Armstrong is done

He was done after the cobble stones

It really looked like his RS teammates were holding back to keep him in the game. Even if he hadn't crashed today, I just don't think it's possible for a man of his age to win the TdF. No matter how much talent he has.

Will he now help Levi?

the bare facts.......The "Sponsors" won't be happy! They just LOST 75% of their viewing Audience!...including me.

Only reason most watch is because of Lance...the bare facts

Like him or not, I feel bad for him. I hope he wins some stages.

RuKiddingMe! wrote:

the bare facts.......The "Sponsors" won't be happy! They just LOST 75% of their viewing Audience!...including me.

Only reason most watch is because of Lance...the bare facts

Source?

it will be interesting to see if his ego allows him to ride in support of someone else (e.g. Levi).

RuKiddingMe! wrote:

the bare facts.......The "Sponsors" won't be happy! They just LOST 75% of their viewing Audience!...including me.

Only reason most watch is because of Lance...the bare facts

I've not watched the tdf for more than a decade.

The worse case of poor sportsmanship I've ever seen in any competition was when armstrong chased that guy down and threatened him to keep him from winning a stage. But the tdf is not really a competition anyway. It's about whoever's the biggest ass kisser and control freak, who loads up with drugs and has a couple dozen other guys carry him to the finish.

actually this could be one of the most interesting tours since the ullrich-armstrong battles of the mid 2000s. Not really counting the landis thing i feel like i missed the super comeback stage and even at the time it was like what is going on?

Is andy schleck stronger than contador? I didnt watch the actual video I might try to catch the lat climb later I was following it on the tourtracker thing. I dont know if contador just let them go in the last kilometer. Who knows if evans can keep it close with climbing. contador will prob be hard to beat in pyrenees maybe. Its good when there is more than just two guys battling it out.

the radioshack team dynamic will also be interesting to see as you just said.

that was indeed a bad day. also stupid i thought- defending a known drug doctor why would you do that if you were always being accused of drugs?

Of course i seem like an old timer but the best tour ever i think was 1989. 3 guys battling like crazy and changing leads. Of course if Delgado wasnt so dumb and missed the start of the prolouge he would have won if everything else was equal. Lemond riding with practically no team of any substance, Fignon almost certainly should have won.

At least with Lemond you felt like there was a chance he was clean- although maybe everyone including me was just more naive then. Although delgado got busted the year before that i think. anyway enough history lol.

How bad were the crashes? Twice in one stage sucks.

From Lance's twitter:

"First mtn stage done. Hot as hell and harder than most expected I'm sure. I felt pretty good tho I was begging for a rain shower."

The first crash was just before the first cat 1 climb as the peloton went through a roundabout. Armstrong clipped a pedal and went down pretty hard. The back of his jersey was torn up and he was bleeding from his left arm and leg. He lost his saddle in that crash and had to switch bikes.

the second crash wasn't really a crash. There was a crash in front of Armstrong and he couldn't completely avoid the pile up. He had to stop, but never went down himself.

I think he can come back for a podium finish. He has so much talent and can really lay the gauntlet down when he wants to. I don't think many riders can handle the pain he can.

He looked pretty easy catching back up. I think he will be fine.

He's over 13 minutes back of the yellow jersey. Nobody's THAT good. He's cooked. Maybe he will ride now to support Lippheimer. Wouldn't that be something?

the general public loves Lance, he is the Tiger woods of cycling. Only the died hards will stick around to watch now....especially next year.

hannsen wrote:

Is andy schleck stronger than contador? I didnt watch the actual video I might try to catch the lat climb later I was following it on the tourtracker thing. I dont know if contador just let them go in the last kilometer.

contador tried to go with schleck and evans and just couldn't do it

contador definitely looks beatable

a. schleck is gonna win this thing

RuKiddingMe! wrote:

the general public loves Lance, he is the Tiger woods of cycling. Only the died hards will stick around to watch now....especially next year.

Maybe. But only in one country.

midwaste wrote:

it will be interesting to see if his ego allows him to ride in support of someone else (e.g. Levi).

This is a pretty ignorant thing to say. Did you not here about last years Tour? He gave up the win for a teammate.