Tour De France

[Hellbent]

Was Lance Armstrong superhuman... or?

Armstrong offered high praise for Contador, who won his first Tour in 2007. He said that even at his peak while winning the tour from 1999-2005, he may have lost to his 26-year-old Spanish teammate.

"Contador is that good, so I don't see how I would have been higher than that, even in the other years, I think his performance this year would have beaten my performances in '01 and '04 and '05," Armstrong said, referring to his best years on the Tour.

Impressed by Contador's tour de force, the Texan added the Spaniard was even better than Jan Ullrich, Armstrong's biggest rival during the years he won seven Tours. "Absolutely," he said. "Far better."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jFa1M-4e6-Ibh2-coLreo0hIRcEQD99LPA8G0

Did you watch the Tour? What do you think of Lance's performance? Will he win it next year?

[Sharessa]

That's about all I know of Tour de France. :P

[Torn]

I don't care about it. It is so boring to watch, so I haven't watched the television while it was on.

[dew]

i don't like armstrong at all, so my opinion is very biased. he was unbeatable in his days, but i see only a very small chance for him to win again. contador is younger, better at both time trials AND mountain climbs... hell, he even beat cancellara, who's a time trial supermachine.

there was some media hype about lance's comeback when he basically stabbed contador in the back and made a one-stage escape without him, altho it wasn't even enough to take the yellow shirt. contador was very unhappy, because he felt their teammates were supporting armstrong over him... in the end, armstrong gave up yellow shirt ambitions only when his american teammate leipheimer broke his wrist and quited the race.

next year might be very interesting, because both will have their own new teams supporting them and will clash against each other. if armstrong gets other americans like vande velde and leipheimer to support him, he might have a chance, altho i can see him lose more time with passing years on time trials. on the other hand- the young racers will be stronger again, namely schleck, nibali and kreutziger. sooo... no, lance's days are over.

EDIT: all of the above applies only if their doctors keep up with the trends and they pass their drug tests, because it IS tour de drugs, after all. :)

[The Lag]

Danarchy said:

[kraftwerk...]
That's about all I know of Tour de France. :P

you, sir, are a brilliant man...that is all that is needed to be known of tour de france.

[Dutch Doomer]

The only cool thing about Tour De France is when you see them fall during an mass sprint to the finish.

Other than that its pretty boring to watch.

[spank]

Dan: A low point in their career, IMHO.

[Sharessa]

spank said:

Dan: A low point in their career, IMHO.

Yeah, it's a bit poppy compared to their other stuff, but I kind of like it.

[Hellbent]

Lance broke his collarbone in March and had to have a metal plate put in and 12 screws. I can imagine what this did to his training before the tour, not to mention that he hadn't done the tour in over 3 years. Anyone else in the same position regardless of their age to place 3rd would be very impressive. Do not write him off just yet.

Something else to consider... the fastest average time for a winner of the tour ever in its history was in 2005. That person was Lance. It was the last year Lance did the tour before retiring.

http://www.bikeraceinfo.com/tdf/tdfstats.html

[ducon]

I’m French and I hate it: it’s alcoholics watching drug addicts.

[Nomad]

I'd rather watch Le Mans