Tripleshot Cycling

I don't know how many caught stage 18 today, but what a ride.

Andy Schleck attacked with about 60 km and two climbs to go and held on for a big win and a gain of over 2 minutes.

Interesting team tactics - Leopard Trek had sent 2 riders ahead in the main break to be positioned to help Schleck when he attacked.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/tour-de-fran ... 18/results

Love this comment in the article - 'Contador drops anchor'

In a live interview that did not make this article, Frank Schleck said the plan was for Andy to 'attack, attack, attack' and tire out the other gc contenders, then Frank would conduct a late attack for the win. The other gc contenders just did not follow Andy's initial attack. Great drama.

It was a fantastic stage, I was working until 2:30 this morning, but i still got up to watch the stage, and don't regret it. Leopard-Trek had an incredible ride, more than just Andy, Maxime Monfort also did an incredible bit of racing to help Andy. It was super intense watching the race leader sacrifice their domestiques to try and close the gap and they could only hold it.

In my opinion the most incredible ride of the day was Cadel Evans, the man is an absolute monster. he rode like an man possessed for the last 10km closing a gap of 4:30 to just over 2 minutes with no help from any of the other race favourites (Frank has an excuse).

Honourable mention to Thomas Voeckler who hung in with Cadel's monster pace and kept the yellow jersey.

And finally Alberto Contador was dropped like an anchor. After the watching the Giro this year it seems impossible to watch him go backwards on a mountain. Though the Giro is likely to blame, it was 3 weeks of the hardest race I've ever heard of, with very little time to recover until the the tour.

Best race since Paris-Roubaix this Spring.

Dylan J C wrote:... Alberto Contador was dropped like an anchor. After the watching the Giro this year it seems impossible to watch him go backwards on a mountain. Though the Giro is likely to blame, it was 3 weeks of the hardest race I've ever heard of, with very little time to recover until the the tour.

Just like there's only 'safer' sex, I am under no illusions that pro cycling is squeaky clean. However, this is to me some of the best evidence that we're looking at a cleaner race. I can't recall ever seeing so many GC riders so visibly completely spent at then end of a stage. And for what it's worth, I have way more respect for Contador now than ever before. He's shown courage and heart, whatever the final GC outcome.

And Voeckler's race was effing heroic, period. He can get shelled tomorrow and still have 'won' his tour, far exceeding his own expectations. What a ride.

R

This is sure to be a fantastic finish. My money is on Frank Schleck tomorrow, with a dark horse prediction of Danielson.

One more epic climb, and a potentially decisive time trial, doesn't get much better!

Ah...no mention of that Canadian guy? He was only a 3 minutes and change back! I think I recall a fine performance on D'Huez last year from our Victoria friend. He is honestly what got me racing! I'm really really hoping to see another top 10 in tomorrows stage. I heard his biggest strength compared to other riders is next day recovery.

Salut les amis !
I am writing to you from Erquy in France. Here the tour is broadcast live every afternoon and the newspapers have 3 to 5 pages of tour coverage every day. I got to see the tour on stage 5 (Carhaix - Cap Fréhel) and also caught the start of stage 6 in Dinan. Hoping to catch the final stazge in Paris too; Over here, the buzz is all about Thomas Voeckler of course. Sometimes French cycling fans appreciate riders "qui se montrent" (those who attack, suffer and ride with panache) more than a "winning" rider. Riders like J. Roy, T. Voeckler and those 2 dudes who got hit by a motorcycle and admired and applauded just as much (or more) than the Schlecks and Contadors of the world. See you in August.

The last three stages have been epic. Unfortunately today is a pretty boring stage at only 109 km with only two climbs (three if you count Télégraphe half way up Galibier).

There sure are a lot of armchair directeurs sportifs out there on the interwebs (not here because Tripleshot riders know their stuff) who have been slagging the riders for their strategy. They're treating bike racing like it's exclusively a game a strategy and forget, or never knew, that there's a slightly large endurance athletics component to it and these guys are racing right at the limit of exploding all the time once it gets down to the big contenders on the big climbs. It was supposedly a big fail to "let" Andy Schleck get a big gap yesterday. Obviously Cadel Evans was the only rider who was comparably strong to the thinner Schleck and he managed the gap as well as he could have. If he'd gone harder at any point he probably would have cracked and congratulations now Fat Schleck is way up the road with his bro, with nobody strong enough to chase them and it's all over. Sanchez and Contador blew up even letting Evans stay out front, so what could anybody else have done? Voeckler is barely hanging on, Basso and Cunego are barely barely hanging on and out of contention for the win anyway. These guys have all done many grand tours and wouldn't have made it where they are if they weren't extremely good at managing their physical resources for the length of a stage and the length of a tour.

sylvan wrote:The last three stages have been epic. Unfortunately today is a pretty boring stage at only 109 km with only two climbs (three if you count Télégraphe half way up Galibier).

If you're out riding now DO NOT miss the stage replay tonight.