Lance has already won

wicklow200 said:

It seems Lance is the strongest GC rider on tour by a huge distance. Almost a whole minute on any of his nearest rivals!!!

On that basis that he doesn't fall ill or have a so-called bad day in the mountains, there is no one to stop him.

The race is over.

How can one rider be so far ahead of all the others?

It aint over til the winner's wheel is across the line in Paris.

Being an Ullrich fan means being disappointed year in and year out and it's my first sentence that keeps me watching...

I think Lance has 'the full package' - correct mental attitude, good genes, cancer lightened body, awesome support team, great sponsors with fantastic access to technology etc. Much as I don't like the guy - he does commend admiration.

Eldron said:

It aint over til the winner's wheel is across the line in Paris.

Being an Ullrich fan means being disappointed year in and year out and it's my first sentence that keeps me watching...

I think Lance has 'the full package' - correct mental attitude, good genes, cancer lightened body, awesome support team, great sponsors with fantastic access to technology etc. Much as I don't like the guy - he does commend admiration.

how can one rider be so far ahead? Hmm, ask Dr Ferrari...

sorry to be so cycnical but look at Gilbert's comments after riding the D-L - when even the pros admit it you know there's something in it....

micron said:

sorry to be so cycnical but look at Gilbert's comments after riding the D-L - when even the pros admit it you know there's something in it....

got link? have not heard about this...

Better question: how come it is every year a suprise for people that LA is better! It's more hopes and wishfull thinking then realistic looking at the facts!

wicklow200 said:

It seems Lance is the strongest GC rider on tour by a huge distance. Almost a whole minute on any of his nearest rivals!!!

On that basis that he doesn't fall ill or have a so-called bad day in the mountains, there is no one to stop him.

The race is over.

How can one rider be so far ahead of all the others?

wicklow200 said:

It seems Lance is the strongest GC rider on tour by a huge distance. Almost a whole minute on any of his nearest rivals!!!

On that basis that he doesn't fall ill or have a so-called bad day in the mountains, there is no one to stop him.

The race is over.

How can one rider be so far ahead of all the others?

I don't think that a one minute lead over his main rivals is huge - especially this early in the TDF.

The race is by no means over : there are three weeks to go, anything can happen during that time which could alter placings.
I think people are assuming that because LA did well in the ITT that he will automatically win the TDF.
Nothing at this stage can be taken for granted : it is far too early in the TDF to start to draw firm conclusions, either way.

limerickman said:

I don't think that a one minute lead over his main rivals is huge - especially this early in the TDF.

For a race that is going to take over 80 hours to complete I would say this race is in the bag with his 1 minute lead before any of the mountains and main TT stages🙄

Relax Lim, let all the guys that just started watching the TdF because they bought a livestrong bracelet remain in ignorance 😉

wilmar13 said:

For a race that is going to take over 80 hours to complete I would say this race is in the bag with his 1 minute lead before any of the mountains and main TT stages🙄

Relax Lim, let all the guys that just started watching the TdF because they bought a livestrong bracelet remain in ignorance 😉

Can anyone name a rider over the last 6 tours that has been able to make up over a minute on Armstrong in combined mountain and ITT stages. We have had climbers able to do this in the mountains, but then lose their gains by double or more in the ITTs. No one has been able to make up more than a minute on Armstrong in the ITT department, and the fact the he smoked the competition so badly in the opener I think it is reasonable to assume that this is very unlikely this year as well.

Chris Carmicheal, who has the advantage of comparing Lance's pre tour stats for the last 7 attempts, said just before the tour that this would be Lance's biggest winning margin.

davidbod said:

Can anyone name a rider over the last 6 tours that has been able to make up over a minute on Armstrong in combined mountain and ITT stages. We have had climbers able to do this in the mountains, but then lose their gains by double or more in the ITTs. No one has been able to make up more than a minute on Armstrong in the ITT department, and the fact the he smoked the competition so badly in the opener I think it is reasonable to assume that this is very unlikely this year as well.

Chris Carmicheal, who has the advantage of comparing Lance's pre tour stats for the last 7 attempts, said just before the tour that this would be Lance's biggest winning margin.

Stop trying to ruin my illusion with facts and logic!!! 😄

davidbod said:

Can anyone name a rider over the last 6 tours that has been able to make up over a minute on Armstrong in combined mountain and ITT stages. We have had climbers able to do this in the mountains, but then lose their gains by double or more in the ITTs. No one has been able to make up more than a minute on Armstrong in the ITT department, and the fact the he smoked the competition so badly in the opener I think it is reasonable to assume that this is very unlikely this year as well.

Or it could mean he peaked too early and will lose the race in the 3rd week. I really don't understand the point of predicting winners after three stages. Yes, we now have some hints, but it's boring and impossible to really know.

After watching that ITT, I went out for a ride. It was the first time in my life that I was embarassed to be wearing pink spandex

limerickman said:

I don't think that a one minute lead over his main rivals is huge - especially this early in the TDF.

End of stage 3 and the TDF is over???? Never. The only obvious at this point is that Boonen is serious about wearing green. And Armstrong's fitness is not to be questioned anymore.
The mountains will have a say who wears yellow going into Paris. Lance could pull a Beloki in a downhill and that would all it would take. Think of all the near misses Armstrong has avoided in the last few years .... The little girl flipping him, the ride across the field after Beloki crashed, and the German fans lining the road,,,,, Remember Merckx????? The punch in the gut????? If memory serves me, after that happened he never really was the rider he was once. And everyone has to remember the TT stage where Greg was about a minute down on that Parisian with the ponytail ??????
Vino will have a say in when the TDF is over. To me, he is the only one that can de-throne Armstrong without a crash or something going wrong like that. The others are just pretenders. Maybe Basso ..... He is a legimate threat.
I am a Texan, an American , and a TDF fan of Armstrong's. I see him as a complete professional. However, this is the TDF and anything can happen.That's what makes the TDF the most exciting sporting event in the world. Remember the Indurain years ???? Sorry , but that was boring.

Well the public is getting bigger and bigger............that will be LA's biggest threat! He's still not loved, especially in the basque area.........last year it was a couple of times very close. He even rode on with deaththreads.............mentally soooo much tougher then the rest!

A person in the public only needs to come up with some sick idea to punch him (a la merckx) and his tour could be over.

wolfix said:

End of stage 3 and the TDF is over???? Never. The only obvious at this point is that Boonen is serious about wearing green. And Armstrong's fitness is not to be questioned anymore.
The mountains will have a say who wears yellow going into Paris. Lance could pull a Beloki in a downhill and that would all it would take. Think of all the near misses Armstrong has avoided in the last few years .... The little girl flipping him, the ride across the field after Beloki crashed, and the German fans lining the road,,,,, Remember Merckx????? The punch in the gut????? If memory serves me, after that happened he never really was the rider he was once. And everyone has to remember the TT stage where Greg was about a minute down on that Parisian with the ponytail ??????
Vino will have a say in when the TDF is over. To me, he is the only one that can de-throne Armstrong without a crash or something going wrong like that. The others are just pretenders. Maybe Basso ..... He is a legimate threat.
I am a Texan, an American , and a TDF fan of Armstrong's. I see him as a complete professional. However, this is the TDF and anything can happen.That's what makes the TDF the most exciting sporting event in the world. Remember the Indurain years ???? Sorry , but that was boring.

[font=Verdana]Calm down MJ ! You make him sound like superman... a lot of other riders face the same dangers as LA but don’t talk about it in the same Hollywood style LA and team Armstrong do.... they just get on it with.... its a bike race not a marketing extravaganza for one man…….
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MJtje said:

Well the public is getting bigger and bigger............that will be LA's biggest threat! He's still not loved, especially in the basque area.........last year it was a couple of times very close. He even rode on with deaththreads.............mentally soooo much tougher then the rest!

A person in the public only needs to come up with some sick idea to punch him (a la merckx) and his tour could be over.

Lol, I understand.......but then again they don't have deaththreads......

And I will try not to sound to much like musette😎

whiteboytrash said:

[font=Verdana]Calm down MJ ! You make him sound like superman... a lot of other riders face the same dangers as LA but don’t talk about it in the same Hollywood style LA and team Armstrong do.... they just get on it with.... its a bike race not a marketing extravaganza for one man…….
[/font]

wolfix said:

End of stage 3 and the TDF is over???? Never. The only obvious at this point is that Boonen is serious about wearing green. And Armstrong's fitness is not to be questioned anymore.
The mountains will have a say who wears yellow going into Paris. Lance could pull a Beloki in a downhill and that would all it would take. Think of all the near misses Armstrong has avoided in the last few years .... The little girl flipping him, the ride across the field after Beloki crashed, and the German fans lining the road,,,,, Remember Merckx????? The punch in the gut????? If memory serves me, after that happened he never really was the rider he was once. And everyone has to remember the TT stage where Greg was about a minute down on that Parisian with the ponytail ??????
Vino will have a say in when the TDF is over. To me, he is the only one that can de-throne Armstrong without a crash or something going wrong like that. The others are just pretenders. Maybe Basso ..... He is a legimate threat.
I am a Texan, an American , and a TDF fan of Armstrong's. I see him as a complete professional. However, this is the TDF and anything can happen.That's what makes the TDF the most exciting sporting event in the world. Remember the Indurain years ???? Sorry , but that was boring.

Fair post : and I agree the Indurain TDF were as boring as this current era.

spacelord said:

After watching that ITT, I went out for a ride. It was the first time in my life that I was embarassed to be wearing pink spandex

If you wear pink spandex you should be emabarrassed every time you go out. 😄

wolfix said:

End of stage 3 and the TDF is over???? Never. The only obvious at this point is that Boonen is serious about wearing green. And Armstrong's fitness is not to be questioned anymore.
The mountains will have a say who wears yellow going into Paris. Lance could pull a Beloki in a downhill and that would all it would take. Think of all the near misses Armstrong has avoided in the last few years .... The little girl flipping him, the ride across the field after Beloki crashed, and the German fans lining the road,,,,, Remember Merckx????? The punch in the gut????? If memory serves me, after that happened he never really was the rider he was once. And everyone has to remember the TT stage where Greg was about a minute down on that Parisian with the ponytail ??????
Vino will have a say in when the TDF is over. To me, he is the only one that can de-throne Armstrong without a crash or something going wrong like that. The others are just pretenders. Maybe Basso ..... He is a legimate threat.
I am a Texan, an American , and a TDF fan of Armstrong's. I see him as a complete professional. However, this is the TDF and anything can happen.That's what makes the TDF the most exciting sporting event in the world. Remember the Indurain years ???? Sorry , but that was boring.

My point concerned GC. Of course there are many different jersies to compete for. But I'm speaking about the yellow jersey

And of course my point was rather facile. Anything can happen. But on a facile level, BARRING ACCIDENTS OR AN UNUSUALLY BAD DAY IN THE MOUNTAINS, I still say this tour is over. LA has shown he's the strongest GC contender in the ITT. Why on earth would that no transfer to the mountains stages?? Yes there might be a case to argue that Ullrich still has something to show. But in all honesty can /have Ullrich or Vino ever pulled back 1-2 minutes on Lance in the mountains? In fact is there anyone who is a better climber in the tour than LA, based on the last 6 tours?

LA won last year easing up. 1 year on, he has proved that he is as strong as ever. The opposition haven't shown themselves to have caught up much. Even as some of these threads have suggested, a major rival in Basso, might now be using his energies to keep Zabr. in yellow for a week. Why would they do that unless they though it was game, set, and match to Lance? Probably a smart move on their behalf by the way.

My concluding point was not to insinuate anything about how Lance has managed to achieve this level again this year, but rather just express my astonishment at how far ahead he is. I can only make a football analogy: its almost like a player who scores a hattrick of goals every time he plays in a final.

[font=Verdana]I'm going to keep your post and lock it in a safe for a week and then bring it out Thursday next week... then and only then I will bring it out and you will look silly very silly.... this tour is not over but a long way.... I know !
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wicklow200 said:

My point concerned GC. Of course there are many different jersies to compete for. But I'm speaking about the yellow jersey

And of course my point was rather facile. Anything can happen. But on a facile level, BARRING ACCIDENTS OR AN UNUSUALLY BAD DAY IN THE MOUNTAINS, I still say this tour is over. LA has shown he's the strongest GC contender in the ITT. Why on earth would that no transfer to the mountains stages?? Yes there might be a case to argue that Ullrich still has something to show. But in all honesty can /have Ullrich or Vino ever pulled back 1-2 minutes on Lance in the mountains? In fact is there anyone who is a better climber in the tour than LA, based on the last 6 tours?

LA won last year easing up. 1 year on, he has proved that he is as strong as ever. The opposition haven't shown themselves to have caught up much. Even as some of these threads have suggested, a major rival in Basso, might now be using his energies to keep Zabr. in yellow for a week. Why would they do that unless they though it was game, set, and match to Lance? Probably a smart move on their behalf by the way.

My concluding point was not to insinuate anything about how Lance has managed to achieve this level again this year, but rather just express my astonishment at how far ahead he is. I can only make a football analogy: its almost like a player who scores a hattrick of goals every time he plays in a final.

whiteboytrash said:

[font=Verdana]I'm going to keep your post and lock it in a safe for a week and then bring it out Thursday next week... then and only then I will bring it out and you will look silly very silly.... this tour is not over but a long way.... I know !
[/font]

This sounds tantalizingly close to a claim that you have some inside information. Believe me, I think most of us would love to have more than a nugget of hope that the GC battle will be a closely contested one. What do you know? . . .