Tour de France 2011

[Danny_Alvarez]

Cadel Evans must erode a lead of 57 seconds to win the tour de france before the traditional sunday procession into Paris....

if he achieves this on the time trial in Grenoble tonight.... he will become the first Australian to ever win the Tour de France...

I never get this excited about "de tour" .... but i am breathless....57 seconds away from immortality

COME ON AUSSIE COME ON !!!!!!

cheers

[jaguar72]

Cadel Evans must erode a lead of 57 seconds to win the tour de france before the traditional sunday procession into Paris....

if he achieves this on the time trial in Grenoble tonight.... he will become the first Australian to ever win the Tour de France...

I never get this excited about "de tour" .... but i am breathless....57 seconds away from immortality

COME ON AUSSIE COME ON !!!!!!

cheers

It's possible, but 57 seconds is a huge deficit.

Lemond did it in '89 (behind 50 seconds to Fignon, he made up 58 and won) on the actual final stage into Paris that year, a time-trial.

But that was Lemond... .

Still, it could happen.

V/R,

Gary Jenkins/Jaguar72

[tommyc]

AUSSIE ,CRIMINAL OR NOT ..................YUR 1ST IN THE TOURE DE FRANE!!......AT LAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YOU THINK CRIMINALS CAN GO FASTER ??........OF COURSE,THEYR MORE USED TO IT AINT THEY?....

[jaguar72]

Cadel Evans must erode a lead of 57 seconds to win the tour de france before the traditional sunday procession into Paris....

if he achieves this on the time trial in Grenoble tonight.... he will become the first Australian to ever win the Tour de France...

I never get this excited about "de tour" .... but i am breathless....57 seconds away from immortality

COME ON AUSSIE COME ON !!!!!!

cheers

It's possible, but 57 seconds is a huge deficit.

Lemond did it in '89 ( behind 50 seconds to Fignon, he made up 58 and won) on the actual final stage into Paris that year , a time trial.

But that was Lemond... .

Still, it could happen.

V/R,

Gary Jenkins/Jaguar72

It did.

Absolutely amazing. Unbelievable. Incredible. Brilliant. Stunning.

And every other superlative.

V/R,

Gary Jenkins/Jaguar72

[Danny_Alvarez]

AUSSIE ,CRIMINAL OR NOT ..................YUR 1ST IN THE TOURE DE FRANE!!......AT LAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YOU THINK CRIMINALS CAN GO FASTER ??........OF COURSE,THEYR MORE USED TO IT AINT THEY?....

Muahahahaha that's too right Tommy a crim is always running from the long arm of the law

It did.

Absolutely amazing. Unbelievable. Incredible. Brilliant. Stunning.

And every other superlative.

V/R,

Gary Jenkins/Jaguar72

that's how i feel Gary.... i was so excited... and i don't know how but i was screaming and cheering at the tv in the middle of the night ....i am stoked that finally we have won the tour de france....
Cadel has come so close so many times he deserved this and im so glad and proud of him

cheers
Danny

[tommyc]

Any drugs involved Danny??

[Danny_Alvarez]

Tommy, cycling is rife with performance enhancing drugs..... one always wants to believe that our heroes are FAIR DINKUM .... but who knows ... look how many people still accuse Lance Armstrong of cheating.... to me he is a true inspiration.

(that answer was if u were referring to Cadel, if you are referring to me, i am a clean skin god-fearing, family-loving, non smoking, no drugs, no tattoos, no body piercing, checker player, boring by certain people's standards .... i don't do drugs other than caffeine, vitamin c and the occasional Panadol)

[jaguar72]

It did.

Absolutely amazing. Unbelievable. Incredible. Brilliant. Stunning.

And every other superlative.

V/R,

Gary Jenkins/Jaguar72

that's how i feel Gary.... i was so excited... and i don't know how but i was screaming and cheering at the tv in the middle of the night ....i am stoked that finally we have won the tour de france....
Cadel has come so close so many times he deserved this and im so glad and proud of him

cheers
Danny

Tour riders who operate at that level for so long (and it was the next-to-the-last stage, don't forget) leave me in total awe. The lad completely deserves the victory.

Reminds me a bit of how Irishman Stephen Roche (my favorite Tour rider of all time; a modest and decent rider with unwordly ability) took a minute-and-a-half out of Pedro Delgado in the mountains in 1987. 20th stage, I think; quite near the end, anyway. It wasn't possible, it couldn't be done, because Delgado was an absolutely world-class climber, but Roche did it. I thought Roche was dead (I mean literally; I thought he was going to die right there on the road) when he crossed the line four seconds behind Delgado and collapsed. But he recovered in a bit and in the next few days won the Tour. The first, and only, Irishman to win it so there are some parallels with Cadel Evans.

Anyhow, congrats to both Cadel and Australia. A well-deserved and dramatic victory in a great Tour de France.

One must, above all, endure.

Cheers, indeed!

V/R,

Gary Jenkins/Jaguar72

[tommyc]

Thanks for that Gary.............Jes Danny yur so clean yu ll go straight through the Pearly Gates n yur feet wont hit the floor.

[Danny_Alvarez]

Nah Tommy, I don't aspire to be a saint. I've made my parents and grandparents proud; not sure I'll see the pearly gates, but that's good enough for me.

Gary I love cycling as well I will look up those names as I didn't know them.

Cheers

[jaguar72]

Thanks for that Gary...

You are most welcome, Tommy. Stephen Roche was one of the great ones. I did not think at the time that there was a bicycle racer on the face of the planet who could have caught Pedro Delgado (who was, himself, a class act, by the way) that day but Roche, who was not a climbing specialist, did it...and this was after he had done a huge solo breakaway and been caught and dropped by Delgado late in the stage going uphill. It would have crushed a lesser man. Delgado gained a minute and a half, a huge amount of time in the mountains, and then Roche decided to catch him... .

Even now, after almost twenty-five years, it makes my heart skip a beat or two. Never seen anything to equal it. Never.

There were still (I think; my memory is going) four or five relatively flat stages to go after that, but Stephen handled those okay, including, if I remember correctly, a final stage time-trial which he won and with that victory won the 1987 tour.

But the stage where he (almost) caught Delgado in the mountains was the turning point...it was all destiny from there.

There you have it...so maybe during the first part of July every year, lift a glass to Stephen Roche, the Pride of Ireland. The lad truly deserves it.

V/R,

Gary Jenkins/Jaguar72

[tommyc]

Gary i find it amazing yu rem all that from almost 1/4 of a century ago...WOW.

[jaguar72]

Gary i find it amazing yu rem all that from almost 1/4 of a century ago...WOW.

Ah, well, no credit is due my memory, Tommy.

It was such an amazing performance by Stephen Roche that I doubt if anybody who saw it could forget it if they tried.

I know I'm repeating myself, but there was no way he could have caught a climber of Delgado's ability in that situation...but he did. If there had been another twenty feet to the finish line Stephen would actually have passed him. As I said, I thought it had killed him; he actually passed out as he crossed the line. He had nothing, but nothing, left.

And there were still four or five stages to go... .

Amazing.

V/R,

Gary Jenkins/Jaguar72