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PLEASE NOTE: The Reality TV World Message Boards are filled with desperate
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"Tour de France"
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PepeLePew13 24731 desperate attention whore postings
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07-12-11, 11:47 PM (EST)
 
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7. "RE: Stage 9 a.k.a. the barb-wire stage" |
Why the heck are cars allowed to drive inches away from the riders in the first place? That's a recipe for disaster. They should make it so that riders are the only ones who are on the road at any time - if cameramen want to do any filming, they can get on a bike like everyone else.
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CTgirl 7073 desperate attention whore postings
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07-13-11, 08:26 AM (EST)
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8. "RE: Stage 9 a.k.a. the barb-wire stage" |
Well that's an entirely different discussion! I am mostly annoyed that Contador failed his drug tests over a year ago and they are waiting until after this TdF to make a ruling. That stinks for everyone especially Andy Schleck.
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CTgirl 7073 desperate attention whore postings
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07-13-11, 05:52 PM (EST)
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10. "RE: Stage 9 a.k.a. the barb-wire stage" |
I'm an American, I believe you're innocent until you're proven guilty!  
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michel 10812 desperate attention whore postings
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07-15-11, 08:21 PM (EST)
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12. "RE: Tour de France" |
From my favorite Tour de France writer:http://www.cyberpresse.ca/chroniqueurs/pierre-foglia/201107/14/01-4418030-miracles-a-saint-projet.php?utm_categorieinterne=trafficdrivers&utm_contenuinterne=cyberpresse_B13b_pierre-foglia_3264_section_POS1 "...il n'est pas là, Contador. Il a perdu le Tour de France hier dans la montée de Luz-Ardiden...Parce qu'il est intelligent, surtout parce que les frères Schleck ne le sont pas trop, au classement cela ne paraît pas encore tant que ça que Contador a perdu le Tour de France. Mais il l'a perdu. Si les Schleck, ou Cadel Evans, ou même Basso qui semblait en avoir sous la pédale avaient attaqué avant, ce n'est pas 30 secondes que l'Espagnol eût concédé, mais deux ou trois minutes. Sur ce qu'on a vu hier, le Tour va se jouer entre les frères Schlick-Schlack et Cadel Evans, peut-être aussi Basso. Anyway on saura demain..." My translation: Contador lost to Tour yesterday in the climb to Luz-Ardiden...Because he is smart or mostly because the Schleck brothers aren't, it doesn't really show in the standings that Contador has lost. But he has lost. If the Schlecks or Evans or even Basso, who looked strong, had launched an attack earlier, it wouldn't be 30 seconds that the Spaniard would have lost but 2 or 3 minutes. From what we saw yesterday, the Tour will come down to the brothers Schlick and Schlack, Cadel Evans and maybe even Basso. Anyway, we will know tomorrow...." If anyone is interested, the rest of the article is mostly about his travels in rural France because, as he says, the worst way to follow the Tour is to be on the Tour!
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kingfish 16088 desperate attention whore postings
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07-16-11, 10:42 AM (EST)
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13. "RE: Tour de France" |
LAST EDITED ON 07-16-11 AT 09:06 PM (EST)I am just a dilettante when it comes to Cycling, I watch portions of the Tour de France, and little else. But, referencing previous comments (Pepe, et al), and watching the downhill portions of the today's leg, the cars and motorcycles follow too closely to avoid hitting cyclist should he lose traction and fall onto the roadway. The camera men on motorcycles are very close, and even the directors car that was following the leader down the mountain would have had to have driven off the mountain if the leader had dropped. I like the shots, and I understand that that builds the interest that makes the Tour De France so popular, but the danger to the riders would seem to be too great to tolerate that kind of situation. There was a point earlier in the race when a team car was beeping at riders who were racing in the peloton to move over and let it by. Really? That's allowed? A team car is allowed to interfere with the movement of the racers? But I have to say, those down slope rides look like a heck of a lot of fun, even knowing that the fragile bike could go out from under you at 60mph sending you off the mountain. What a thrill. Going up the mountain doesn't look like fun at all. And the bystanders? Most have national and/or personal loyalties, and a enthusiastic fan could easily interfere with a rival rider. Not to mention the photogs who encroach upon the riders path. If they allowed that kind of fan interference in Soccer, there'd be the unholiest of riots. Wars between nations have begun with less provocation. France is such a beautiful country.
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kingfish 16088 desperate attention whore postings
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07-23-11, 12:40 PM (EST)
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38. "RE: Tour de France" |
Certainly, it's not hard to understand why officials/ref/med cars need to get by, and if so, certainly beeping is the safe thing to do. Unless of course they might have a hearing impaired rider. (Smasho flato, sorry Pepe)But team cars? With so much riding on the outcome and with the emotions riding as high as they are, allowing a team car in proximity of the racers seems like allowing possible interference. They seem to be pretty bent on preventing any sort of other types of rider help, doping for example. There's a relatively high causality rate on normal highways shared by autos and bicyclers, and I wondering why the officials don't think the same thing could happen there. It also occurs to me that if there is a betting line on the TdF, and we all know that there is, team car interference would be one way to disguise illegal activities and influence the outcome. Maybe using well placed bystanders to cause a tactical wreck might be easier to get away with (I think one could argue that that hapless lady who caused a wreck in an early stage killed Contador's chances of winning), but a swerve/close miss causing a wreck, or an unintentional bump of the race leader might not be so unintentional.
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michel 10812 desperate attention whore postings
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07-16-11, 05:13 PM (EST)
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14. "Voeckler?" |
How can Voeckler still be in yellow? That just shows that the Schleck brothers are dumb. They are so intent on staying together that neither attacked and nothing happened on one of the most important legs. If the Schlecks ride in the Alps the same way they did the Pyrenees then Voeckler could win this thing!!! He's at least as good as them in the time trial...or Cadell Evans beats them all.
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AyaK 10083 desperate attention whore postings
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07-21-11, 06:47 PM (EST)
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24. "RE: Voeckler?" |
Voeckler did a great job to stay with Evans on stage 18. Say goodbye to him on the way up l'Alpe d'Huez in stage 19.
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aethelstan 4348 desperate attention whore postings
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07-21-11, 08:59 PM (EST)
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25. "RE: Voeckler?" |
When Voeckler was in yellow in '05? He held on to it far longer than any anticipated. I think wearing the yellow changed something in him for determination in keeping it and he's showing it again this year. He should have no business being in the top 10 and yet he's still there.
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byoffer 15808 desperate attention whore postings
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07-21-11, 12:15 PM (EST)
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16. "Stage 18" |
Things are much more interesting in the standings after today's stage. Looks like the Schleck brothers are not just passengers in the Tour. ASchleck wins the stage and puts over 2 mins on the leaders, but still ends 15 seconds behind Voeckler in the overall. Evans pedals very hard to minimize time lost to ASchleck, and ends 1:12 behind in the overall. FSchleck sprints away from Evans at the end, and by beating him by 15 second moves past him in the overall. Top four are now separated by 1:12, with Alpe d'Huez on tap for tomorrow and the time trial for Saturday.
- The commentators hinted that FSchleck had a relatively easy day today, so could he attack tomorrow to steal the Yellow?
- Will ASchleck have any legs tomorrow after today's huge effort?
- Will Evans have enough gas in the tank tomorrow to stay close enough to give himself a chance on the Time Trial? (where he apparently has an advantage)
- Voeckler hung around today, which seemed to shock the commentators (he must give a huge thanks to Evans). Can he do so again tomorrow? What can he do in Time Trial? Ryder Hesjedal (go Canada) had another good day, and his team (GARMIN - CERVELO) seems to strengthen their lead in the team competition. (how many riders count for the team classification? Top 3 on each team??) Tomorrow should be very interesting!!  
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vince3 17341 desperate attention whore postings
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07-21-11, 12:36 PM (EST)
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17. "RE: Stage 18" |
and Contador faded back, possibly in part because of a (pre-planned?) bike change near the final climb...
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byoffer 15808 desperate attention whore postings
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07-21-11, 01:38 PM (EST)
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18. "RE: Stage 18" |
Is there a rule about changing bikes? It didn't seem that the new bike gave him an advantage, but I suppose there would be different bike configs for climbing versus other parts of the rides. (and I hate the way guys draft behind cars to get back up to the pack after a change)
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michel 10812 desperate attention whore postings
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07-21-11, 10:47 PM (EST)
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26. "RE: Stage 18" |
- The commentators hinted that FSchleck had a relatively easy day today, so could he attack tomorrow to steal the Yellow? Franck was the chosen one for Trek. He was waiting for Contador to bridge the gap to Andy and then attack but, since Contador doesn't have the legs, Franck was left with nothing to do until the last 250 meters. I'm expecting more confusion from the Schleck brothers now that the stronger one fell behind. - Will ASchleck have any legs tomorrow after today's huge effort? Depends a lot on his pharmacist, doesn't it? - Will Evans have enough gas in the tank tomorrow to stay close enough to give himself a chance on the Time Trial? (where he apparently has an advantage) He has a definite advantage in the time trials and today, he didn't want to bring Franck back to the front so this was just a holding stage for Evans. He's still the favorite. - Voeckler hung around today, which seemed to shock the commentators (he must give a huge thanks to Evans). Can he do so again tomorrow? What can he do in Time Trial? The TT course suits Voeckler but he will be too far behind. The next two stages will be too hard for him now that the fight has finally begun. But it was a treat to see his prodigious effort to hold on to it one more time.
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byoffer 15808 desperate attention whore postings
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07-22-11, 01:08 PM (EST)
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29. "Stage 19" |
Alpe d'Huez!Another great day for the race.
- Contador attacks, and stirs things up.
- Voeckler finally breaks and his teammate (Rolland) takes off to win the stage and take over the White Jersey. Rolland also becomes the first Frenchman to win a stage this year. (and a prestigious stage at that)
- Sanchez finishes well to get second in the stage and take over the Polka-dot Jersey.
- ASchleck takes over the Yellow, with his brother just under a minute behind. Can they both stay on the podium for Paris?
- Evans fights hard again (man he is tough) and is just 57 seconds behind Andy. How much can he gain on the TT? Enough to steal Yellow in Paris? Surely the Tour will be won by Evans or one of the Schlecks. I wish I knew more about TT spreads to handicap the outcome. Hesjedal has another top 10 ride. Despite some slips early in the Tour, he does belong with the leaders on the hills. At least he seems destined to be part of the winning team.
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AyaK 10083 desperate attention whore postings
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07-22-11, 01:42 PM (EST)
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30. "RE: Stage 19" |
In the 2009 tour, Evans was about 45 seconds better than Andy in the TT (which included a climb). Last year, in the difficult TT through wine country, Evans basically quit, and Andy lost 31 seconds to Contador. All I can say is that it appears to be a toss-up going in.
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vince3 17341 desperate attention whore postings
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07-22-11, 02:18 PM (EST)
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32. "RE: Stage 19" |
Time Trial's Saturday, then the Paris leg is on Sunday... with the finish on the Champs...
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michel 10812 desperate attention whore postings
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07-22-11, 10:50 PM (EST)
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37. "RE: Stage 19" |
>I'm not sure this was a
>boring Tour, but I do
>think it was an example
>of bad route selection.
>The current Tour director wanted
>to have some early stages
>that resembled the one-day classics,
>including the uphill finishes that
>do not favor the sprinters,
>and he got his wish Yet, Cacendish won how many stages? 5? And he narrowly missed two more. No, the real problem was that the peloton, without the menace of Contador, travelled the Pyrenees like tourists. >... but I have to
>admit I liked the previous
>director's Tours better, with two
>ITTs plus a long TTT,
>which separated the contenders from
>the pretenders early. Team Time trials aren't everyone's cup of tea. It sometimes gives unfair advantages to the loaded teams. We were lucky that a team like Garmin won and that 10 or so teams finished within seconds of each other.
>Contador never
>came close to making up
>the time he lost in
>an early crash, and he
>has no chance of another
>podium finish unless he recreates
>his superhuman drug-fueled Annecy ITT
>from 2009, in which Contador
>edged Cancellaria but at the
>cost of having the entire
>peloton realize that he was
>on some illegal substance.
I think you meant on some more potent illegal substance than everyone else...
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AyaK 10083 desperate attention whore postings
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08-17-11, 06:57 PM (EST)
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44. "2012 changes" |
1) There will no longer be four American teams in the ProTour, because HTC-HighRoad (Mark Cavendish's team) will be no more as of the end of the year. However, the American team that was rumored to be on life support, RadioShack, appears to have two more years, as all of the team's principal sponsors (The Shack, Nissan, Trek and Twitter, plus Lance Armstrong's LIVESTRONG) have re-upped. Garmin-Cervelo and BMC are safe.2) There appears to be some split between Levi Leipheimer and Lance Armstrong, but neither is discussing it. It's unclear whether Leipheimer will stay with RadioShack, despite his victories in the Tour of Switzerland and the Tour of Utah (and his second place in the Tour of California) this year. 3) Does any major race in Europe get less respect than the Vuelta? Now it's up against the US Pro Cycling Challenge in Colorado, which has all of the podium from the Tour de France (Cadel Evans and the Schleck brothers). And the Tour of Utah was last week. Compared to that, the challenge presented to the Giro by the Tour of California looks like chicken feed. 4) I think it's safe to say that the Tour of Missouri has joined the Tour of Georgia as extinct. Too bad. 5) Rider switch time is very interesting this year, what with the collapse of HTC-HighRoad, the apparent addition of Australian team GreenEdge, and the merger of Quick Step and Omega Pharma-Lotto (with Lotto, the Belgian national lottery, dropping out as a sponsor) into a Belgian superteam. Looks like two teams out of ProTour and only one team in, unless someone decides to upgrade from Pro Continental status.
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AyaK 10083 desperate attention whore postings
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09-01-11, 11:09 PM (EST)
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45. "Vuelta chaos" |
LAST EDITED ON 09-02-11 AT 08:46 AM (EST)1) The poor schedule for the Vuelta has produced an extremely close race. Right now, two British teammates on Team Sky are 1-2 (Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome), but the rider in 3rd is only 9 seconds behind Wiggins and the total time gap to sixth place is just 36 seconds and to 11th is 2:01. It all comes down to team strength at this point. If one of the teams can break the race open, that could be it. However, with everyone so close, it's also possible that no one will try anything. Compared to this, Levi Leipheimer's 11 second victory in the U.S.A. Pro Cycling Challenge actually looks like a substantial win. Which reminds me, Leipheimer won the Tour de Suisse, the Tour of Utah and the USA Pro Cycling Challenge this year and also finished 2d to his teammate Chris Horner in the Tour of California. If his Tour de France hadn't been such a disaster, this would have been his best season ever. 2) Everyone believes that Mark Cavendish is going to join Team Sky as soon as HTC-Highroad wraps the season. I'm not sure how Sky could actually support Wiggins, Froome and Cavendish, but maybe they know. 3) The U.S. may be down to only 3 ProTeams next year, but Liquigas-Cannondale (an Italian team) is being pushed America-ward by its sponsor Cannondale. Leopard Trek is being pushed America-ward by its sponsor Trek. Sky is British. GREENedge will be Australian. So it looks like sponsorship, at least, is propelling cycling toward English-speaking countries.
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AyaK 10083 desperate attention whore postings
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09-05-11, 11:45 PM (EST)
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47. "Vuelta chaos and Trek merger" |
Sometimes international cycling becomes as political as anything in Washington. There was no question that Froome had the best chance of winning the Vuelta, better than Wiggins. But Wiggins is the star and had the team support. As a result, Froome had to pull Wiggins up the climbs over the past week, until Wiggins finally broke yesterday ... and Froome was permitted to drop him and stay with the second group. Thus, the current standings have Froome in second by 20 seconds and Wiggins in third by 48.If Sky is serious about winning, they'd have Wiggins work for Froome in these last days. It may be too late, but it's their only shot. But so far, they've supported Wiggins' ambitions. More interesting to me was the Trek-forced merger of the two Trek teams, since Leopard Trek couldn't come up with any sponsorship of its own. Thus, the U.S. RadioShack team is no more. The team is now based in Luxembourg and run under the Leopard Trek license, although it's going to be called RadioShack-Nissan-Trek. The Schlecks and Cancellara take over as team leaders, and Leipheimer is out. (Leipheimer has already signed with the new Belgian superteam QuickStep-Omega Pharma.) The "combined" team is still going to hang on to some of its exciting young riders, such as Ben King, Matthew Busche, and Jesse Sergent, as well as established stars Chris Horner, Andreas Kloeden and Jani Brajkovic, and it will be managed by Johan Bruyneel, just as RadioShack was -- but basically RadioShack as we know it has ceased to exist. So the rumors turned out to be true after all -- the sponsors re-upped, but not for the existing team. The current stories say that all 13 RadioShack riders under contract for next year will be retained, as well as 17 of the Leopard Trek riders under contract. But 11 Leopard Trek riders under contract have been asked to leave, and Brian Nygaard, who managed the team this year, will move to GreenEDGE as press officer. Two U.S. teams dead, only two left: Garmin-Cervelo and BMC. Wow.
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AyaK 10083 desperate attention whore postings
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09-08-11, 03:02 AM (EST)
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50. "RE: Vuelta chaos and Trek merger" |
LAST EDITED ON 09-08-11 AT 07:44 AM (EST)At this point, it just about has to be Simon Gerrans. Apparently GreenEdge really wanted Richie Porte so that there could be two young Australian threats on the team, but Porte had already pre-committed to Sky. Of course, all that could change if Chris Froome leaves Sky after the Vuelta, which seems about 80% likely. The sponsor of GreenEdge said that he only wants the team to be about 75% Australian. Seems to me that Froome would be a perfect fit. And, although he now rides for the UK, Froome was born and raised in Kenya (although as an Anglophone), so he'd fit better into the Oz mix than he does into the British one at Sky. Plus, with Richie Porte joining the team, it doesn't look like the Sky team is looking to Froome for the future.
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AyaK 10083 desperate attention whore postings
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09-09-11, 09:37 PM (EST)
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52. "Vuelta Stage 19, plus Quebec" |
Only two stages laft, and so basically the Vuelta victory will come down to tomorrow's stage 20. Naturally, I'm rooting for Chris Froome, but it should be an interesting day. I just wish the last climb came later in the stage.And we had a fascinating race today in Quebec. Philippe Gilbert continued his domination in one-day races with a narrow victory over the rest of the ten-man breakaway group, which included Robert Gesink (2d), Uran Rigoberto (3d), Fabian Wegmann (4th) and Levi Leipheimer (5th). Of course, as all of Belgium knows (and is frustrated by), Gilbert wrapped up his position as world #1 for 2011 with the victory, but he's already chosen to leave the new QuickStep-Omega Pharma "superteam" for next year and join the U.S. team BMC along with Cadel Evans, Taylor Phinney, Tejay Van Garderen, and half of humanity. As a result of his departure, the "superteam" will be hurting for world ranking points. Frankly, the fact that Leipheimer, who doesn't much care for one-day classics, rode so well in Quebec makes it seem more likely that he's trying to build up points to take with him to QuickStep (presuming he leaves Leopard Trek RadioShack-Nissan-Trek. On that front, Leopard Trek signed Jens Voigt to a new one-year deal. That means that Leopard Trek has 21 riders under contract, not counting anyone coming over from RadioShack. Flavio Becca, the owner of Leopard Trek (who will be the license holder of the merged team), said two days ago that all 20 of his riders that are under contract will continue with the team... http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/bruyneel-and-becca-speak-out-on-new-team Becca made it clear that the new team would consist largely of current Leopard riders. He indicated that of the 25 riders now on the team, the five whose contracts expire the end of the year would leave. “That reduces the number of our riders to 20. If you do the maths, you can see that we can take on 10 new riders.” ... and Voigt makes 21 from Leopard Trek, so that only seems to allow for 9 riders from RadioShack since the team can't go over 30 total. Alrady announced from RS are Chris Horner, Andreas Klöden, Markel Irizar, Haimar Zubeldia, Ben King, Matthew Busche, Jani Brajkovic, Jesse Sergent and Nelson Oliveira. Unless I've lost my ability to count, that means everyone else from the old RadioShack, including Leipheimer, is gone. Looks like Johan Bruyneel and Trek royally shafted a lot of riders in their haste to keep the Schleck brothers under contract. I'm very surprised the Bruyneel is apparently letting 23-year-old Ivan Rovny and the 21-year-old staigiere George Bennett go, since they were Leipheimer's main support in Colorado (and Bennett proved that he's ready for the big time, just as Sergent and Phinney did as staigieres last year), but haste makes waste.
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AyaK 10083 desperate attention whore postings
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09-14-11, 07:42 PM (EST)
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55. "More 2012 updates" |
Although Team Sky has said publicly that it offerec Chris Froome a five-year contract, Froome is supposedly negotiating with Saxo Bank to join as the team's #2 behind Contador (or #1 if Contador gets suspended in his year-end hearing).There are also rumors that Saxo Bank is negotiating to merge with Astana, although Saxo Bank denies them. Like RadioShack and Leopard Trek, there is a bike manufacturer in common between the two teams: Specialized. It does seem that a lot of consolidation is being driven by bike manufacturers (though not Quick Step, which rides Eddy Merckx bikes, and Omega Pharma, which rides Specialized). Oh, and RadioShack had previously signed Tony Gallopin, the nephew of Alain, to a two-year deal: http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/9292/Tony-Gallopin-to-join-uncle-Alain-at-RadioShack.aspx With the signing of Jens Voigt last week, it appears that RadiShack-Nissan-Trak is over the 30-man limit with 31 riders. We'll have to see what Bruyneel and his new partners do about that
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AyaK 10083 desperate attention whore postings
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09-27-11, 01:50 AM (EST)
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56. "Why RadioShack merged" |
We're learning a lot more about the RadioShack merger. Apparently, there was only one motivation: Bruyneel wanted to coach Andy Schleck to a Tour victory. Basically, this isn't a merger at all -- it's Bruyneel selling his sponsors to Leopard Trek. Leopard Trek has told Bruyneel to dump the former RadioShack riders, and Bruyneel is now trying to sell them off. Because he's folding the organization that sponsored RadioShack, he may just cut them loose without compensation.In other words, the "merger" press release was a lie, just designed to buy Bruyneel time until after the Vuelta was over and the attention of the U.S. passed elsewhere. Jani Brajkovic, who was the leader of RadioShack at the Vuelta, has been told that he will be sold or released. If he's gone, then basically the whole team is gone except for, perhaps, a couple of the young guys (Ben King? Jesse Sergent?). This year, when I see Andy Schleck, I'll boo.
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AyaK 10083 desperate attention whore postings
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09-27-11, 09:04 PM (EST)
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57. "Levi Leipheimer ..." |
... signed with Omega Pharma-Quick Step, as had been rumored. He joins world time trial champion Tony Martin, who transferred there from the soon-defunct HTC-Highroad.Omega Pharma-Quick Step succeeds two Belgian teams that were known as classics specialists. The problem was that they never had contenders in the general classification in stage races. However, it's very difficult to specialize in classics and still accumulate enough points to retain ProTeam status (especially now, as UCI is moving to a points-based system to evaluate ProTeams for membership renewal). I'll post updates about where the rest of the Americans dumped by Bruyneel end up. Meanwhile, the USA Pro Cycling Challenge has been upgraded to a class 2.HC on the UCI America Tour, which puts it even with the Tour of California and one step below World Tour status. Thus, the US has four UCI-ranked stage races: the 2 2.HC events, the class 2.1 Tour of Utah and the class 2.2 Tour of Elk Grove. And the SRAM Tour of the Gil;a is still evaluating its options with regard to UCI status. However, it may be harder to get ProTeams now that the number of US-based ProTeams has shrunk from 4 to 2.
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AyaK 10083 desperate attention whore postings
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09-30-11, 08:49 AM (EST)
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59. "RE: Levi Leipheimer ..." |
Update: the Tour of Elk Grove was also upgraded, to class 2.1. So there won't be a 2.2 stage race in the U.S., which is OK.
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AyaK 10083 desperate attention whore postings
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09-30-11, 00:51 AM (EST)
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58. "RE: Why RadioShack merged" |
LAST EDITED ON 09-30-11 AT 08:47 AM (EST)Jani Brajkovic, who was the leader of RadioShack at the Vuelta, has been told that he will be sold or released. Correction: Brajkovic says that Bruyneel said RadioShack would release him as long as Brajkovic could find a deal he liked. Only riders who can't line up their own deal would be sold, and only if they agreed to it, according to Brajkovic. He claims that Bruyneel is trying to be helpful toward his ex-riders during the transition. The current rumor is the Jani will sign with Astana, which is in desperate need of a lead rider for major stage races now that Vinoukourov is no longer a threat. So, RadioShack has spread out like this so far:
Leipheimer: Omega Pharma-Quick Step
Brajkovic: probably Astana
Kloeden: apparently staying with Leopard Trek
Horner: unknown
McEwen: GreenEDGE
Rast: Leopard Trek (pre-merger signing)
Kwiatkowski: Omega Pharma-Quick Step
Hermans: Leopard Trek (pre-merger signing)
...and the hunt goes on.
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AyaK 10083 desperate attention whore postings
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10-06-11, 09:57 PM (EST)
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60. "Leipheimer speaks" |
LAST EDITED ON 10-06-11 AT 09:58 PM (EST)Levi Leipheimer has finally commented on the changes at RadioShack. http://tinyurl.com/3dvjsl4 Here are a few interpretations of his comments: 1) The bike manufacturers are totally driving the sport right now. Trek, Specialized, Cervelo, BMC, Cannondale, Pinarello -- they are controlling the sport to a greater degree than we've ever seen. Specialized was disappointed by the performance of two of its teams (Saxo Bank, Astana) this year, and then it was crushed by the collapse of its one successful team, HTC. It basically recruited Omega Pharma-Quick Step as a new lead team. It then picked up as many top HTC and RadioShack riders as it could for its teams, including Leipheimer, Jani Brajkovic and Tony Martin. And, because Specialized is a U.S. company, it wants Omega Pharma-Qucik Step to race in all the major U.S. events next year. Contador is still on Specialized with Saxo Bank, though he rode Trek for all but two of his Grand Tour wins. Trek couldn't have been happy to lose the existing RadioShack team, especially with all of the Shack's late season success, but its focus was turning Andy Schleck into the next Lance Armstrong in the U.S., it felt it needed Johan Bruyneel working with Andy to do that, and its plans were already in place BEFORE all of those late-season Shack victories. Plus, it kept Jesse Sergent and Ben King, the most promising of the young Shack riders (and native English speakers, so no problem getting US publicity for them), as well as defending Tour of California champion Chris Horner. Nevertheless, it's lost a lot of young good riders, including Taylor Phinney (to BMC) and Alex Dowsett (to Pinarello), as well as vets like Leipheimer. Like Trek, BMC, Cannondale and Cervelo are name sponsors of their one team for 2012. BMC has to be thrilled with their position: Cadel Evans, Taylor Phinney, and new riders Phillippe Gilbert, Thor Hoshovd and Tejay Van Garderen -- but that has to carry a huge financial commitment, too. And then comes Pinarello, with Team Sky and Team Movistar. Sky may well have the second highest budget in 2012. That's 9 teams, and I believe there are only 14 continuing ProTour teams. The others are Rabobank (Giant), AG2R (Kuota), Katusha (Focus), Lampre (Wilier) and Vacansoleil (Ridley), but none of these team look to be competitive. 2) All the riders knew what was happening with RadioShack. The fans didn't know because RadioShack the corporation didn't want the damage to its brand.
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AyaK 10083 desperate attention whore postings
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11-09-11, 01:42 PM (EST)
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62. "RE: Pro Tour Licences" |
Apparently RadioShack-Nissan's issue involves two facors:1) the continuing participation of Leopard Trek owner Flavio Becca, who is under investigation in Luxembourg, apparently for tax evasion. http://road.cc/content/news/44413-luxembourg-home-and-offices-leopard-trek-owner-flavio-becca-raided 2) the fact that Bruyneel flouted UCI rules by giving the team three sponsor names (RadioShack-Nissan-Trek) when UCI rules only permit two for ProTeams. http://inrng.com/2011/09/radioshack-nissan-trek-pick-two/ There's also some people whose feelings were hurt by the way Bruyneel pulled the rug out from under his riders on Team RadioShack. That may play a role as well, but it won't prevent the registration from happening. The UCI can't afford to antagonize the team's three sponsors, and it won't. It just wants to put Bruyneel under some sponsor pressure. Vacansoleil's case is more complicated, because it wouldn't have been eligible for ProTour status had it not added the rider who finished second in the 2010 Vuelta -- and he apparently used blood transfusions to achieve that finish. And its other leading rider has just been recommended for a two-year doping ban. Since UCI is holding the number of ProTeams at 18, there is some sentiment that one of the other contenders for a ProTour spot deserves it more than Vacansoleil.
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