f13.net

Just started today with the prologue. 

Will Lance win..........or finally get busted for doping?
Can Contador repeat? 

Should be a good Tour.  Looks like a tough route, but did I only see one time trial?

Stage 3 on the cobblestones should be good for some wipeouts.

It's just the prologue, but Lance looked pretty good today, as did Contador. 

I personally wouldn't mind seeing the Schleck brothers do well, and Vinokourov is back. 

Today had a ton of wrecks. 

And Alessandro Petacchi's old ass won.  Too bad he wasn't wearing the flayed mansuit.

Even more crashes today. Gallery of blood pics: http://tdf.sbs.com.au/tdf2010/photos

It was definitely a crazy day.  I'm surprised more folks weren't seriously injured. 

Anticipating the tour, the local authorities had that downhill road redone just a few days before the stage. If you look at the photo's of the crashed riders you'll noticed there are no roadmarkings painted yet and the surface is as pristine as tarmac comes. And with pristine I mean extremely slippery when rained upon.

Todays stage takes them over the cobblestones of Paris-Roubaix. That's a pretty harsh environment to recuperate in if you got seriously hurt yesterday. It will be interesting to see if people like Gesink and Farrar can survive this one.

Turns out the main problem was a motorbike crashed there and spilled oil over the road, then the cyclists came through and hit the oil.

So much for Lance Armstrong. Contador, while good, didn't seem unbeatable either. Could be a fun two more weeks.

Evans has always been the bridesmaid.  I wouldn't mind seeing him win.

Armstrong looked at Michael Jordan and thought he could come back and dominate.  Guess not. 

Lance took it in the pants today, but man it was a hell of a race.

If you didn't see it it would be worth picking up the end of Versus (if you're in the states).  Scheck took everything Contador could throw at him.  It was really great to see them going at it and possibly let Menchov back into the hunt for real. 

Holy fucking balls of steel.

Jens Voigt crashed again at 70km/h, seems to have broken ribs, needed stitches in his arm, shattered his bicycle in the crash and was handed a junior bike with toeclips to catch up with his team car.

On the ground after the crash: http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/201007/r604650_3955908.jpg

On the junior bike: http://www.bicycling.com/tour-de-france/tour-features/saying-no-sag-wagon

Interviewed after the stage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfiBbZJTx9s

"Broken ribs are overrated."

Jens Voigt puts Chuck Norris to shame.

Yeah, Voigt is a bad ass. 

This sport is a joke. If your competitors fall, or if their bikes fall apart in the middle of the race, it's considered "unsportsmanlike" to not wait for them?

Quote from http://edition.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/07/20/cycling.tour.contador.fedrigo/index.html#fbid=jTzWwCYoQk6 (http://edition.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/07/20/cycling.tour.contador.fedrigo/index.html#fbid=jTzWwCYoQk6) :

Meh, think of it like the caution flag in NASCAR. They stop races when there are crashes as well.

I think the point is to beat the man, not some freak accident. Still, it does sound very French and pussy to boo the guy because of it.

Then again, NASCAR isn't a real sport either... just left-turns all the way ^^

There is nothing wrong with displaying some sportsmanship and there is nothing wrong with using a good opportunity to gain some time one a rival either.

Had he not used the opportunity to attack and then proceeded to lose the Tour with a few seconds, they'd call him a fool for not attacking.
Had he kept his pace and allowed Schleck to rejoin him only to win the tour on the Tourmalet or the time trial it would have been remember as a great moment of sportsmanship in cycling. Much like when Jan Ullrich didn't take advantage when some idiot supporter made Lance Armstrong fall. Ullrich gained a lot of respect from cycling fans that day.

Unwritten rules are kind of silly and Contador did the right thing.  It's not a gentleman's game, by any stretch of the imagination.  And I don't like Alberto Contador.