During the 1969 Tour de France, Felice Gimondi and Ray Poulidor were fined for taking a ride from a lorry up the Tourmalet. What about Merkcx? Well, he was towing the lorry.
Its an old joke, but like any good joke, it stays funny no matter how many times you hear it. I bet it’s even funnier if you know what a lorry is. I knew a girl named Lori once – wasn’t funny at all – though she would give a ride to anyone who asked, so I’m assuming that’s the joke.
Merckx decimated the 1969 Tour in a way we haven’t seen in ages. On July 15 of that year, The Prophet started the day with an almost unassailable lead of somewhere around 8 minutes. Not enough, obviously. So it was, then, that his rivals’ tails wagged at the sight of him flustering with his gears near the top of the Tourmalet. A mechanical, obviously, sure to cost him loads of time. In fact, he was just moving Sur La Plaque into my personal favorite gear for climbing – the 53×17. They wouldn’t see him again that day and four hours later, his solo effort would net him another 8 minutes’ lead.
If anyone at this Tour de France wants to beat Bradley Wiggins, they’re going to have to set aside the in-vogue last-mountain attack or start putting a lot more stock in poisn’d entrails, eyes of newt, and wool of bat. Unless their strategic plan involves deliberately crashing the entirety of Team Sky or having them all come down with a synchronized sniffle, they’re going to have to start riding their bikes hard from a lot farther out than the 5km banner.
Stage 11 is the test, even though Stage 10 is also a test and may already prove me right or wrong (it will be one of those, I’m sure of it). But Stage 11 sees the finish to La Toussuire where Floyd Landis cracked and lost a mountain of time before regaining it the next day and subsequently testing positive for beer-induced testosterone. Its not a very steep climb, but its hard enough to suck if you blow up. It won’t be hard enough to drop an in-form Wiggins, so Nibali and/or Evans will have to hit the road a lot sooner than the last climb if they’re going to start making inroads. And if my boy Fränkie Schleck wants a chance at the win, he should probably start the stage today.
It’s time to ride with the breath of a cannibal.
You know the drill: get your picks in by the time the countdown clock goes to zero for a chance to win a pair of fizik R3 road shoes and two pair of DeFeet socks.
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I'm in class! What's going on?
Also wonder if he was testing Sky or seeing if he could wear them down a bit before a final all out attack on the final climb
@RedRanger
evans attacked, made about 30s and found tejay but was unable to make it stick and is now back with the Sky bunch
@RedRanger about 1/3 the way up the Croix de Fer BMC sent Tejay up the road & then Evans went up to him knowing they had Moinard coming back from a break. Sky still had Rogers, Porte & Froome around Wiggo and paced their way back to him by about 5k to go up the climb.
Now waiting for Cuddles & Nibbles to light up the descent.
@Adrian
Yeah I hope so, I mean that was from further out than Andy's effort on Stage 18 last year.
In other news, Tejay isn't a bad bet for the next US GC hope.
@Mikael Liddy
I think it's all going to come down to la toussuire! Tejay GC why not, young talent. Just needs to live halfway up a mountain and sleep in a tent in his living room.
@Adrian
How's his sweariness?
@Mikael Liddy
As an Amercian I imagine it's more in the bullsh*t and a**hole camp than the w**nker and c word Queens English.
Rolland is currently throwing his toys out of the pram for not getting any help in the descent.
@Adrian
Unless he's the "darn it" and "heck" variety.