Lance [censored] at Evans???

First, Evans was not sprinting for the stage win. This is an important difference. Nor was he sprinting to have a different stage finish time than other cyclists in his group.

Second, he was with the "heads of state", as OLN commentators might way, of the Tour -- not only for this year but in certain prior years. This was Evans' first TdF and he was trying to do something which did not show respect to the key Tour contenders.

Third, he was doing this to the yellow jersey. He was also doing this to the "boss" of the peloton at the TdF for some years. Obviously, Perreiro is neither a "head of state", the boss of the peloton, or the wearer of the yellow jersey. He was not even, at the point he was saying some of things he was saying, co-leader on his own team! 😄

Translation: Don't mess with the schoolyard bully or you'll get treated like he treats Simeoni & Landis.

And another story:

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec.bicycles.racing/browse_thread/thread/543d4846e3f17c9e/9b157899dc06b070

Here is another story of something that happened during stage 9.

M. Rasmussen was in a breakaway along with Cioni, while Voight and Moreau
chase them.

Armstrong is beginning to worry because he doesn't know who
M. Rasmussen is, and seeks out Boogerd in the peloton to ask him: "This
Rasmussen, who is he? And what is he doing out there?", Boogerd
answers: "Don't worry about him, he's just collecting points, once he
has passed all the climbs he will stop". An annoyed Armstrong says to
Boogerd as he rides back to his team "whatever... I don't care about
him anyway." An hour or two later when M. Rasmussssen has passed all the
climbs and hasn't stoped, Armstrong seeks out Boogerd again and asks
him "Hey, didn't you say that he would stop, once he had passed the
climbs? and Boogerds answers him: "Didn't you say that you didn't
care about him?"

musette said:

Second, he was with the "heads of state", as OLN commentators might way, of the Tour -- not only for this year but in certain prior years. This was Evans' first TdF and he was trying to do something which did not show respect to the key Tour contenders.

Evans was not with the "heads of state", he was with opponents.
How absurd to think that some competitors should obey some rules, and others not.
If LA is "[censored]" and showing it, that reflects only on him and his worthiness of respect.

musette said:

First, Evans was not sprinting for the stage win. This is an important difference. Nor was he sprinting to have a different stage finish time than other cyclists in his group.

Second, he was with the "heads of state", as OLN commentators might way, of the Tour -- not only for this year but in certain prior years. This was Evans' first TdF and he was trying to do something which did not show respect to the key Tour contenders.

Third, he was doing this to the yellow jersey. He was also doing this to the "boss" of the peloton at the TdF for some years. Obviously, Perreiro is neither a "head of state", the boss of the peloton, or the wearer of the yellow jersey. He was not even, at the point he was saying some of things he was saying, co-leader on his own team! 😄

So does that mean that IYO Evans should have stayed where he was or are you saying Evans had every right to sprint for the line?

It was an unnecessarily aggressive move by Evans that accomplished nothing except getting Lance Armstrong [censored] at him.

Maybe the Disco boys will take him out the back of the peloton and rough him up a bit.

musette said:

First, Evans was not sprinting for the stage win. This is an important difference. Nor was he sprinting to have a different stage finish time than other cyclists in his group.

It was even more important than that, cheerleader.

Evans was trying to maximise is his postion because............

musette said:

Second, he was with the "heads of state", as OLN commentators might way, of the Tour -- not only for this year but in certain prior years. This was Evans' first TdF and he was trying to do something which did not show respect to the key Tour contenders.

Heads of state ? What are you on ?

Evans sprinted because he wanted to maximise the time gains on Vino and Landis on GC - OLN probably weren't bothered to show that Landis and Vino were in the group chasing JU/CE/LA.
Landis and Vino and CE were all proximate on GC as things stood before the finish of stage 18.

musette said:

Third, he was doing this to the yellow jersey. He was also doing this to the "boss" of the peloton at the TdF for some years.

CE was sprinting across the line regardless of who was in his company.
CE was correct : his own position on GC takes priority.

When I saw Evans sprinting past the rest I thought to myself: "What was that for?"

Apparently that is also what Armstrong exclaimed.

I do not know about Lance, but I am not [censored] at Evans, just baffled as to why he did it.

This was from The London Times this morning: (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2841-1703666,00.html)

[font=Verdana]The 28-year-old Australian, a former world mountain biking champion, has shown the aggression of a future Tour winner. Yesterday his decision to sprint past Armstrong at the finish incurred the defending champion’s wrath. [/font]

[font=Verdana]“Lance was pretty angry with me,” Evans, who endured two disappointing years with the T-Mobile team before switching to the Belgian sponsor, Davitamon-Lotto, said. “He said, ‘what was that for?’ But I had to sprint for it, I’m a bike racer. If the opportunity’s there I take it and today I went all out. [/font]

[font=Verdana]“They told me the final climb was steep, so I took my watch off this morning to save weight. I’m sponsored by the Belgian lottery and it looked like I got the right ticket today.” [/font]

What I don't understand is Armstrong how always sprinted past other riders when the stage has already been decided... he does it to gain a physiological advantage…… who is he to dictate this to Evans especially what happened with GH.... Armstrong is a bully !

dome said:

When I saw Evans sprinting past the rest I thought to myself: "What was that for?"

Apparently that is also what Armstrong exclaimed.

I do not know about Lance, but I am not [censored] at Evans, just baffled as to why he did it.

whiteboytrash said:

This was from The London Times this morning: (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2841-1703666,00.html)

[font=Verdana]The 28-year-old Australian, a former world mountain biking champion, has shown the aggression of a future Tour winner. Yesterday his decision to sprint past Armstrong at the finish incurred the defending champion’s wrath. [/font]

[font=Verdana]“Lance was pretty angry with me,” Evans, who endured two disappointing years with the T-Mobile team before switching to the Belgian sponsor, Davitamon-Lotto, said. “He said, ‘what was that for?’ But I had to sprint for it, I’m a bike racer. If the opportunity’s there I take it and today I went all out. [/font]

[font=Verdana]“They told me the final climb was steep, so I took my watch off this morning to save weight. I’m sponsored by the Belgian lottery and it looked like I got the right ticket today.” [/font]

What I don't understand is Armstrong how always sprinted past other riders when the stage has already been decided... he does it to gain a physiological advantage…… who is he to dictate this to Evans especially what happened with GH.... Armstrong is a bully !

Armstrong can be as [censored] as he wants.
CE did the correct thing yesterday.

Evans sprinted because he wanted to maximise the time gains on Vino and Landis on GC - OLN probably weren't bothered to show that Landis and Vino were in the group chasing JU/CE/LA.
Landis and Vino and CE were all proximate on GC as things stood before the finish of stage 18.

Not that Evans had to explain or justify anything, you know.

"Evans sprinted because he wanted to maximise the time gains on Vino and Landis on GC -"

Who are you trying to fool? All he did was get his wheel ahead of Lance's. He did not pull the group to gain time and certainly did not achieve a time gain. He just wasted some energy to childishly finish ahead of Lance.

dome said:

"Evans sprinted because he wanted to maximise the time gains on Vino and Landis on GC -"

Who are you trying to fool? All he did was get his wheel ahead of Lance's. He did not pull the group to gain time and certainly did not achieve a time gain. He just wasted some energy to childishly finish ahead of Lance.

Not trying to fool anyone, pal.

I think GC before and after stage 18 might clarify the point for ya.

General Classification before the start of stage 18 :

Pos Rider Time

7 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) T-Mobile Team 9.38
8 Cadel Evans (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto 9.49
9 Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak Hearing Systems 9.53

General Classification before the AFTER stage 18 :

Pos Rider Time

7 Cadel Evans (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto 9.49
8 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) T-Mobile Team 10.11
9 Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak Hearing Systems 10.42

Evans,Armstrong,Basso and Ullrich all got the same time and if Evans had finished last in this group his new GC position would have been the same.
The only reason for him to have sprinted would have been to have the group finish earlier, but he did not do this, he only got his wheel ahead of Armstrong's which could not have earned any time at all.

dome said:

Evans,Armstrong,Basso and Ullrich all got the same time and if Evans had finished last in this group his new GC position would have been the same.
The only reason for him to have sprinted would have been to have the group finish earlier, but he did not do this, he only got his wheel ahead of Armstrong's which could not have earned any time at all.

Six of one, half dozen of the other, I think.

limerickman said:

Armstrong can be as [censored] as he wants.
CE did the correct thing yesterday.

Evans sprinted because he wanted to maximise the time gains on Vino and Landis on GC - OLN probably weren't bothered to show that Landis and Vino were in the group chasing JU/CE/LA.
Landis and Vino and CE were all proximate on GC as things stood before the finish of stage 18.

Yes, but he didn't gain any time and he couldn't possibly think he was going to gain any time 100 metres out. I also didn't see him taking any turns up front so if time gain was his main aim why didn't he go up front and do some work? 😕

It was all very strange.

tinks said:

Yes, but he didn't gain any time and he couldn't possibly think he was going to gain any time 100 metres out. I also didn't see him taking any turns up front so if time gain was his main aim why didn't he go up front and do some work? 😕

It was all very strange.

He moved from 9th on GC to 7th on GC, so he gained time on Landis and Vino.

limerickman said:

He moved from 9th on GC to 7th on GC, so he gained time on Landis and Vino.

But my point is, if that was his main priority; why didn't he work with the group and do some pacemaking?

From what I saw, he just sat at the back and sprited over Armstrong in the last 100 for no real reason.

tinks said:

But my point is, if that was his main priority; why didn't he work with the group and do some pacemaking?

From what I saw, he just sat at the back and sprited over Armstrong in the last 100 for no real reason.

I take your point.

I did notice that JU eased up and Basso too as they approached the line.

Evans gained no time on Vino, etc. as a result of his little sprint. They were too close to the finish. To the contrary, it could be argued Evans would have had the chance to gain more time on Vino, had he cooperated a bit more (or otherwise made efforts) before his last minute little antic.

Fortunately, his move is largely seen for what it is -- childish behavior from somebody who has no chance to podium, and who is lucky he was permitted to stay away on certain prior stages enough to be in the top 10.

I don't know if Evans might have had a grudge against JU for Evans' not having been on the Tour team last year. Perhaps he was trying to -- again childishly -- make sure he finished ahead of JU.

musette said:

Evans gained no time on Vino, etc. as a result of his little sprint. They were too close to the finish. To the contrary, it could be argued Evans would have had the chance to gain more time on Vino, had he cooperated a bit more (or otherwise made efforts) before his last minute little antic.

Fortunately, his move is largely seen for what it is -- childish behavior from somebody who has no chance to podium, and who is lucky he was permitted to stay away on certain prior stages enough to be in the top 10.

I don't know if Evans might have had a grudge against JU for Evans' not having been on the Tour team last year. Perhaps he was trying to -- again childishly -- make sure he finished ahead of JU.

That's the biggest load of [censored] I've ever read! Evans had every right to do what he did. Hincapie sat on for 200km and Armstrong had nothing to say about that.
Ten years ago Johan Bruyneel sat on Miguel Indurain for 50km and outsprinted him for a stage win. He never went to the front once and now we all know who's team he manages. Armstrong's attitude was hypocritical
When he asked Evans 'what was that for?" Cadel should have replied 'No gifts!". Ha ha.