Le Tour de Lance

[Drake Tungsten]

Three stage wins in a row for Lance en route to six straight Tour wins. Greatest cyclist ever...

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Spiffor
Wow, there is only one second separating the four first riders. Quite impressive, for a 6 hours long run

But pretty normal as well since the strongest (Armstrong) has no incentive to burn himself out now trying to gain more time and Basso has probably pretty much accepted that he can't catch Armstrong. So those two are just willing to stay with Kloden and Ullrich except that it is still worth it to try for time bonuses for stage wins

[alva]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
Three stage wins in a row for Lance en route to six straight Tour wins. Greatest cyclist ever...

Close, but no fish..

[Drake Tungsten]

Keep telling yourself that. No one else has six...

[DanS]

Reuters is reporting that the last biker to take 3 stages in the Alps in one tour was Gino Bartali in 1948.

Armstrong's performance this year is rather convincing. Nothing like last year's.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by DanS
Reuters is reporting that the last biker to take 3 stages in the Alps in one tour was Gino Bartali in 1948.

Armstrong's performance this year is rather convincing. Nothing like last year's.

and apparently Lance is the first ever to win FOUR consecutive mountain stages

Oh and for anyone that says this tour is boring or predictable, thats only true if you care only about the yellow or polka dot jerseys since Armstrong looks unbeatable for yellow and Virenque has clinched the King of the Mountains title.

But the story of Voeckler is ongoing and he has less than a minute on two rivals for the white jersey. The points jersey is also close as I believe there are as many as 4 sprinters that could win the thing. Add to that a possible GC upset if Basso holds second and the hard charge of the CSC riders, Kloden and Ullrich to try to take 2nd and 3rd . .. . heck there are still lots of great stories

[pg]

the finish today was great. i also liked the race at the top of the big mountain between virenque and that other guy. i hope oln shows more bike racing in the future(not just the tour). are there any serious usa bike races?

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Tour Dupont was big, I don't know if it is still being sponsored by Dupont tho'.

There was a tour Atlanta IIRC not to long ago.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
Keep telling yourself that. No one else has six...

And Lance stays out of many other races to concentrate primarily on the tour. He's not a pimple on Eddy Merckx' ass as an overall rider.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by pg
the finish today was great. i also liked the race at the top of the big mountain between virenque and that other guy. i hope oln shows more bike racing in the future(not just the tour). are there any serious usa bike races?

On the " Lance Chronicles" they showed where Armstrong competed with USP at the "Tour de Georgia".
Armstron spoke of the event highly and stated r=that more events like it were needed if elite cyclists were to compete within the US.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

My bad Tour de Georgia not Tour Atlanta. Like there is anything else worthwhile in Georgia besides Atlanta.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat


And Lance stays out of many other races to concentrate primarily on the tour. He's not a pimple on Eddy Merckx' ass as an overall rider.

Lance will soon be deserving of the crown "best tour de france rider ever" but his focus on this race means he is hardly ever even ranked as the top cyclist in the professional ranks- he just doesn't care enough about any other race so its impossible to know what he could do.

I do think he is far more than a pimple on Merxkx butt though.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat


And Lance stays out of many other races to concentrate primarily on the tour. He's not a pimple on Eddy Merckx' ass as an overall rider.

The problem with the "greatest ever" tags is that improvements in training, nutrition, medecine and equipment mean that there are probably 50 riders that would crush Merckx ( if he raced in his condition and on his old style bike). Even with equal equipment, Armstrong would likely beat any of the old champs due to training methods and a scientific approach that was unavailable to riders in the past-- as well as a team tarined rigorously for the sole purpose of protecting their leader

[Traianvs]

Originally posted by Flubber



The problem with the "greatest ever" tags is that improvements in training, nutrition, medecine and equipment mean that there are probably 50 riders that would crush Merckx ( if he raced in his condition and on his old style bike). Even with equal equipment, Armstrong would likely beat any of the old champs due to training methods and a scientific approach that was unavailable to riders in the past-- as well as a team tarined rigorously for the sole purpose of protecting their leader

Correct, the cyclists now climb those mountains a lot faster than in the old days. I can't remember how much but it was a considerable difference. On the other hand the Tour de France back then was a lot harder, because of the reasons you stated there: their inferior equipment, 'treatment' and so on. Also don't underestimate Bruyneel's role in this. It's Lance's team coach and he guided Armstrong to this; His way of working is very professional. Look at all the racers joining US Postal: Beltran, Heras, Rubiera, Azevedo, and various others of previous years all were at their best in the US Postal team; that's an interesting fact. I never considered Azevedo being this good tbh!

Also Armstrong hasn't got any decent competition these days. In the old days there were a LOT of contenders.

[Drake Tungsten]

Correct, the cyclists now climb those mountains a lot faster than in the old days.

Yeah, because they're better than the old riders. Armstrong is the best of the current bunch and the best of all time. Merckx would get destroyed by Armstrong...

Also Armstrong hasn't got any decent competition these days.

Don't sell Ullrich et al short; they're excellent riders. They just happen to be going up against the best ever, which can make anyone look bad.