except for Cancellara."

In the end the Swiss time-trial specialist extended his lead in the general classification, though their team leaders Andy and Frank Schleck remain 1:41" and 2:17 off the pace respectively.

[jlwdm]

Like anyone would have cared if Cancellara had a bigger lead.

Jeff

[Onno]

Seems like the really big news from yesterday's stage is that it sets up Lance to be in yellow today. That's not trivial, since there is clearly no real conviction on Astana about who its leader is. Wearing yellow for a few days will make it seem legit that most of the team works for Lance rather than Alberto. The longer he stays in yellow, the clearer it will be that he's the leader. I'm not sure I agree with the logic of this, but possession in nine-tenths of the law in the Tour as well, I think.

Has there ever been a team as bizarro as Astana? 3 leaders, perhaps 4, squabbling domestiques, former Soviet Republic government sponsor, dubious finances, doping history, etc., etc. Nice jerseys, though.

[paczki]

Seems like the really big news from yesterday's stage is that it sets up Lance to be in yellow today. That's not trivial, since there is clearly no real conviction on Astana about who its leader is. Wearing yellow for will make it seem legit that most of the team works for Lance rather than Alberto. The longer he stays in yellow, the clearer it will be that he's the leader. I'm not sure I agree with the logic of this, but possession in nine-tenths of the law in the Tour as well, I think.

Has there ever been a team as bizarro as Astana? 3 leaders, perhaps 4, squabbling domestiques, former Soviet Republic government sponsor, dubious finances, doping history, etc., etc. Nice jerseys, though.

Astana is bizarre!

Beautiful riding to make a cross-wind break is what makes you a World Champion or a Classics king. But wait until the hills. Then we will see who is the leader. I seriously doubt that Lance will be wearing yellow after a few mountain stages, judging from his Giro performance, but he is certainly a determined fighter and a great champion so it is possible.

As to Spartacus, he's being picked by quite a few people, including Roche who knows something about riding, for a podium.

[Len J]

I'm sure Alberto would have liked to be in it, but I don't see it as all that big a deal. He's 19 seconds down on Armstrong, about what he was up on him by after the prologue. That's not gonna mean squat one way or the other if one is particularly stronger than the other in the mountains. If one is stronger in the hills, that'll be the leader. If they're very close, they can play attack counter-attack and wear out the other contenders from a team perspective. I just don't see this meaning a whole lot in the long run. Alberto sure didn't look panicky or upset back there.

We'll see, but I wouldn't get all that worked about what happened today, except from Columbia's perspective, because they put a smack down on the other sprinter's teams and taught them a lesson.

-Ray


Bingo........Ray getis it.

Len

[dumbod]

To me, the biggest thing was that two Astana riders were taking turns driving the breakaway on their nominal team leader. It would have been fun to be at the Astana team dinner last night. This reminds me of the old T-Mobile teams with Vino going at Ulrich going at Rogers going at Zabel, etc.

[sjbraun]

You think the fact that none of the other "contenders" teams really worked to chase down the break suggests they don't fear LA as a serious GC threat?

I still think the whole Astana drama might be scripted. Bruyneel and LA have played games with the peloton's collective mind in the past. Remember the stage where LA faked his form in the early part kms, only to obliterate everyone toward the end?
All the reported "dissent" on Astana has bought the team (and LA) lots of media attention in the last few months.

Just wonderin'

[paczki]

It would have been fun to be at the Astana team dinner last night.


I bet it was fine.

Since Zubeldia, Contador's best friend on the team was helping, it must have been cool. Lance may think he's racing for the win but the rest of the team probably thinks that he's racing for the podium. And of course they should push Lance or Klöden or Levi or Zubeldia when possible because Contador is very capable of a bad day, a crash, or boneheaded riding.

And if Lance does get the yellow the other teams have to take him seriously, which makes it easier on Contador. Giving the yellow away -- as Lance used to like to do -- but to a teammate!

[GuyGadois]

Like anyone would have cared if Cancellara had a bigger lead.

Jeff

That wasn't Roche's point. He basically said that if Cancellara had Shleck with him in the break then Cancellara would have been sent to the front and would have at least doubled the gap back to the Yellow jersey. Just havong Cancellara hang on is like towing a jet engine along. Just think of the gap that would have been if Cancellara would have opened it up too.

-GG-

<snip>

Tour de France - Roche: Saxo Bank missed a trick

Eurosport - Mon, 06 Jul 18:40:00 2009

Eurosport expert Stephen Roche believes the Saxo Bank team missed a big chance to put serious time on race favourite Alberto Contador on stage three of the Tour de France.
CYCLING 2009 Tour de France Cavendish 3e étape SLIDE - 0
More Stories

* Full reaction to stage three
* Eurosport Player

With 30 kilometres to go, the Columbia-HTC team put in a big acceleration that split the peloton in two, and the Saxo Bank team were left with only yellow jersey Fabian Cancellara in the lead group.

"Contador was no big loser as all the main contenders were back with him, but Cancellara would have been in a good position if he had one or two team-mates with him," Roche said.

"He ended up not riding in the break, as Andy Schleck was behind, but he could have helped drive the lead out to a minute or a minute and a half on Contador.

"We talked about them [Saxo Bank] today, and said they were the ones to watch with the open fields and crosswinds, but in fact they were all caught out except for Cancellara."

In the end the Swiss time-trial specialist extended his lead in the general classification, though their team leaders Andy and Frank Schleck remain 1:41" and 2:17 off the pace respectively.

[monkeywobble]

I can't help but hear echoes of the La Vie Claire drama which would be made extra rich by Lances recent somewhat negative remarks about Hinault.

It's started off to be a great tour, I can't wait to get home and watch the TTT.

[I Want Sachs?]

That wasn't Roche's point. He basically said that if Cancellara had Shleck with him in the break then Cancellara would have been sent to the front and would have at least doubled the gap back to the Yellow jersey.
-GG-
[I]
Cancellara was wearing the Yellow Jersey. He could not have created one second of gap to the Yellow Jersey. :confused:

[flydhest]

Cancellara was wearing the Yellow Jersey. He could not have created one second of gap to the Yellow Jersey. :confused:
That's just how fast Fabian is. He could do it.