Velominati Super Prestige: Tour de France

Two douchebags and A. Grimpeur rocket up the Ventoux in 2009

The inaugural Velominati Super Prestige continues the with Tour de France edition, on Saturday July 3rd in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, just kilometers from the start of the Giro d’Italia in Amsterdam (Dutchland is a small country). This will be the second Grand Tour of the series, and at this stage the Grand Tour rules and regulations are fairly well-defined, so take a moment to review them on the VSP Page.

The Tour is, of course, a major event.  My personal preference lies with the Giro, but there is no denying the magnitude of the Tour and the appeal it holds.  For three weeks, the world pays attention to our sport, and – provided the Tour doesn’t coincide with the World Cup football matches – this is the biggest sporting event during this time of the year.  (An interesting observation: the last time these events coincided, the winner was eventually stripped of his title.)

Having run the VSP Giro edition where we tested the ruleset for Grand Tours, we’ve managed to set up a scoring system that seems fair and helps to close down the competition to afford newcomers the ability to catch up with some good picks; the Giro proved that lineup switches and the associated penalties kept the point gains pretty small while allowing strategy to play an interesting role.  There is a full overview of the rules and standing at the VSP Schedule, Rules, & Results page, but here is the ten-second overview:

Every contestant is to choose their top five General Classification picks of the race.  The final podium of le Grande Boucle is worth 15 points to the winner, 10 points for second, 5 points for third, 3 points for fourth, and 2 point for fifth.  Given the effect crashes can have on a tour, we’ve set up some guidelines around making changes to your lineup during the race: you’re allowed to change your lineup if any rider in your pick list drops out for any reason without any penalty; rest days will allow contestants to make changes to their lineup, however those changes will come at a point penalty.  (Visit the VSP Schedule, Rules, & Results page for a complete breakdown of these points.)

Every day, the leader in the points standings will have the honor of wearing the Yellow Jersey when posting on the site; the overall winner will wear the Yellow Jersey for the remainder of the season and will also earn an “Obey the Rules” bumper sticker.  All reader’s points qualify towards the final prize of the free Velominati Shop Apron.  As always, if you are inclined to enter, simply post your predictions for the top five placings.

New to the Tour de France edition is the addition of naming the winner of the Green and Polka-dot jerseys for the Tour.  There will be no points awarded towards these two jerseys, but the leader of the competition of these jerseys will have the honor of commenting with a Green or Polka-dot jersey badge throughout the competition and the winner will earn the right to comment with that badge until next year’s Tour.  The contestant who picks both the final Green and Polka jersey winners correctly will win a Velominati Logo bumper sticker.   Tie-breakers will go to the first contestant who posts their entire lineup (all 5 GC picks plus Green and Polka-dot jersey winners).  Given that this sub-competition has no points, pick substitutions will only be granted under the DNF regulations of the VSP; no rest-day substitutions are allowed.

Sub-competitions will be conducted while the Tour is underway for specific stages.  These stages will be chosen a few days prior to the stage being held and will be selected based on the current race conditions with the aim of choosing the most decisive and exciting stages of the race, so check back often to make sure you don’t miss out.  Sub-competitions will be held in separate editions.

Good luck!

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759 Replies to “Velominati Super Prestige: Tour de France”

  1. When Armstrong said “carnage”, that was no exaggeration. Gesink out with a broken arm. VdV out with broken ribs. I’d not be surprised if more are gone tomorrow morning, including Farrar. His elbow wound looks deep and nasty. Just about all of them banged up. And now they have to race on cobbles. Thanks you gods of cycling!

    Unfortunately, though, it appears it will be clear tomorrow in Northern France.

  2. Juliet Macur of the NYT says Farrar will start Stage 3: “…has a broken left wrist and a sprained left elbow, but will start Tour’s Stage 3.”

    http://twitter.com/JulietMacur/statuses/17823172492

    …but y’know a night’s rest and all can make a difference (positive or negative). I can’t fathom how much Rule #5 juice you have to drink to make that feel OK on cobbles.

  3. @ben Indeed. Further, if Farrar can win sprints with that arm all busted up, we’d have to consider moving him to apprentice hardman status. His case will be one of the interesting cases. Losing Farrar will change the shape of the Tour, I would think.

  4. @Canarypunk
    You are both right! just watched an interview with Mr 60 who said that A Grimpeur had to take TWO bikes today from his teammates (although it was Breschel on the footage I saw).

    Check out the photo Little Robbie tweeted of his elbow.

    http://twitpic.com/22q5pn

    Loved his nippy little acceleration at the line to make sure he made the most of any points that might have been on offer. At least he tried to observe Rule #5.

    Faboo the Fairy (that’s right Ben) was having a hissy fit at blokes going a bit faster at the line. Don’t know why – by then his job was done. Cancellara (no doubt at the behest of Mr 60) conned the whole fucking peloton in my view.

    As you say Frank, they better Rule #5 it tomorrow. And am sure they will because the ASO will no doubt have read the riot act to all Team DS’ as their TV footage (which is their key asset) was turned into crap for a day.

  5. @Marcus
    Thanks for clearing that up! Yes: I saw Breschel on the footage; missed the Fuglsang swap.

    Still haunted by Jens’s face as he brought the Grimpeurs back to the pack. That was some very impressive riding. Got home from work””41 celsius with the humidex””put bike in garage, saw road bike, thought of Jens, dropped backpack inside, changed, and poured on the pain. I think I lost about 3kg in sweat and seem to be missing a lung…

  6. I can’t find confirmation that Gesink is out. But if he is I think I’ve got until the start of Stage 3 to make changes. I accordingly substitute Kreuzinger for Gesink and leave other picks unchanged (in light of the Piti Principle and the fact that it is nigh impossible to plausibly claim that Geink’s wiothdrawal changes the dynamics of the race sufficiently to justify tinkering with the other picks).

    To save you looking back through posts, Frank, revised line-up (assuming FGesink is out) is as follows:

    1 – Bertie
    2 – A Grimpeur
    3 – Kreuziger
    4 – F Grimpeur
    5 – Big Tex

    Why do I get the feeling that we I may be making some more substitutions tomorrow … ?

    Very sad to see Banged and Felled get so banged and felled. I have some sympathy for the neutralisation. Yes, they all knew the descent was coming and could’ve ridden more conservatively. Yes, it played into Bjarn’s hands more than most. And, maybe, yes, a bit of oil on the road is one of those things you just have to man up and accept every now and then. Then again, yes, we as spectators might also have to accept that rider-enforced shows of solidarity are also going to happen from time to time. On balance, I’m Ok with the decision. This time. With the benefit of armchair hindsight, it might have been better for them all to agree that (i) they would go extremely slowly until even the likes of Banged and Felled had got back on, and (ii) that the sprinters would then be allowed to get going once more? But I guess it’s pretty difficult to reach any sort of agreement when the DS’s all have to get into the back seats of their cars in order to see the screen …

  7. Sorry Geof. Uhm, see Velonews, “Stockeau masscare”. They don’t say he is definitely out. My mistake. They just say his arm is broken.

  8. @david
    Thanks, David. You’d think that any sane person with a broken bone (not to mention a penchant for spilling and snapping) would pull out. But sanity is not necessarily an advantage in this sport. Frank, if he DNS’s then I change as above. If he starts, I don’t.

  9. Oh, damn. Look at this post race interview with Riis. There’s a freakin’ smirk on his face.

    Today maybe his greatest achievement as a director.

  10. Motorcus-drivel:

    “There’s other things to think about than the yellow jersey,” said Cancellara. “You are also responsible for also trying to look at… There was a whole bunch on the ground ….and try to get everybody back get to the finish. When the whole bunch is on the ground it’s better to stay together and go all the way to the finish together.”

    Wtf?

    “Cycling is not an individual sport, it’s a team sport and the Schlecks were behind so I was waiting for them (to come back). The other reason was also to let everyone come together. I look at it positively.”

    Wtf? No doubt you look at it positively!!!!

    “It was the right thing to do to wait, so everybody comes together to the finish line,” he added. “When you have everybody on the ground and people [The fucking Schlecks!!] five minutes behind because they can’t find their bike then it’s only normal. I think fairness comes before being selfish.”

    Jesus Christ. They can’t find their bikes!! ^&$%^$!!!

  11. My only hope is that Radio Shack is right now sitting back and saying, “We just got freakin’ duped.” We’re going to destroy the Schlecks tomorrow on the cobles.

  12. @Geof
    Really elloquent and that’s what’s great about this sport, it’s never black and white. Except when the effeminate guy with a camera photographs his aftershave.

    @david
    I totally see your point, but there’s some armchair quarterbacking going on here, too – I mean, Chris Horner (God help us) was saying guys behind him were crashing and their bikes were flying by him sans pilot. With that context, guys not finding their bikes after also pile-driving the road at 50kph (we’ve all done it, we all know it takes a bit of the edge off your cognitive capacity) doesn’t sound as crazy.

    I’ve also implied before, if this had been a day without race radio, we’d have had a completely different scenario. I say get rid of those goddamned things and you’re a long ways towards getting rid of these issues. The “Safety” issue is clearly proved moot by this; in a real safety situation, you don’t have time to warn people of the issue; hand signals remain the fastest way to communicate, and radios just make people stop thinking.

  13. Motorcus has all the big-brother, bullying, whining ‘wait for me’ traits of Pharmstrong. Before we know it he will start climbing hills and become a GC contender…

    Fucking Poncellara of Suxo Bank.

  14. I was bummed coming into today knowing I wouldn’t be able to catch today’s stage as it unfolded. What a fucking mess and now it’s being armchaired to death all over the blogosphere and probably will be for years to come. I suppose our two ends of the spectrum are Thor, on the pissed-he-didn’t-get-to-race-end (whick I respect immensely), and Faboo, on the this-is-way-out-of-control-and-not-really-a-race-any more-today end. All I can do, or anyone is capable of doing, is filter all this through your own lense. As accurate or inaccurate as it may be.

    My lense is this. In my work, I teach, lead, and coach people to do shit they’ve mostly never done. Things like sea kayaking, white water paddling, rock climbing, expeditioning, adventure type shit. I couldn’t count the number of times I’ve stood on a beach looking at 6-8 foot waves, a river bank scouting class IV, or a 5.10+ pitch with a group of students who are eager to try whatever the fuck it is out. Often times it’s in the context of a mult-week expedition. So not only are there consequences involved for misadventure in the activty itself but ramifications for the days/weeks to come. Some students understand this yet others are clueless and only look at and thirst over the 6-8 footers. Thing is though, none of them are ready for it. But it’s always the thirsty ones who get their asses handed to them more often then not when I take them out in the 2-3 footers for the first time. It’s a wake-up call, really good learning, and fun as hell for me to give them a reality check. It’s called cognitive dissonance.

    Now granted, when I’m at work I’m decidedly not racing and niether are my students. The point is to complete the expedition succesfully and safely as a cohesive group. In order to this it’s incumbent upon me (at least at first) to make the judgement calls on when and when not to paddle, for example, based on my accumulated experience, knowledge, and skill. It’s a basic concept. It’s also my job to push students further than they thought they could go. And when I’m at work those judgement calls are on me, I own them, and usually, both in the field and upon reflection, they work out. Colleagues will question me after the fact if something goes awry or if students weren’t pushed hard enough but there’s always an understanding that the best call was made given the circumstances at the time.

    Anyways, maybe that’s akin (at least through my lense) to what Faboo, as the race leader, was trying to do today. On all accounts, the Stockeau was virtually unridable. It fucked up most of the peloton. These 200 or so guys are professionals with a shit-ton more knowledge, skill, and experience than I or any of you have or will ever have in the saddle of a bike.

    Fact is, unless you were in the peloton today, or even just riding down the Stockeau, it’s unfair for you to sit at your keyboard and call them pussies. They are not, well most of them anyway. They bring us the sport we love most to watch and inspire us when we’re out on our own rides. Faboo understands, as does the rest of the peloton, that the TdF is a long fucking race that’s only just started. What happened today made today’s stage uncontested and as a fan that bums me out. But it also kept the group intact and probably saved a few more riders from having to abandon. And as a fan that gives me promise the race will go on. Race or no race, today’s stage had enough ripples that will be felt through to Paris. We’ve got a solid two and a half weeks left peeps. Harden the fuck up and enjoy it because you aint fucking there.

  15. @david
    Looks to me like you’re reading an awful lot into something that’s not there. Riis is always like that””call it Danish stoicism. A lot of the riders were clearly rattled and Cancellara’s comments above don’t sound much like a whiner. He gave up the yellow jersey today, after all. Thus spoke le maillot jaune (for a day)

  16. @Marko
    Chapeau, sir. Best, most rational dissertation on the situation I’ve seen on the interwebs today.

  17. @roadslave
    Following roadslave’s story from yesterday, I have no brush with greatness to share, but I have seen the future. Last Thursday was Canada Day up these parts, a national holiday. It provided an excuse for a family ride up our local rail trail to a train station (now a conservation area centre) some five or six kms away for a picnic. We all set off: me, the missus, son (13), daughter (11), and skinsuit-wearing younger daughter (2). After the picnic, I took the two older kids on a MTB trail nearby. My daughter had a bit of trouble with her gears and fatigue set in quickly on the first hill. I told her I’d catch up with son, who had continued to climb, and we’d wait for her at the top. I dug in and realized that I wasn’t gaining, so I dug in even harder, and still wasn’t making much progress. Didn’t know it, but my kid can climb. Next hill: same again. The one after that, I think I gained a little. A lot of this is physics: he’s a lanky 164cm and 50kg (his dad notsomuch), but kid can climb. We got back to the train station, and I was positively beaming. He’s never shown much interest in my road bike, but I’ll have to bully him into trying that.

  18. @frank Yeah. You might want to look at Todd Gogulski’s commentary on Velocenter to the get the perspective of the Radio Shack guys. He seems to explain it well. After hearing him talk about it, their frustration is more intelligible. But, I wonder whether their understandable frustration was the perfect cover for Riis’s master stroke.

  19. @brett I feel a real unity with brett, a real comradie. I feel I’ve connected, bonded, with the last of the Keepers. It’s a good day.

  20. @Marko I read your entire post carefully, and I’m thinking, “Fuck, marko has a cool job.” After that I’m perplexed. Calling a ProTour rider a big pussy is a relative thing. One can call such that against any man, or one can call such that in relation to other ProTour riders. Since I’ve never raced in the TdF for three weeks, I’d never call the Schlecks big pussies compared to me. I might well, however, call them big pussies in relation to the tough bastards they are competing against. One must ask the question, Why did they come off the Stockeau so far behind everyone else?? There may be perfectly legit reasons. I don’t discount that.

  21. Crap result – unwritten rule (x+1) [when x = The Rules]; “Don’t take advantage of flukey misfortune of other GC riders, sit up and wait for their return to the group (within reason)”

    BUT for fucks sake – this rule does not extend to effectively stopping racing and throwing in the towel 40 km’s from home.

    This was a totally crap day for the sport. Made a mockery of everything/everyone. I am pissed off. A couple of big girls blouse sooks spoil the race, get the ‘unwritten rules’ all stuffed up. Now what is going to happen, say Basso or Menchov (2 of the not exactly most upright riders in the bunch) stack on the descent from Col de le Madelaine (also about 40kms to finish as with today), do all of the GC boys need to neutralise the subsequent racing? On basis of today’s performance – yes.

    crap crap crap crapanola.

    Bullshit interpretation of the rules – should be rule No. 1, no manipulation of the rules – espcaially any rules x+ (the unwritten ones)

    Peleton was right to sit up and wait for the boys on the ground to get up/new bikes, etc. BUT who the fuck elected Faboo and Riis the bosses? Racing in earnest should have resumed at 15km to go (by then all were back together). Saxo must have laughed their sox off last night.

  22. @Canarypunk I’m not sure what I’m reading into it that ain’t there. That Cancellara stopped Cervelo from chasing Chavanel? That’s public record by now. That he did it to allow the Schleck’s to get back into the race. He himself says he did so. The only thing I don’t have evidence for is Riis directing Cancellara. But, do you doubt this?

    This idea that Cancellara made some heroic sacrifice of the yellow jersey for the sake of the integrity of the peloton is naive at best. He made the sacrifice to prevent Saxo’s two GC riders from being knocked out of the competition on the 2nd stage.

  23. frank :

    @david

    Oh, and Brett’s a stud. Can’t wait to meet that fucker.

    Boy, are you gonna be disappointed!

    @crossy

    @david

    Can’t agree more. Someone early on mentioned the Zulle incident in 99, I didn’t see anyone worrying about him coz he fell on some slippery surface… it was full on gap-the-fucker-and-take-time. Can’t quite remember who was behind that move. But it probably lost the Tour for Zulle right there. That was bad luck. Racing is full of bad luck. Racing also is done under all weather conditions. Look at the Giro. Look at K-B-K this year. Once you start taking out the variables of ROAD racing, they may as well all sit on the trainer and see who can put out the most watts, because bike handling skills, tactical nous, hardness and good ol’ luck will never be a factor…

  24. @brett
    Absolutely! Nail, … Head.

    I can see it now; big stadium (indoors of course, don’t want the pesky weather spoiling a good bike race), lots of spectators, all riders on their machines each hooked up to a mag trainer (not rollers – some idiot might fall off!), each mag trainer linked to a central computer with a screen in front of each rider relaying a ‘realistic view of the road ahead’. Big fans blowing to create ‘realistic wind face and jersey look’. Computer adjusts the resistance of each riders trainer according to position in the race. Three weeks later, hey presto, the Maillot Jaune for the 2011 virtual TdF!

    Daily presentations, green, polka dot and white jersey’s no problems, kissy kissy girls, no worries (actually could introduce some pom-pom girls around the outside to keep the spectators interested and ‘support’ their team). Holly f@#$ why has no one thought of it before? … I claim copyright – going straight out to set up the Virtual Cycling Racing Association (VCRA)

  25. @brett
    Yes, that’s what I was referring to earlier. We couldn’t find anyone because the DS’s weren’t there to hold our hands – because, what, they’re only allowed tv’s in the back seat and DS’s are so notoriously fat that it would be too risky for them to have to conduct such a complex manouevre?. Good grief. Maybe he was just trying to make his teammate Horner look sane.

  26. Tour de France, 1999, Stage 3, Challans to Saint Nazzare. On the passage du Gois, Zulle goes down, and Armstrong and his remaining riders immediatly punch the pace hard, hard, hard. Arguably, if not for that, Zulle would have won in 1999. Let’s not forget Iban Mayo on the cobbles in 04. Surely, no one in the Discovery crew was talking about waiting for the GC riders that went down. This whole lark that Cancellara and Saxo are brewing is pure BS.

  27. @david
    I dunno. Didn’t Ullrich slow it down and wait for Armstrong when he got tagged by a spectator’s scarf on that climb in 2000 (?) – a kindness Armstrong repaid by creaming Ullrich and everyone else once he’d rejoined. But didn’t Armstrong return the favour a year later when Ullrich flew off the road and down a bank (a short distance) on a descent? Or am I hallucinating? (It wouldn’t be surprising after all this talk of Pedro-lubricated cleansacks.)

  28. If two GC champions are battling head to toe in the mountains for the GC win, and one of them inadvertently gets a flat, well, then pull off, and wait for your competitor. You don’t want to win because of a flat. After that, well, fuck, anything goes. Exploit your competitors misfortunes.

  29. @Geof

    I’m pretty sure Ullrich’s crash was before the Testicles crash… yep, 2001.

    Difference there was that Ullrich when he crashed, was way behind on GC, they were a long way from the finish, and COTHO had no-one to ride with, so he played the “I’m compassionate” card and waited.

    When Asstrong crashed, Jan was in a position to attack and win the Tour, but decided to wait (not because Shamilton said so either, but that’s been done to death). Ullrich should’ve nailed Egoteste’s ass to the wall right there, just as Cuntstrong did to Zulle and Mayo when he had the chance.

  30. Forget all this whingeing about the riders – there are more pressing issues at hand.

    I would like to register my absolute dismay at this year’s podium girls. There is one in particular – think she is one of the two handing out stage winner’s trophy – who must be related to somebody very high up in the ASO.

    A few minutes of internet searching couldn’t find me a photo of her, but rest assured – today’s stage will be forgotten (relatively) a few days from now, a bad podium girl lasts the whole Tour.

  31. @Marcus Fuck. Magnificent, Marcus. I just haven’t been able to glimpse the girls this year. I can say this. There was some year, I don’t know, 03 or 04, in which the brunette girl was seared into my mind, and I envied LA for getting kisses. I still remember her face. Damn, right. Podium girls for the TdF need to be spectacular.

  32. @david
    Complaining about their quality is a little like calling riders pussies, ie. it is all relative, however comment we must.

    Laura Antoine from 2009 was a standout. No problems obeying rule no. 5 for any riders who know her.

    And snagging a podium girl (when it is prohibited for riders) is about the only cool thing Hincrappie has ever done.

  33. @Marko
    Indeed, a strong case. As a former alpine ski racer and coach, I can’t help but sympathize with the necessity–and difficulty–of making these decisions in the moment. You call a race for weather, everybody packs it in, and two hours later its bluebird and perfect and everyone is in the van on the way home thinking you’re a huge douche. But on the same day, maybe they hold the race for an hour and then run it and you watch your athlete disappear into freezing mist headed for a snow fence and his season is over. There are key differences between the two sports and the two types of situations, for sure, but I think Marko’s point about circumstances holds true.

    Another ski racing comparison maybe gets at what I see as the meat of the matter more directly. You expect people to fall tomorrow on the cobbles, just like you expect for people to fuck themselves up at the downhill in Kitzbuhel. Nature of the beast. But when half the field goes out on the flats in Lillehammer, something is not right. The Stockeau should not be too difficult a descent for these guys. Between them we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of hours in the saddle on much gnarlier shit. People should not be falling on the Stockeau. And yet they are. Neutralize the cobbles because people go down? No fucking way. But today it wasn’t “couldn’t hack it” or “made a mistake” or “bike handling” or even Rule #5. Dudes with double digit TdFs under their belts are going down like shot rhinos, (granted, some get up faster than others) seemingly at random. It’s more than just bad luck; it’s like firing a shotgun into the tour on stage 2 and letting that dictate the story of a 3 week race.

    Sure, there is some shady business afoot, and Faboo may have flashed a bit too much douchewaffle for my liking in his theatrics and self-righteousness. But as a fan, I’m psyched that I get to watch manboys like the brothers grimpeur rise or fall on the cobbles, in the mountains, and in the time trials than see them eight minutes back because a wetted oil slick turned a moderately hairy descent into an asphalt slip-n-slide of death.

  34. That was so quick, brett, I wonder if you don’t have a file of podium girls pics you don’t jack off to nightly.

  35. @Marcus
    There is, though, one strikingly and very obviously, er, pneumatic lass who has shared joint responsibility for donning the white jersey on the welcoming shoulders of Herr Martin (possibly to the disgruntlement of the entirely presentable Mrs Herr Martin (who seemed to be surgically attached to his face while he waited to see if Fabwaffle would snmoke him in the prologue)). I would suggest thhat she is not a natural target of your criticism.

  36. Marko : I suppose our two ends of the spectrum are Thor, on the pissed-he-didn’t-get-to-race-end (whick I respect immensely)
    Now granted, when I’m at work I’m decidedly not racing and niether are my students. The point is to complete the expedition succesfully and safely as a cohesive group.

    Thor deserves precisely zero respect – there is no point whingeing after the event, he should have told Cancellara to go and fuck himself, sent his Cervelo team – none of whom appear to have come off, by the way, are they on a different programme of bike handling skills – to the front and nailed it. Just like Teams Drugscovery off the passage du Gois in 1999 (average speed in first hour of race, 32.9kph; average speed in the hour after the crash, 46.822kph). Or in this year’s Giro on the stage to Montalcino when Nibali crashed.

    I don’t mean to show a lack of respect to a fellow member of the brotherhood, but I don’t understand how your experience is relevant. The groups you take out are trying to complete an exercise (as you put it) “safely as a cohesive group”. This is not the point of competitive sport of any kind, let alone professional cycling. The point of which is to beat one another to a pulp.

    As for when to wait for your fallen opponents, here’s a handy guide. Never.

    Having said that, if you are going mano-a-mano in week 3 of the tour in a mountain stage it is permissible (in fact it is the height of gallantry) to wait for your rival who has fallen after being snagged on a spectator’s bag. Even if you then get your arse handed to you by a bloke with only one testicle shortly thereafter, you have nonetheless guaranteed yourself a place in history.

    Waiting for your team mates is another thing altogether, and if Spoofacus thought that was what was required, he was, of course, entirely free to do so. As were those other members of the peleton who had lost team members to the crash. But each and every team that failed to drill it home thus putting Schlep on the rack is gutless. Isn’t that why they let in no hopers like Foobar-Shitvetto and AG2R LoserMondial – those guys had nothing to lose, they should have brought the prisoners dilemma to life. None of them can complain if Schlep finishes above them.

  37. @Nof Landrien

    Maybe my point is this: peeps hangin on their couches and in their air conditioned offices puffing up their chests calling people pussies represent unrealistic students of mine who think they can paddle force 6 seas because they know how to put on a spray skirt and do a wet exit. peeps who realize that conditions are such that the only likely outcome is further misadventure and injury and choose to look after their commerades (and even adversaries), even if it virtually stops the contest for a bit, in order preserve integrity and maximize competition down the line may actually be the guys Rule #5ing it.

    I know if I were a GC rider who chose to take advantage of yesterday and put 8 or 10 minutes on my rivals I’d have a nagging feeling in the back of my mind telling me I was really the big pussy.

    as fans, students, and lovers of the sport we have the right to our opinions. that’s a huge part of sport. but yesterday was waaaayyyyyyyy the hell outside the margins of a typical stage in a grand tour. unless you were there it’s all too easy to armchair.

    who killed Davey Moore, why and what’s the reason for?

  38. Spectacular riding from Grimpeur the Younger. Shame about the Elder; he’ll be missed if he’s out. Order seems to be restored: Hushovd got his points today, and Cancellara back in yellow. Fabulous ride from Spartacus, too: can we put an end to yesterday’s grievances, please? Pulled along a Schleck and decimated the field at the same time. Great stuff. And Hesjedal! Brave riding there, too.

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