Tour de France 2009

[KarmaDope]

Frenchman Christophe Le Mevel claimed it was Contador's failure to stick to the wheel in front of him which caused the split with around 30km to go.

"When the split happened I was right on Contador's wheel," said the Francaise des Jeux rider, who came over the line with the main bunch, some 41 seconds adrift.

"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.

"With a lot of leaders stuck, it was complete panic."

That was from the Beeb. Mean anything big?

[Longy]

Could you explain for us non cycling followers what Lance has to do to win this? Get a big enough lead that the team have to back him over the other lad or just stay with the other lad until the end and hope the team say "you can race each other"?

These big 3 weeks tours, are always decided on either mountain stages or indiviual time trials (everyone races against the clock going out at 3 minute intervals). In this tour the big question is how Lance will fare in the mountains, Contador is a more of a natural climber than Lance.

Astana seem totally split, with Armstrong certainly having "friends" within the team and Contador doesn't like this one bit. They seem to be taken the policy of seeing what happens in the Pyrenees and then backing the stronger candidate for winning the lot after that. If I had to guess what will happen I predict Contador drops Lance in the mountains and the team fall behind Contador.

[Delboy]

Could you explain for us non cycling followers what Lance has to do to win this? Get a big enough lead that the team have to back him over the other lad or just stay with the other lad until the end and hope the team say "you can race each other"?

These big 3 weeks tours, are always decided on either mountain stages or indiviual time trials (everyone races against the clock going out at 3 minute intervals). In this tour the big question is how Lance will fare in the mountains, Contador is a more of a natural climber than Lance.

Astana seem totally split, with Armstrong certainly having "friends" within the team and Contador doesn't like this one bit. They seem to be taken the policy of seeing what happens in the Pyrenees and then backing the stronger candidate for winning the lot after that. If I had to guess what will happen I predict Contador drops Lance in the mountains and the team fall behind Contador.

have to agree with longy

But.. with Lance you never know.

[TheChipPrince]

lance was 9-1 before yesterdays stage, down to 5-1 now...  Thats too much of an overreaction I think, Contador still too short for me though at 1.94...

[TightEnd]

  Unbelievable! It is still not clear whether Lance Armstrong has taken the yellow jersey. He and Fabian Cancellara have exactly the same time. It's going to come down to 100ths of seconds and countbacks from previous stages - I'll let you know as soon as I find out!

bbc

[Longy]

  Unbelievable! It is still not clear whether Lance Armstrong has taken the yellow jersey. He and Fabian Cancellara have exactly the same time. It's going to come down to 100ths of seconds and countbacks from previous stages - I'll let you know as soon as I find out!

bbc

Cancellara has held onto yellow, official result already confirmed.

[TheChipPrince]

Loving it...

[barhell]

I must say i'm already loving this years tour and not even into the mountains yet, cracking last 30km yesterday, topped off by Cavendish taking the stage (82% win rate for sprints contested this year) and a great story (possibly) within the Astana team, then today's TTT leaving Cancellara and Armstrong separated by bits of a second.

[gatso]

fantastic stage

proper com at the first corner, so many crashes there it was like watching F1 and the team driving into a field was great

abs awesome effort from the 5 garmin boys

[fatshaft]

abs awesome effort from the 5 garmin boys

Incredible, but must have been planned surely?  No way they do so well with only 5 guys, seems like they got the weaker members to pull early, then drop off to leave the 5 specialists to push for the line?

[gatso]

abs awesome effort from the 5 garmin boys

Incredible, but must have been planned surely?  No way they do so well with only 5 guys, seems like they got the weaker members to pull early, then drop off to leave the 5 specialists to push for the line?

they may have planned to go with 6 or 7 riders but no way they planned to go with 5. you'd only need one to have a problem and the whole team's tour is screwed

another notable effort was from cavendish who for a sprinter rides one helluva good ttt

[gatso]

great stuff from voeckler

I remember well when he took yellow before, very similar to today, a long breakaway also the day after the ttt and just wouldn't give up the jersey through the mountains even though he can't climb

[Newportlad]

This really is shaping up to be a great race this year.
Hope they dont get too many failed drugs tests to spoil it.

[Longy]

Hmmm here we go Contador has attacked on the first mountain finish.

[Longy]

Impressive stuff by Contador at the end there, whether Lance could have responded to the break it he wasn't Contador's team mate is a matter of interest. My guess would be that he couldn't, wouldn't put my money on anyone but Contador now.