TdF announcement day

Quoted message said:

LeBlanc makes the announcements for the wildcard teams that get TdF invitations today. Good thing
Cipo won yesterday's sprint.

I wonder if he'll try to get to Paris this year (if his team gets selected). I bet he'd like to win
on the Champs-Elysees, in the green jersey would be extra nice but very difficult i think.

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

Quoted message said:

LeBlanc makes the announcements for the wildcard teams that get TdF invitations today. Good thing
Cipo won yesterday's sprint. Before Coast turned to Toast, the expectation was that four teams
would be announced, bringing the total invitees to 22, 18 of whom had already been announced (with
Coast one of the 18). Now, I suspect that five teams will be announced, though a quick look at the
UCI regs shows that they changed

them

Quoted message said:

yet again: now the regs say that "For the Tour de France, the number of teams taking part in the
race shall be at least 21. For the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a Espana, the number of teams
taking part in the race must

be

Quoted message said:

between 18 and 22."

What an intriguing little loophole.

To review, the teams that are already in are: iBanesto Cofidis CSC Fassa Gerolsteiner Lotto-Domo
ONCE (except IGG) Rabobank USPS dingleBerry Kelme Telekom Alessio Vini Calderola-Sidermec Credit
Agricole FDJ Quick Step Saeco

The ones on the outside looking in are: Lampre Domina Ag2R Let them eat Brioches Jean Delatour
Phonak Euskaltel

Lampre has Rumsas, and hell would freeze before they'd get an invite. That leaves five spots for
six teams. Phonak has been unimpressive this year,

but

Quoted message said:

they're big advertisers.

Tomorrow morning, the Delatour's riders' breakfast cereal is going to

taste

Quoted message said:

like bitter wormwood.

And the winner is....

cyclingnews.comnewsOpen ↗

[quote="Jeff Jones"]And the winner is.... [url][/quote]

Spammer! Abuse!

I say we boycot the TdF without IGG, der Jan and ol' double eyes.

"Ewoud Dronkert" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...
[quote="Quoted message"][quote="Jeff Jones"]And the winner is.... [url][/quote]

Spammer! Abuse!

I say we boycot the TdF without IGG, der Jan and ol' double eyes.
[/quote]
And no Cipo! What were they thinking???

Jeff

"Jeff Jones" <jeff@cyclingnews-punt-com> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

And the winner is....

cyclingnews.comnewsOpen ↗

Damn. I picked the wrong undeserving team. I should have stuck with my usual rule: when in doubt,
LeBlanc will choose a French squad.

"Jeff Jones" <jeff@cyclingnews-punt-com> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...
[quote="Quoted message"]
"Ewoud Dronkert" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...
[quote="Quoted message"][quote="Jeff Jones"]And the winner is.... [url][/quote]

Spammer! Abuse!

I say we boycot the TdF without IGG, der Jan and ol' double eyes.
[/quote]
And no Cipo! What were they thinking???[/quote]

They were thinking that Jean Delatour is French and Domina-Vacanze (and Cipo) ain't.

"Jeff Jones" <jeff@cyclingnews-punt-com> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

And no Cipo! What were they thinking???

Jeff

Not to be a conspiracy nut, but I wonder if they are thinking, "If we can't stop Lance, we can at
least get rid of the competition, that way when he wins we can say 'of course the ignorant American
won, there was no competition'".

It's possible that's in the back of their minds, or forefront...

Chris B
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Jeff Jones said:

And the winner is....

cyclingnews.comnewsOpen ↗

So much for Cipo and Leblanc's little "understanding".

Euskadel was a given, they are a huge crowd favourite in the Pyrenees, but Brioches? Delatour? Is
the Tour rated 2.2 this year?

"Chris B" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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"Jeff Jones" <jeff@cyclingnews-punt-com> wrote in message

news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

And no Cipo! What were they thinking???

Jeff

Not to be a conspiracy nut, but I wonder if they are thinking, "If we can't stop Lance, we can at
least get rid of the competition, that way when he wins we can say 'of course the ignorant
American won, there was no competition'".

It's possible that's in the back of their minds, or forefront...

No.

A few months ago the French were crying because la Vuelta was inviting Spanish teams from the 2nd
division, like Costa de Almeria, Relax or Labarca-2. They were saying that if the Vuelta wanted to
be considered as a Great Tour should invite teams with quality. So the Tour is doing the same...
Robert Chung <[email hidden]> escribió en el mensaje de noticias
[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Jeff Jones" <jeff@cyclingnews-punt-com> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

And the winner is....

cyclingnews.comnewsOpen ↗

Damn. I picked the wrong undeserving team. I should have stuck with my

usual

Quoted message said:

rule: when in doubt, LeBlanc will choose a French squad.

Jeff Jones said:

Quoted message said:

I say we boycot the TdF without IGG, der Jan and ol' double eyes.

And no Cipo! What were they thinking???

..and no Cipo. (I was just waiting for today).

OK, way back on April 1st, under the "When will Team Coast implode?" thread I called:

- Top Ten status would not save Team Coast
- All 6 French Div 1 teams would get in
- Including the atrocious Jean Delatour
- Coast would detonate on May 16th

Even though I hit the date dead on, I chose it as the date after the wildcard announcement which I
had read somewhere as the 15th. So that was only by accident but still pretty good, eh? I was
correct in that the timing would be connected to the wildcard announcement.

I was wrong about Domina Vacanze but I make no apology about that. Leblanc's more retarded than
anyone would have thought.

And I was right about Ullrich bailing but wrong about the destination (CSC). But all in all I think
I did better than all you guys did in picking the easy and boring stuff like race winners(*)

groups.google.comgroupsOpen ↗
ing.google.com

Bob Schwartz [email hidden]

(*) Henry excepted, of course

"Jeff Jones" <jeff@cyclingnews-punt-com> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...
[quote="Quoted message"]"Ewoud Dronkert" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...
[quote="Quoted message"][quote="Jeff Jones"]And the winner is.... [url][/quote]

Spammer! Abuse!

I say we boycot the TdF without IGG, der Jan and ol' double eyes.
[/quote]
And no Cipo! What were they thinking???

Jeff[/quote]

Pretty simple, in my opinion: The non-selection of Big Mat last year meant the almost complete
dismantelment (sp?) of that team, and they must have gotten strong messages from Delatour that the
same thing would happen to them if they didn't get selected. I think that this is more or less
stated by the President of the company, who said that jewelery companies (yes, that is what Delatour
is) are doing fairly poorly in France, but that Delatour has increased it's market share by 10% due
to Tour exposure. I think I read this in one of last week's Equipes.

So, given Cipollini's controversial start to the Giro, and his unruly attitude with respect to the
organisers (refusing to wear the intergiro of whatever jersey), I think that they were leaning
against him, and gave Delatour some kind of guarantee in the last few days.

The fact that Cipollini once again won exactly when he needed to didn't seem to affect the TDF
organisation, even though the fact that Cipo rises to the occasion when he has to is clearly what
makes him the greatest. That last part seems totally lost on the ASO.

And, how could you possibly compare Cipollini's team with any of the French teams just selected?
Brochard vs. Cipollini? Kirsipuu is the closest, but still. As for the usual reason that Leblanc has
given, that is, that Cipollini has never completed the Tour. I don't seem to recall that Kirsipuu
has done that either.

Last year, the TDF had some justification, due to the battle with Cipollini around Paris-Roubaix,
but this year, they have nothing to reproach him.

It's truly awful for sport. The most glaring aspect is that Cipollini is the person who in the past
decade has most affected the look of the Tour de France.

Anyway, for you people not living in France, such decisions are typical in all fields, and have
plagued me since I started living here.

-ilan

"Ilan Vardi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

Pretty simple, in my opinion: The non-selection of Big Mat last year meant the almost complete
dismantelment (sp?) of that team, and they must have gotten strong messages from Delatour that the
same thing would happen to them if they didn't get selected.

Yeah, but wasn't this going to be the last year for Jean Delatour anyway?

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

Quoted message said:

Anyway, for you people not living in France, such decisions are typical in all fields, and have
plagued me since I started living here.

-ilan

Assuming the decision was made before the weekend, it makes perfect sense. Why waste a team
selection on someone who's going to race for 5 or 6 days for second and third place and then
bail out? Last year I thought the Jean Delatour team made the race interesting by getting
involved in a lot of breaks, and even winning a stage. I would rather see Zulle and Ullrich in
the race than Mario.

-T

Ilan Vardi said:

Pretty simple, in my opinion: The non-selection of Big Mat last year meant the almost complete
dismantelment (sp?) of that team, and they must have gotten strong messages from Delatour that the
same thing would happen to them if they didn't get selected. I think that this is more or less
stated by the President of the company, who said that jewelery companies (yes, that is what
Delatour is) are doing fairly poorly in France, but that Delatour has increased it's market share
by 10% due to Tour exposure. I think I read this in one of last week's Equipes.

I understand that Leblanc wants to do what's right for French cycling, but he's not doing anyone any
favours by allowing Delatour to dodge extinction for another year. Let the cream rise to the top,
and let the rest languish and die. _That_ is what's best for French cycling.

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

Quoted message said:

I would rather see Zulle and Ullrich in the race than Mario.

Zulle? Yow. That's quite a diss.

they're not. they only invite Div. I teams. But the Div I now counts 30 teams, otherwise
they wouldn't.

Kurgan Gringioni said:

There is no question that Cipo's team should be in ahead of Jean Delatour, based upon merit. IMO,
Leblanc is saying, "You need us more than we need you. Payback is a [censored]".

Bingo. Cipo is as great a pain in the ass as he is a great rider, and he's a great rider.

Consider, what do you think is going through Leblanc's head when Cipo refuses to take off the
rainbow jersey for one of the Giro's leader jerseys? A jersey that someone has paid the organizer to

Consider also, just how many fewer people do you think will be lining the road up to Alpe d'Huez (a
road that I don't believe Cipo has ever raced, even as a member of the autobus) now that Cipo will
not grace the opening week?

The Giro needs Cipo much more than the Tour does. For all we know Castellano would love to be in a
position to tell Cipo to get lost.

Bob Schwartz [email hidden]