Tour de France 2011

[MCdread]

17th place in a time trial is simply not acceptable for someone who wants to win the tour the France. Apparently he also hadn't explored the (very tricky) track of the time trial before the tour, while Cadel had already done another time trial on the same track (I think in the Dauphiné Liberé race)

Or maybe he was still a bit tired from his attack with Contador from the day before?

Well, I didn't say it was good, but it wasn't disastrous. Sastre, for example, was 12th in 2008, which I think is something Andy could aim to (but he still would be far from defending the yellow jersey). My point was that Evans's TT was really great (1 minute or 1'30'' better than his result in the same course during the Dauphiné Liberé iirc), and there'd be no way Schleck could live up to that I think.

In any case, Schleck's problem came from much earlier. I think he wasn't tactically astute early on, didn't seem to consider Evans a rival until too late in the race and has a deleterious obsession with Contador. It's nice to have two brothers on the podium, but Leopard and the Schlecks should also realise that Fränk will ever only win the Tour in exceptional circumstances. Most of the time the Schleck 1-2 just neutralises Andy in half of the stages. Maybe they can play with that idea to confuse other teams but imo it should be clear inside the team that Andy is the leader and Fränk its super-gregario, who'll only step forward if Andy is out of contention.

IMHO, not really...

There's always a chance of course but Evans is already very old for a TdF winner (3 oldest in history, IIRC). And next year Contador will probably not race the Giro d'Italia, so he'll focus his season of the TdF, which probably means that he'll be able to lose Evans on the mountains like he did last year. And Contador is actually quite good at the TT, so he won't lose minutes like Schleck did...

Presumably there'll also be guys like Gesink or Van Den Broeck in it. They're not necessarily better than Evans but it's a lot of guys vying for the top positions, plus the main threat, Contador (if he doesn't get suspended). This was the perfect Tour for Evans, everything came right and even though he had to work a lot in 2 alpine stages, he never really had to start a racing day in a non-defensive position (until the TT of course), which is his thriving environment. His clout is also now enhanced so he'll be attacked a lot more since day 1. But we'll see.

With the TdF victory of Evans, I'm trying to think of major sporting events that remain un-won by Australians. The only things that come to mind are the soccer World Cup, the Men's 100m sprint at the Olympics, and the US Masters golf tournament.

Oh and the FIBA world championship, if it counts.

Any others?

The Giro d'Italia!

 

[Stapel]

I do not agree with the concept of this silent agreement. Its a freaking race. No one should be cruising to the finish line, they should be sprinting until the last man crosses to win the biggest cycling event in the world.

I mean in a marathon run, does everyone just not try on the last mile and let whoever is ahead at mile 25 win?

It's not like you think it is.
The last stage is a flat stage, for the simple reason it is in Paris. The last 60 kilometres are always at the Avenue des Champs d'Elysées. On such a stage it is simply impossible to escape from the peloton, if the peloton doesn't agree. Since it is bloody unlikely to gain 20 seconds (or more) in the last stage, it has become a silent agreement that you don't even try to escape.

As darkness said: if the difference is less than 5 seconds, there could be a decent fight for it!

 

[Stapel]

With the TdF victory of Evans, I'm trying to think of major sporting events that remain un-won by Australians. The only things that come to mind are the soccer World Cup, the Men's 100m sprint at the Olympics, and the US Masters golf tournament.

Oh and the FIBA world championship, if it counts.

Any others?

World Cup Twenty20 !
And no speed skating trophees either .

 

[azzaman333]

And no speed skating trophees either .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Bradbury

 

[Rik Meleet]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Bradbury

[wiki]Long track speed skating[/wiki] not [wiki]Short track speed skating[/wiki].

 

[azzaman333]

They both have speed skating in them, therefore they're the same.

 

[MCdread]

Way to go to incense the Dutch.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Hats off to Evans for an amazing stage.
I do not agree with the concept of this silent agreement. Its a freaking race. No one should be cruising to the finish line, they should be sprinting until the last man crosses to win the biggest cycling event in the world.

I mean in a marathon run, does everyone just not try on the last mile and let whoever is ahead at mile 25 win?

The last stage is largely symbolic, at least as far as the overall winner is concerned when he is leading by a sizable margin. It is a chance for Parisians to get a glimpse of the racers in their historical setting, which has been used since its inception.

At least now the vast majority of the route has acceptable paving instead of incredibly dangerous cobblestones. But the chances of falling in particular areas is still a major issue. So the tradition has now been set to try to assure the person who deserves to win actually does so, instead of being the victim of racing where they really shouldn't be doing so in the first place.

That said, there is always a last-minute sprint for the final stage win and many people are often still contending for the green jersey. But that sprint typically doesn't even start until the point where the person wearing the yellow jersey on the last day is already declared the champion no matter what happens after that. This year was a bit unusual because a few people tried to distance themselves from the peleton way too early in order to win the last stage, thereby increasing the actual risk to the yellow jersey wearer more than than normal.

They are simply trying to be fair about it. If the overall leader did fall, the peleton would likely come to a near halt until he had recovered and rejoined, as they also do when there are other crashes involving a lot of riders in any of the stages.

I think all these unofficial rules to be as fair as possible is one of the things that actually separates bike racing from many other sports. It helps to elevate the sport to a different level than merely being the benefactor of lucky circumstances.

 

[rugbyLEAGUEfan]

[wiki]Long track speed skating[/wiki] not [wiki]Short track speed skating[/wiki].

I would think the shorter the speedier

 

[Rik Meleet]

I would think the shorter the speedier

Absolutely not.

World record 500m short track men: 40.651 seconds
World record 500m long track men: 34.03 seconds

 

[Serutan]

Absolutely not.

World record 500m short track men: 40.651 seconds
World record 500m long track men: 34.03 seconds

Makes sense - fewer/(IIRC)gentler turns on the long track + longer
straightaways, so you can skate at much higher speed.

 

[Stapel]

Makes sense - fewer/(IIRC)gentler turns on the long track + longer straightaways, so you can skate at much higher speed.

Actually, on long tracks, the speed in the (indeed gentler) turns are higher than the speed in the straightaways (is that an English word?). Whereas at short track, which is really gay (hence its popularity Down Under ) there is no way to increase speed in the turns.

Great way to drift off topic.