The TDF Drama...

Thanks for the links. This is going to be fun to watch as it unfolds. It's been great so far even without this added drama which I do think may be overplayed by the media, heaven forbid they do that!
 
I have inherited some money from some family in Africa. I would like to buy some of the land now and then the rest when the money comes in. K, thx, bai.
 
I guess the Astana leadership has finally been sorted out, with Lance admitting that he doesn't have much of a chance to win the Tour.

It's pretty much what I expected. It's awesome to watch Contador take off like that. He's 25 or 26 years old, so it seems very likely that he could put together a pretty good run of Tour wins by the time he's done. Hopefully Lance will be able to hold on to second by the time they reach Paris. That would still be an amazing feat at almost 38 years old and out of racing for four years.
 
Yeah, Armstrong definitely does not have a chance to win, but a 9th place finish at 37 years of age is very very very impressive.

I think Armstrong's goal should be a podium finish. If Levi was still in the race, I think we could have realistically been looking at an Astana podium sweep. That being said, Kloden is no scrub, he is a big reason why Armstrong finished well today.
 
I'll be rooting heavily for Lance to win second place.

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After Sunday's stage, I have no problem with Contador. The man has superstar talent. He doesn't need to rely on any strategic hijinx.
 
I am rooting for a team car to plow into Contador...just kidding. I would not want Lance to win this way nor would Lance. That would be crap and Contador is MOT (forgot to put this word in initial post) a scrub. From most accounts he seems to be a good guy and hey, this was his team before Lance came along.

Other than getting a win Lance is getting what he wanted. Some spotlight to highlight Livestrong and help the cause and bring awareness. With a strong showing this may shut some doubters up. If he can take a couple of years away, be older and still ride magnificently...shut your critical pie holes.
 
Agree with previous post. If Lance finishes second to a man 12 years younger who can hands-down outride all the other contenders, it will prove a few things.... one, that Lance is and never was on illegal substances (my own logic on that...), and two, that Lance is a true sportsman and in better shape at 37 than just about anyone else on the planet a decade younger other than maybe Contador.

I feel he does not want to be 3rd on the podium, but a 2nd place spot to a team mate is not a disgrace. After all, given team etiquette, he really has to ride in support after a certain point int the race development.

A final point...if it all plays out that he shows good sportsmanship and race etiquette in support of AC, and ends up 2nd at that, it should make it very hard for the French press to keep bashing him.
 
I was disappointed Sunday, but I knew it would be unlikely for Lance to be best in the world at this point. I was hoping, though. In reality, riding with the group that kept up with all but two riders in the final climb is very impressive. We'll see how he does in the final three or four difficult stages remaining.
Second place would be a great result considering all factors- age, injury, layoff, lack of leadership status on the team.
 
Absolutely hated to see Contador take time on Lance. That said, Contador is a tremendous cyclist and he deserves respect for his accomplishment.

I'll continue rooting for Lance to do the best he can.
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The whole thing might have played out differently up to, and thru, the Sunday stage if Lance and Alberto had been on different teams -- thereby making it available for two teams to "duke it out" for their respective leaders. We'll never know. Maybe it could have made a difference of half the present 1:30 + minutes deficit.

As it was, and is now, a leader must not be attacked, or should not be, from within their own team. Hence Lance cannot actually try and steal the jersey from Alberto, as it were. [Ps. this is why I wanted Lance in yellow a week ago... so he could at least wear it during the race, but I suspect Alberto felt too threatened to see it happen.]

The only thing really left is the TT, and for Alberto to bonk or just knock himself out of the lead by wilting on a bad day, crashing or multiple mechanical problems. When they get to Ventoux, I'm not sure how the Astana team can ride in a way that would allow Alberto to fall way back and Lance and others to ride on. Wouldn't they be obligated to ride with Alberto and get him to the finish as best as can be done, no matter what?...

But if Alberto has a bad day and can't even stay up front, and the team sees Wiggins and others near the lead driving hard as they can, then Lance and Andres may have an obligation to pursue them with Lance not letting anyone outside Astana take the Yellow.

In other words, Alberto would have to ride himself out of the race to lose it -- with Astana(Lance) riding to at least not let a rider outside Astana take it.

I think Lance is taking the position of riding for Second and protecting Alberto -- but not allowing anyone else but he and Alberto to have the Yellow. If Alberto had a day where he would lose several minutes, Lance would have no choice but to ride his heart out to take it.
 
Any rider can have a bad day, and a minute or two is nothing in the steep Alp stages. So it isn't quite over yet, but it would take something unexpected for Contador to falter at this point.
 
Because Lance and Alberto are on the same team, I don't see Lance attacking a teammate who has the yellow jersey. Barring some catastrophe for Alberto, Lance will ride in support of the yellow jersey.
 
Holy ****, anyone who doesn't think the old man has some incredible acceleration and strength in the mountain climbs needs to watch todays stage. Sorry Wiggins and Schleck...not ready to drop LA yet.
 
That Jens Voight Crash was absolutely horrible. He looked like he skidded on his face for about 5 seconds. Poor guy. He's one of my favs out there because he will pull massive legs when he's out on front and not hold anything back. Hope he can recover soon.
 
Damn

Hope he recovers quickly and fully. You could see the sparks flying from his bike as he (very wisely) let his body go limp and slide across the pavement. Always hate to see anyone go out like that, but even more so a character like Jens.
 
I think he "let his body go limp" because he was unconscious, just like that. The way his face hit the ground and those glasses flew off, I thought he could easily be dead.
 
Lance is announcing a new American sponsor for Team Astana on Thusday .The Link

TDF 2010 is going to be really interesting to see, regardless of who wins...with Lance and AC on different teams as #1s and Leipheimer back and Lance with another whole year of training under his belt, hopefully uninterrupted by injury.
 
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