what's up with radio shack?

Could've been an off day. Every team has an off day.

A group of 4 Radioshack riders bust a gut getting Lance back to the peleton after his fall, just before the start of the climb. Rast and Popo were 2 of the riders. They were cooked when they got on to the climb, just the same way Lance was. With hindsight, I think they brought him back to the peleton too quickly and paid the price.

The fall before the climb certainly didn't do them any favors. I guess we will see if they can re-group around Leipheimer and keep him in contention.

With Radio Shack's disappointing performance and Astana's surprising strength, a team time trial might have actually been an intriguing stage to have this year.

vitamin s said:

this is not about armstrong only, but some VERY good climbers from radioshack got dropped far too easily yesterday very early in the stage.

They saw somebody on an AT&T cellphone, and had to go proselytize. 🙄

One aspect missing from RS is the 'train bleue' that U.S. Postal used to get going from the start to control the front of the race in such stages. We saw that strategy used by Astana on Stg 8. That tends to keep a team's contender(s) toward the front of the pack and out of crash territory.

As for team RS, it will be interesting to see if Levi can keep up in the mountains. It seems to be too much of a longshot for anyone else in RS to make up enough time to see the podium.

As for LA's bad luck, it seems to be a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Team RS had enough bad luck with all the flats on the pavé, but the crashes sealed it.

I'll end with an amusing quote I read today:

Matthew Lloyd (Davitamon-Lotto) was in Armstrong's group and witnessed that last crash:
"Unfortunately, Lance crashed, there were again lots of crashes today," he said post-race. "Euskaltel really needs to learn how to ride bikes. It's just shocking. I don't know whether that's controversial or not, but I don't care. They've probably caused every crash in this race..."

😄

Ted B said:

As for team RS, it will be interesting to see if Levi can keep up in the mountains. It seems to be too much of a longshot for anyone else in RS to make up enough time to see the podium.

Levi often has one or two bad days in the mountains, if they can manage this, he'll go OK. The last TT is quite long, if he isn't to fatigued he will probably complete it 2 minutes quicker the Andy.S.

Ted B said:

Matthew Lloyd (Davitamon-Lotto) was in Armstrong's group and witnessed that last crash:
"Unfortunately, Lance crashed, there were again lots of crashes today," he said post-race. "Euskaltel really needs to learn how to ride bikes. It's just shocking. I don't know whether that's controversial or not, but I don't care. They've probably caused every crash in this race..."

😄

Hasn't he also called them 'bleeding carrots' ? 😄

Ted B said:

One aspect missing from RS is the 'train bleue' that U.S. Postal used to get going from the start to control the front of the race in such stages. We saw that strategy used by Astana on Stg 8. That tends to keep a team's contender(s) toward the front of the pack and out of crash territory.

As for team RS, it will be interesting to see if Levi can keep up in the mountains. It seems to be too much of a longshot for anyone else in RS to make up enough time to see the podium.

As for LA's bad luck, it seems to be a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Team RS had enough bad luck with all the flats on the pavé, but the crashes sealed it.

I'll end with an amusing quote I read today:

Matthew Lloyd (Davitamon-Lotto) was in Armstrong's group and witnessed that last crash:
"Unfortunately, Lance crashed, there were again lots of crashes today," he said post-race. "Euskaltel really needs to learn how to ride bikes. It's just shocking. I don't know whether that's controversial or not, but I don't care. They've probably caused every crash in this race..."

😄

great post for many reasons. hillarious quote by matt lloyd. i didnt notice euskatel farking things up any more than the other teams, but that fall in the feed zone was ridiculous. that reminded me of 7-11 in 1986 when they made the move to europe. those guys were like fish out of water back then.

thats the weird thing about radio shack this year. they have the firepower to stay at the front. they are much stronger in the mountains than team sky and look at the job that flecha did for wiggins. lance has been caught off the front numerous times now. stage 3, 7 and 8, radio shack didnt have their men riding upfront ala disco several years ago.

as far as levi having a shot, with the way that contador and schlek are riding, i imagine those two are going to absolutely demolish all the other competitors in the pyrenees.

vitamin s said:

great post for many reasons. hillarious quote by matt lloyd. i didnt notice euskatel farking things up any more than the other teams, but that fall in the feed zone was ridiculous. that reminded me of 7-11 in 1986 when they made the move to europe. those guys were like fish out of water back then.

thats the weird thing about radio shack this year. they have the firepower to stay at the front. they are much stronger in the mountains than team sky and look at the job that flecha did for wiggins. lance has been caught off the front numerous times now. stage 3, 7 and 8, radio shack didnt have their men riding upfront ala disco several years ago.

as far as levi having a shot, with the way that contador and schlek are riding, i imagine those two are going to absolutely demolish all the other competitors in the pyrenees.

I see contador and schlek grabbing some time in the mountains, but I dont see them demolishing, the likes og Basso, Evans , Sastre and Menchov

Scotttri said:

I see contador and schlek grabbing some time in the mountains, but I dont see them demolishing, the likes og Basso, Evans , Sastre and Menchov

Its great to see Sastre hanging in there, looking forward to see how he goes today.

I think Basso can push himself into the red zone more than any other rider, he looks like he's about to explode in some of the photos :eek: I reckon he's possibly got a foot on the third step of the podium.

Scotttri said:

I see contador and schlek grabbing some time in the mountains, but I dont see them demolishing, the likes og Basso, Evans , Sastre and Menchov

Contador doesn't look to be riding the big hills much better than he was in the Dauphine - which really isn't good enough for the Tour. Maybe he's riding himself into form. Even if he's not climbing at his best he can still time trial pretty damned well.

Schleck Jr looks wicked strong in the hills but can't time trial to save his life. He'll need a few minutes on the likes of Levi and Alberto to pull that one off.

Hopefully, someone is going to make a run for it on one of the earlier cols on a big day and string out the peloton early on. It's been years since there's been a good war of attrition in the mountains and all we're left with is taking about who got caught in crashes and who attacked in the last 1.5km of a 200km mountain stage... It's a real shame when you have to go back almost a quarter of a century to see guys like Hinault and Lemond duking it out in a battle royal on every mountain stage pretty much from the bottom of the first hill of the day to provide a full days worth of class riding.

and because of this namby pamby rubbish, the guys who can hang on until the fast lads have at it for the last 10 minutes are suddenly called contenders. Wiggins is not a Tour contender, Rogers is not a Tour contender not even remotely a chance of even a Top 5 let alone a podium. Guys like this will get shelled when the top few put the hammer down and it doesn't matter where the hammer is dropped, 1st col, 3rd col, last col...

^^ couldnt agree more except that i still think contador will show everyone whos boss in the final week.

pre-indurain was a hell of a lot of fun in the mountains. speaking of the madelaine, which we will soon see, watching roche go solo on the second climb of the day in 87 produced one of the greatest stages ever. of course, race radios and all that have also changed the race, but once indurain started winning, it was the last we saw of epic mountain battles sans the short-lived pantani era.

vitamin s said:

this is not about armstrong only, but some VERY good climbers from radioshack got dropped far too easily yesterday very early in the stage. we are talking about guys who could blow races apart only a couple of years ago and they couldnt even stay with the peloton on the second climb of the day. first it was rast, then popovich, then paulinho, then brajkovic, then kloden. horner had to stay with lance and thats understandable. levi performed great, but this was supposed to be the strongest team in the race and they werent even close yesterday.

what is going on?

Someone forgot the team's stash of Geritol and Gold Bond triple medicated powder.

Two police investigations by two countries makes it risky to use the same methods that were used to "blow races apart only a couple of years ago." Observers from WADA and the AFLD making sure that the UCI does not give Armstrong's team preferential treatment and advance warning of tests like they did last year does not help matters either.

i suppose demolish is an exaggeration, but schlek and contador definitely put a hurting on pretty much everyone today. great stage.

Bro Deal- there were no excuses of a crash today and everyone had a rest day yesterday. popo was dropped VERY early on today and only leipheimer put in the performance i think most would expect of him. if anyone still thinks disco rode clean......

vitamin s said:

i suppose demolish is an exaggeration, but schlek and contador definitely put a hurting on pretty much everyone today. great stage.

Bro Deal- there were no excuses of a crash today and everyone had a rest day yesterday. popo was dropped VERY early on today and only leipheimer put in the performance i think most would expect of him. if anyone still thinks disco rode clean......

Yup. The days of Team Armstrong being so jacked that the team can ride the entire peloton save ten or so riders off their wheels on the climbs is long gone. We saw that in 2006 when the entire Disco squad could barely climb a speed bump.

It is strange how some squads look strong on paper then completely disappear in race. JB just won the dauphine, Kloden and Levi have had Tour podium places and wins in other big races. Horner has been strong lately and then suddenly boom, they've all vanished from the face of the earth except for Levi who lets himself get dragged up mountains by other people.

And how is it that an entire team gets shelled by another team when riding in the wheels should be roughly 10% easier? It almost seems that if you're riding on the front you have the psychological advantage where as other riders in the bunch who aren't GC contenders don't see the need to keep in contact and just slide off the back.

I do agree with Swampy though, it's much more fun when the carnage happens early on and then there's just a few guys left in small groups strung across the mountain side. The strong teams could make this happen on the first or second climb of the day if they wanted to. Hit the first cat 1 climb, put your entire team on the front and go ape, animate the race. Then just see what happens. This would probably play into the hands of those who aren't in the race lead at that point so I'm hoping come the Pyrenees Radioshack will put all their men on the front one day and do some damage.

[FONT= arial]Hi, Im new to the forum 🙂 So i hope you dont mind my first post is a question! 🙂

Let me tell you about my self and my riding level.

I'm 25, male and newish to riding. I have been ill the last 2-3 years and put on a bit of extra weight. i decided to take up riding mostly for exercise and as a fun way to lose weight. I always ride along the same canal path twice a week with each ride lasting 14 miles ad taking an hour and a half each. The track changes in places but mostly consists of dirt tracks. There is about a mile stretch which is just purely bumpy grass. The track is mostly covered in with bushes each side with a gap of 6-7meters between them. In same places there is just bushes on the one side. There is also NO artificial light any where along the canal This picture is a pretty good example of the track. [/FONT]
[FONT= arial][IMG]img215.imageshack.us41195147332418669510413.jpgOpen ↗[/IMG][/FONT]
[FONT= arial]Now that’s out the way lol I can get onto my question lol. I always go along the canal at around 6am (so i miss the school kids or old people walking their dogs) The only problem is with the mornings staying darker longer, I’m in need of some decent lights. As i say above ive been off work for 2 years (hopefully not too much longer -_-) so I'm on a pretty tight budget. I would like to go to around £20… but im guessing £50 at a HUGE push. There is no way I can go above £50. I never ride on the road so tail lights and 'lights to be seen' aren’t an issue. I'm just after a light that brightens the path ahead. I’m not expecting miracles here lol Does any one have ANY suggestions?

These are some lights ive picked out, would you mind just giving me your take on them? Please bare in mind im not a pro, I know the track nearly off by heart and I don’t want the best lol Just seeing a good few meter in front of me will be fine J[/FONT][FONT= arial]. [/FONT]
 
 
1: Cateye HL-El135
wiggle.co.uk5360025763Open ↗
 
2: Cateye EL-530
wiggle.co.uk5360025758Open ↗
 
Ive even thought about buying a flash light and strapping it to the bike lol
 
Ill take onboard ANY advice you can give but please try not to suggest lights with price ranges over £50 ($100) It is honetsly the max i can go to. Thanks for your help 🙂

 
If you like the Cateyes, they have this comparison chart.
 
http://www.cateye.com/sites/cateye/upload/manuals/en/LIGHT%20POS%20USA%20081009.pdf (opens a .pdf file)
You'll note that the EL 530 is quite a bit brighter than the EL-135. Brighter is safer in my opinion.  
This is a pretty cool website that shows how the lights from a different manufacturer compare to each other.
http://planetbike.com/page/learn/lightfinder/
Just click on the models on the right side to see how bright their modes are. You can get their models from other websites cheaper than on the manufacturer's website. Just find the model you like, then google it.
 
Good Luck!

 

Quoted post said:

[FONT= arial]I know the track nearly off by heart[/FONT]

 
It is the "surprises" you need to see. A dog, cat, rabbit, bear, lion, Tyrannosaurs Rex?

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by BHOFM [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

 
 
It is the "surprises" you need to see. A dog, cat, rabbit, bear, lion, Tyrannosaurs Rex?

haha you havnt seen or heard my bike. It sounds more like a motor bike! Any animals near by run in fear :'( I do have a cheap bike and if i spent £50 on a light it would be nearly what i paid for the bike. Its an apollo excel. being serious tho, that is a very good point. Im looking at a blaze 2w at the moment and should eb able to see any nasty suprises, including the T rex u said about.