2008 Tour de France : Stage 9 : Toulouse - Bagnères-de-Bigorre 224.0 km Sunday July13

Powerful Pete

On Eurosport the Italian commentators pointed out Millar coming into the finish 4.5 minutes down.

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Andrija

Great ride by Ricco. He looked so strong today that I can't see who could challenge him in the mountains... But, there's, still, two weeks of racing and he's not so experience in the Tour as other GC contenders are.
Mentioning GC; after today, Ricco will be considered as a GC contender (he made up over a minute on a non-uphill finish). What I want to say is - he is a great climber, but not GC caliber yet. So, maybe he made mistake today. By today's effort he, probably, limited his future freedom in the race... He won't be let in the breakaways (to collect KOM points or win a stage from there), he'll be watched carefully as a danger man who can do a real damage to the lead group, so all his attacks will be heavily marked by several teams (riders).
But, then again, he already won two stages, he's very high in white jersey classification and (with this kind of form) he could finish in top 10 at the end... He doesn't need freedom anymore.

All in all - hats of for today's victory and lets see what happens in following stages.

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Cobblestones

After seeing today's attack, I wonder who might have the courage to mark him.

Andrija

Surely his attack was superb, impossible to defend. But, when he gets tired, his attacks won't be so explosive and in some other situation, someone will have to follow him.
It's going to be very hard for one man to follow his moves, but team work could neutralize his efforts.

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thoughtforfood

We'll see tomorrow his intentions and strength.

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Ashley.S.Olsen

most interesting aspect of riccos attack? the lack of organisations in the chase effort. only two large names went on the front. menchov and fshleck. lotto no chase and the french bank made little impression. last question. why did perineo attack then pull out his earthing then come back to the peletron pre ricco attack? looks strong. and maybe stronger than alesendrijo.

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plectrum

I think it is risky to underestimate Ricco's potential. The tour has many climb based stages this year and his form today was ominous. The strength of the attack was quite phenomenal, up out of the saddle the whole way.

He looks far from being tired and if he can keep the strength gong then it is not going to be whether he gets space to attack but whether the other contenders manage to keep with him.

Valverde looked poor today, certainly not a leader nor a winner. I'm sure he will try and cheat at some phase during this year's tour but I'm not quite sure how prepared he is (i.e. bags of blood etc)

Whoever wants to challenge Evans will need 2 mins min to make up for what they'll lose during the final TT but based on last year's performance it is easy to take this from him in the true mountains especially now that perhaps he ahs picked up a little injury in the fall today.

Ricco has finished second to dope king Contador during last month's Giro and so certainly he is in the mix, and i hope he can put pressure on Evans in the mountains so that it doesn't become a forgone conclusion down to the TT.

earth_dweller

I read that Kirchen threw his bike at the finish line, did anyone see that? Is it just the imagination of a fan?

While Ricco showed fantastic acceleration, I don't think the GC boys & their teams were concerned and they somewhat let him go. A mistake? well it might put ideas in Ricco's head and he might start thinking about the overall. The boys were just watching each other and I still think Valverde will take it all. He's got a very strong team.

TheDarkLord

I certainly didn't see anything like that, and the coverage did stay up until the podium ceremony. I would say that it is just overactive imagination.

The riders in the break chasing Lang certainly were unable to chase Ricco; they had this tired look at their faces as Ricco passed them by. But the GC boys could probably have chasen him if they wanted to.

Powerful Pete

I think we will see tomorrow if Ricco can hack it. I do find it interesting that if anyone else had won this way today everyone would be screaming about him as a possible tour winner (keeping in mind that it is his second win in his first Tour).

But since Ricco is a bit annoying everyone is desperately looking for ways to discount his potential as a GC candidate. The guy came second to Contador in quite a tough Giro (his second Giro, by the way) winning stages and ' causing trouble ' with his attacks.

Now I believe (depending on his performance tomorrow) that he is in the fight for GC. Alas, his TTing remains remarkably poor. But then again, maybe he could make one or several of the big boys blow up tomorrow?

I continue to believe that Valverde can be counted on having one very bad day in the race. Evans has not looked particularly brilliant in the mountains (fair enough, he never looks brilliant but is more of a diesel). Menchov is very unreliable...

N.B. I do not believe that anyone could mark him today.

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earth_dweller

I agree with PP's statement about everybody discounting Ricco's chances. Of course, he's the one that keeps repeating that "I'm just here for the experience". And he's announced that he wants to help Piep win the stage tomorrow. We'll know more after tomorrow.

Could they have caught Ricco in a concerted chase? Not in the climb but I do think in the long drag (downhill & flatter) section to the finish, well yes if they had wanted to.

Haven't been impressed by Evans yet, but truly I never am, he leaves me blah.

Valverde having a bad day? nope, I think he's quite prepared (he he ) and will take it. Menchov? who knows.

TheDarkLord

IMO, they did try to catch him, and failed.

Ashley.S.Olsen

he had bike problems all day. so yes.

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Ashley.S.Olsen

incorrect. they tried sometimes then stopped chasing. it was not organized. kirchen had no team-mates.

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