Tour de France 2015

Copper Dragon wrote:

boltonbonce wrote:Italian rider Ivan Basso out of the Tour due to cancer.

Cycling gives you cancer? 

Actually, yes - Testicular seminoma.

Your balls aren't designed to take the kind of punishment that they receive if you're a pro cyclist and the incidence of testicular cancer in pro cyclists is higher than the norm.

Sorry to hear his bad news.

Basso is one of the drug cheats during the Lance Armstrong years - tbh they ALL were at the time.

Doubt the cancer is from that though.

For those with any interest in the race, it was a rest day today but tomorrow they finish at the top of a mountain - so all those with serious intent of winning the Tour will have to be at their best.

Froome with time in hand over his rivals will defend by letting the others do the work - they need to catch up time on him - and simply keeping up with them throughout the race - and attacking them as hard as he can at the death.

The race will take its true shape now - expect several of the names at the top end of the leaderboard now fall away (the ones like Sagan who can't cycle up mountains fast) and watch people like Nairo Quintana attack to make up some of the time he's already lost to Froome.

Should be a cracking day.

Brilliant work by Team Sky today to get Froome up the front in the mountains.

6k to go, Contador's head's just fallen off, Froome's just dropped the hammer and only Quintana can stop him.

Game on! 

EDIT:

Stage over.

Froome has just pretty much won the Tour with that stage (barring crashing out), so well done him.

Yes, Froome should not lose from here short of illness or a crash - although stating the obvious there is still a long way to go and anything can happen in the Tour.

I can't really see what game plan the others have to beat Froome.

Clearly Nibali is out classed as I expected him to be, Contador (suspiciously!) off the remarkable form he showed in the Giro - no doubt we will here all about how difficult it is doing both the Giro and the Tour in the same year! - and Quintana beaten head to head with Fomme - again as I thought he would be.

Van Garderen is not in the same league as Froome and its interesting that Riche Porte who is on the same team as Froome and finished second today will (it is repoted) be joining Van Garderen's team next year - so they will both want to show for the remainder of the race which one of them will be top dog there!

Even saying all that I still think its too early for them and their teams to change their tactics just yet and target stage wins rather than the overall result - because Froome still as time for something bad to happen to him.

I think Froome will not push his team too hard if he can help it for the next few stages and simply defend the gains he has already in his pocket.

I expect Quintana to attack - maybe Contador too (he seemed to have cracked one day in the Giro and won the next day! - but then again this is not Italy!) and Froome to mark them.

A good time for some riders way down on time to break away and win mountain stages as Froome as no need to chase them down.

Another big day in the mountains tomorrow - should be fun!

Hes obviously on drugs. Froome that is

Personally I don't think so.

His background is what makes him different I think.

He was borm and brought up in Kenya - at altitude.

Just like the Kenyan athletes have dominated in the last few decades in middle and long distance running because of their environmental advantage over athlethes born at sea level, I suspect the same is true of Froome.

Obviously he's a very gifted athlete to begin with, otherwise anyone born at altitude would be a brilliant cyclist or runner, his natural metabolism through his lifetime at altitude enhances his performance and thus takes him out of range of nearly every other cyclist racing today.

His nearest two rivals are Contador who as been banned in the past for drug cheating and Quintana who also was also born at altitude - in Colombia.

Of couse I could be well wrong and he is a druggy afer all!

Sorry sluffy i was only joking.

I kind of guessed you were but I thought it give me an in, to say why I think Froome is a bit special than anyone else.

Of course I might well be wrong and Porte who finished second today comes from Australia and there are no mountains or altitude there to speak of, but I think it simply is too much of a coincidence that Froome was born and lived for much of his life at altitude and his only other real (non drug banned) rival is also from altitude.

Just my enthusiasm about the race and wanting to get others interested in it - I guess.

I do like watching the Tour, but the whole drug issue really sickens me, the fact that Froome blew them away the other night instantly set alarm bells off, all this talk of power outage and hacking makes you wonder.

I was a Marathon runner for 20 years i chaired Horwich Harriers for 14 years, we trained 70-80 miles a week despite working all week, because we loved the sport, the guys i ran against were honest sportsmen but despite all my connections within the sport i find it almost impossible to enjoy major athletics any more i simply don't trust what i see.

I used to think Salazar was fantastic, and was in awe of Mo Farah's double Olympic victories but once again the doubts creep in and the sports credibility is shot.

I used to watch Bedford, Puttemans and co they knocked out over 120 miles per week, ran around 13.17 for 5k, 10years later they were clocking 12.50 for the same distance, i can accept progress but when 6 go through at the bell at world record pace i begin to wonder?

I now enjoy watching the Triathlon and the Brownlee brothers they remind me of the club runners that i used to run against. I hope they don't let me down.

I like watching the brownlee brothers to wessy. Not usually that fussed about athletics apart from the olympics much for the same reasons youve mentioned.

The problem is now though that who can you trust. What sport cant be enhanced with drugs. Snooker, darts?

Remember Lasse Viren,Wessy? I think he was accused of blood doping.

The Flying Fin....really?

I never knew that.

I'm off to the world of Google to have a look.

Has anybody ever achieved anything, ever without cheating?

I bet if they had the technology, they'd be able to prove that Alexander The Great was on the 'Roids.

I am now officially disillusioned with life and everything I know about it.

Harrumph!

Some people cheat - it is as simple as that really.

Always have done, always will.

Some get caught, some methods of cheating are busted - but new more advanced ones take their place.

Some don't even see it as cheating - maybe simply using drugs on order to train harder - but at the end of the day it is enhancing their bodies artificially and not naturally.

Do we all believe that every professional footballer are free from ever taking drugs? That non of them have ever used them to become fitter, faster, stronger than they could otherwise of been?

Same with any other type of sportsmen or women.

Even snooker players have been caught taking them - betablockers, to calm the nerves when they are cueing.

Sport should be amateur - to do it just for the sake of doing it - if you want to make it as drug free as you can make it - but even then there would always be someone who would want to win at all costs.

There's something wrong in this world when sportsmen in whatever field of sport are paid a fortune not to work but to run around a track, or kick a ball, or cycle down a road, etc, when people who actually do make a difference in the world like nurses, or those who care for those who can't care for themselves, are paid buttons in comparison.

I like the Tour - but it's simply entertainment to me - not a matter of life or death. I like BWFC but I don't hang on every word of the club - if we win great, if we don't - so what?

Froome may be on drugs - who can say for certain?

I doubt he is, I would be surprised if he was - but it wouldn't spoil my day if I ever found out he had been.

I'm simply happy to just enjoy the moment.

That's my philosophy anyway.

As for the race today - a bit boring really.

Everything went as anticipated - Froome and the other major contendors more or less marked each other out of the game today.

A cyclist way back on time was allowed to cycle off and win the stage today - great win for him though.

Tomorrow is a really hard day in the mountains and people will have to attack if they want to Take time off Froome.

Sky have been superb over the last two days in the mountains but have they done too much too soon and blow up tomorrow leaving Froome on his own and open to attack?

We shall see.

Great stage to watch if you can - after this one its going to be a week of easier stages as they move across France to take on the mountains again in the Alps.

ITV4 does live coverage - I think it starts at noon tomorrow.

Give it a go and watch it all of you can - it's a bit like a test match in a way as the story slowly builds over the hours until an explosive finish at the end.

Should be a belter!

Froome, Thomas, Porte and the rest of Team Sky are clean, I'm sure of it.

Can you imagine to stink if it turned out they were dirty?

I hate the Sky organisation (as is well documented on here) but they're not daft.

There's no way they'd allow it.

I just think they've assembled a team comprising some of the best (clean) riders available because they've got the cash to fund it because, let's face it, the other teams are a bunch of amateurs funded by corporate sponsorship without any real understanding of how to properly organise a cycling team to compete in the Grand Tours.

Look at Saxoff Bank - they've got de Jongh who had to crawl away from Sky when he coughed to being dirty before Brailsford took over.

How much cred has he got?

boltonbonce wrote:Remember Lasse Viren,Wessy? I think he was accused of blood doping.

I never knew that either. My father always spoke highly of distance runner Emil Zatopek. He was before my time but I remember Miruts Yifter ( Yifter the Shifter ) and the rivalry between Ovett, Coe and Cram was great to see. To have three world class runners all competing for one country at the same time is quite unusual for our little island.
I can remember watching the Canadian Ben Johnson beating the great Karl Lewis in the Olympic final and thinking .. Wow! When it came out that he had failed a drug test I can remember feeling a tremendous sense of disappointment. Almost as if I had been cheated! Strange but true. There really is no room for drug cheats in sport.

My favourite runner from that era was Kip Keino.

Anyone remember the wonderfully named Dick Quax?

I was sure you'd made that up so I googled him and discovered that he is a real person.

And his wife is called Roxanne.

I wonder how many (non-Chinese) people have an "X" in both their Christian and Surnames?

And do I need a hobby.....?

boltonbonce wrote:My favourite runner from that era was Kip Keino.

Anyone remember the wonderfully named Dick Quax?

I remember Kip Keino. Filbert Bayi was another great African runner. And who could forget the little known Zephaniah Ncube? Kenias Tembo was little known but I'm iirc he won the London marathon.

Jealous French knobs:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/33581524

Par for the course that for the French.

Riche Porte reported he had been punched a day or so ago.

Anyway todays news - a fantastic - and to be quite honest a completely unexpected - win for England's Steve Cummings



Today's race ended with a 2 mile very steep climb and was fought our between 20 riders who were not involved with the overall race as they were already too far behind the leaders, who themselves were basically marking each other out of todays race.

These 20 riders were never the less good riders, many of them thinking they had enough in them to win the stage.

As it turned out that was there undoing as many of them battled it out to be top dog early on the climb whilst Cummings played it cool, stuck in the pack until the last moment, then attacked whilst everyone else had knackered themselves out.

Great use of his skills, he had the coolness and the brains to know what he was capable off (he's good at going at a constant speed) and what he is not (he can't go up hills blisteringly fast) and used them to perfection.

This will no doubt be the pinicle of Cummings career (he already had a world track cycling team gold medal) and no one expected him to do it - until about with  just a minute of the race left.

It is also his teams first ever victory on the tour and if anyone can spare just a minute I urge you to read this link I posted awhile back which is a wonderful cycling story and shows sport is not all about money and cheating.

http://forum.boltonnuts.co.uk/t10185-good-news-story?highlight=news

Tomorrow - a sprinters day - so, go Cav, go!

Back to back British wins?

Maybe!