Cadel is going to have to brave some wind on his own if he wants to make up the gap. Not going to win in a time trial.

Bring back EPO! Mountain stages are no fun when everyone gets shelled.

ed: If Phil calls Nibali Nib-a-lee one more time I'm gonna fly to France an' punch him in the nose.

Ok, this I can watch. Froome should be allowed to destroy anyone he pleases- even Wiggins if he can't keep pace.

The Tour hasn't been the same since the Lance era....

Chris Froome......I really like this rider's chances for a podium finish. Like TJ - a shame he is "stuck" in a supporting role in the event.

FS is back in the hunt too.

CE.....I just don't see him on the podium this year.

GO LANCE! ;)

Rolland! True grit . . . after that slip in the corner I never would have bet on this!

Alas......now 4 stage wins for the Brits!!! A new record and very well deserved in my estimation.

Congrats to David Millar!

Indeed the Brits will be a "force to be reckoned with" (as he remarked) in this year's Olympic games!

;)

Nails tossed onto the road? That party should be imprisoned! :mad:

TJ: "I was supposed to go back for Cadel? Um....a lot of noise on the radio....um....I couldn't hear what was happening....um...a lot of confusion.....um...I thought we had some other team riders back there....um..." ;) ;) ;)

This is shaping up to be a good Tour... I'm just waiting for all the doping allegations to start flying...

Well - it looks like F.S. is out after a failed dope test. Dang.... http://forums.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/wat5.gif

A banned diuretic in his blood. Legitimate uses would include some forms of hypertension, not likely he's going to come up with proof of that. Doping use would be to clear a performance-enhancing substance from his blood, i.e. to mask doping.

Who really cares? I'd rather see doped-up superhumans climbing those mountains at 30 mph than all this stupid lawyering and disqualification.

Nice you guys can see this stuff. In my area it's been nothing since before the last time trial.

I don't get it on TV in my room at school but I do get it at home in TO on Versus.

Really wish they'd quit keeping up with Cadel and really don't understand his team manager's (BMC) blind devotion to him. Let the strongest rider OTR compete, not fetch Cadel. Sheesh.

Edit: TEEJAY! That's it! Just keep going up the hill . . . eventually sounds of CE's crying will fade.

Watching the descents, I wonder if they could use handlebar-actuated dropper seatposts (like in downhil MTBs) to get their CG lower.

In the past I was glued to the TDF, especially in the latter Lance years. This year a colleague taught me about a whole new tour.

The Tour Divide is race run self/unsupported for 2745 miles around the clock from Banff to the Mexican border (or northbound) crossing the continental divide about 30 times. 270,000 feet of climbing, no drafting. You can follow the action next year. The route can be challenged at anytime for touring or as an individual time trial. A "Grand Depart" occurs the second Friday of June and had 105 riders start. The fastest time this year was 16 1/2 days - 2 days faster than the prior record. 180 miles per day average attained by 5 hours overnights in a tent bivie wherever it was needed. Some "racers" are still on the course and can be followed using the GPS Spot system and reported collectively at http://trackleaders.com/tourdivide. The information for the race can be reviewed. International field. Winner was a humble, cheerful New Zealander. Great audio and video stories of racers taking full advantage of gut fill contests and buffets to stoke up on cheap calories. Ollie Whalley on pancakes at the Tour Divide finish. on Vimeo
The route is primarily dirt/gravel fire type road, some singletrack, some pavement etc.
Racers this year use rigid or hardtails, with only a few full susp bike, mostly 29ers, a few singlespeeds, a fixie. Unicycles have and are currently doing the route over about 60 days.

Why limit it to humans drugged-up or not? Have robots compete!

Tour Divide is pretty cool. I watched most of the folks until about a week back- there is an excellent documentary on Netflix solely focused on TTD from a couple of years ago. Maybe 2011. Can't recall right now.

That is silly. Robots are much easier to police than all this back and forth legal wrangling over minute traces of drugs in a cup of pi$$.

These ITT performances by Froome and Wiggins are starting to make me wonder exactly what type of nutritionist they're using.

Congrats to Great Britain! Looks like 1st and 2nd are assured with this the first time for a British overall winner. That's really something to be proud of. And I have to say - B.W. and C.F. earned their victory....very impressive cycling.

Of note as well is the performance this year of the 22 y/o American T.J. who could be an overall winner himself in the not too distant future, especially given his ability in the I.T.T. as well as the mountains.

Will be interesting tomorrow to see if the Manx Missile will win the stage.....
http://media.washtimes.com/media/com...5adb253919b641

RULE BRITANNIA! http://forums.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/clap.gif