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Tour de France update thread...

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I don't get to watch the race in the morning as I am at work, but I sit down and watch it in the evening when I have time. During the day I check out OLN to see what is going on and read the reports from some of the commentators. I just read a couple of the reports and was confused all to hell about how Ullrich beat Lance and how the heat is just beating down Lance. Well, I realized they have posted last year's 12th Stage commentaries. Talk about confusing a poor, simple OSU grad.
 
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Lance is still in second, but only 22 seconds back of Voeckler (sp?). Hell of a race by that "kid." He fell back six times but still managed to get back and maintain the yellow jersey for one more day.

You had to know that Lance was not going to lose the stage and the bonus time today when he zipped up his jersey just before the final sprint with Basso. Ullrich seems done for with nearly 7 minutes behind Lance, but there is still the time trial.

Looks like the final stages will be interesting.
 
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Just a quick note:

I am sure there are many users, like me, who don't have enough knowledge of cycling to provide input but who love the updates and especially any analysis you guys have.

Keep it up and go Lance.
 
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Barring accidents and health issues, stage # 16 will seal the deal for Lance, in my opinion.

Basso has desplayed tremendous stamina on the mountains so far, and the yellow jersey has demonstrated great character, but he surely looked totally spent at the end.

Lance looked as if he just went for a 2 miles jog during the interview. Simply amazing.
 
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For those of you who have been following this longer than I have, did those fans scare the life out of you? The idiot with the giant American flag and viking/longhorn helmet looked like he was going to fall on to Lance and Basso and any point. And then there was the guy who was pushing both of them. Man, that would make me nervous as hell. Let's hope the fanatics who might intentionally hurt one rider to help another stay far, far away.
 
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This tour is all but over (barring accidents and anything else freakish such as illness). If I was forced to come up with a scenerio in which Lance could lose to Basso, it would have to go like this. Lance would have to have really bad day on stage 15 and say lose 2:30 and some minutes to Basso. Then on Stage 16 in the mountain time Trial Basso would have to have the ride of his life and either not lose time or maybe even take another 15-30 seconds on Lance. With all this Lance would still have to get beaten on stage 17 by at another minute or so which would leave Basso with a 2-3 minutes advantage going into the stage 19 55km flat time trial in which Armstrong is sure to take a chunk of time from Basso. A 2-3 minute Basso advantage going into stage 19 would be enough to make the stage the most exciting since the LeMond vs Fignon time trial on the last day of the 89 tour. With the form Armstrong has shown and the way his team is riding the fat lady is about ready to take the stage. One final note. As bad as Ulrich has looked I wouldn't be shocked if he came back to a podium finish and possibly even to beat Basso. Jan is such a talented bike rider. If he had half the work ethic that Armstrong has they would have been epic rivals instead of always finishing 1. Lance 2. Jan. Regardless he is still a phenomanl bike rider and very well could ride his way into form and take major time from all ahead of him (except Lance) in the time trials.
 
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"A 2-3 minute Basso advantage going into stage 19 would be enough to make the stage the most exciting since the LeMond vs Fignon time trial on the last day of the 89 tour."

man was that an awesome day....fignon was up by almost a minute going into that 15 mile individual time trial and LeMond destroyed him....i think its still the fastest time trial ever...something like an average of 34mph....

today...you had to be impressed by voeckler...that kid dug down really deep....and basso looks really strong...personally i dont think he looked all that spent at the end of the stage today....

edit: for horrible spelling...
 
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I agree, on pretty much all points. Voeckler has been absolutely amazing, and he deserves to hold on to the jersey for a couple more days, which it seems he will. (flat stage & rest day). He has easily been my favorite non-Postal rider in this Tour.

And how about that Postal team? As they observed on OLN, that whole team has been nearly perfect the last two days, and it is the team, not just Lance that blew this race up. Everything is being perfectly orchestrated and executed.

I feel bad for Tyler Hamilton. It sucks that his Tour had to end like that.

I agree that Basso looks strong, but he looks to be putting out much greater effort that Armstrong. I agree that it will take a truly amazing set of circumstances for Basso to overtake Armstrong.

For those of you who have been following this longer than I have, did those fans scare the life out of you?
Click to expand...
Apparently, they scared the hell out of Armstrong.
http://www.eurosport.com/home/pages/V4/L0/S18/E6083/sport_Lng0_Spo18_Evt6083_Sto614701.shtml

I agree also the Ullrich is capable of pulling off a podium finish. I have one question though (Buckem). Is it possible that team politics end up preventing that from happening? This has been alluded to on OLN, but Ullrich's teammate Andreas Kloden seems to be in a better postion to make a run at the podium. he's nearly 4 minutes ahead of Ullrich, and he has looked to be in much better form. How probable is it that team leadership shifts from Ullrich to Kloden?
 
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barring a total meltdown by ullrich...i would expect him to remain the tmobile team leader....he has a history of great final weeks....

but...that said....i think this is ullrich's last year as the figurehead.....the continual questions about his training have taken its toll...most especially this year when he had to drop a bunch of weight right before the tour....
 
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