I wanted to post this thread so that we can follow Lance in his last Tour de France…
It’s been said here, on other sites, and just about everywhere one discusses bike racing…Armstrong is on his way to accomplish a feat that will never be matched…winning not only seven Tours…but seven [i]consecutive[/i] Tours!
Amazing…
Day 1: Time Trails
Lance just crushed all of his rivals.
He led Alexandre Vinokourov by 51 seconds, Ullrich by 66, and Ivan Basso by 84 heading into Sunday’s 181.5-kilometer (112.5-mile) trek from Challans to Les Essarts - a route which favors sprinters. (As we all know, Armstrong is best known for crushing opponents on the hills…)
But Day#1 shows that Lance ain’t a bad sprinter!
Anyway…the Tour is on…and with each Stage we are seeing history being made.
lance frickn rules but i don’t think he’ll be messing around w/ any sprint finishes. bunch sprints are dangerous and anyway there’s quite a few guys who can crush lance in a sprint and they’re way hungrier for a tdf stage win and all the payola and pussy ya get. plus i don’t think lance wants the yellow so early anyway. too much hassle protecting it for so long. not to mention all the extra interviews ya gotta do and that’s in addition to the one’s he’s already doing just for being lance.
Day 1 was a time trial, not a road stage. A time trial is nearly the complete opposite ability of sprinting.
Props to the winner, Zabriskie, he is a young American rider who has a bright future in the sport.
As for Armstrong’s sprinting ability, he is not the slowest guy in the race, but he is FAR from a real sprinter. Today’s winner Tom Boonen would destroy Armstrong in a sprint. Lance has no business mixing it up with the real sprinters.
The indication is that he is “laying back” (relatively speaking) in the second Stage, just letting the Team do it’s thing in protecting him…
Mufasa[/quote]
This is standard procedure for the general classification contenders. The race is not won on the flat stages. Lance would be insane to try to put time on his rivals on such a stage, which would be nearly impossible anyways. You will learn how the racing tactics work when you watch more of the racing. Indeed it is not easy to understand how everything works if you are new to watching the sport.
I love watching the Tour, but unfortunately do not get the channel it is aired on anymore. My dad told me this, so I am not sure if it is true; did they change up the course to take away some of the mountain stages the Lance dominated on in hopes to make it harder for him to win another?
I’m far from an expert on Bike Racing and the Tour. Like many people, Lance Armstrong’s Story is not only a great Sports Story but a great human one. It’s those aspects that intrigue me the most.
I’m still learning about the intricacies of the Race itself, so I hope that you’ll continue to contribute your insights as the race progresses.
Question: What is the difference between a “time trial” and a “Stage”?
[quote]Mufasa wrote:
Thanks, Kilo, for the clarifications!
I’m far from an expert on Bike Racing and the Tour. Like many people, Lance Armstrong’s Story is not only a great Sports Story but a great human one. It’s those aspects that intrigue me the most.
I’m still learning about the intricacies of the Race itself, so I hope that you’ll continue to contribute your insights as the race progresses.
Question: What is the difference between a “time trial” and a “Stage”?
Mufasa
Mufasa[/quote]
bro a stage is a race. every day is a stage. it’s a huge deal to win a race any time of year. it’s even huger to win a race within the greatest of a cycling races . remember winning stages doesn’t win you the tour -best overall time does. which is why it doesn’t make sense for lance to chase sprint finishes…time bonus sprints maybe…but everyone who finishes in the pack gets virtually the same time.
time trial is a stage where the race is against the clock ie there is no head to head racing. indidividual time trials , like yesterday, each rider rides the course alone, without the benefit of drafting from his team or other riders. it really is the measure of individual strength and for lance or any super strong rider who wants to win the whole she-bang the individual time trials are a great opportunity to put insurrmountable time on other contenders who can’t benefit from help from their team.
there are also team time trials where each team rides as a unit and everyone gets the same time. but again it’s a race against the clock and they’re not mixing it up head to head on those days.
[quote]GWJ wrote:
Lance sucks! I hope that SOB falls of the side of the mountain!
He has everyone in the US fooled. He is nothing more than a prick![/quote]
ha ha yeah who’n the frick are you ? david walsh ? first off if he’s on some kinda secret sauce i really couldn’t care less. and i doubt anyone on this site would. so if you think he’s juicin’ all igot to say is frickn’ prove it ! he’s already the most tested athelete in any sport in the entire world. he’s already marked by every federation, commission, and sporting association on earth to the point where they show up unnanounced at 6am at his house in texas he’s already got every european cop, private dick and reporter tailing him round the clock, trying to get hired as employees, searching his houses and hotel rooms legally and illegally tryin to be the hero that breaks the story. ha ha ha good luck pal. lance might be a prick but hey buddy when you get to nail sheryl frickn crow, or anyone else you want for that matter, you’ve got a little more going for ya’ than your average prick eh ?
The tour is always won during the mountain stages and time trials. The flat stages are boring unless you like the sprints at the end because of the chance of a crash.
[quote]swivel wrote:
GWJ wrote:
Lance sucks! I hope that SOB falls of the side of the mountain!
He has everyone in the US fooled. He is nothing more than a prick!
ha ha yeah who’n the frick are you ? david walsh ? first off if he’s on some kinda secret sauce i really couldn’t care less. and i doubt anyone on this site would. so if you think he’s juicin’ all igot to say is frickn’ prove it ! he’s already the most tested athelete in any sport in the entire world. he’s already marked by every federation, commission, and sporting association on earth to the point where they show up unnanounced at 6am at his house in texas he’s already got every european cop, private dick and reporter tailing him round the clock, trying to get hired as employees, searching his houses and hotel rooms legally and illegally tryin to be the hero that breaks the story. ha ha ha good luck pal. lance might be a prick but hey buddy when you get to nail sheryl frickn crow, or anyone else you want for that matter, you’ve got a little more going for ya’ than your average prick eh ? [/quote]
My statement has nothing to do with his alleged use of performance enhancing drugs. It comes from personnaly racing against him many years ago. True, he has grown up a lot since then.
Yes, he can nail anyone he pleases. However, he should have selected his lifestyle more carefully before fathering three children and then deciding to run around on his wife.
[quote]GWJ wrote:
swivel wrote:
GWJ wrote:
Lance sucks! I hope that SOB falls of the side of the mountain!
He has everyone in the US fooled. He is nothing more than a prick!
ha ha yeah who’n the frick are you ? david walsh ? first off if he’s on some kinda secret sauce i really couldn’t care less. and i doubt anyone on this site would. so if you think he’s juicin’ all igot to say is frickn’ prove it ! he’s already the most tested athelete in any sport in the entire world. he’s already marked by every federation, commission, and sporting association on earth to the point where they show up unnanounced at 6am at his house in texas he’s already got every european cop, private dick and reporter tailing him round the clock, trying to get hired as employees, searching his houses and hotel rooms legally and illegally tryin to be the hero that breaks the story. ha ha ha good luck pal. lance might be a prick but hey buddy when you get to nail sheryl frickn crow, or anyone else you want for that matter, you’ve got a little more going for ya’ than your average prick eh ?
My statement has nothing to do with his alleged use of performance enhancing drugs. It comes from personnaly racing against him many years ago. True, he has grown up a lot since then.
Yes, he can nail anyone he pleases. However, he should have selected his lifestyle more carefully before fathering three children and then deciding to run around on his wife.
[/quote]
yeh, I heard about how lance was an ass in his younger days.
I was also dissappointed when he divorced Kristin, too bad for the kids.
[quote]Mufasa wrote:
Thanks, Kilo, for the clarifications!
I’m far from an expert on Bike Racing and the Tour. Like many people, Lance Armstrong’s Story is not only a great Sports Story but a great human one. It’s those aspects that intrigue me the most.
I’m still learning about the intricacies of the Race itself, so I hope that you’ll continue to contribute your insights as the race progresses.
Question: What is the difference between a “time trial” and a “Stage”?
Mufasa
Mufasa[/quote]
Well swivel summed it up well. Time trials are stages (unless its a very short prologue time trial like in past years). Road stages are the mass start stages where everyone races with each other, not against the clock.
Life changes. People change. Who can say that he would still be with his wife even if he wasn’t famous and talented. People get divorced every day, and they don’t have to be pricks or famous or any of that other stuff to do so.