posted Jul 14, 2009

While the position between Lance/Contador isn't clear, its becoming a bit clearer that Levy and Andreas will be helping either of both for the rest of the tour. I think Lance will need to find 20" on Contador in the Alps as he's 2" back now and I feel Contador can put 10" on him in the ITT.

I'm a bit surprised by the last minute split in the peloton as well. That's some real bad luck.

@The Count No chance of seeing Kenyans and Ethiopians in this sport. It's not a real endurance event. It's a decathlon rather than a marathon. I think it typically favours sub-Saharan Africans, South Africans and West Indians. Bad roads have stymied the Africans so far but I wouldn't be surprised to see a phenom from one of the European countries emerge when the sport really takes of in those communities. I'm really surprised we haven't seen a Black South African yet.

(Ps. We can afford the bikes)

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posted Jul 14, 2009

What happened to these guys?

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest/346351/kenyans-launch-assault-on-alpe-d-huez-record.html

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posted Jul 14, 2009

No clue. I heard about them. But I'm doubtful they will be the solution pro-tour wise. I honestly think that rather than one off endurance challenges we'll have to see some black athletes at the velodrome (winning Sprints, Keirins and TTT's) before a proper assault can be launched against the road racing scene.

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posted Jul 14, 2009

Here in France we have Grégory Baugé who is world champion on velodrome.
http://www.gregory-bauge.fr/

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posted Jul 14, 2009

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2008/sep/16/tourdefrance.cycling1

"Plucked from obscurity in a remote tribal village" according to another article. Eldoret is neither remote nor a village. Maybe the writer (The Telegraph's Rod Gilmour) has spent his entire life in London, a remote town in Europe!

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posted Jul 14, 2009

The major problem I would see with Kenyan cyclists is the lack of power on the flat.

The Kalenjin are second to none when it comes to marathon running, a lot of that is being born at altitude but their body shape is pretty effective at running long distances.

I know you get a lot of skinny climbers, but these guys look positively obese compared to people like Paul Tergat or Martin Lel.

Maybe Ethiopians would be a better option. Those guys tend to be a bit chunkier. Although I know cycling is very popular sport in Eritrea, not sure much goes on in Ethiopia.

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posted Jul 14, 2009

That 15-second "split" really didn't seem fair - it looked like maybe a bike-length between, but not enough to warrant 15 seconds. boo!

Kind of disappointed I spent the whole day avoiding results 'til I could see the highlights programme. I'd predicted "French breakway, caught, Columbia train, Cav wins"...

But my question - was Hushovd seriously trying to beat Cav at the end, or is his tactic to get on Cav's wheel and come second, and mop up the intermediate points, to win green that way? I know Cav is pretty much unbeatable unless you box him in*/get ahead of Columbia's lead-out, and even then it's hard - but it didn't seem like Hushovd was going for it as hard as other days.

(*Alex, or whichever BBC person - I completely agree re boxing Cav in - we didn't understand why they weren't trying more of that last year, either.)

Oh, and tgs - has Bruyneel made it up with Sporza then? Do you know who gave in first?

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posted Jul 14, 2009

So Cav is going to acknowledge every sponsor he has on the Tour? Not looking forward to the nod to the Manx Tourist Board when he shows us his third leg.

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posted Jul 14, 2009

Pigeons, he did sprint for it but he lost Cav's wheel in that final corner due to Renshaw's odd move (which worked out perfectly for Cav). He had to place a short intermediate sprint just to get on Cav's wheel. Small detail and it'd be easy to say "excuses!" but if you wanna beat Cav everything has be perfect.

And yes, they're friends again. I have no idea who caved first (they won't say). There's a video of the Astana's (and half the peloton) on their plane yesterday where Johan says something like "we can't talk yet", and today they're good.

If you go to Sporza -> videozone (top menu) -> Tour (top menu) -> tour 2009 vive le vélo (that's the talkshow) and then select sunday's show (12/07) you can watch it. It's called "Armstrong: Hey Johan, Sporza" (it's really short though). Belgium doesn't dub by the way, so every interview with someone who speaks English/French/Italian/Spanish/whatever they'll either subtitle or simply translate shortly if it's live (the show is live).
"Grapjes uithalen op het vliegtuig" from that same day is a funny one. They had an interview with the Schleck brothers yesterday. Nice guys.

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posted Jul 14, 2009

Thanks for the Frandy interview, Tgsgirl. They are nice young lads, those two.

I remember watching some of those clips on Sporza web last year, they do a very good job. Thanks for the reminder.

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