I think Gilbert blew it. He should have given his teammate Van Den Broeck the gap when it opened and forced the others around him. Don't know if that would have won Gilbert the stage, but he probably would have done better if he had waited. Contador probably lost the stage because he was sprinting on his hoods rather than his drops; bike throw from the hoods is not good, but then, methinks he might need some Spanish beef to improve.

Loved watching Feillu draft his team car and taking his hand off the bars to tell them to up the speed. That looked like a crash waiting to happen.

My favorite bit about Feillu today was his running backwards, dragging his bike on the side of the road, waving at random passing cares in sheer panic. Sort of lends a little credibility to Cav's earlier critique of Feillu's poor handling of himself in sprints.

Ian, I watch the Eurosport feed as well. Is it just me, or is Kelly seemingly asleep most the time? It's like the have to rouse him with a cattle prod and then he says something in the most unexcited tone, usually repeating what has already been stated...That said, I find them charming in the same way as Phil/Paul, which is, they just "are", like the sun and the passage of time. Although, Phil seems to be making more and more mistakes in his commentary, ala Pat Summerall/John Madden.

@ Marc

Yeah, and with the relegation of yesterday's intermediate sprint, I am leaning toward believing Cav's assertion that officials have it out for him. Even Thor said he didn't hold his line, and Cav just leaned his head on him to keep from crashing. It was not a headbutt. Yet, Cav gets penalized. Not a huge fan of the guy, but maybe he's not entirely wrong in his everyone-is-out-to-get-me belief.

@Marc
I thought Feillu looked out of control when he crossed the line in second place. Scary, as in cat4 at PP scary.

@Jeff
That is just Kelly. He's a man of few words : he's reported to have nodded in reply to an interview question once. A radio interview.
Actually having seen him interviewed as a rider back in the 80's when he possessed an Irish brogue so thick he was almost incomprehensible I was shocked that he later became a commentator. He's actually pretty insightful.

That's hilarious. Yeah, I like him, it's just funny how bored he sounds. Plus, he had SICK legs back in the day.

http://www.swotti.com/tmp/swotti/cacheC2VHBIBRZWXSEQ==/imgSean%20Kelly2.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_n7F3kDkuYbM/TUBR7YxuHBI/AAAAAAAAB5w/pNlRclv1w2c/s1600/Sean+Kelly+Legs.jpg

He doesn't have room for kneecaps, only muscle.

I remember when I saw that first shot of Kelly's legs. I was pretty grossed out.

A warning about Cav'. He whines when he doesn't win. Always an excuse. Never, "I wasn't good enough today." So I have my doubts about his Feillu complaints, and y'all should, too.

Cav is the greatest sprinter who ever lived. The French DO have it out for him. Roman Feillu is insanely sketchy and was far more of a danger on that stage than Cav or Thor, no room for debate. He almost killed Tyler shaking his fist ruefully at the sky after losing grip of his handlebars throwing his bike across the line like it was the Harlem Skinscraper Classic circa 2010 and he's a rookie domestic crit racer. All sprinters spew excuses when they lose, it's just conspicuous when Cav does it, since he's fastest and nobody else wins very much.

I was wondering. I think it is without debate that Cav is the best sprinter now, maybe ever. I mean, the only reason Farrar won the other day was because he wasn't there. Do you think he could ever improve on other aspects of his game and still be that far ahead of the rest in the sprints. I mean, do you think it's possible for him to improve a little to be a bit more of a 'puncheur', and still be an awesome sprinter, or is it totally all or nothing? I suppose the logic is that he is so good at sprinting because he is so average at everything else...

There is no debate that Super Mario is the best sprinter ever, and by ever I mean since the Earth cooled and the oceans rained down from the heavens.

Cav is only fast if Renshaw is there to open it up for him, not always, but he is not nearly feared as in the past. Is he the fastest active sprinter? The only thing results show is that he is one of the top 5. But then there are only about 5 top pure sprinters so that is a bunch of perspective. Is he dangerous, he has broken many of other riders' bones.

Will he ever be a classics rider, or a long break rider? Unless things change and he changes everything about his approach, he will never win anything other than an flat tour series race.

By the way Super Mario won in Belgium, Cav never will. Super Mario was so unbeatable the Tour stopped inviting him, even while he was the world champion. Super Mario was sooo dominate a sprinter he wore costumes for the sprint.

Super Mario was never accused of being a bad bike handler.

Super Mario was never called an ass-hole.

Whether or not Cav' is the greastest sprinter ever is immaterial. And its impossible to determine who is the greatest.

He has an impressive sprint tally, but remember that Cipollini won 42 giro stages, and in 2002 won 6 giro stages. The only thing holding Cipollini back at the Tour was his preference to quit in the mountains--the Tour organizers found that insulting and decided not to invite his teams anymore. And if we go back through history we can find some other pretty impressive sprinters.

What Cav' has, and what is impossible to quantify, are the advantages he's had over other "great" sprinters. How do you quantify the impact radio communication from directors watching the race on TV to their riders? How do you quantify his leadout train? For most of his victories at the Tour, he had an impeccable leadout and was second wheel at exactly 200 meters to go. Rare has been the day when Cav' won by freelancing his way to victory, as sprinters like McEwen or Hushovd have managed.

This is one of those instances where small differences make a huge difference in results. Tyler Farrar has never received the kind of support Cav' has at Grand Tours. Garmin just about always goes in with at least a few riders reserved for the mountain stages and only two guys dedicated to Farrar's sprint. David Millar for the final few k, Julian Dean for the final k. This year, it has been different with Hushovd in the mix. Contrast that with Cav getting probably seven of the eight other HTC riders riding tempo and then three or four guys for the final few k--Eisel and Goss until their blown and then renshaw down to 200 to go. All of Cav's leadout are excellent sprinters themselves.

The small difference is that Farrar has only occasionally beaten Cav', so the team doesn't put as many resources into his sprint success, and that Garmin really wants general classification success. If Farrar wants to win more, he should probably leave Garmin and go for a Euro squad that would support him the way Cav' is supported.

Cav already makes funny money being the best sprinter in the history of the world. Why would he mess with that? That said, I've heard people say George Hincapie used to be a sprinter in the old days and became a one-day classics man. Same with Hushovd. Cav did win San Remo, so when he's really on form he can get over a hill or two with lots of help from his team. It's hard to say whether he can make that kind of shift though -- he just doesn't look anything like a classics rider to me.


One other thing I was thinking about this morning in the shower with regards to the HTC leadout train from a couple days ago:

I noticed that when Panzerwagen Martin went to the front for his monster pull, he kept looking over his shoulders. At first I thought he was only making sure his boys were locked on his wheel. But then I noticed he was being a lot more conniving than that.

The finale of that stage was on two-lane roads with some curves and a couple corners. The camera guy on the back of the moto got a couple really great shots of Tony storming down a gutter looking over his shoulder over and over, and eventually seeing a competing line of riders coming up the other side of the peleton to its "shoulder" before the single-file train. He would then make his way across the road to the other gutter, completely slamming the door on the group of ambitious riders, who got enveloped by the peleton, who of course followed Tony across the road right into them.

This is a tactic that we could absolutely use in PP and CP races (not Floyd -- too wide). So when we set up a train, do it on the bike lane side to make the ambitious riders all percolate to the outside to move up toward the front. Then when you see them start to come up, "slam the door" on them by moving the train to the right side, trapping them with the guys who are going to be sprinting for 15th. I bet you could bog a lot of the better sprinters down in that traffic.

I am assuming everyone already knew about this tactic and I'm just sounding like a noob retard stating the obvious, so no need to inform me. I obviously think about bike racing too much in the shower.

I'm not too sure that Cav's job is that easy. Yes, he has an awesome team which provide immense support. However, the thing with him is that he nails it 9/10 times. He does that time and time again. No other sprinters are like that. If you think back to this year's Giro, Petacchi got dumped 200m from the line by his team with Cav behind him. He later said after the stage that he effectively gave Cav the stage in that scenario. The other way round, Cav in front, Petacchi behind 200m left. Cav wins. Last year on the Champs Elysees Cav won by a mile, and got no proper lead out for that. I think that his lead outs make it look easy and him look good. I think without them, he'd lose more. However, I think, all things being equal, he is still substantially better than the next sprinters out there.

Go Voeckler!

Almost like he heard our debate!

Well that was well-timed!

Jeff,
I think its more subtle than that. I'll have to watch again. Remember these guys race against each other day after day, year after year. Real dick maneuvers are not tolerated for long. In terms of racing, particularly park racing, if you're leading the field, you usually take the straightest line possible, and since the road curves a few times en route to the finish, yes, take advantage of those curves. And potholes for that matter.

A great finish by Cav'. I don't know if Martin's acceleration was planned, but HTC corrected well.

See, I actually get really annoyed when whoever is on the front drives us all through the potholes! I should clarify that I'm not suggesting we swerve across the road quickly, nor did Martin do anything of the sort. He just kind of made his way to the other gutter. Is that considered improper? I would think that if you don't want that to happen, you should get your train going first.

brief clip that includes the bike being dragged by the getty moto. WTF?

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/22825103/vp/42433236#43659704

Not the biggest Boonen fan, but that's pretty f'n tough chasing back on with no help for so long (eventually got some) when you're banged up that badly.

Jérémy Roy wrote in l'Equipe that he could not work as hard as Voeckler in the break. With a stronger partner, Voeckler could have succeeded once more...

http://www.lequipe.fr/Cyclisme/breves2011/20110706_212606_-j-etais-le-boulet.html

I am watching a feed where Kelly was just prodded awake and spoke for almost an entire minute! About 30 seconds worth was eeehhhh and uhhhhh, but he spoke!

Jeff,
I'm not suggesting driving the field over the potholes, but utilizing them such that the best line around them is the one you take. Let's say you're at the front coming off the Prospect downhill. The good line is the inside line. You need to move right either just before or just after the pothole field by the temple, but move right you should. Then the road curves left, then right, then left, then right again. If you're at the front, you should be moving to take the best line and that will block out those who aren't paying attention.

All,
I noticed that Craig Lewis of HTC was tweeting during the stage yesterday. In his tweets, he opines that Garmin was trying to blow apart the field before the last 40k, and wasn't sure if Garmin wasn't strong enough or if the winds weren't. As I'm acquainted with him, I e.mailed him. A bit of a back and forth ensued. He thought that HTC started the leadout from too far away on Stage 3. As for yesterday, he thought it was such a nervous day that no team would have been strong enough to control the leadout.

@mperlberg

Well yes, certainly, you can be sure he said something

Ah, Levi, you California boy. You need to come commute for a few days in NYC. You can't ride on that white line in your race tires - you're asking for it!

Several times I saw the field filmed from above (helicopter) and I was amazed to see how often the riders use the last inch on both sides of the road although there are spectators and/or obstacles (such as parked vehicles) right there. Even without a white line, I found it scary.

Voeckler! Attack! Attack! Attack! Love him...

They need to get this tour into the mountains a little quicker I think, or have an ITT to open up some time gaps. It just seems too nervous and too dangerous.

yeah, Bradley going down and Horner losing 12 minutes among other things. Lame.

A couple interesting points from today's stage:

1) The HTC lead-out way obviously spot on.

2) When the video is posted I will link to it, but what do you think of Romain Feillu's (I think) sprint. seems pretty wild to me. goes from far right, through the field, to the left pretty crazily. maybe he just has amazing instincts and eyes in the back of his head.

3) in the Eurosport interview Cav seems really upset to hear about Wiggins abandoning. Thought he might cry.

4) An HTC teammate said the GC competitors need to relax and let the sprinters teams handle things. They are making it incredibly dangerous in the pack. Interesting point. A commentator the other day said something like... "Everybody wants to be in front of the field, but by pure mathematics it isn't possible. So with everyone fighting to be in the front, someone is going to hit the deck."

Mike - I don't agree. If they skip the flat stages and focus more on ITT and mountains then they may as well just fast forward to the podium in paris with contador on the top of the podium.

The flat stages have always been nervous and dangerous, and they help make the race less predictable because favorites crash out or lose time in cross winds.

The phenomenon of all of the contenders trying to surge to the front at the finish, and other points of the race has been attributed by some riders/commentators/directors to the use of race radios.
Basically the DS in car - looking at the route map and then instructing all of their riders to move up. The problem is that all the DS do the same thing.

What was most important about the sprint was that in a drag to the line Cav demonstrated that HTC were right to take him to the tour and leave Griepel to the "$hit small races"