> Le Tour de France 2007 (The official Thread)

Safin

Its a pity that Srilank - Bangladesh Tests will have privilage over Tour. most of the days the telecast will start at 18.30 and last till 21.00

This is what i mean crappy coverage. Espn-Star are better in this atleast. TenSports.. total junk.

I mean who is even gonna be interested in SriLanka Bangladesh when no one was interested in India Bangladesh

medpal

The ASO decides not to give No. 1 to any one this year, continuing the strong view on doping.

Oscar Pareiro to get NO. 11.

get the complete list of cyclists with their jersey no. here

In a significant announcement, it is revealed that all the 189 riders starting today have tested negetive for drugs.

This is unseen in another sports even in olympics that all the competitiors are tested prior to a major event and still doping haunts everywhere.

Enrico Degano - an Italian on the Barloworld wild-card team - will be the first rider out of the gate in Saturday's prologue start to the 94th Tour de France.

last year's runner-up, Oscar Pereiro, starting last at 6:08 p.m.

Chris Horner (Predictor-Lotto) is the first American out of the gate at 3:38 p.m. in 39th position.

Other Americans include:
61. Dave Zabriskie (CSC), 4 p.m.
102. Fred Rodriguez (Predictor-Lotto), 4:41 p.m.
103. Christian Vande Velde (CSC), 4:42 p.m.
158. George Hincapie (Discovery Channel), 5:37 p.m.
179. Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel), 5:58 p.m.

the times are london times add +5.30 hours to get IST. so at 8.30 pm the prologue will start and last about 3.15 hours.

catch the live coverage on web here :
Tour de France 2007

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

other clippings and highlights can be viewed here

VeloNews TV

Safin

but sadly nothing on TV. I hope some good sense prevails on tensports.

Btw the biggest issue is not the pre race testing. As with Landis, he took drugs at the last stage when he needed the win by the big margin in the alps. So fine there is no one failing the test right now, but that means absolutely nothing in cycling

medpal

clearing test now is not the point here,
but thorough testing of all the athletes is the point to be noted.

No other organization is so much vigilant than UCI, still people keep on cheating in cycling.

In other sports there are very limited no. of out of competition tests that too randomly on a few athletes.

During competition too all the athletes are tested but not regularly but randomly after their events.

Safin

One second, has this changed or this is valid.
Till last year every stage had this type of doping check

the winner of each jersey and 2 random cyclists were tested. Is that the case or we are having en-mass test for all this year?

Safin

Ok finally we had it live on tensports and what a sprint.. wow..

McEwen was no where till 3 km's and the way he came out in the end was breathtaking

Absolutely unbelievable final sprint. I was wondering how the hell can he come back from the back of the field on such a tight congested road. (thats more than 150 rifer overtakes in 3km stretch on a sprint) the wildcard hunter looked all set to win actually and just 300m to go, the speed that the sprinters put in was superb. three cheers to Robbie McEwen. What a start

On a good and bad note. tour is getting ads this time. And idiots at tensports took off for an ad break at 5km to go. What stupidity

Safin

omg... What a pileup in the sprint

Super race again today

medpal

I am sorry as usually i am away from net on sundays so could not write up the review of Prologue and Monday being heavy i could not keep up the pace with happenings.

So today i am giving 3 in 1 report.

The Prologue

The Tour de France started for the first time from London on 7/7/7. The city of London opened its grandeur with both arms. There were more that a million spectators on the 7.9 kms long prologue track, in the fabulous backdrop BIg Ben, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace.

The british excitement was much more expected as favourites for the Prologue included Brad Wiggins and David Millar.

The proceeding started at 3.00 pm local time and every rider went for a kill except a few. Andreas Kloden produced a firing lap clocking 13 seconds faster that every one else on the field, at that time it looked like no one wil be able to beat it. George Hicapie rode like a warrier but could only stood third at the end of the day.

Cancellera the defending world Time trial champion produced a blistering pace and was up from Kloden at the first time check.

In the end it proved that Cancellera was the only rider in sub 9 seconds time. David Millar stood 13th but he was optimistic and said afterwards that he is definitely going to win a stage this time.

Stage and Overall Top 20:

Code:

1) Fabian Cancellara, Team CSC, Switzerland, 8:50.74
2) Andreas Klöden, Astana, Germany, 9:03.29
3) George Hincapie, Discovery Channel, USA, 9:13.75
4) Brad Wiggins, Cofidis, Great Britain, 9:13.92
5) Vladimir Gusev, Discovery Channel, Russia, 9:15.99
6) Vladimir Karpets, Caisse d'Epargne, Russia
7) Alexandre Vinokourov, Astana, Kazakhstan, 9:20
8) Thomas Dekker, Rabobank, Netherlands, 9:21
9) Manuel Quinziato, Liquigas, Italy, 9:23
10) Benoit Vaugrenard, Française des Jeux, France, 9:23
11) Dave Zabriskie, Team CSC, USA, 9:23
12) José Ivan Gutierrez, Caisse d'Epargne, Spain, 9:23
13) David Millar, Saunier Duval-Prodir, USA, 9:24
14) Mikel Astarloza, Euskaltel-Euskadi, Spain, 9:24
15) Alberto Contador, Discovery Channel, Spain, 9:25
16) Andrey Kaschechkin, Astana, Kazakhstan, 9:26
17) Cadel Evans, Predictor-Lotto, Australia, 9:26
18) William Bonnet, Credit Agricole, France, 9:26
19) Sylvain Chavanel, Cofidis, France, 9:27
20) Michael Rogers, T-Mobile, Australia, 9:28

Stage 1 : McEwen Braves pain and fall to stage a remarkable sprint victory

Stage 1 started from London and finished in Canterbury. It eatured landscapic sceneray of britain. This stage consisted of 3 Intermediate Sprints, Three climbs and was dominated by teams of sprinters.

Local hero much to rejoice to the crowd after featuring in breakaway for most of the day and also taking the Polka Dot ersey at the end of the day.

What remarkable was the crash involving cavendish and McEwen after a spectator hurled somethign on road. McEwen lost a significant time with only 20 km. to go. He and his teammates staged a remarkable recovery as he hit the back of the pack at about 7 Kms to go and stormed in to the scene from no wherre with in last 200 meters and sprinted for his life and won the stage leaving behind Thor Hushovd, Tom Boonen and other sprinters.

Cancellera keeps the Yello Jersey, Gusev Keeps the White Jersey, Millar gets the Polka Dot Jersey and McEwwn takwes the Green Jersey.

Top 10:

Code:

1) Robbie McEwen, Predictor-Lotto, Australia, 4:39:01
2) Thor Hushovd, Credit Agricole, Norway, same time
3) Tom Boonen, Quick Step, Belgium, s.t.
4) Sebastien Chavanel, Française des Jeux, France, s.t.
3) Romain Feillu, Agritubel, France, s.t.
6) Robert Förster, Gerolsteiner, Germany, s.t.
7) Oscar Freire, Rabobank, Spain, s.t.
8) Marcus Burghardt, T-Mobile, Germany, s.t.
9) Francisco Ventoso, Saunier Duval-Prodir, s.t.
10) Tomas Vaitkus, Discovery Channel, Lithuania, s.t.

Overall standings after Stage 1:

Code:

1) Fabian Cancellara, Team CSC, Switzerland 4:47:51
2) Andreas Kloden, Astana, Germany, @ :13
3) David Millar, Saunier Duval-Prodir, Great Britain, @ :21
4) George Hincapie, Discovery Channel, USA, @ :23
5) Brad Wiggins, Cofidis, Great Britain, @ :23
6) Vladimir Gusev, Discovery Channel, Russia, @ :25
7) Vladimir Karpets, Caisse d'Epargne, Russia, @ :26
8) Thor Hushovd, Credit Agricole, Norway, @ :29
9) Alexandre Vinokourov, Astana, Kazakhstan, @ :30
10) Thomas Dekker, Rabobank, Netherlands, @ :31

Another unhappy incident happened when Eduardo Gonzalo of Agritubel crashed through the rear window of a Caisse d'Epargne team car, and had to leave the race. He rammed into the car after he was going through the carvan after collecting drinks for his teammates. The car in front slammed the brakes and he bumped into the rear and got himself hurt breaking the rear windscreen fo the car.

Stage 2 Dunkirk - Gent

Like always this stage was also full of drama and everything you can imagine. This stage had Sprints, Breakaway, Rains, Sunshine, Clouds, and a big crash involving peloton. So much so that only 20 riders got to sprint unscathed. As the crash happened within last 2 kms, all the riders involved got thesame time.

The names involved had big guns in it, including Yellow jersey holder Cancellera, Hincapie and 3 other DSC riders.

The stage was won by Quick Step Rider Gert Steegmans and Tom Boonen made it One - Two for the team. Eventhough Boonen was favour