2008 Tour de France : Stage 4 Cholet 29 km Individual time trial Tuesday, July 8

Malkmus

Three people that are too good to be true:

Schumaker
Kreuziger
Kirchen

I bet $100 of Cranky's money that one of them will be caught in the next month.

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Crankyfeet

thumper's got all my money. Bet his...

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Runitout

If Kirchen goes down then Stapleton's in a loooot of trouble.

(And Rogers will be fuming - sitting at home in Varese, legs in top shape, and he got Telekomed from the Tour team just like Evans in 2004).

For that matter - why was Dekker left at home? Form or something else?

Kirchen's form is astonishing. Schumacher was far stronger than I thought (as was Hincapie), but Kirchen was a bolt from the blue. I've never seen him TT like that before. He claims not to be chasing green (but so did Robbie Mac in 2006), but his form so far suggests he will be going for GC and green. I expect him to attack hard at Super Besse.

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And saying so to some
Means nothing; others it leaves
Nothing to be said.

EvilJediJ

Apparently Shumacher didn't get the NO doping at this Tour Memo.

Bro Deal

Dekker is on the outs with Rabobank management. The tiff must be pretty bad if they decided to stick it to him by not putting him on the TdF squad. He'll be at a new team next year.

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"You are like the wind and I like the lion. You form the tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the ground is parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you like the wind will never know yours." -- Mulay Hamid El Raisuli, Lord of the Riff, Sultan to the Berbers, Last of the Barbary Pirates

Trev_S

A quick easy search will see Kirchen has a pretty good TT
I don't think his performance is a dramatic standout in comparison to last year. It's better but certainly not a dramatic improvement.


TDF 07
stage 13
Kirchen finished in 18th 3:18 down on Vino.
of the riders placed in front him, 11 of them are not racing.
2 others in front Popovych & Hoste riding for Silence Lotto now cruised the TT this year.
Course was much longer.


stage 19
Both Kirchen & Schumacher finished 3:17 down on Leipheimer placing 13th & 15 respectively. Of the riders finising in front of them only Leipheimer, Karpets, Contador, Dekker & Gerdemann are not racing. Popovych & Hoste cruised the course. Plus it was a much longer TT which either aren't as good at.

Crankyfeet

Without the prologue this year, there must have been bunches of riders on the same time before the chrono. Does anyone know how they determined the order of riding for the TT? Was it drawn out of a hat?

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Trev_S

They may have the same time but they still have a finishing order as they cross the line. So I'd say it's just an accumulative placings order.
ie:Rider A - finishes in 25 & 32nd,
Rider B finishes in 10th & 158th

Rider A has over all better finish positions.

Something like that I guess.

Grater

Ah yes! Another 2 and a half weeks and he wins the Tour!

Crankyfeet

It would be the reverse GC obviously (thanks gplama - TAN), but wouldn't they determine that as being the finishing order in the most recent stage...if rider's are on the same time?

I see your point however... why only weight the order in the last stage 100% and give zero weighting to previous stages... if rider's are on the same time?

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Crankyfeet

You selected your handle wisely, young Luke...

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Trev_S

Yeah they might even go by the finishing order as per previous stage, for riders of the same time of course.

Might look that up later. Should be easy enough to tell.

Grater

Young Luke?

Crankyfeet

The Force is strong with this one.

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