[The Toninator]

he doesnt need to panic just motor up in your pace lance they cant hang.

 

[mobius]

Any live webcasts online to watch while at work?

 

[The Toninator]

vino went, ulrich jumped on. lance lagged. basso when and passed vino and ulrich.
vino, ulrich and basso joined forces.
lance lagged and got his legs together.
lance motored up and cought the group.
evens, rasmussen and somebody else is now all in that group.

 

[The Toninator]

Any live webcasts online to watch while at work?

eurosport.com has live audio.

 

[The Toninator]

vino popped about a k ago he went hard. It’s hard to tell if he was actually working for Ulrich but which ever vino’s back sliding.
Theyre not done with this one and there’s a whole nother climb left to go.
Basso has to plan more attacks and Ulrich has to work with him to win.
It could happen if they work together maybe.
Armstrong is alone. But looking calm and focused. It’s going to take a lot to beat him.
They have to attack.
All or nothing guys!!!!
AMA! AMA!

 

[The Toninator]

vino's already 5 minutes back
landis is up in the GC group with lance.
lance is on the front and starting to set the pace.
there's a group up front with somebody who can get GC if they get 12+ on the GC group

 

[DRB]

I AM THE 500LBS GORILLA. F' WITH ME AND I'LL CRUSH YOU LIKE A BUG.

Heard as they crossed the line.

 

[DRB]

Provisional
1 Georg Totschnig (Aut) Gerolsteiner 5.43.43
2 Lance Armstrong (USA) Discovery Channel 0.56
3 Ivan Basso (Ita) Team CSC 0.58
4 Jan Ullrich (Ger) T-Mobile Team 1.16
5 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Gerolsteiner 1.31
6 Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak Hearing Systems
7 Francisco Mancebo (Spa) Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne 1.47
8 Michael Rasmussen (Den) Rabobank
9 Andreas Klöden (Ger) T-Mobile Team 2.06
10 Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 2.20
11 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) T-Mobile Team 3.06
12 Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Liquigas-Bianchi 3.35
13 Jörg Jaksche (Ger) Liberty Seguros-Würth 4.03
14 Cadel Evans (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto
15 Walter Bénéteau (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 4.16
16 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Discovery Channel 4.18

General classification after stage 14

1 Lance Armstrong (USA) Discovery Channel 55.58.17
2 Michael Rasmussen (Den) Rabobank 1.41
3 Ivan Basso (Ita) Team CSC 2.46
4 Jan Ullrich (Ger) T-Mobile Team 4.34
5 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Gerolsteiner 4.45
6 Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak Hearing Systems 5.03
7 Francisco Mancebo (Spa) Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne
8 Andreas Klöden (Ger) T-Mobile Team 5.38
9 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) T-Mobile Team 7.09
10 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Credit Agricole 8.37
11 Jörg Jaksche (Ger) Liberty Seguros-Würth 8.52
12 Cadel Evans (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto 9.14
13 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Discovery Channel 9.59
14 Georg Totschnig (Aut) Gerolsteiner 10.39

A shake up. Anyone want to guess the final podium.....

 

[Wumpus]

Kloeden and Ullrich chase down and bury Vino on the last climb.

 

[The Toninator]

Kloeden and Ullrich chase down and bury Vino on the last climb.

first and second climb. kloeden had to come back on the 1st and 2nd. vino went the first time and it's hard to tell if he was actually 'working' for ulrich he had to jump to catch up. then he popped.
the second time instead of easing up the pace vino kicked again, jan and kloden had to jump and BOOM vino pops.
lance packed up the pace and stuffed them. it wasnt huge, like 20 seconds, but he still stuffed them.

 

[DRB]

Vino is on his own program. He seems incapable of working for or with anyone. Vino should have slotted in behind Kloden and done exactly what Discovery normally does. Up the pace.

But in the end it simply doesn't matter, they could attack until their heads popped off, because they are messing with the 500lbs gorilla.

 

[Wumpus]

It must be quite interesting on the T-mobile bus. Or maybe Vinnie has his own bus.

 

[Wumpus]

Vino is on his own program.

Can you say 'Contract Renegotiation'?

 

[DRB]

Can you say 'Contract Renegotiation'?

I think new team is probably more accurate...

 

[OGRipper]

If I were Vino I would take my own chances. For 7 years Ullrich has had T-mobile at his disposal and has always come up short. I like Jan a lot but he doesn't have the discipline and focus needed to beat Lance. Plus, Vino needs to show his talents in order to get the best deal for himself as the leader of a team. I'm guessing that (per all the rumors) he will end up leading Discovery for a year or two while Popo continues to develop. Pretty lame for T-mobile to chase him down but maybe they told him not to attack...proves once again that you can't have more than one leader and expect to beat France Livestrong...

 

[gigapower]

What an exciting round.

 

[PonySoldier]

Kloeden and Ullrich chase down and bury Vino on the last climb.

Teutonic Pride/Vanity/Ego and a most dysfunctional team

 

[DRB]

"It's scary when you see a whole team go to the front, the order that they are in - you fear that, it's natural," said Armstrong. "But you either fight it or run away. I was motivated at the time to not necessarily be put down by those tactics."

Once again, the result of T-Mobile's numerical superiority over Armstrong added up to zero. Vinokourov was left trailing early on the climb, and Andreas Klöden hung on a few seconds behind the chasers as Armstrong, Ullrich, Basso, and Floyd Landis kept an eye on each other.

I suspect they'll try again tomorrow.... and I suspect that the exact samething will happen. BUT with them passing by the Casartelli memorial and it being his last Mountain top finish in the tour that Lance is going to be gunning for a stage win.

 

[OGRipper]

I suspect they'll try again tomorrow.... and I suspect that the exact samething will happen. But with them passing by the Casartelli memorial and it being his last Mountain top finish in the tour that Lance is going to be gunning for a stage win.

I agree. Lance has a pretty good poker face but it sure looked like he was conserving energy today. Can't deny he rode a smart race, very cool and poised. You know he wants a win and the whole Casartelli thing means a lot to him, so tomorrow might be it.

The T-mobile numbers game will never work if they don't have one guy who can really punch it after a series of attacks from his teammates. I think Vino is the only one explosive enough to actually get away from Armstrong but without the team working for him, he has to do too much work to get set up and then doesn't have enough in the tank to stay clear. Unless something happens to Lance it will be number 7.

 

[Wumpus]

I agree. Lance has a pretty good poker face but it sure looked like he was conserving energy today. Can't deny he rode a smart race, very cool and poised.

He really didn't have much to gain attacking today. He was matching Basso and Ullrich who he has substantial time on already, and in the process they were putting time on Rasmussen. Seemed to work out really well today.



I think too much emphasis is put on the Discovery team not being there. Pretty much anytime in the past when the big boys come out to play there aren't any of the team around. They aren't contenders for the overall so why does everybody think they can keep up when the field gets destroyed?

"They're not made to do those all-out sprints - T-Mobile was going all out. Their thing is to ride a medium-fast tempo for a long time to take the group from 50 to 30 to 15 guys. That disrupted our plan. Their tactics were fine. I was left alone. When you ride like that, no one stays around long - you not only eliminate your rivals, you eliminate your teammates as well. I rode 12 of the last 15km of Pailheres alone, but so did everyone else."

 

[Westy]

Awesome stage. Finally someone attacks, they lost time on Lance but they have no chance when just playing dead behind Discovery. Not to mention making time on other riders. Hope to see more of the same tomorrow.

 

[DRB]

http://www.bicycling.com/tourdefrance/experts/columns/0,5976,s1-12695-661,00.html?category_id=661
Good read...

There were a few concerning moments during Stage 14; it's not good to see the T-Mobile team sprinting at the front of the group, but Lance Armstrong rode an intelligent race to contain his main rivals. It's impossible to accelerate after every acceleration in the group. You only have a limited number of accelerations in your legs, and you have to be careful to save them for moves that provide the biggest benefit. In addition, when you instantly respond to every twitch another rider makes, it actually encourages rivals to launch more attacks.

Lance observed the attacks going on around him and waited until the situation stabilized before responding. He wasn't feigning weakness or actually feeling weak. Rather, he knew that the attackers would gain a gap and then settle down into a steady pace. He kept an eye on the gap to make sure it didn't get too big to bridge, and waited for the situation to settle down. Then he launched one move to cross the gap and catch the group ahead. This was the smartest move for Lance because it meant committing to one acceleration that had an endpoint. He just had to cross the distance to a small group of riders who had just completed a hard effort themselves.

http://www.bicycling.com/tourdefrance/experts/columns/0,5976,s1-12695-661-expert,00.html

 

[The Toninator]

Awesome stage. Finally someone attacks, they lost time on Lance but they have no chance when just playing dead behind Discovery. Not to mention making time on other riders. Hope to see more of the same tomorrow.

yea! i wana see vino attack till he kills over dead. that would be awesome.

 

[DRB]

yea! i wana see vino attack till he kills over dead. that would be awesome.

Are you trying to post your way out of your title???

 

[Sherpa]

yea! i wana see vino attack till he kills over dead. that would be awesome.

You almost have as bad of spelling as mack.

 

[DRB]

You almost have as bad at spelling as mack.

I think he is just a crappy typist. Get past the spelling and it makes sense.... Mack get past the spelling and it makes less sense.

 

[JRB]

I think he is just a crappy typist. Get past the spelling and it makes sense.... Mack get past the spelling and it makes less sense.

Congratulations - you just stole the title for "best Mack quote" from dhTahoe.

 

[JRB]

You almost have as bad at spelling as mack.

ahem - it always works better to not have errors when correcting peeps. Binary Visions pointed out this sage advice to me.

 

[Westy]

yea! i wana see vino attack till he kills over dead. that would be awesome.

Vino is not having the best tour and I have no idea what the hell T-Mobile is doing with him but the guy is great. Attack Motha****er!!!!

 

[lovebunny]

lance is gonna win again. hes a machine

 

[DRB]

Vino is not having the best tour and I have no idea what the hell T-Mobile is doing with him but the guy is great. Attack Motha****er!!!!

The Attacks will come today but I have a feeling that the last one will be the oen that will do the damage.... Oh and that'll be, as Bob Roll is fond of saying, Godzilla crushing the city.

 

[The Toninator]

Are you trying to post your way out of your title???

what title?

 

[DRB]

what title?

Its not going to be Muffin much longer.

ATTACKMUTHA****ER ATTACK

 

[The Toninator]

Its not going to be Muffin much longer.

ATTACKMUTHA****ER ATTACK

YEA!!!!!