**official** Tour de France 2004 Thread

[Entity]

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH
Is 5min 24sec hard to make up? Seems like a long time to me, unless he was going "easy" today. Then again he did make up almost 4 minutes in time today over the leader.

No, it's going to be VERY easy for him to make that up over the leaders. Harder yet will be the 2'30" Ullrich has to make up on Lance.

Lance is looking good this year. I was surprised he didn't take the sprint finish, but he looked content with 2nd.

Rob

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH
Is 5min 24sec hard to make up? Seems like a long time to me, unless he was going "easy" today. Then again he did make up almost 4 minutes in time today over the leader.

Not much time when you're talking about several more mountain stages and one flat time trial. It's not uncommon for the big sprinters to lose almost an hour on stages like the one coming up tomorrow.

 

[Chello02]

Lance seems to be stronger on the mountain stages than the other competitors, thats when he seems to make all his time.

 

[RagingBITCH]

Originally posted by: Fausto

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH
Is 5min 24sec hard to make up? Seems like a long time to me, unless he was going "easy" today. Then again he did make up almost 4 minutes in time today over the leader.

Not much time when you're talking about several more mountain stages and one flat time trial. It's not uncommon for the big sprinters to lose almost an hour on stages like the one coming up tomorrow.

An hour? Holy sh!t :shocked:

 

[Macro2]

The sprinters that were in the top 10 just yesterday will fade to hours behind climbers like Armstrong. One or two more climbs and Voelker is history.

 

[Ymmy]

Check out this article,

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5447068/

 

[Supa]

Originally posted by: Ymmy
Check out this article,

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5447068/

Good article, thanks.


Well, tomorrow will be double the difficulty and double the fun.


---

 

[digitalsm]

Originally posted by: Macro2
The sprinters that were in the top 10 just yesterday will fade to hours behind climbers like Armstrong. One or two more climbs and Voelker is history.

Its been said, by analysts, most of the current top 30 wont be in the top 30 after tomorrow.

 

[Supahfreak]

Those Fanatical people along the Roads are really starting to annoy me. I dont know if it's tradition or what but they've come pretty close to running into a lot of the riders, not to mention throwing off the cadence of the rider by running IN FRONT of the riders. Are these the same people that get run over at those Rally races when the guy loses control of his Car

FreAk

 

[Entity]

Can Basso keep this up? He seems to be the only competition left.

Rob

 

[Macro2]

"Those Fanatical people along the Roads are really starting to annoy me. I dont know if it's tradition or what but they've come pretty close to running into a lot of the riders, not to mention throwing off the cadence of the rider by running IN FRONT of the riders. Are these the same people that get run over at those Rally races when the guy loses control of his Car"

Nothing worse than a fanatical froggie.

 

[Macro2]

Dunno much about Basso but he seems a good climber. Ulrich will move up too but he "may be" too far back.


Mac

 

[newbiepcuser]

Tyler Hamilton pulls out cause of back conditions

 

[wjones]

NO..... I overslept and missed today's climb. What time it usually ends in PST?
Good news for Lance but he better watch out for Basso. He's a real climber!

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: Entity
Can Basso keep this up? He seems to be the only competition left.

Rob

We'll see. I doubt he can match Lance in the final time trial tho, so he'd better do more than just finish with Lance on the mountain stages if he wants a shot at winning.

 

[StageLeft]

I've been following this daily on sports illustrated. I was shocked to hear that lance killed 4 minutes off the lead yesterday and he's had a similar showing today. He's just making a joke out of the competition now. Greg lemond seems convinced that lance is a doper. I wonder...I mean others have admittedly doped and can't even compete with him. Eitherway, it's good for the whiny french who are telling him to go home if he can be the first to 6 consecutive.

 

[Chello02]

i say lance armstrong is the all time greatest athlete... just my personal opinon of course.

 

[alm99]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
I've been following this daily on sports illustrated. I was shocked to hear that lance killed 4 minutes off the lead yesterday and he's had a similar showing today. He's just making a joke out of the competition now. Greg lemond seems convinced that lance is a doper. I wonder...I mean others have admittedly doped and can't even compete with him. Eitherway, it's good for the whiny french who are telling him to go home if he can be the first to 6 consecutive.

I'd have to agree, i don't want to think he does, but to take such a lead...

 

[Jmman]

Well, they just tested him a couple of days ago and he came up negative. Supposedly even a very advanced test and he passed with flying colors. He just is the best cyclist on the planet....

 

[Entity]

Originally posted by: alm99

Originally posted by: Skoorb
I've been following this daily on sports illustrated. I was shocked to hear that lance killed 4 minutes off the lead yesterday and he's had a similar showing today. He's just making a joke out of the competition now. Greg lemond seems convinced that lance is a doper. I wonder...I mean others have admittedly doped and can't even compete with him. Eitherway, it's good for the whiny french who are telling him to go home if he can be the first to 6 consecutive.

I'd have to agree, i don't want to think he does, but to take such a lead...

This year, from what I've seen, it's not necessarily that Lance is riding that well, but that others aren't. Ullrich did NOT look good today (IMO). Hamilton certainly didn't. Basso did, and he kept up with Lance.

Lance isn't impervious to rumors about doping, but dear lord, what else does he have to do?

Rob

 

[Excelsior]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
I've been following this daily on sports illustrated. I was shocked to hear that lance killed 4 minutes off the lead yesterday and he's had a similar showing today. He's just making a joke out of the competition now. Greg lemond seems convinced that lance is a doper. I wonder...I mean others have admittedly doped and can't even compete with him. Eitherway, it's good for the whiny french who are telling him to go home if he can be the first to 6 consecutive.

But he hasn't failed a single drug test yet (TMK). It seems to me he is just a superior athlete. His lactic acid levels are far lower than the average biker, his resting heartbeat is something like ~34bpm.

Armstrong was given a test called the VO2 Max, which is commonly used to assess an athlete's aerobic ability: it measures the maximum amount of oxygen the lungs can consume during exercise. His levels were the highest ever recorded at the clinic. (Currently, they are about eighty-five millilitres per kilogram of body weight; a healthy man might have a VO2 Max of forty.)

Edit: More

Lance Armstrong's heart is almost a third larger than that of an average man. During those rare moments when he is at rest, it beats about thirty-two times a minute?slowly enough so that a doctor who knew nothing about him would call a hospital as soon as he heard it. (When Armstrong is exerting himself, his heart rate can edge up above two hundred beats a minute.) Physically, he was a prodigy.

 

[Chello02]

Theres only one explination.... he's a machine...

 

[StageLeft]

He sounds pretty impressive. It's worth giving the benefit of the doubt unless they find drugs in him, since accusing somebody of cheating simply because they are doing well is very lame, but I can't say I'd be surprised if they found that he was, simply because he is such a machine!

As an aside, who's the oldest rider to ever win the tour? Also, is lance going to go for a 7th if he gets this one?

 

[Supahfreak]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
As an aside, who's the oldest rider to ever win the tour? Also, is lance going to go for a 7th if he gets this one?

A LOOOONG time ago

FreAk

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: Supahfreak

Originally posted by: Skoorb
As an aside, who's the oldest rider to ever win the tour? Also, is lance going to go for a 7th if he gets this one?

A LOOOONG time ago

FreAk

I can't really see that record being broken again, unless the victor somehow creeps in a lot of drugs. That's just too damn old to be awesome at cardio, isn't it?