Tour de France 2011

[TRF_Olyy]

Anyone else following this?

Mark Cavendish just got his 2nd win of the Tour after some cracking work by the rest of the HTC-Highroad team to get him to the front,
This was helped by a pretty big crash about 40km out, which unfortunately put Bradley Wiggins out of the race, looked like he could have broken his collar bone and/or forearm, so could be the end of him on the tour
Team Sky got knocked down in the fall too, and a few waited for Wiggins to see if he was continuing, so Geraint Thomas lost his Young Rider jersey as well, which he's had since the second stage on Sunday. Thomas had a great race yesterday, and it was mostly down to him that Team Sky rider Hagen got the round win, as Thomas dragged him to the front for the sprint

On a side-note, someone needs to inform the ITV4 commentators that his name is Geraint. Not Gary, or Grint, as they were saying today

 

[Getofmeland]

Yeah I always follow Le Tour, didn't realise that today but cheers for the update, that is a major blow for Team Sky and Wiggins, especially as he was tipped to have the potential to win this years tour...

How is Andy Schleck doing? (My Tip for the Tour)

 

[TRF_Olyy]

10th overall, think he's 12s behind the yellow jersey

Can't say I've noticed him that much - he's been consistently there at the end, getting the time but not going for the sprint points

His brother, Frank, is third though

 

[TNT88]

Good stage tonight, brilliant lead out from HTC. Cav did well to finish it off as well.

I feel bad for Wiggins, that is terrible luck. The tour just got less interesting as a result.

Andy Shleck has got to be favorite right now, Contador is a minute down. Evans is up there though.

They head into the mountains this weekend, it will be very interesting and will give us a much better indication of who the real contenders are for 2011.

 

[ZeFrenchy]

Not much has happpenned so far that can affect the final classification. In my opinion, last three days have been a waste of time. All the 20 first runners are getting same time. And, seriously, 5 hours of peloton ride for Cavendish to take the stage on the sprint gives a strong déjà vu feeling.

The most relevant fact is perhaps the 1:42 that Contador has lost wrt the leader, and he's still 12s behind Andy.

 

[ZeFrenchy]

Today's was a lot better!
Shame that Vino couldn't keep up, but the leaders are finally taking some distance from the rest. Tomorrow there's another rather similar stage, then two where probably not much will happen and then... the Pyrenees! Those three stages look awesome.

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Holland had 2 jerseys on today... Robert Gesink had the white jersey, Johnny Hoogerland the polka dot jersey... I hope we can see some fireworks this Tour from the Dutch cyclists

 

[Getofmeland]

Can't wait for the Mountain Stages, one of my favourite parts of the tour...

Didn't his Brother Frank fall on the cobbles last year?

 

[ZeFrenchy]

This year the mountain stages look even better, with both the pyrenees and the alps looking good.
I don't remember about Frank last year.

 

[Getofmeland]

[wiki]Fränk Schleck[/wiki]

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Well, what happened today was disgraceful. A car hit Johnny Hoogerland who was tossed off the road because of it. Luckily he was not seriously injured and was able to finish today, but these cars are a freakin' nightmare for the cyclists. This is the second time in a couple of days a guy gets hit by a car...

 

[Amobokoboko]

Did you see that other guy flying over the barbwire after the car hit the first biker. Horrible.
It often happens, I hope the organization will do something about it. Besides the injuries of the players it 's also affecting the teams as they lose their strong teammembers.

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

The guy flying into the barb wire was Johnny Hoogerland. Flecha was the guy in green, who got on his bicycle pretty quick

 

[Amobokoboko]

The tour committee apologized to all teams and victims and said it was disgraceful. I hope this was the last accident altho the tour just started. for the coming years they should make clearer agreements.

 

[ZeFrenchy]

Hoogerland cut his leg open. He got back in the bike but finished a few minutes after the pack, and 16 minutes after the leaders, whom he was riding with. It's really a disgrace, and apparently the car that hit Flecha was carrying a "guest" so he could have a better look...

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Here is a photo of what his leg looks like

 

[Sneaki]

Ouch, to be fair though looking at the video the car was swerving out of the way of a tree sticking onto the road, it looked at first glance like it'd just swerved for no reason. The car still should have just slowed down though.

 

[Getofmeland]

The Cav got another stage yesterday and also the Green Jersey, hopefully he will now hold onto this for the rest of the tour...

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Sanchez and Contador both had a great decent and put some time in between them and the Schleck brothers, then the Schalecks caught them on the last few metres of the run in and they all crossed the line together - was immense

Voeckler lost 27s from his lead today - ran off the road into a carpark at one point on the decent

 

[ZeFrenchy]

Fun stage to watch, but not much happenned result-wise. Voeckler losing time perhaps the only relevant.