*** OFFICIAL Lance in France with Tight Pants thread *** - Page 9

parappa · #81 07-14-2005, 11:05 AM

To stir the pot on this a bit: Eurosport were reporting during yesterday's stage that Merckx himself had said that he thought Armstrong was the best rider of all time, but of course that's a nice thing to say, Eddy's just a fan now and has his own opinion, etc. Still, I thought it was interesting coming from a man renowned for his competitiveness...

(sorry, I cannot find an internet source for the quote)

parappa · #82 07-14-2005, 11:08 AM

[ QUOTE ]
so armstrong and the top contenders all held pace in the peleton today?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, Moncoutie did it for the French on Bastille day today. There were no significant changes in the overall.

Arnfinn Madsen · #83 07-14-2005, 11:21 AM

Yes, Lance is a very good allround rider, even quite a good sprinter. Eddy Mercx competed in much more competitions to proove it while Lance makes sure he wins the most important one. I can't see any way (except accident) that he will not win this year too.

BaggyAnt · #84 07-14-2005, 02:47 PM

Mercx is the best ever he used to win the tour on his own - He is also the only rider to have won the tour and come first in both the King of the Mountains and the green jersey in the same tour - an achievement that no one will ever match again. Kudos to Armstrong though he is the best tdf rider since him

Arnfinn Madsen · #85 07-14-2005, 05:12 PM

For those watching, you can notice that breakaways at flat stages are more likely to be successful now than earlier in the Tour since:

-Quick Step has lost their mass sprinter Boonen and is thus less interested in keeping the peloton together.
-Lotto Domo seems to have tired riders.

Those two teams were mainly those who kept the peloton together in the first stages.

namknils · #86 07-14-2005, 05:57 PM

Interesting stuff, thanks.

On a different note, does anyone know of a website with good photos from the tour. I would like to put web photo up as the background on my computer, but none of the pictures I find seem to be big enough. Right now I have a pretty cool picture of Lance going downhill with a teammate, but it's not very big. Anybody think they can help?

jdl22 · #87 07-14-2005, 10:10 PM

http://www.grahamwatson.com/

Graham Watson is the guy that takes most of the shots that are used for American media and websites like velonews.

jdl22 · #88 07-14-2005, 10:11 PM

Congrats on your boy getting in green!

I was rooting for him and quite pleased when he edged O'Grady at the line.

rusty JEDI · #89 07-16-2005, 10:14 PM

So T-mobile makes an attack today with their 3 big guys but Lance fends them off again sans teammates.

My question is: Why does T-mobile have 3 super strong riders, and Lance doesnt have anyone like it? Yes he has some good teammates because you cant win without them, but why isnt there anyone good enough to insure he doesnt get isolated?

Someone said they split the money throughtout a team, so you would think that would attract another star to that team.

rJ

Arnfinn Madsen · #90 07-16-2005, 10:19 PM

His intent was obviously to have strong climbers in his team and recruited based on this, but they have been a bit weaker than expected. The top-notch climbers however, is not interested in spending their season only helping Lance in TdF.

An anecdote from the last climb today:
A german spectator runs along Armstrong shouting: "You are alone". Lance looked around (seeing 1 rider from each team), and shouted back: "Everyone is alone". [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]