*Official* 2008 Tour de France Thread

[Matteh]

I'd be up for keeping the 3,2,1 bonuses for intermediate sprints, purely so breaks get some sort of GC bonus. Don't mind about the 20,12,8 ones.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Cancellara struggling a bit. Third at the second checkpoint, behind Voigt & Menchov.

Cunego 11th, rather impressive considering previous TT performances.

 

[Matteh]

Millar > Cancellara. Told you Moerk. (H)

 

[Matteh]

neil pickup 89, 12
greg thomas 86, 23
h%e5kon mørk 78, 95
craig walsh 73, 166
jamee gray 72, 183
rob bowen 69, 232
chris dwyer 65, 287
mat mitchell 62, 329
kingsley clapham 62, 329
manjunath reddlapalli 56, 371

Craig the big mover, picking up a 15th (or so) for the stage. Neil and Greg doing very well in the overall.

 

[Neil Pickup]

If I'd picked McEwen and not Forster... I'd be top. Ah well. 12th is a nice place to peak in for the season.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Is Millar being third overall (EPO ftw, btw, I told you so ) at this point expected or above & beyond?

 

[Matteh]

I expected him to be about top 10 until stage 6 where there's the first half proper climb into Super Besse (best name).

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Is Millar being third overall (EPO ftw, btw, I told you so ) at this point expected or above & beyond?

Above.

Not that it matters a huge deal, as he will lose a couple of days in the mountains. The only aggregate position that matters now is first.

 

[Craig]

Waiting for this to come back to bite me on the arse as I sincerly hope it isn't one of those to-good-to-be true performances done by Stefan Shumacher, as it would completely end his team's future as Gerolsteiner are looking for a new sponsor and this super moral attitude in the German media would kill off their hopes. So we will give it a couple of days.

Still Shumacher is a strong TT rider and has won a few time trials in his career so I guess it is without precedent that he can do a strong ride or maybe that Cancellara had a crap day. He got his arse kicked by Cadel Evans in the stage 13 TT (Vinokourov got the stage taken off him) and then by Levi Leiphemier in the final TT and California as well, so as strong as he is, he can have bad days.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Thing is tho, he got done for exactly the same as Boonen except without the media fuss.

 

[Matteh]

Bit harsh of itv to grill him about it immediately after he won, were basically trying to say he was probably drugged.

 

[Chubb]

It seemed to me he was trying to say he took recreational drugs in a nightclub, whilst drunk, and then got stopped by the police. It still looks very suspicious.

 

[Spitfires_Fan]

Cavendish gets his first stage win in the Tour today - looks very impressive...

 

[Matteh]

Won't look impessive again for awhile tough with some hills coming up.

First bunch sprint sees teams racking up a fair load of points, biggest loser was Craig. Haakon came 43rd for the stage.

neil pickup 151, 41
h%e5kon mørk 148, 47
greg thomas 140, 88
rob bowen 120, 222
jamee gray 115, 256
mat mitchell 106, 308
kingsley clapham 103, 326
craig walsh 100, 338
chris dwyer 89, 367
manjunath reddlapalli 84, 381

 

[Craig]

Cavendish won't finish the Tour IMO. You heard it here first.

 

[Neil Pickup]

35  (+6)   Pickup      (188, +37)
42  (+5)   Mørk        (186, +38)
151 (+157) Mitchell    (169, +63)
202 (+136) Walsh       (163, +63)
209 (+13)  Bowen       (162, +42)
242 (-154) Thomas      (159, +19)
363 (-104) Gray        (136, +21)
369 (+12)  Reddlapalli (133, +49)
382 (+15)  Dwyer       (129, +40)
409 (-83)  Clapham     (118, +15)
436 (-9)   Young        (93, +37)

Nightmare day for Geg - with only Evans and Valverde scoring, he falls well back off the pace. Mitchell and Walsh's GC-heavy sides move into contention, Walsh off the back of seven top tens today. Kirchen meanwhile takes yellow and just about keeps the Norwegian off my back. I need a big lead into the mountains, and with some sprints to come I'd like a bigger gap before we hit the big ones!

 

[steds]

I've heard there's an English **** in this or something. How's he going?

 

[Magrat Garlick]

I've heard there's an English **** in this or something. How's he going?

No English ****.

There's a Manx ****, a Scottish lad and a Kenyan with grandparents in Cirencester, however.

 

[Matteh]

Millar's barely Scottish. Robert Millar was, David Millar was born in Cyprus and speaks non-Scottishly.

Is Isle of Man even in Great Britain? I'm certain it's not counted in the UK, makes a mockery of the GB Cycling Team for mine.

As for Froome, well he's British, in the same way Pietersen is, only he has connections to the Cotswolds, so he's awesome.

 

[Matteh]

Also, thanks Neil for the update, been out since 2pm, came back in for an hour to watch the TdF highlights then was back out.

Me and Craig both picked up 33rd for the stage.