> Le Tour de France 2007 (The official Thread)

medpal

Originally Posted by Safin

Just when i thought the breakaway had done it this time, what a ride by Cancellara Retains the yellow jersey and the stage win(that makes 33seconds over kloden and 4th place Hincapie is behind by 41 seconds.) Sprint is getting disappointing, mcewen seems toi have had his injury affecting his performance and boonen has retained the green jersey by finishing 4th today.

Team CSC is in big trouble now over whom they are gonna back Cancellara is not good in mountains, team leader sastra is but who will back sastra when Cancellara is doing like this.

2 days more to go before we reach the alps. If you don't watch cycling, just start watching. You will be amazed by the scenery. And by the race too

i thought there was power left in breakaway group to pull it off, but they couldnt had they continued the tempo rather than looking over the shoulders they might have pulled it off.

McEwen tried in vain but the move by cancellera was remarkably bold and powerfull. He left every sprinter behind like a flash.

The teams of sprinters had believed that they had breakaway covered but the two ridrs created havoc. At one time it looked like Cancellera will lose his yellow jersey then the Team CSC came in to the picture.

Today it will be really exciting as no more loger breakaways will be allowed.

ps edit : and yeah you want your eyes to cool off after a long bombarding of junk news, boring soaps, ridiculous competitions, and indian cricket debacles then this is the event to lookout for. Excellent coverage, superb scenery and exciting competition.

Safin

i won't say excellent coverage though. The whole start of race is chopped off by WWE

Plus TenSports has this habit of putting in crap ads just when things are starting to get tense.

medpal

coverage in sense by host broadcaster,

when there is not much excitement on road they venture offroad and try to narrate a fw things about surroundings which keeps interest alive.

It looks like Ten Sports broadcast manager or editor is not a media person or he / she is straightaway picked up from DD where practice of cutting through the programs is rampant.

I wish some one else picks up the telecast rights and gives better coverage next time.

yesterdays stage :

Thor Hushovd at last surged into the form and took away the stage winning position in an event less organized but fiercly competed sprint finish.

The day was overshadowed by breakaway of 5 riders including Sylvian Chavanel who let go of last climbing points to let his team mate Auge to held on to the Polka dot jersey.

Top ten in stage :

Code:

1. Thor Hushovd (NOR) C.A 193km in 4h37’37 (41.687km/h) 
2. Robbie Hunter (RSA) BAR 
3. Oscar Freire (ESP) RAB 
4. Erik Zabel (GER) MRM 
5. Danilo Napolitano (ITA) LAM 
6. Gert Steegmans (BEL) QSI 
7. Robert Forster (GER) GST 
8. Tom Boonen (BEL) QSI 
9. Sebastien Chavanel (FRA) FDJ 
10. Mark Cavendish (GBR) TMO

Overall Top Ten after stage 4:

Code:

1) Fabian Cancellara, Team CSC, Switzerland
2) Thor Hushovd, Credit Agricole, Norway, at :29
3) Andreas Klöden, Astana, Germany, at :33
4) David Millar, Saunier Duval-Prodir, Great Britain, at :41
5) George Hincapie, Discovery Channel, USA, at :43
6) Bradley Wiggins, Cofidis, Great Britain, at :43
7) Sylvain Chavanel, Cofidis, at :33
8) Vladimir Gusev, Discovery Channel, Russia, at :45
9) Tom Boonen, Quick Step, Belgium, at :46
10) Vladimir Karpets, Caisse d'Epargne, Russia, at :46

Tom Boonen holds the green jersey, but still lacks a stage win

Stéphane Augé holds the King of the Mountains jersey for another day

Vladimir Gusev continues his run in white jersey.

Today`s stage sees for the first time a few real climbs with category 2 and 3 climbs in last 25 kilometers, so expect to have exciting race and a large buch of changes in general classification.

Safin

A pretty dull race yesterday frankly. (Also cos i only watched 30 mins of it andthat was the ending

)
Sprint was not at all exciting. Hushhovd looked like he was gonna pull it off and he did. Robbie Hunter was whom i was betting on and he just let it go in the last 10 meters.

Hoping to catch all the race today so lets see

Its about time Mcewen started coming good. He generated a lot of excitement in the first stage but after that its been a flop show

Sandeep

err... doc? Why not have a Highstake event on this? We havent had one since long time...

medpal · 07:01 PM

sandeep you are the only participant in this thread except safin and me.

who will participate in high stakes?

ps edit :

todays update:
william bonnet, Sylvian Chavanel, Phillipe Gilbert, Gianpaolo Cheula are in breakaway and they have nearly 13 minutes advantage over Peloton. Team CSC have declared they do not intend to defend the yellow jersey of Cancellera so the race is quite open.

Keeping my fingers crossed how favourites team behave.

Sandeep

Ha ha... Arey even i dun have in-depth knowledge about this event, else i'd have created it myself!

Safin

waiting for it to start on TenSports

13minutes is a huge is a huge advantage.. the breakaway could do it today(is the ending on a flat course or a ride?

medpal

peloton is pulling back the gap now only 6.41 is the gap.

WTH ten sports is showing copa america highlights morons will start the live telecast only at 7.30 pm