Well...
What started out with ten of the most interesting opening stages of a tour in a long long time (though it has to be said allthough great to watch the inclusion of certain stages was not suitable for the tour) then turned into a boring parade as a 6th win was handed to armstrong on a plate with no competition at all.
Mayo, heras , hamilton, sevilla, simoni all turning up out of condition and be caught like amatuers in crashes they had no business being any where near.
To be fair none of the aforementioned men or for that matter Basso or klodi are at or anywhere near lances level and were never gonna beat him though they could have at least been expected to add a little spark and give it ago.
Only one man alive today is at lances level and to most cycling fans is actually the more talented and better rider... Big Jan Ullrich.
Problem with ulle is his eratic preperation... he so often fails to arrive in the correct level of form... so often only showing glimpses of his true ability in the final week.
Theres also his inability to handle bad weather.
THis year jan was unlucky on several fronts.
Firstly he was badly advised in a return to telekom (now t-mobile).. this was a massive mistake and he should have taken the opportunity to ride fo his mentor bjarne riis at csc... I have no doubt that if he had gone to riis we would today be celebrating Ulle's victort rather than another jersey for armstrong.
Then with his return and the hatred between pevenage and godefroot interfering with jans preperation... not to mention the simple fact godefroot is a complete idiot and incapable of being a decent director sportif... he has no clue.. as shown so many times in the past.
What kind of ds over the whole season only contacts his star rider and only hope by phone on a handful of occassions.... Twat.
A ds which doesnt build a team of pure support for his leader
A ds that leaves the in form and immensly talented cadel evans at home
A ds that picks the ever dwindling botero even though we all know its been 2 years since he was worth anything.
And though he is one of my favourite riders... Im sorry erik but you havent got it anymore as far as the tdf goes... any rightminded ds who wanted his captain to win the tour would have left zabel at home and built solely around jan with klodi as the only other protected rider.
Though hopefully with godefroots critiscism of jan for walters own failings, hopefully the jan - t-mobile relationship may finally be over for good.
Then he was unlucky in suffering awful weather for the first 2 weeks and the resulting flu which ripped his tour hopes to peices in 2 horrible days in the pyrenees.
But even so he still showed himself to be the only rider outside of lance to have any fight and the only rider to be willing to attack lance.
A great fight back to take 4th (would have been 3rd but for basso riding a tt far beyond his wildest dreams)
On the back of this tour where everything went wrong after he finally seemed to have arrived in the right shape after a wonderful TDS... He showed his never say die attitude... his will to win and even with suffering the indignity of losing his status of team leader with a week still remaining... Ulle fought on... fought back and the respect for him can only be increased... A true champion... the most talented cyclist alive... a perfect sportsman... a gentleman of the highest order.... I wait to cheers you victoriously onto the champs elysee next year
Plus of course ulle still holds his record for best average finnishing position.
Forza Jan.
Lance... I respect him as a rider above most ... but please dont be fooled by hium.... he has the perfect team and as any cycling fan knows... your team wins the tour not you alone.
His team was immense this year and lance filled in the gaps when needed... but we will see lance suffer in the future as we did last season when bianchi left him isolated and jan plus others ate him up but again for some awful management those days should have given jan his 2nd tour but lance was lucky and took it home.
He isnt indestructible as many would like to beleive... people jus need to realise that if you can take his team apart (eg multi attacks from the get-go) and leave lance isolated.. he is very very beatable as shown on several occasions in the past.
But as i said i respect lances ability and his focus and his detailed team selection immensly... He deserved this win without question
What he did this year though was to show that as a man and a sportsman he does indeed remain an arsehole of the highest order.
The deals with csc when when jan went... but far worse the disgusting abuse of simeoni... now whatever you think of simeoni and whats going on between him and lance... it was wrong and not in the spirit of our great sport to bring his personal issues into the race... though as allways lance beleives what he does is for the good of cycling (as he did with his response to greg lemond and emma riley)... bullshit... its for his own good and because hes running scared.
Maybe this time he went to far though as this time it could result in criminal charges for intimidating a witness...
We will see, but the italian police are taking it very seriously and have allready questioned simeoni.
And then he says that the peloton all supported his actions... please does lance see whats around him... maybe they didnt question it at the time... you dont question the yellow jersey... thats jus the way it is... but many many came out in support of simeoni later on.
Even hinault, leblanc the great jaja and many others were not impressed.
But whatever i feel about lances actions and my hope he gets whats cming... He rode a great race with amazing help from a great handpicked team and deserves the praise yes i will continue to donate thousands of dollars a year to the lance armstrong foundation.
And please dont compare lance to the likes of the canibal, the badger, lemond, anquetil, indurain, roche ,bartali, coppi etc etc... he aint done half what those guys have done...
As the badger said last week...
If Merckx had concentrated on just the tour he would have won 15... never a truer word spoken.
Klodi rode a great race and showed his loyalty to jan to the death topped off with a wonderful tt at bresancon to ripp 2nd from basso.
Its been great to see klodi ride like this after the problems of the last few years... to see him finally show some of the potential he showed to the world as he ripped paris- nice to peices 4 years ago
Basso.. got what he deserved he had no spirit, no will to win and sowed himself for the coward he is.. the deals with armstrong were unbeleivable and jus played right into his hands... rulling ivan out of the running and protecting lance from the people he was really worried about.
Basso is so frustrating... a guy of great talent but without the spades to win.
As we have seen so often in the past from so many riders more talented than basso... however good you are if all you do is follow and never have the courage to take a risk... you may grab high positions and even podiums but you wont win anything.
Props to basso for riding the best time trial of his life at bresancon... bearing in mind in a very similar tt last year he lost 6 mins to jan which would have left him empty handed this year, basso rode an amazing tt.
Totschnig... a great ride witha bsolutely no support yet he kept on fighting to try and hang on... real spirit
Karpetts ... Another top performance thjough i must admit i was hoping that little tommy voeckler would manage to hold the white jersey till paris... he deserved that... the most couragous man in the peloton.
King Richard
OH i am so happy and salute him till the end.
A wonderful tour
A wonderful stage win
A show of courage that left the youngsters holding their heads in shame
History is made.
Finally he shakes of bahomontes and van impe and take the record all for himself.
They changed the rules to try and stop him winning... he still wins.
They say he only gets the small climbs... but he takes the alltime record for passing the top of cat 1 and hor cat climbs in first palce... and iin far less years than the adored eagle of toledo.
A wonderful ride to reshape history... I will miss him next year.
Plus the other thing that makes him great... he thinks about the fans... hes a showman... something that is lacking from todays peloton and as such he again takes the tours combativity award
Whatever people think about what went on in the past with richard, people must remember they were different days,,, and a different type of cycling and now he is one of the few that we know over the last years is definately clean... and he still takes the prize.
Thank you King Richard
Allez King Richard
Welldone to boonen for a inspiring debut
Good debut for scanlon
Hushovd did well but let me down on the champs ellysee... maybe next time
Thats enough writing for now
Anyway... the classics are back next week
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