Author Topic: Has the tour changed your opinion of Lance? (probably containing spoilers)  (Read 8057 times)

Mr Larrington

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Has it changed Contador's: BBC SPORT | Other sport... | Cycling | Contador furious with Armstrong?

He can afford to be magnanimous now that he's, er, hang on...
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citoyen

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I don't think you can overstate how impressive Armstrongs return is, and that is why he is garnering so much attention.  To come back to the absolute pinnacle of the sport (2nd in TdF in final few days FFS) after 3 1/2 years out of the sport, at an age where everyone else has retired, is a first.

Yup, that's been my impression of Lance this Tour. I didn't want him to come back - I wanted him to retire gracefully and stay retired, and I thought he would struggle to keep up on the mountains, but he has proved me totally wrong. I've been hugely impressed.

Contador and Andy Schleck showed that they're younger and stronger but who else gave Lance any real competition? Wiggo made a heroic effort but Lance used his experience to keep him at arm's length (although had Wiggo been a wee bit more canny at the end of stage 3...). Kloeden and Frank Schleck just weren't quite good enough either.

And what happened to Cadel Evans? Carlos Sastre? Denis Menchov? Christian Vande Velde?

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I've never really regarded him as arrogant, although he's clearly not a humble man, but that is part of his winning armoury.


Yeah, any top pro sportsman in any sport needs a touch of that. Let's not forget that the likes of Merckx and Hinault weren't exactly shrinking violets.

I think LA will be strong again next year but he'll need to get a very strong team around him and use all his tactical genius to have a chance of winning - he won't only be competing against Contador and Schleck, there are the likes of Brice Feillu, Nibali and Tony Martin who proved themselves strong future prospects this year. Plus I reckon Wiggo's experience this year will make him even stronger next year - and he may even get a stronger team behind him next year.

d.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

To be fair to Christian VandeVelde he had a bad crash in the Giro and only just made the start line of the Tour.  In such circumstances, 8th or whatever he was wasn't bad...

I fear that Astana, with Vino and Contador, and Saxo Bank, will  lead the sport into a whole new shit-storm of scandal next year when the testers catch up.


slightly different tack: I've been thinking how LA's time in retirement has affected his performance.
He's been back racing for 7 months. He'll have been in training for about a year now.
I can't imagine his break from the sport impacted his performance at all.
This was LA at his best, and he was beaten. I used to think he would not finish if he knew he wouldn't win. I like it when champions finish the race even though they're beaten.

mattc

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slightly different tack: I've been thinking how LA's time in retirement has affected his performance.
He's been back racing for 7 months. He'll have been in training for about a year now.
I can't imagine his break from the sport impacted his performance at all.
This was LA at his best, and he was beaten.
Yup (if you adjust "his best" down a bit for his age).

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I used to think he would not finish if he knew he wouldn't win. I like it when champions finish the race even though they're beaten.
+1 to that. Shows class.
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gonzo

To be fair, he was out of training at a very important time with a broken collar bone!

Manotea

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To be fair, he was out of training at a very important time with a broken collar bone!

And AFAICT no whinging regarding the fact either.

αdαmsκι

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And what happened to Cadel Evans? Carlos Sastre? Denis Menchov? Christian Vande Velde?

Menchov won this year's Giro. I'd like to think that the fact he didn't perform well in the TdF is 'cos he's clean & still recovering from that victory.  For example, he lost 90 seconds in 1st TT & then 2:20 in the TTT. Oh, & he fell off once or twice, but that's almost standard for him!
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