Dauphine Libere - Time Trial

Juan Miguel Mercado had a great ride today in the TT finishing 4th..just ahead of Lance. Mercado's teammate(Virenque) was no where to be found amongst the leader board. That said...I hope that Quick Step's directors are smart enough to make Mercado the team captain for the tour over Virenque! Virenque's time is passed...and Mercado's time is now. He could get a top 5 at this year's tour...and he will do well in the TT up Alpe D'huez..which is the crucial stage of the Tour de France.

Got to be worried about Lance now. Mayo is just super!!!! Maybe he is the one!

There are a few articles in Yahoo!Cycling about the TT and of course most of them mention the question 'Is Lance in good enough shape?' and the answer in all of them is that hes fine. Mayo and Hamilton both say that Lance was just having a bad day. Whether Lance had a bad day or not he still was only two min down, which can matter a lot in the Tour but its a lot less than what is usually lost in a mountain stage. And also if today was a bad day for Lance and he was only 2 min back imagine what he can do on a good day!
Then in an interview Lance said this, "I thought I could go faster today,"

"But I was forced to realise I'm not a 100 percent yet.

"I was careful at the start and after five kilometres, when the climb really starts, I found a good rhythm.

"But when I heard the gap between me and Mayo, I didn't really slow down but I was less determined.

"I'm not worried because the Tour does not start on Saturday."

And hes completely right. Lance trains to peak in July for the tour, at this point he's good but he's still not at his peak! I don't think that anything that happened today determines how Lance or Mayo or Hamilton will do in the Tour de France. We've still got three weeks to the start and six weeks to the finish, ANYTHING can happen...

Also, Lance likes the mind games so I would not be completely surprised if he was taking it easy deliberately.

The only thing this proves to me is that this year's tour should be an absolute blast to watch and I can hardly wait!

Tyler looked great.

Outstanding effort by Mayo! 🙂

Excuse me , but Mr Armstrong had a lot of bad day since a while....
I don't think that his 'cinema' will impress somenone if it is a 'cinema' and if it works once it will not automatically works 1000times....
As a matter of fact he was shown that he can loose a big cirquit during a time trial, and on a flat surface and in the moutains and there is not only Ullrich who will be able to beat him..

Ullrich must have shed some winter fat; he's still holding the Yellow jersey in the Tour de Suisse. I bet he'll be the contender in this year's Tour that we expected him to be when he came so close to winning last year. Wow! He sure puts on the weight in the wintertime only to lose it so close to the Tour. By the way, I always thought he was taller; he's only 5'8". I thought he was closer to 6'0". The media always refers to him as the Big German. He's about the same weight as Lance, just shorter.

Tyler Hamilton may be a better Tour rider than Mayo. Consider that Tyler was only a short distance from Mayo up Mont Ventoux. On a flat time trial, it would be Hamilton beating Mayo. So Tyler is a force to be reckoned with this year too.

As for Lance, he's pulled the rabbit out of the hat so many times. I wouldn't count him out of the Tour yet. Two minutes, even he admits, is a hefty margin to improve on only 3 weeks from the Tour, but then again, it's not 5 or 10 minutes. So I wouldn't write him off just yet.

This Mayo character may be someone to watch closely too. It's going to be an exciting Tour this year. I am looking forward to watching every detail.🙂

Patch70 that is exactly what I am thinking. Lance sandbagged the TT to make his opposition look better and play a mental game with them. They will think they are all that and won't keep there preparation serious over the next few weeks.

Come the TT up the alp and lance will run away with it. He'll back that up with a ownage of everybody in the 60km time trial.

You remember the 2001 tour where he played everybody in front of the television cameras then gave everyone the look and took off.

He dominated the Tour De Georgia, then looked scroggy at the Dauphine. All the stupid media that says, OMG lance is old. Lance is past his prime..are in for a sad awakening.

Lance will win by 10 minutes or more if he wants. He will be as dominate as he was in the 2002 tour.

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by gntlmn
Ullrich must have shed some winter fat; he's still holding the Yellow jersey in the Tour de Suisse. I bet he'll be the contender in this year's Tour that we expected him to be when he came so close to winning last year. Wow! He sure puts on the weight in the wintertime only to lose it so close to the Tour. By the way, I always thought he was taller; he's only 5'8". I thought he was closer to 6'0". The media always refers to him as the Big German. He's about the same weight as Lance, just shorter.

I could be wrong, but I think your first opinion of Ulrich was the more correct. I read in a few places that he is 183 cm and around 73kgs when in top form.. Maybe it's incorrect though.
In this photo taken last year, he doesn't look shorter than lance..
Nevertheless, both are amazing riders!

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by emrin
I could be wrong, but I think your first opinion of Ulrich was the more correct. I read in a few places that he is 183 cm and around 73kgs when in top form.. Maybe it's incorrect though.
In this photo taken last year, he doesn't look shorter than lance..
Nevertheless, both are amazing riders!

I hate to admit this, but I cannot recognize Jan from either of those two other riders. I have seen Jan so many times too. It must be the picture. But if it's true that he's there in this one, then he is taller than Lance, not shorter, and Lance is 5'10" (about 178 cm). Hmmm. That article may have been wrong. It said Jan is 5'8".

But then again, it is difficult to tell. In Hollywood, some actors, like Tom Cruise, always get a camera angle that makes them appear taller than they really are. In this photo you have inserted, it is impossible to tell if Lance is standing farther back from the front of the podium than the other two, which would make him appear relatively shorter. Did you know that Tom Cruise is only 5'7"? I bet you're surprised.

Aha! Here's where I saw Jan's height and weight listed.

http://cbs.sportsline.com/cycling/riders/page/400058

Check out Mayo's bike, the one he rode up Mont Ventoux.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/tech.php?id=photos/2004/tech/probikes/euskaltel_orbea/mayo_ventoux16