TDF Stage 8

[TeleAl]

Well, you asked for it, and the breakaway succeeded today!!!
Weening won, with Kloden right there.
The photo finish did not convince me at all.

Lance stayed near Jan when Kloden took off.

VinoK looked great, sticking to anyone that took off,
except his team mate Kloden.

Was humorous to see the Sprinters falling off the Pelaton before the climb started.

They were moving fast today.
Tomorrow is more hills, more climbing, more torture,
and the Pelaton means less, as there is no place to hide from Gravity.

Sunday:

[peterslovo]

Awesome stage! That finish was ultra close between Kloden and Weening. I DVR'd it and watched the photo finish over and over and still can't see how they gave it to Weening, though. SOOOO close - I even think Kloden won, just MHO.

DId you hear Lance's comments in the interview after the finish of the stage? The team has "some talking to do"...I guess he kind of felt left out there to fight off the attacks by himself.

[InspectorGadget]

...I guess he kind of felt left out there to fight off the attacks by himself.

Agreed, because he was left out by himself.

I wonder if they would have given the stage victory to Kloden if Weening had caught Kloden with less than ten meters to the top. [/conspiracy theory]

Go Lance!

[Stu Gotz]

Oy. I was thinking Lance was going to win this thing going away, but T-Mobile is loaded for bear. One man's uninformed opinion, but I don't think that Discovery is strong enough to dictate the race like they have in the past. Lance will do his business in the Alps and the Pyrenees, but it doesn't look like Discovery will be able to cover the attacks that some of the teams send out.

Maybe T-Mobile doesn't need a leader if all three of its studs just keep attacking at all of the opportune moments. At some point, one of them is going to get awayt and cause some real time damage.

[TeleAl]

I think somewhere earlier I said,
"It will take 3 riders (or more) in a coordinated effort to beat Lance."
T-Mobile has them.

VinoK was a fuckin' accelerating maching today.
Jan sat back and gave Lance company.

And Kloden chased Weening down at the top (not very nice )
but Weening got his at the finish line

Is anyone convinced at that photo finish???

[TeleAl]

Here's what I said:

I don't even know who I am cheering for this year.
I like Lance, but I want his ass challenged, by about 3 different riders,
from 3 different teams, teaming to beat his ass.
And of course, when Lance beats them all, I will bow.

This is pumping me up something fierce!

[Duker]

Lance has got a big ole' bullseye on his back now. Im thinking Vinok will be right there at the end with lance.

[Steezy]

some good quotes in here





Armstrong Holds on to Lead in Tough Stage
----------------------------------------------------------
By JOHN LEICESTER, Associated Press Writer

Saturday, July 9, 2005


(07-09) 10:25 PDT GERARDMER, France (AP) --

Lance Armstrong kept his overall lead in the Tour de France on Saturday despite a rough day for his team and fierce challenges in the race's hardest mountain climb so far.

"I was trying to do my best and minimize the damage," Armstrong said. "If it's two more weeks of days like today, then you're in trouble."

Dutch rider Pieter Weening of the Rabobank team won the eighth stage in a sprint against Andreas Kloeden, last year's Tour runner-up.

Armstrong, bidding for a seventh straight title before retirement after the three-week race, finished in 20th place. He and key rivals Jan Ullrich and Alexandre Vinokourov arrived in a pack with the same time, 27 seconds behind the two leaders.

"A tough day for team Discovery," Armstrong said. "But I know those guys. They're going to be just as disappointed if not more disappointed than I am, so I'll think they'll get better."

Armstrong remained 1 minute, 2 seconds ahead of Vinokourov, who is third overall. Armstrong is 1:36 ahead of Ullrich. Germany's Jens Voigt of Team CSC moved up to second place overall, 1:00 behind the Texan.

Ullrich placed sixth in the stage and Vinokourov was 10th.

"It's a morale boost, a good sign," Vinokourov said, referring to Armstrong's difficulties. "We wanted to try to attack him before the high mountains."

Armstrong had to hold off Kloeden and his T-Mobile squad on the day's final climb. His Discovery Channel teammates were unable to help him respond to the challenge on the Col de la Schlucht ascent, leaving him alone to contend.

"Definitely, a crisis within our team on the final climb," said Armstrong, suggesting fatigue caused by the first fast week was a factor.

"There was really nothing we could do about that, sometimes we have a bad day. I think that maybe the team has been working more than we need to this week," he said.

Three T-Mobile riders — Ullrich, Vinokourov and Kloeden — could threaten Armstrong's hopes of a triumphant finish in Paris on July 24.

T-Mobile combined on Col de la Schlucht to make life difficult for Armstrong and his teammates, who failed to keep the pace in the final 10.4-mile ascent. Six more climbs lie ahead Sunday, before the even harder Alps next week.

Vinokourov attacked first, surging ahead. Armstrong accelerated and caught him, only for Vinokourov to break ahead again, following French rider Christophe Moreau of the Credit Agricole team.

Once more, and this time alone, Armstrong chased Vinokourov and was followed by Ullrich. They eyed each other warily as they powered up the mountain.

After another attack from Vinokourov, Kloeden took over, sprinting off ahead. Armstrong let him go, concentrating instead on Vinokourov and Ullrich.

"I was isolated, definitely suffering," Armstrong said.

Kloeden, meanwhile, surged away, his pink team jersey unzipped and flapping in the wind. Weening was ahead, and Kloeden caught him at the top of climb. The two raced together downhill to the finish, where Weening beat the German by a whisker at the line.

The 143.8-mile race started in the German town of Pforzheim and led straight into a series of four climbs. Huge crowds lined the fifth and final climb before the finish in Gerardmer, in eastern France.

Three of Armstrong's teammates finished the stage nearly a minute behind him, and the five others were a whopping 2:30 back.

"We have some talking to do tonight," Armstrong said. "There's a lot of bruised egos on our team and we have to try and recover."

[cj001f]

0.0002 of a second. Damn that's close.

[Artie Fufkin]

It's on! Awesome stage, Vino attacked as everyone expected, Kloden looks very strong. I was surprised how quickly Lance lost his teammates on the climb, which was not very steep, but they have been doing alot of work at the front the past few stages.

Lance and his team have been here before, they know how to defend the jersey and ride this race. Tomorrow should be epic, the OLN coverage begins 2 hours earlier(4:30AM MST). I saw the picture of the photo finish they made the determination on, and I couldn't tell who won.

How about Chris Horner, 9th place for stage. I don't think he is a GC contender, but could definitely take a stage at some point.

[slippy]

[Tap]

based on Slip's pic, i'd give it to Weening. There is just "that" much less light between his tire and the line compared to Kloden.

what if this whole Discovery Channel thing is a ruse, and they are conserving their energy for some BIG efforts on the larger mountians where they can put real time on Lance's competition? I mean, today just wasn't one of those stages where Lance would get seriously dropped, was it?

What if he told the team that he'd take care of himself today while T-Mobile pushed a little so that they could rest for the next 2 weeks? 2 weeks of hard racing, folks!

Just a thought, Lance has been known to throw a head-fake or two. Wasn't it 2 years ago where he tried to look broken and tired on a climb, only to crush them later.

[bagtagley]

It's all talk. Lance didn't even break a sweat today.

If that happens on a true mountain stage, I'll start to worry, but nothing happened today that would lead me to believe that Lance is in much trouble. US Postal/Discovery has a history of using trickery and tactics to throw off the competition. It's not like Hincapie forgot how to climb after all these years (especially on a Cat 2 climb). Besides, Lance has killed mountain stages with and without lead-outs.

BUT, if Discovery really is weak, and T-Mobile is going to take advantage, it just makes for an interesting Tour....finally.

Can't wait for tomorrow to find out.

[cj001f]

At 50km/h the winning time difference equates to 3mm.

[Crinkle]

I agree today was exciting, best stage so far, all the attacks. I am cheering for Lance, but if you have paid attention to the Lance of past years, he is know for making false statements to the press to make the others think they have a leg up on him. I am not saying that he may or may not have had difficulties today, just pointing out possible strategies.

[Telephil]

what if this whole Discovery Channel thing is a ruse, and they are conserving their energy for some BIG efforts on the larger mountians where they can put real time on Lance's competition? I mean, today just wasn't one of those stages where Lance would get seriously dropped, was it?

What if he told the team that he'd take care of himself today while T-Mobile pushed a little so that they could rest for the next 2 weeks? 2 weeks of hard racing, folks!

Just a thought, Lance has been known to throw a head-fake or two. Wasn't it 2 years ago where he tried to look broken and tired on a climb, only to crush them later.

That is the first thought that came to my mind today once they did the post race interview. I think that's exactly what they're doing, remember a couple years ago when Lance was supposedly suffering on a climb? it went over all the race radios, Ullrich took off only to blow up and have Lance win the stage, that was all discussed between Lance and Bruyneel.

[Trackhead]

Mind games or not, we will see tomorrow.

Can't wait.

I hope Vino gets a podium finish this year.

[TeleAl]

Thanks for the photo finish photos.
It is clear to me now that Weening won.
Actually, it is, but what a finish!

[Platinum Pete]

Stage 8 was hot shit! I won't re-run all the stuff y'all mentioned above about my homeboy Kloden or the Lance media manipulation vs. team disco sucking all day.
T-Mo is showing that they can ride better as a team this year, though they have a lot of stages left to prove their strategy. Lance can't take his eyes off Ullrich, but Kloden is a definite threat and Vino could make a run. Can Team Disco defend against that triple threat? Is Ullrich a trojan horse? Meanwhile CSC is not taking any naps. We haven't even seen Basso show his teeth, Bobby Julich is right up there, Zabriske (now out) made a name for himself this year. I wouldn't be too surprised at some coordinated effort between CSC and T-Mo to make sure the yellow doesn't go to Discovery. All this and you cannot count out Lance and his boys - on paper his strongest (but oldest) team ever.