Tour de France

[Pablo]

Just in case anyone is wondering, Lance Armstrong earned the Yellow Jersey (tour leader) today on the L'Alpe D'Huez stage.

[This message has been edited by Pablo (edited 07-13-2003 02:49 PM).]

[everyone]

leave me alone. i wasn't. now go away

[anyone]

he was talking about me, you dolt! Thanks

[referee]

Yeah, but it's not the same Armstrong of the last years. Beloki has shown Lance's weakness, and Iban Mayo made an awesome climb of the Alpe D'Huez itself.

[Neo]

...and Lance admits he's not 100% (stomach flues do that to ya, nasty bugs).

But still, to go from laying in a hospital bed, dying from cancer to being as successful as he is, that's something.

[Agamemnon]

Tour de France killed Blighty riders after the total ban on Pennyfarthings.

[Pablo]

Originally posted by referee:

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Yeah, but it's not the same Armstrong of the last years.

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That's exactly what he'd like you to think, but certainly hasn't been determined. He chose (wisely) not to follow Mayo - no need to. Even on a "bad" day, Lance rode with the best climbers and dropped the likes of Ullrich. I think he deserves a whole lot more respect than you're giving him, at least until you're proven right. And what will you say if Lance wins his 5th straight?

[Death Mage]

Does it really matter anymore? Although I personally would love to see Lance win again just to piss off the French once more. Maybe this time instead of just giving him yet another drug test (which of course he'll pass), they'll forge a document saying he's been trying to buy steroids from Niger...

[ctrlaltdel]

i am completely ignorant, so if you just tell me to shut the hell up it serves me right...

is armstrong fighting agaisnt miguel indurrain's five (or four?) straights to be the only one in history to do so?

[Dragon Phoenix]

An Armstrong win would indeed see him equal Indurains record of 5 straight victories (1991-1995).

[referee]

Pablo: If Lance gets his five-in-a-row I'll say I admit I've been tricked by him and he's awesome.

I give Armstrong the merit he deserves. He defeated cancer and he's now in the Cycling elite. My comment was not to say that Armstrong is finished, Although upon reread I see how you can derive that. What I intended to say it's that, IMHO, Lance is not the all-dominant cycler of the past years. That could be because the competition has tightened and his opponents have get closer to Lance's level.

My comment about "Armstrong's weakness" means just that. I admit weakness is probably not a good word choice. But I think Lance has showed his "humanness". Not that this is a bad thing.

I still think Lance will win the tour, but the fight is not over yet.

About DeathMage's comment, I fully agree: Tour de France hates someone non-French being a dominant runner. They hate all that is non-French. The TV emission is plain bad and biased towards French cyclers and they will do whatever they can to sink the dominant runner of the time, be his name Indurain, Armstrong or whoever comes next.

[jesternl]

Well Beloki won't be much of a thread anymore...
Article In the hospital they found Beloki has a broken thighbone.

[Pablo]

My support of Lance is not nationalistic, rather subsequent to reading his book and learning about his beginnings and his battle with cancer, along with the incredible training regimen he can maintain.

Also, being American, and being a cyclist, I think that Lance's success has elevated cycling here a little. I think it's unfortunate that football, basketball, etc have soaked up all the money and created all the prima donnas while these amazing athletes (bike racers) are pretty much starving here. Oh well. Once a year, thanks to Lance, people here care about cycling.

referee, I think you're right that the competition has stiffened. Mayo, Beloki, Vinokourov, Ullrich, Hamilton - these guys are tough! And they're ganging up on Lance. I still think he's well in control of the race and these guys will burn themselves out trying to beat him. But I have nothing but respect for all of them, and any one of them, with a strong team around them, could win the tour.

I just heard that Beloki crashed and is out. Haven't seen the film yet.

[Neo]

When stage 15 began, Lance's lead was down to 15 seconds. During the stage he crashed when he ran into a spectators bag. Not too long after, his foot slips off the pedal during a sprint. Pissed off, he decides to take his anger out on the pack, and won the stage and leads by 67 seconds.

[Lepton]

www.msn.com claims that his handlebars were grabbed by a spectator.

[Neo]

I dunno. I didn't actually see the bag he hit either, just watched him suddenly go down.

[Pablo]

Originally posted by MSN:

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Armstrong smacked onto the road after a spectator's outstretched bag caught his handlebars.

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Not exactly.

[Pablo]

Originally posted by Chris Carmichael:

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If there is anything positive to say about a fan causing a crash in the Tour de France, it may have been the jolt that finally stirred Armstrong back to life. By the time he got back on his bike, his demeanor and body language had completely changed. Here was a Tour de France champion where only a few minutes earlier a mere race leader had ridden. Jan Ullrich showed a true champion’s character as well, waiting for Lance to recover from his fall instead of exploiting his misfortune. The German believes, as Armstrong and the rest of the peloton do, that if you are to win the Tour de France, it must be done honorably, by being stronger than your competition, not by taking advantage of them when they fall down.

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He (Lance's trainer) also said this was the most exciting bike race he's seen in 13 years of working with Lance.

[Agamemnon]

Originally posted by Pablo quoting some random bike riding chap:

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The German believes, as Armstrong and the rest of the peloton do, that if you are to win the Tour de France, it must be done honorably, by being stronger than your competition, not by taking advantage of them when they fall down.

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They never said that in 1940.

[ctrlaltdel]

could we get off the paranoia about everybody wanting armstrong to lose? he said himself the accident was to be partly blamed on him as well for riding too close to the fans.

[referee]

The fact is that French people are highly selfish, and I really mean that. They don't like a non-french dominating the Tour de France. They'll go to whatever extent they can to avoid Armstrong winning. They'll probably allow him to win five, but not six. They did the same thing with Indurain.

This being said, I must add I may be wrong. But being of a neighbour country, I know something about French, and they're very selfish. Another way you can see it is sometimes they'll place a camera with a French cycler which is 5 minutes behind the Head of the Race, rather than in an interesting group 30 seconds behind the Head of the Race where there may be someone interesting for the final standings, but sadly, there is no French runner in it.

But I'll be glad if I am wrong.

[Pablo]

As far as the crash, I think it was totally Lance's fault. If someone caused the crash, even intentionally, it is still Lance's fault because at that point he had the whole road. Didn't need to be so close. Gotta anticipate that out of 500,000 people, there will be one who would intentionally take you out if given the chance. Probably some drunk American would have done the same to Ullrich.
But it really was nice to see some honor and class being shown as the group waited. The yellow jersey deserves that respect. It's athletic competition, but it's also pageantry and legend. There needs to be some intangibles and this year's Tour has got 'em in spades.
May the best man win.

[Pablo]

Selfish or not, them French put on one hell of a great tour!

[Neo]

I never said I thought it was anybody's fault.

[anybody]

I get blamed for everything