Lance at the TDU?

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by hippy
Did anyone see the late news last night?
I think it was on 'Chanel Number 7' (Ch7) and they spoke
about Pat Jonker (an aussie and ex teammate of Lance's)
trying to get him to race in the TDU in the future.

Apparently Lance has expressed an interest in this before and with him likely to be less competitive in the TdF, racing things
like the Giro and tours in other countries is back on the cards.

hippy
- now with new Stealth Mode!

Seeing as His team now has a new sponsor taking over after USPS pullout after this year, it may be likely. Altho he announced 2 days ago that he will be riding the TdF in 2005 as well
(obviously thinking he is gonna win this year too), so perhaps the 'LA fairwell tour' might be delayed a tad.

Cannot wait for the TdF. Gonna be a cracker!
LA, Ullrich, Simoni, Mayo (alas no Vinokourov now :-( ), and guys like Cooke, Mcewen, Ogrady, McGee and Evans all busting out of their skin, its gonna be HUGE

Know a guy in Adelaide who scored a beautiful Colnago given to him by Tony Rominger in the (i think) first TDU

What's with the 'Stealth Mode'😄

Quoted message said:

Originally posted by flyingdutch
Seeing as His team now has a new sponsor taking over after >USPS pullout after this year, it may be likely. Altho he >announced 2 days ago that he will be riding the TdF in 2005
as well (obviously thinking he is gonna win this year too), so >perhaps the 'LA fairwell tour' might be delayed a tad.

'Discovery Channel' I think are the new sponsors. They
mentioned that on the news as well.

Quoted message said:

Cannot wait for the TdF. Gonna be a cracker!

Yep! 🙂

Quoted message said:

Cooke, Mcewen, Ogrady, McGee and Evans all busting out of >their skin, its gonna be HUGE

Is O'Grady still riding it? He was off last year, I guessed he might
not be wanting to ride it? I don't really follow aussie riders that
much.. too much else to watch/do.

Quoted message said:

What's with the 'Stealth Mode'😄

Someone might have had their ears lowered on Saturday... 😉

hippy

Speaking of Lance, heard he's a bit not happy about ongoing
drug allegations - apparently a new book is being released
and the authors blatantly accuse him despite repeated
negative results. Good luck with him suing their bums off.
--

______________________________________

Tamyka Bell, PhD Student School of Human Movement Studies
The University Of Queensland
______________________________________

Originally posted by flyingdutch:

Quoted message said:

Seeing as His team now has a new sponsor taking over
after USPS pullout after this year, it may be likely. Altho
he announced 2 days ago that he will be riding the TdF in
2005 as well

Somehow I can't see an American being the first to win six tours. My bets are on Jan.

Regards,

Suzy

Quoted message said:

Originally posted by suzyj
Somehow I can't see an American being the first to win six
tours. My bets are on Jan.

My money is on Lance. He's a proven fighter and I think he's
hungry for the record. I know he was struggling a bit last year
and anything could happen, but my money is still on him...

Jan is still too fat isn't he? Mayo could be a threat in those
little hills... he beat Lance in that recent Dauphiné Libéré TT
and so did Hamilton and Sevilla. Cash on Hamilton for another
stage win or two..

What about the aussies.. who has predictions for them?

hippy

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by hippy
>Originally posted by suzyj

Quoted message said:

Somehow I can't see an American being the first to win six
tours. My bets are on Jan.

My money is on Lance. He's a proven fighter and I think he's
hungry for the record. I know he was struggling a bit last year
and anything could happen, but my money is still on him...

Jan is still too fat isn't he? Mayo could be a threat in those
little hills... he beat Lance in that recent Dauphiné Libéré TT
and so did Hamilton and Sevilla. Cash on Hamilton for another
stage win or two..

What about the aussies.. who has predictions for them?

hippy

My money is:

5/4 LA
6/4 Tyler-what-bone-sticking-out?-Hamilton
6/4 Mayo (call AlpeDeHuez little?)
4/1 Simoni
10/1 Jan-who-ate-all-the-pies?-Ullrich

Pettachi to win every flat stage bar-one and TTs before the hills and then pullout

Mcewen to regain green and then lose it to Ogrady in the last few stages

2 stagewins to Ozzies

Ogrady-sprintfinish after long breakaway with 5-10 others
Mcewen-sprint finish in first week to deny Pettachi a clean sweep before hills

Second last stage (indivTT) to decide the lot!

Not that im looking forward to it, mind...
🙄

In article <[email hidden]>,

flyingdutch said:

2 stagewins to Ozzies

Ogrady-sprintfinish after long breakaway with 5-10 others
Mcewen-sprint finish in first week to deny Pettachi a
clean sweep before hills

So you're writing off last year's prolog winner in the
prolog, even though he also won the prolog at the Giro this
year, and is in superb form? And you don't think the winner
of last year's maillot vert is going to win a stage?

I think you're selling the boys short...

--
Shane Stanley

hippy <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

'Discovery Channel' I think are the new sponsors. They
mentioned that on the news as well.

I'm sorry, but has anyone else found this funny..? I'm a
Simpson's fan, and in an episode in which the boys of
Springfield venture into Shelbyville, they split into
groups. Bully Nelson is teamed with nerdy Martin, who says
something like "We shall be called Team Discovery
Channel!"...

(distainful silence)

Just thought it was funny, that's all...

Sorry.

If you haven't been following Aussie cyclists in Europe, you
may be surprised to learn that the last week or so has been
HUGE. Cadel Evans won the Tour of Austria overall (and a
stage), Robbie McEwan has won two stages of the Tour de
Suiss (still going) and Stuie O'grady won two stages of the
Dauphine Libere and the points jersey. The week before that
Alan Davis won a stage of the Tour of Germany. I for one am
pumped for the TdF.

This is from Lance's web site
LEGAL NOTICE
RE: LANCE ARMSTRONG - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Lance Armstrong has reacted with concern and dismay at the
false allegations made by David Walsh, Chief Sports Writer
of the Sunday Times. The allegations appear in a forthcoming
book entitled 'LA Confidential', co-written with Pierre
Ballester and to be published in France. Extracts from the
book have appeared in L'Express and some of the book's
allegations were repeated in yesterday's Sunday Times.

Lance Armstrong utterly denies ever having taken any
performance enhancing drugs.

Accordingly, Lance Armstrong has instructed his lawyers to
immediately institute libel proceedings

1) In the High Court in London against the Sunday Times and
David Walsh seeking an injunction and substantial damages

2) In Paris, against David Walsh, Pierre Ballester, the
publishers of 'LA Confidential' and the publishers of
L'Express.

Proceedings will be filed in the High Court tomorrow.

Tamyka Bell said:

Speaking of Lance, heard he's a bit not happy about
ongoing drug allegations - apparently a new book is being
released and the authors blatantly accuse him despite
repeated negative results. Good luck with him suing their
bums off.

"flyingdutch" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

My money is:

5/4 LA
6/4 Tyler-what-bone-sticking-out?-Hamilton
7/4 Mayo (call AlpeDeHuez little?)
8/1 Simoni
9/1 Jan-who-ate-all-the-pies?-Ullrich

Pettachi to win every flat stage bar-one and TTs before
the hills and then pullout

Mcewen to regain green and then lose it to Ogrady in the
last few stages

2 stagewins to Ozzies

Ogrady-sprintfinish after long breakaway with 5-10 others
Mcewen-sprint finish in first week to deny Pettachi a
clean sweep before hills

Second last stage (indivTT) to decide the lot!

Not that im looking forward to it, mind... 🙄

Time gaps from team time trial to be crucial...perhaps the
maximum loss of time at 2:30 to be a factor. LA to marshall
his team to the front of the cobbled stage and one of the
other favourites to be stuck behind a crash on that stage.
Gilberto Simoni to talk big and do nothing. Roberto Heras to
attack LA but not force a break as Armstrong doesn't like
traitors. McEwen to whinge about no team support...read
Petacchi is faster than him. Cippolini to whinge about
everything, win nothing then crash and leave the race early.
Petacchi to win Green Jersey.

Peter

On 17 Jun 2004 00:33:30 -0700, [email hidden] (blah) wrote:

<snip>

Quoted message said:

If you haven't been following Aussie cyclists in Europe,
you may be surprised to learn that the last week or so has
been HUGE. Cadel Evans won the Tour of Austria overall (and
a stage), Robbie McEwan has won two stages of the Tour de
Suiss (still going) and Stuie O'grady won two stages of the
Dauphine Libere and the points jersey. The week before that
Alan Davis won a stage of the Tour of Germany. I for one am
pumped for the TdF.

And Stuuie also was 5th in the mountain competition. Yeah,
that's right. Stuie the mountain climber :-)

--
Regards. Richard.

& a stair-runner turned cyclist from Canberra called Crake riding for an
Austrian division 3 pro team beat Evans over the huge Grossglochner climb
& placed top ten on GC in a geniune Euro Tour .
"Richard Sherratt" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

On 17 Jun 2004 00:33:30 -0700, [email hidden]
(blah) wrote:

<snip>

Quoted message said:

If you haven't been following Aussie cyclists in Europe,
you may be surprised to learn that the last week or so
has been HUGE. Cadel Evans won the Tour of Austria
overall (and a stage), Robbie McEwan has won two stages
of the Tour de Suiss (still going) and Stuie O'grady won
two stages of the Dauphine Libere and the points jersey.
The week before that Alan Davis won a stage of the Tour
of Germany. I for one am pumped for the TdF.

And Stuuie also was 5th in the mountain competition. Yeah,
that's right. Stuie the mountain climber :-)

--
Regards. Richard.

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Steve
& a stair-runner turned cyclist from Canberra called Crake riding for an
Austrian division 3 pro team beat Evans over the huge Grossglochner climb
& placed top ten on GC in a geniune Euro Tour .

Yeah, it's not as if the Austria tour had the classiest field, but it was a good ride from Cadel, and there were still some quality riders. Paul Crake hasn't exactly come from nowhere! Good ride at the nats this summer, and one of the genuinely fittest blokes in Australia (or Europe, at the moment).

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Peter Vesel
[B

Time gaps from team time trial to be crucial...perhaps the
maximum loss of time at 2:30 to be a factor. LA to marshall
his team to the front of the cobbled stage and one of the
other favourites to be stuck behind a crash on that stage.
Gilberto Simoni to talk big and do nothing. Roberto Heras to
attack LA but not force a break as Armstrong doesn't like
traitors. McEwen to whinge about no team support...read
Petacchi is faster than him. Cippolini to whinge about
everything, win nothing then crash and leave the race early.
Petacchi to win Green Jersey.

Peter [/B]

Petacchi might wear green but he cant win it cos he wont finish it.

Ogrady has always been a decent climber, just not outstanding like the noted riders.

As for Cookey, unless he's faking it, his form is not what it was last year. shame.

And yes, McGee to be favourite for opening Prologue. Millar to discover a new form of 'mechanical' 😄

Ohy, and look out for ore riders using them new campag and FSA compact 50/34 chainsets in the hillier stages (at least them woosey wheel-suckin sprinters and Hamilton)