Tour de France - Stage 14

So close... Big George came so close to taking yellow. Got into a great break that contained some strong riders and was the virtual yellow on the road, but got nipped at the finish by only :05. In a rather bitter post race interview, he is angry with Astana and Garmin for chasing. His own team had to chase at the end, also, to get a lead out for Cav. I don't blame him. I guess you find out who your real friends are. And I would have thought George would have plenty. I know I would only chase him after the race, not during....
LA said that Astana wasn't chasing, they were setting a tempo. He said they wanted GH to have the jersey. But he thought Garmin did more chasing. Is the TTT smack talk between Columbia and Garmin at the heart of this?
And what is up with the pale blue tights Thor was wearing at the Green jersey presentation? - boo
Who wants to get between the Garmin-Slipstream vs. Columbia fued? But at least Astana didn't make the headlines!

So Sad

Levi has a broken wrist and is out!!! That breaks my heart. - boo

Sniff, poor Levi. No matter how you look at it this is a big, big blow to Lance's hopes. Levi was riding very well- podium well. It does make the OMG Astana team even more like daytime television. As the Pedals Turn.

Talk me down girls...but I don't believe Johan will instruct the guys to ride for Little Al if he's up by 2 seconds. Al has to take a huge lead and/or Lance suffer a huge time loss (like 1:30+) to make that happen. Lance was Johan's $$$ for too many years and its not like Johan's not going back to Astana anyway.

I wish Levi a speedy recovery. I hope see him in Missouri!!

I don't think Johan knows what he's going to do. His knee jerk reaction is to have Lance win, but after seeing Little Al ride uphill, you would be foolish to bet against AC.

Riders like to think they are faster then a speeding bullet.....these 2 aren't.

Finally watched the stage....cold, wet & miserable. Heinrick Haussler was crying by the end of the race it was so bad...what, he's crying because he won? There's crying in cycling? I thought there was only crying in tennis?

Tour de France - Stage 12

Since Star has been on me for starting the blog first... here we go. Ok - flat stage, breakaway stayed away, some dude from Denmark with an umlaut in his last name won. Cool. I will watch tonight to see if there are any neat crashes, and or interviews.

Poor Vladimir Efikim. I will try to find a picture of his facial road rash. Ouchie. -boo

Way to get the ball rolling Boo.
You're right, this was perhaps one of the most boring stages so far. On VS live coverage, Jonathan Vaughters was in the booth with Phil & Paul. It was with about 30 K to go and they are showing an interview with Lance. Lance is talking about Tyler and is fairly complementary. After the interview Phil says "Jonathan, even Lance is on your side". All you hear from JV is "hum" and then silence. My guess is JV does not have one of those yellow 'Lance Fans'.
My favorite Swiss rider in the peloton (Fabian Cancellara) is not only super fast in the time trial, cute, but he's also a really nice guy. -Star

I don't know about you guys, but I would give Spartacus a big hug, too. Just for looking like he does. He wouldn't have to do a thing...

big vote yes on hugging Fab or whatever tiptoes right up to the line of stalker.

stage sooooo boring... could barely make it. In more interesting news, pro tennis player Richard Gasquet's ban for testing positive for cocaine was lifted. Turns out he inadvertently ingested cocaine by kissing a girl he met at a club. "Inadvertently ingested cocaine" - I love that statement. - Lil

Tour de France - Stage 11

Cavendish won again today. I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one that thinks Cav's a prick.
Oh Tyler, so close, yet so far. One these days, but probably after Cav's out of the race. -Star

If you watched VS this morning, one thing they do that is both entertaining and irritating is their own little Performance Prediction bit. Annoying that Hummer is doing so well, and entertaining because I'm not sure they know what is going on half the time. Today Paul was speechless due to the fact that he thought he picked Feirre but they put up Rojas. Mayhem ensued. Well, as much mayhem as can be had on a set with one dork, 2 retired cyclists and good ol' crazy Phil.

I watch live updating at work from cyclingnews.com. (don't tell my boss...) and there are some funny items. Unfortunately, today was the guy who isn't as funny as the girl. Yesterday, she mentioned that there was a snail convoy attempting to cross the road. She said that one was sent out and got a 2 inch gap on the rest of the snail peleton. Ok - I thought it was funny... - boo

You should have heard Paul & Phil worry about the snails. Was the highlight of the day. That and VdV's post-race interview. - Lil

Tour de France - Stage 10

The brains of the Tour de France wanted a exciting race today, so they banned radios that allows the riders communicate with the team directors in the following cars. So.....well....uh.....yeah, it didn't work. There was a breakaway that got caught in the last K's, then Cavendish won the stage.
If they want to make the race more exciting I have a few ideas:
-certain kilometers in the race the whole peloton can only pedal with 1 leg
-all the riders have to guess a number between 1 and 10 and those that guess the correct number get rocket boosters for their bikes for that stage
-start a stage at the very top of a mountain
-don't tell the riders anything about the stage, just let them ride it and see what happens
Come on girls, you can think of some more.
-star
They have to do shots everytime someone crashes... that could get ugly in a hurry.
That's a snowball heading downhill, fast.
-Everytime the peloton goes past this guy, someone has to bulldog him. Or just push him over. Or kick him in the knee. Somehow just stop him from being on the side of the road during a bike race. Just be careful not to poke your eye out.

ooooh, okay

-if you want to get in a breakaway you have to be able to ride a kid-size pink huffy through fire, followed by killer RPS.

- bike jousting! I think Thor might win this.

- Instead of getting musettes, the entire peleton has to queue up and get lunch at the drive-thru lane at McDonalds (except there is no fast food there, so they have to stop at the local tavern, which of course doesn't have drive-thru which Yen would say is a sign of being less evolved, don't even ask him about the zoning mess he sees from the arial shots)

- or better yet, have their older sister pack lunch for them in square plastic lunchboxes and totally short them on fritos, shoot the lunchboxes at riders from a giant wiener gun.

Rest Day?

Frankie Andreu was interviewed on NPR this morning and referred to LA and Little Al as "frienemies".

Very "Gossip Girls". And he also said that as the tour goes on, it will be much lighter on the "friend" side and much heaver on the "enemy" part. He stopped short of calling it, but I had the feeling he was surprised by Lance's form, but thought Contador would take care of things in the Alps. -boo

I know he had a pretty funky haircut earlier in the season, but Bradley Wiggins is quickly rising up my list of favorite Gamin-Slipstream cyclists. Imagine Levi asking Dave Zabriskie if Wiggs crazy. Ironic, but I think Dave can recognize crazy.
-star

Whew, rest day. I needed this.

Great articles on Wiggins, sounds like a very cool guy and looks like he should be in a Guy Richie movie. Definitely agree that crazy recognizes crazy.

Read in the NYT this weekend the Johan said "what happens on the bus, stays on the bus", so the Astana bus is like Vegas? But without the slot machines & showgirls I assume. - Lil

Stage 9 - quick observation

Pellizotti (Liquigas) has some very pretty blond curls coming out of the back of his helmet as he stays away on the break. Got to go to Wahoo now, so more later.

Happy Birthday Big Guy!! Have a good one!

Today was about one rider - ¡Jens! I wish the Lance network would have a jens cam. Today he gets in the chase group of 8 - when he gets dropped towards the top of the HC climb up Col dTourmalet, it appears that he might die from pain. Gets picked up by the peleton, next shot of him is loading up with new bottles from the team car. Then Andy Shleck gets a flat at 4k from the finish (worst place ever!) Jens dropped back and pulled him to the peleton in about 15 seconds. I think he should have a reality show - "¡Jens! Crazy, Painful, Perfect Day"

France wins its 3 stage of the race, as a nation they are overachieving. It was a Bbox rider, the team appears to be moving past their inglorious TTT performance.

It was No-Shave Sunday for Levi & Thor. And in other facial hair news, Phil described a Rabobank rider's "goaty beard thing" - I think he meant goatee.

Lil

I heard that comment by Phil as well. I also just saw a bunch of Aussies looking like marigolds with yellow bushy things on their head and flags as capes. At least they weren't naked. - boo

I would totally watch a !Jens! reality show.

***Congrats goes out to our sister Bones, she's prego. Now Squeaky and Squirmy are going to have a new littler sis or brother in January!

-star

Stage 8 - yawn another breakaway...

OK - so I didn't watch much of the stage - just the last 20K. Sounds like it was super fast, but there were no big shakeups in the GC. The big boys dropped the yellow jersey early on, but he clawed his skinny Italian butt back into it.
Lil called me out on the #6 of the drinking game, roughly translating Fabian's rant as "...help, you lazy bastards. If not, I'll ride over on the other side of the road..." Since it was only 9:35am, and we were just getting back from the Farmers Market (yea, sweet corn!), I passed on the pounding of a drink and downed the raspberry iced tea...
Tomorrow, two of the monsters of the Pyrennes in Col d'Aspin and the Tourmalet, with fast downhill/flat finish. Will the attacks fly and will we see a big shake up? Lil, if you watched more closely, please fill in the details!! -boo

OMG almost forgot... Thor is in Green!!! Cav had a few troubles getting over the mountains and arrived in the autobus as the God of Thunder was pulling on the jersey!!! he, he, he. I wish I could have translated what he said to Bernhard Eisel as he crossed 23 min back.

Happy to help boo.

A break got away, and stayed away for the win. Going up the third & final climb of the day it looked like the yellow jersey had cracked, dropping off the lead group because of attacks by the Shlecks (unable to tell beanpoles apart, yes I realize they wear different colored jerseys, so I guess it a matter of caring). VdV in post-race interview said he though the Shlecks wanted the yellow to go to Astana & force them to defend - interesting (also excellent move by VS shooting from non-mole side, for you star). However, the yellow got back, paced by teammate Stéphane Goubert -nominated for best name in peleton!- at that point the lead group was like -whatever *eye roll* lets just finish, big day tomorrow.

Big G (le sigh, le swoon) was in the break until the end of the final climb up Col D Angés and tried to descend like a banshee to get back. But was unable-so he sat up and waited for the peleton. This is notable because it meant lots of happy eye time. FYI - he was drinking Fanta in post-race interview. Oh George, you are so awesome.

Also, Little Al was definitely not at the Astana cool kids table today. Always lurking a couple riders behind LA/Levi/Kloden. Not so happy times in the turquoise bus. Also, why the jersey zipped up the whole way Al? what are you hiding? your tiny little bird chest?

Cadel may/may not have the form, but he's certainly more aggressive this year. VdV, Millar & Wiggins finished in leaders group- good work argyle! I don't know what movie they were showing in the autobus today, but it must have been good 'cause it drew a big crowd. I like to picture the autobus as sharing snack packs of fruit chews, baby carrots & juice boxes.

Ooo nice George picture. All the other pigeon chests are jealous. And yes, I do realize I would not technically have to translate Cavendish, but he does talk kind of funny.

Love the Gorgeous George pic, I think that is the only shirtless cyclist we will have on our blog....the others would be frightening. -star

Tour de France - Stage 7

Ah, snap, Lance, did you see what 'Little Al" just did? Yeah, y'all really, really look like a united team. Levi & Lance knew the 'plan', it must have been lost in the Flemish to English and Flemish to Spanish translation when Johan-the ass was going over the stage in the pre-race meeting. What are the odds that Team Astana stays as is after the Tour? My guess is slim to none, and slim just took a flyer off the front of the peloton.
Kudos to the skinny, little fellows in Argyle. Way to stick with the big dogs Wiggy & VdV! Too bad crazy Dave Z, couldn't quite keep with the GC contenders in the last 2 k. -Star.

Good analysis, Star. I'm betting if the roles had been reversed, the French and Spanish press would have been ALL over LA for pulling a move like Contador did. Also, ESPN needs to find SOMEONE that knows about cycling. Their SC anchor mis-pronounced Contador as CANT-a-dor at least 5 or six time. Dork. Or wait, maybe that is me for caring.... - boo

Stage 6 - Crash-tastic

My favorite Norse God won today!! I have a special place in my heart for a world-class athlete that can eat a danish and have a latte 45 minutes before a TT.

Little story that I have already told most people... Star and I were at the Tour of California stalking some of our favorite cyclists, and since we had been up a while and since Solvang is a big Danish town, we decided to stop for a quick break at a little bakery right behind where the Cervelo bus was parked.

To my great delight, the lovely and large Thor Hushovd was standing at the counter ordering a roll. Tapping him on the shoulder, I nervously asked if I could have a picture with him. Apparently, Star was a little shaky too, since the picture is a little blurry. I then pulled a very stalker-y move and took a table RIGHT next to him and took a picture with my camera phone so that I could tell everyone that I had coffee with the God of Thunder!!!

I did stop short of taking his used coffee cup....

boo

I was totally there, it all happened as she says. -star

Way to stalk sister! Did he really have a latte? or was it espresso?

Stage 6 was also Road-Rash-riffic- Lil

It might have even been a mocha, since it looked like there were little chunks of chocolate on the sides of the cup. Wait, did I say too much? OK - that just sealed the creepy-ness of the stalking... boo