Tour De France 2009

Nope.
Jens Voigt for Saxobank was in the lead group.
That tells me Saxobank will attack today. Remember what he did last year.

The attacks did come from Saxobank finally
Sadly they didn't break up Astana. Conty was upto every move of the Schleck brothers and even though Armstrong fell behind in the prelimnary attack(i think it was tactical) he made a superb come back

Awesome work. It will take something special from Saxobank to beat these guys. No gains or losses today but there is a massive day tomorrow also.

And donot discount the penultimate high Climb


Finally a great result for the Euskaltel Euskadi team Mikel Astarloza won a superb race Deserved his first road race stage win. Great job

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Safin's Signature:

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After sooooo many days TDF is Live on Ten Sports.

atlast the final exciting stage is due tomorrow.

the big daddy of climbs, Mont Ventoux.



just see the profile of stage in above image and imagine who would have legs to win tomorrow.

As Contador has comfortable over 4 minutes of lead over his nearest rival he is least likely to attack, but we never know......

Lance Armstrong will be keen to attack, as he has never won this mountain, but does he have the legs? only time will tell....

There are always Schleck brothers who will definitely be attacking tomorrow

Bradly Wiggins, only 15 seconds behind Armstrong for a podium finish he will be keen to become the first briton to get a podium finish.

Andreas Kloden, effectively less than 2 minutes behind 2nd placed Andy Schleck may try and go for a podium finish, but he will be required by both the leaders of team Contador and Armstrong, may have grudge agains contador after Contador attacked at a wrong time and killed his chances day befor the ITT......

And last but not least Defending Champion, Carlos Sastre, as he is lying at the 15th place, he is annoyed at the prominence of Armstrong - Contador Duel, but he has not shown anything not worthy in his performance.....


Who else remains, Evans / Menchov / Vande Velde / Hincapie some one unknown may write his name in History?

Keep your fingers crossed and your eyes glued to television.
tomorrows stage is live on tensports 7.30 to 9.30 pm
and those ridiculous editors of Ten sports will be showin WI v/s Bong ODI on final day.

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medpal's Signature:

Am gonna watch this
But sadly there is no real challenge for the top spot. I don't see Contador losing 4 minutes on th climb(unless someone pushes him into the valley (Frank Schleck maybe )

The only thing is whether Armstrong ill be able to hold on to his place or not. I personally think Andy will take 2nd and Kloden doesn't have it in him to take on Armstrong.

No Evans, Menchov means there is no real excitement for this superb stage when it could have been one of the best ends to the TDF ever

Contador

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What a batlle

Give it Andy Schleck. THis guy is made of steel He attacked throughout the 20 KM climb. Sadly Frank didn't have it in him, but wow

So finally we don't have any major changes.

Alberto Contador is the winner of TDF 2009
Andy Schleck is 2nd
Lance Armstrong Takes the podium with 3rd place
Bradley Wiggins manages to retain 4th(the best ever for a Britisher )
Frank Schleck 5th
Kloden 6th

The positions won't change tomorrow but what a great penultimate stage


Astana take 1st and 3rd spot

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It was a wonderfull stage.

Excellent strategy and vicious attacks.

Stringent defense too.

Of all the years I have been following this the highest number of riders were fighting for the mountain top finish, usually there are hardly 2/3 riders who are strong enough for mountain top high tempo finish.

I cant wait for the next year now with Contador in different team may be.
Schlecks at their full force.
Armstrong will be stronger and with his own team behind him.
Doper vinokourov back with full might of astana team.

that will make next years field fierce and attractive

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medpal's Signature:

^^ we thought so about this year too
I mean Menchov for Rabobank; Evans for Silence Lotto; Sastre, Schlecks for Saxobank; and Armstrong, Conty for Astana; we are talking real strong teams and men and yet, it wasn't even close.

Ok great we had some fight but from whom? Bradley Wiggins

I really would have liked the guys to have attacked a lot more in the Pyrenees. I just thought the Schlecks waited for the last stages(probably because they are more of Alpine bikers)

I am really disappointed though that we never really see any attacks in stages that had high climb followed by a sharp descent and sprint. It was almost as if everyone knew it was pointless.

Looking back i think of Landis and Vinokourov and i remember how they attacked and then you think of the doping and one has to wonder, was all the charm and the strength to attack on normal (non mountain finishes) all due to the dope?

Its sad if that is the case. I really think Contador was going to win this year but i thought it would be matter of seconds, not minutes

I hope the next year would have a lot more competition. Thats what makes TDF fun.

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