Saturday, July 02, 2011

Le Velo



There’s this bike race in France that started today that, for some reason, I just can’t get psyched on this year. Maybe if I watch Le Velo a few more times my mind will get straight. Maybe it’s a self-imposed tactic hoping my ambivelance will lead to some great racing. Yeah, yeah, that’s it.

It's just that deep down I don’t believe Contador can lose. Plus, his main rival is pretty boring. There are some cool stories on the undercard, particularly Chris Horner, but c’mon. Horner’s as old as Lance; how can he be a serious contender? And, even the the parcours means that Schleck could conceivably lose no time to Contador in the time trials (a TTT and his team has fastest time trialist in history and a short, hilly, TT near the end) I’m still not buying that when it comes down to winning a grand tour anybody is dropping Contador—and his special Spanish beef—when it actually matters. So c’mon guys, prove me wrong!

Uh-oh. The first stage just wrapped and, shockingly enough, Phillippe Gilbert won. That guy hasn’t won a bike race since, like, the last bike race he did. He might win four stages in the first week. Then the Contador show starts. So I guess until someone shows that things are different I’m going to keep getting’ dirty.



re: hmm, ac gets behind a crash and loses over a minute. tactic could be working... thanks josh and reed for the vids.

4 comments:

Josh said...

Steve,

AC's dominance aside, the race still gets exciting that last week. Also, I cannot think of any other athlete who delivers absolutely every time as Contador has done. The possibility that he could do it again coming off the Giro will get me excited for the Tour.

BTW, I love this blog! Thanks for all the great posts.

Steve Edwards said...

Thanks, Josh!

It's been pretty exciting so far, so my blase is already starting to wane. And AC losing a minute and a half is just perfect. He's going to have a attack, which never seems like a problem, and the pressure's already mountin on Andy. Not that he had any problems today following a veritable motorcycle around the course. Cancellara and Gilbert are as dominant in their diciplines right now as anyone I've ever seen.

Other Josh said...

Um . . . how the fuck did Thor stay with Contador up that climb. Don't care how short it was . . . . doesn't Thor outweigh Contador by about 20 kilos? Basic physics says that he'd have to be producing something on the order of 1 million watts to ACs 450.

I'm a medical doctor. I own a mansion and a yacht.

- Different Josh

Perlin said...

Big engine. Much power.

That's the thing. When Thor cranks it up he does push a million watts.