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Tdf 2008

Yeah, what is the point of Popovych?? :confused:

Fairly conservative ride last night. Clearly all the favorites were holding themselves back for what will surely be the deciding showdown tonight on the Alpe d'Huez.

Prediction: Evans will lose time to the climbers, but will limit the damage enough that he'll be in shooting range for the TT... It's going to be close, either way it falls.
 
Sastre

Carlos ....its now or never.....but who are they really riding for in CSC ? As Phil Liggett says on the ITV podcast perhaps even Bjarne doesn't know !

Had Valverde and Carlos for the GC. Valverde is gone now...

Thanks to Cav I have done well so far with Ladbrokes !!

chazzer
 
Short notice, but...

... I'll be riding into Ikebukuro tonight (same place as the TDF Party) to watch tonight's stage - Col d' Calibier & the Alp d'Huez! This will probably be the deciding stage, and I wouldn't miss it for... a domestic argument???:(
Anyway, I expect to have a sore throat tomorrow, after screaming "Go Evans! Go Evans! Go Evans!" all the way to the finish line.

If anyone's interested in joining me, I'll see you there!
Travis
 
Evans for the win

Gutsy performance by Evans last night; barring a mechanical or crash he should be able to take the yellow jersey in the final TT and keep it to Paris.

Sastre gets a nice stage win (good call chazzer), but I don't think he made enough time to cover his less than stellar time-trialling.

Frank S just didn't have the gas to establish a clean break (or was he assisting Sastre)? Andy S looked the strongest rider by far on the last hill, but he had obviously been assigned break-covering duties. Notice how he kept looking back at his brother, seemingly saying "come on, let's go!"? A future winner, methinks.
 
Yes, Evans single handedly controlled the whole stage last night. I hope he has no mishaps and a good TT.
CSC played the Sastre card but Evans didn't panic. Not much the Shlecks could do...but wait to see if Cadel was going to crack. Luckily for Cadel, the pace was too slow. Evans sensing a few attacks near the end would vary the pace to scare them off... Did he have an earpiece? He made good tactical calls. He deserves to win this...
 
He deserves to win this...

Definitely. Hopefully this will help deflect some of the wheel-sucking criticisms that seem to dog him (unfairly, imo). If he does in fact win, it will have been a single-handed victory against a very powerful team. Almost an exact repeat of last year, come to think of it (substitute Discovery for CSC), except for the minor detail about not finishing first...
 
Its to bad Silence Lotto could not have built a stronger team around Cadel. Seeing the power and control of CSC today, well today here in the US, was impressive. Yet, seeing Cadel all alone, digging deep, battling away on that final climb proves he is a fighter. Now, hopefully all that money Ridley invested in their new TT bike will give Cadel the yellow.

James
 
Cadel Evans 1/3
Carlos Sastre 5/2
Denis Menchov 12/1
Frank Schleck 33/1

According to Ladbrokes Evans should win it no problem...
Sastre & Evans both need to keep upright, play it safe, stay near the front and rest as best as possible before the TT.
Even a puncture could cause a major disaster now...

Tonight's odds
Alejandro Valverde 8/1
Oscar Freire 9/1
Filippo Pozzato 10/1
 
Its to bad Silence Lotto could not have built a stronger team around Cadel. Seeing the power and control of CSC today, well today here in the US, was impressive. Yet, seeing Cadel all alone, digging deep, battling away on that final climb proves he is a fighter. Now, hopefully all that money Ridley invested in their new TT bike will give Cadel the yellow.

James

McEwen rides by himself, Evans rides by himself... they don't need anybody else by the looks of things... I expect Evans to move to a new team after this year...he'll get a good offer somewhere...
 
Thanks to Duncan for organising a great night last night at the hub. We were joined by Travis around 10 (just in time for the earthquake) and we rocked the place in support of Cadel.

But oh! My spockian eyebrows are raised indeed unto the vault of heaven at sastre's unprecedended performance... hmmm...:eek:

anyway, its cadel for a win if he can hang on today. but an amzing effort from menchov there to recover last night....what a fighter he is too!

Ash
 
Suspect riders!

Every time a rider does something outstanding, questions are and eyebrows are raised (right Ash). Is this really what the Tour has come to?

Evans will probably win this years tour but is he clean? He did, afterall, work with the (in)famous Dr. Michele Ferrari I believe.

Lets just sit back and enjoy the show and how about for once rooting for the French riders. They haven't won their own race since 1985 for crying out loud. They need all our support! Sandy Casar only has 17+ minutes to make up in the TT. Go Sandy !!!! :p
 
3rd: way to go, Bernhard! :)

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Sastre did surprisingly well at the TT last night, but he isn't as bad a time trial'er as someone would make him out to be.

The biggest surprise to me was the performance put in by Kohl. A couple of other guys put in the time trial of their lives as well.

I can't help but to sit back with a feeling that (the result of) the tour this year was a bit bleak. Can't really put words on it though but something was missing. Anyone have a similar opinion here?
 
I was pulling for Evans as well, but what a performance by the CSC team.... Hide and lurk for 2 weeks and then pounce with all claws. CSC then simiply wore down Evans to nuture him for the time trial. Where was Popovich for Evans in the mountains BTW?

Too bad that winners are coming teams with sponsors that are pulling out of the sport.
 
Can`t complain

I had Castre or Valverde for GC and a couple of good days with Cav before the odds shortended substantially. So, all in all, I had a good Tour with Messrs Ladbrokes !

That aside, I am very happy for Carlos who I have followed for a few years now. I think he deserves it for the L`Alpe de Huez and especially for the time trial yesterday. Desperately unlucky for Cadel though. I do wonder if he is carrying an injury though as I would have thought he would have been closer yesterday. Perhaps we will find out in time.

chazzer
 
Well, thats the way the tire deflates lads! Definitely out with the whimper rather than the bang...

Good for sastre, a great alp d'huez and a terrific tt...he deserves it.

Cadel...failed to deliver. His 'team' (for lack of a better word) failed him even worse. :mad:

Vuelta anyone?
 
Exciting finish

Well, it was an exciting finish to the tour. Evans just didn't seem to have the gas last night, and Sastre rode one of his better TTs. In retrospect, Evans probably worried too much about the Schlecks and Menchov on the Alpe d'Huez and gave Sastre too much rope.

Great win for the CSC team, and a bad loss for the Silence-Lotto team. Coulda, shoulda, but if Sastre and Evans were on the opposite teams, I think the results would have been reversed.

The brothers Schleck didn't make the podium, but Andy took home the white, adding to the same color jersey he won in the Giro last year.

Honorable mention to Wim Vansevenant of Silence-Lotto, who looks set to take the lantern rouge for an unprecedented third year in a row (although that "race" DOES go down to the last day...)
 
Best team won. Best man lost.
CSC are the in form team. Will be nice to see them go head to head with Astana next year.
All the Australians need to make their own team. O'Grady would be a good workhorse, Michael Rogers, Evans, McEwen (one last swan song), Gerrans, Gates, Allan & Scott Davis, B. Cooke, McGee, Matt White (manager), G. Brown, Goss (CSC), Renshaw.... not a bad bunch... I'll sponsor them...if they pay.
 
I like the idea of the aussie team, they would be indeed formidable.

however, Evans will be back next year, thats for sure.

First of all, he needs a decent team, second he needs to be far more agressive. Thats my diagnosis of the kid's problems anyway.

Anyway, Sastre (provided he is clean!) good for him. He has my chapeau!:D
 
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