i've been waiting for this!

what bike was frischkorn riding? it looked like the downtube had a front wheel cutout like a felt TT bike? i was confused....

[quote=chekmarks]
what bike was frischkorn riding?
[/quote]
[URL=http://www.velonews.com/article/77929]Felt AR[/URL]

Zabriskie's out with a broken something-or-other...he fell in one of the tune up races and hurt his back I think. you might be waiting a while

I'm looking for Cancellara to do well in the TT (or Millar, just because I think the GarminChipotle team is super cool)

Cancellara will be riding with passion since they essentially took a yellow jersey (or several) from him by skipping the prologue :-D

I'll be watching Millar, Garmin/Chipotle has caught on with me. They're based just up the road from me so I guess they're the home town team. Plus I like the what they are trying to do with testing, I'm new to the sport and its been hard to take it seriously at times with all the doping.

Jonathan Vaughters stated that the new Felt AR saved on average 20 watts at 50 KPH in their tests.

Did anyone else catch that F-bomb from the driver of the Garmin car. The reporter looked like he pooped his pants when that guy said it.

Just one of the bonuses you get for watching it live.

does jonathan vaughters always wear the turtleneck sweater and jacket? or did VS only do one interview with him this year that they've been milking for months?

nice efforts by vandevelde and hincapie, good to see them getting up there...danny pate too

Stage 3's final sprint from the breakaway group was amazing! Those guys just kept sprinting forever, I yelled out as if I were watching the Bears play the Packers!

BTW, they said Zabriskie wasn't quite healed in time for the Tour, but he'll be racing the TT at the Olympics.

how badly would the AVERAGE TdF rider beat an elite Ironman or Half-Ironman in a mid-distance time trial? I figure the best bikers would whop up the triathletes, but would someone like Macca at least finish in the 20%?

[quote=chekmarks]how badly would the AVERAGE TdF rider beat an elite Ironman or Half-Ironman in a mid-distance time trial? I figure the best bikers would whop up the triathletes, but would someone like Macca at least finish in the 20%?[/quote]
Most time trials are going to be in the 30-60k range. You'd want a short course triathlete to be racing....Reed would be a good choice (really strong on the bike). I would guess and put him at about 39 min for today's race (just shy of 28 mph considering they had a climb to deal with). Not last, but still several minutes off the lead guys. Also keep in mind that there are plenty of triathletes who have raced as pro cyclists (Spencer Smith) and that some of the guys in the ITT today weren't pushing as hard as they could in order to save up for another day when they might be called upon to work for their team.

shiba that makes a ton of sense.

Yeah. I also think that a triathlete wouldn't do nearly as well in a TT (short or long) if said TT is preceded by 4 or 5 or 20 days of intense bike racing. But, if we're just talking a one day thing, I think triathletes might do better because that's what they train for. On the other hand, a triathlete would have to fight the instinct to save his legs for the run.

IMO, if you stick a long distance triathlete in a time trial of at least 40 or 50 miles, they'll at least hold their own against TdF riders. But, if you ask a triathlete to do the TT after having ridden 20 days on the TdF, they'll probably get blown away.

Also consider that there are many more cyclists in the world than triathletes. In general that means the best cyclists will be better than the best triathletes. Just the same, I agree with TriGator's analysis

I always freakin' amazes me how the peloton - being such a big group - can pace itself to catch the break away just at the finish. Not too early so there would be another attack and rarely too late that they can't get them in the end. Amazing stuff!

Cavendish is a beast. I think he will start taking a few more from Thor and the Rocket.

That was the best finish ever. I can't believe he got caught honestly like 20 m from the line. I felt so bad for the guy, but what an amazing finish. I honestly like how they use that angle where you can't really see where the line is, so you don't know exactly how much longer he has to hold on.

Yeah, and I was really happy for Cavendish. He seems like a super cool guy in interviews.

also from the RBR newsletter today...it looks like Levi's racing in Tribro's hometown this week:

"---Oregon's Cascade Cycling Classic is underway with 150 stage racers, including several big names. Astana's Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner are in the field because their team was excluded from the Tour de France. They'll compete for podium places with Tom Danielson (Garmin-Chipotle) and Santiago Botero (Rock Racing). The 5-stage race started yesterday and will conclude Sunday. Tomorrow's 15-mile (24-km) time trial shapes up as a key stage."

check out yesterday's stage results
http://www.mbsef.org/CascadeCyclingClassic/Results/2008/promen/Stg01r00R...

how'd you like to be one of the 120 or so riders that beat Chris Horner?

Tribro could beat him.

Ricco is going to be some fierce competition for the yellow jersey in 2009... amazing ride. The way he just accelerated away from some of the best climbers in the world - WOW.

It's been a few days since the stage, but in the first TT, did anyone notice how "wiggly" Cancellara seemed on the bike during the time trial? It seemed that his upper body moved around a bunch. I'm curious about that - I'm working really hard to try to stay as still as possible over the bike - but am I trying to do something not so necessary?

Certainly understand that the pros are different, but in general, how still do you try to stay?

Anxious to see if Ricco can hang today or if yesterday's effort will take its toll. If he can go again today, I hope the contenders go with him.

If he goes today the contenders will definately go with him...I think there's better odds he won't go with the contenders if they attack, not vise-versa. One of the reasons he wasn't chased heavily yesterday after the last climb is because the contenders were saving it for today (presumably). Today will go a long way to shaping the leaderboard and dropping the non-contenders from the top 15

Will be interesting to see how Cadel Evans does today... had quite a wreck yesterday, broke his helmet and everything! Hope he can hang in there.

Today is already weird... a 24-man escape group! Going to be a long stage if they keep this up before they even get to the two big climbs!

They haven't really opened up any real gap though...I'll bet they get swallowed up before the first HC climb

I'm sure they'll be caught, but they've already made an impact on this stage... the peleton was really flying! They'll be paying for that all the way up the mountain. :)

Down to 7 riders in the break-away, but they're over a minute ahead again as they start the first big climb. This is really setting up to be a great stage.

Valverde is having a really bad day... out of contention, just like that.

Can't wait to watch this one tonight! Some big attacks sounds like.

Schleck or Evans!!! What a battle, the yellow jersey is going to be down to seconds today...

1 second to be specific! :)

Guess Evans wasn't hurting that bad from his crash yesterday.

[quote=jonovision_man]
Ricco is going to be some fierce competition for the yellow jersey in 2009... amazing ride. The way he just accelerated away from some of the best climbers in the world - WOW.
[/quote]

Guess Ricco won't be competing for the yellow jersey in 2009. :(

http://tinyurl.com/55pav6

Ricco tests positive for EPO. :(

The "clean" Tour looks a lot like the dirty one.

At least the action being taken this year is pretty aggressive...arresting on sight...immediately publicized, etc. I guess this synthetic EPO they are getting caught on has a new test to detect no one knew about coming in. They're always trying to stay one step ahead. It's good to see a trick up the testing side's sleeve for once.

But the timing couldn't be better...today's stage is a snoozefest so far...doping's about the only thing they have to talk about

I thought yesterday's stage was surprisingly exciting for supposedly being an "easy" day. I thought it fitting that Ballan didn't take the stage in the final sprint after Phil called him out as someone who wasn't helping that chase group catch the leader down the stretch.

The tour has been pretty good when I can catch some of it.
I wish it really could stay a 'clean' event.

Today's stage is getting good now as the teams fight for sprinting position and Schleck and Evans try to mark each other.

stupid dopers. i really liked riccardo ricco too. i wouldn't be surprised if liggett and the gang were doping too.

Yeah...the sprint was pretty awesome. Cavendish has just dominated the mass sprints this tour, it didn't even seem like a struggle today. impressive

I don't think this is the end of cycling at all. I think it's positive they're cleaning house. It's not easy or fast, but it's appearing to work. Don't lose faith in the sport. They're actually improving it.

There is a lot of focus on cycling because it's a pro sport where athletes particularly benefit from PED's. Especially so, given the fact that USING PED's IS A CRIMINAL OFFENSE, UNLIKE IN THE US. Can you imagine if Jose Conseco, Barry Bonds or Jason Giambi were led off the field in handcuffs, and then the Rocket, etc? Or the offensive line from your favorite football team?

There would be a MUCH more public response than what we've had with the miniscule number of identified dopers in American sports. And there'd be more scrutiny from the teams themselves to rid themselves of criminals. What organization wants to be known as a bunch of criminals?

Have some faith that cycling will rebound. At least they don't have their heads in the sand, and their pious public relations pretending steroids don't have a major influence in their sport like football and baseball.
[That all said, I am a football fan crossing my fingers that my favorite players are clean.]

jonovision_man wrote:
"Ricco is going to be some fierce competition for the yellow jersey in 2009... amazing ride. The way he just accelerated away from some of the best climbers in the world - WOW."

[b]To climb like Rasmussen you have to cheat like Rasmussen..[/b]

[b]When you blow away the field like that, you are just waving a red flag that says, "Look at me I have the best drugs money can buy!"[/b]

[b]PoC[/b]

[quote=PrinceofClydes]
[b]To climb like Rasmussen you have to cheat like Rasmussen..[/b]

[b]When you blow away the field like that, you are just waving a red flag that says, "Look at me I have the best drugs money can buy!"[/b]
[/quote]

Sad but true...

Armstrong is lucky not to have been caught, but is there anyone who still thinks he did it clean?? Almost everyone decent he ever rode with has been caught doping... and the guys he beat like rented mules were all dopers. I just don't buy that he could have done it clean, not in this sport.

jono

[quote=jonovision_man]Armstrong is lucky not to have been caught, but is there anyone who still thinks he did it clean?? Almost everyone decent he ever rode with has been caught doping... and the guys he beat like rented mules were all dopers. I just don't buy that he could have done it clean, not in this sport.

jono
[/quote]

maybe he wasn't working that hard? they did all the work ;)

[quote=jonovision_man][quote=PrinceofClydes]
[b]To climb like Rasmussen you have to cheat like Rasmussen..[/b]

[b]When you blow away the field like that, you are just waving a red flag that says, "Look at me I have the best drugs money can buy!"[/b]
[/quote]

Sad but true...

Armstrong is lucky not to have been caught, but is there anyone who still thinks he did it clean?? Almost everyone decent he ever rode with has been caught doping... and the guys he beat like rented mules were all dopers. I just don't buy that he could have done it clean, not in this sport.

jono
[/quote]

Cycling is completely a team sport. If you go back and watch the tours that he won, it was obvious that he had the strongest team by far. I still totally believe that he was clean, even though much of his team was not. This can account for some of his success.

But, there are 2 things you're forgetting. First of all, Lance's physical makeup is unreal. He was basically made to be a cyclist. And, not only that, but he trained more than anyone else for the Tour. It was his only race, and he trained all year, and he was more disciplined than almost any other rider (especially Jan).

Basically, if you look at the facts, I think he has a better case for not doping than many other pro cyclists.