Tour Down Under

limerickman said:

Has the field been finalised???

never final until the managers meeting the day before the race, but

tourdownunder.com.au2009Open ↗

lucybears said:

never final until the managers meeting the day before the race, but

tourdownunder.com.au2009Open ↗

Luc, thanks for that listing.

latest:
CAISSE D'EPARGNE
Mathieu PERGET replaces PORTAL
startlist.cyclingfever.comstartlist.htmlOpen ↗

LewisBricktop said:

Don't compare Ulle and LA. The former did compete in some early season races for training, however the latter simply never competed this early in the season. However, he did try to win the few races he started because of his MASSIVE EGO.

In an old cyclingnews story, "team manager Johan Bruyneel outlined the racing program for his top rider Lance Armstrong. Bruyneel believes that Armstrong's emphasis of quality over quantity in his training and race preparation is the main reason that Armstrong has won the Tour de France four times in a row. Armstrong doesn't compete often in the early part of the season, but when he does he makes it count. Furthermore, Bruyneel thinks that too much racing could have an adverse affect on Lance's form in the Tour."

Living in Spain, I had the benefit of seeing LA "race" in Spain on a couple of occasions as part of his early season schedule. I can assure you he was not there to win anything, he may have a big ego but he was not stupid enough to push himself in Feb-March when nothing of value is at stake. He was riding to get race fit and assess where he and his main rivals were in terms of preparation. JB is good at soundbites but not necessarily the truth.

Armstrong is here as pack fill to get his picture in the papers. The racing will be done between riders who don't stand a chance of winning anything later in the season when the big guns are actually going full bore. Unfortunately the topography of the race is really quite boring apart from one stage, much like the Eneco tour, Tour of Britain, Tour of Poland.... all races that could be much more interesting if they wanted too be.

limerickman said:

Luc, thanks for that listing.

Yeah, judging from previous years that list is pretty much it, aside from any minor changes due illness. The No. 187 - TBA is usually reserved for one of the top junior riders and is decided after the Road Champs this weekend.

lucybears said:

never final until the managers meeting the day before the race, but

tourdownunder.com.au2009Open ↗

That's a pretty respectable field - given how early the race is in the (european) calendar.

SAXO Bank look to have listed a pretty strong squad with Voigt and O'Grady.
(team mates from their days at CA).

It will be interesting to see if Efimkin has maintained his great form from late
2008.

Eldron said:

I'm beginning to think you and WBT are the same person...

No chance. Poulidor's command of the English language is far better than mine.

Columbia want to defend this.

So my thoughts are that Greipel will probably win all the flat stages like last year - nearly won them all. And the Wilunga stage, Adam Hansen or Rogers to breakaway. More than likely Hansen. He tried it last year and it didn't work. Doing old Wilunga hill twice - he might get away this time.
Columbia have the strongest team there. Should do it with ease again.

poulidor said:

JB is right, LA need to keep fresh blood to compete at TDF!
But JB or LA are lying because for years one of the 2 said that he were training more and harder than everyone !

Have they not enough learned their lesson?

As of last week, you can add his coach to the list of liars since he's had to "water down" Lance's originally training plan because obviously an old man that got this fit that fast had to be training harder than everyone else:

[left][font=Verdana]Well, the improvements I’m seeing are roughly equal to what I saw before he retired. Neither age nor three years out of professional cycling seem to be slowing him down. In fact, he’s improving so rapidly that he’s ahead of schedule. Initially I thought the short timeline between Lance’s announcement and his return to ProTour competition would make it difficult for him to be in decent shape for racing, but now I’m actually having to back him off a bit so he’s not too fit too early. [/font]

At least they all lie consistently, or if you please, are consistent liars.

[left][/left]

[/left]

LewisBricktop said:

Don't compare Ulle and LA. The former did compete in some early season races for training, however the latter simply never competed this early in the season. However, he did try to win the few races he started because of his MASSIVE EGO.

How dare he enter a race and TRY TO WIN. Oh for shame.

Some interesting video reports on Lance and the TDU:

player.video.news.com.auadelaidenowOpen ↗

Here's one of my favorite recent lies. Why do people believe anything this guy says ?

From Cycling Weekly magazine in December (http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/Lance_Armstrong_exclusive_interview_article_273248.html):

What's your VO2 Max?
Today? I've no idea.

What was it?
I don't know.

You don't know?
I did some tests back when I was 16.

You don't know your VO2 Max?
I haven't done a test in a long time.

What was it?
The best I can remember, the low 80s.

...and from December's American Bicycling magazine interview with coach Chris Carmichael:

How has training evolved since Lance first won the Tour-and how will you use that evolution?

I wouldn't say there has been any revolutionary changes. We were using power meters regularly as far back as 1995. The real vaule of that 10 year stretch is all the data we've gathered on Lance. We have more than a decade's worth of information about how he responds to training-it's probably the most detailed model around of any single rider. We know precisely how quickly he responds to certain types of workouts, and how much power should be increasing when he's exposed to certain types of workouts, whether its long, sustainable tempo rides or all-out intervals. And the same for power threshold, VO2 max power - whatever physical situation you can think of, we have a lot of data. That's a big advantage.

- So there you have it. Lance says no V02 max testing since he was 16 but Coach Chris has 10 years of data on his V02 max ???? So which is it ?

Bike N Ski said:

As of last week, you can add his coach to the list of liars since he's had to "water down" Lance's originally training plan because obviously an old man that got this fit that fast had to be training harder than everyone else:

[left][font=Verdana]Well, the improvements I’m seeing are roughly equal to what I saw before he retired. Neither age nor three years out of professional cycling seem to be slowing him down. In fact, he’s improving so rapidly that he’s ahead of schedule. Initially I thought the short timeline between Lance’s announcement and his return to ProTour competition would make it difficult for him to be in decent shape for racing, but now I’m actually having to back him off a bit so he’s not too fit too early. [/font]

At least they all lie consistently, or if you please, are consistent liars.

[left][/left]

[/left]

Robbie McEwen (Katusha) has started his season on a high note, with the Australian sprinter winning the Tour Down Under's Cancer Council Classic. McEwen put in a brilliant finish on the upward slopping home straight to take a narrow victory over Willem Stroetinga (Milram).

DNF Michael Rogers (Aus) Team Columbia-High Road

JAPANic said:

Robbie McEwen (Katusha) has started his season on a high note, with the Australian sprinter winning the Tour Down Under's Cancer Council Classic. McEwen put in a brilliant finish on the upward slopping home straight to take a narrow victory over Willem Stroetinga (Milram).

DNF Michael Rogers (Aus) Team Columbia-High Road

Did Rogers crash??? Any news???

Scotttri said:

Did Rogers crash??? Any news???

a mechanical problem with his bike, according to cyclingfever's press representative at the race

Have you thought of emailing this to Cycling Weekly?

whiteboytrash said:

Here's one of my favorite recent lies. Why do people believe anything this guy says ?

From Cycling Weekly magazine in December (cyclingweekly.co.ukLance Armstrong exclusive interview article 273248.htmlOpen ↗):

What's your VO2 Max?
Today? I've no idea.

What was it?
I don't know.

You don't know?
I did some tests back when I was 16.

You don't know your VO2 Max?
I haven't done a test in a long time.

What was it?
The best I can remember, the low 80s.

...and from December's American Bicycling magazine interview with coach Chris Carmichael:

How has training evolved since Lance first won the Tour-and how will you use that evolution?

I wouldn't say there has been any revolutionary changes. We were using power meters regularly as far back as 1995. The real vaule of that 10 year stretch is all the data we've gathered on Lance. We have more than a decade's worth of information about how he responds to training-it's probably the most detailed model around of any single rider. We know precisely how quickly he responds to certain types of workouts, and how much power should be increasing when he's exposed to certain types of workouts, whether its long, sustainable tempo rides or all-out intervals. And the same for power threshold, VO2 max power - whatever physical situation you can think of, we have a lot of data. That's a big advantage.

- So there you have it. Lance says no V02 max testing since he was 16 but Coach Chris has 10 years of data on his V02 max ???? So which is it ?

whiteboytrash said:

Here's one of my favorite recent lies. Why do people believe anything this guy says ?

From Cycling Weekly magazine in December (cyclingweekly.co.ukLance Armstrong exclusive interview article 273248.htmlOpen ↗):

What's your VO2 Max?
Today? I've no idea.

What was it?
I don't know.

You don't know?
I did some tests back when I was 16.

You don't know your VO2 Max?
I haven't done a test in a long time.

What was it?
The best I can remember, the low 80s.

...and from December's American Bicycling magazine interview with coach Chris Carmichael:

How has training evolved since Lance first won the Tour-and how will you use that evolution?

I wouldn't say there has been any revolutionary changes. We were using power meters regularly as far back as 1995. The real vaule of that 10 year stretch is all the data we've gathered on Lance. We have more than a decade's worth of information about how he responds to training-it's probably the most detailed model around of any single rider. We know precisely how quickly he responds to certain types of workouts, and how much power should be increasing when he's exposed to certain types of workouts, whether its long, sustainable tempo rides or all-out intervals. And the same for power threshold, VO2 max power - whatever physical situation you can think of, we have a lot of data. That's a big advantage.

- So there you have it. Lance says no V02 max testing since he was 16 but Coach Chris has 10 years of data on his V02 max ???? So which is it ?

Vo2 Max power and actual Vo2 max are entirely different quantities and are measured differently. Take a trip over to the cycling training or power training forums for an explanation as to why.

Lance armstrong must be a publicists dream, it doesn't matter if you like him or dislike him, either way judging from this site everyone is talking about him.

Scotttri said:

Lance armstrong must be a publicists dream, it doesn't matter if you like him or dislike him, either way judging from this site everyone is talking about him.

Hard to argue with that statement but I'm sure Adolf [censored] would have received as much "publicity" were he alive today.