Anyone else on here following this?
Contador to win.
Armstrong has been incredible.
Astana has such a strong team & that's the difference for Bradley Wiggins.
Though Vandevelde's effort to help him yesterday was immense he needed more support to keep him in contention for a podium finish.
Today's time trial should be fascinating.
A top ten finish for him though would be outstanding.
Cavendish cannot now get the green jersey but he's only young & I still fancy him to get the stage win on the Champs Elysee.
All in all much better than last year.
Allez Lance, allez Bradley.

Just returned from my own "Le Tour".

I have a begrudging admiration for anyone who can climb hills on a bike faster than I dare go down them, especially after doing Hartside coming out of the Lakes on Saturday - one hour of solid uphill and lots of Lucazade.


Stand by for details of a ride I am organising for next year that RLFannies are invited to...

I kind of loosely keep track of Le Tour via the internet. I'm no big cycling fan and I can't say I entirely understand the finer points of it, but you have to respect the super-human effort involved in that kind of event. The top guys must be some of the greatest endurance athletes on the planet, and as an amateur marathon runner I can certainly admire that.

i think the main reason why Armstrong is struggling is because he doesn't have the full support of the team. When he was at the discovery team he had the full backing of the team who would lead him out and dictate the pace of the peleton when needed. Now Armstrong is on his own he is struggling to cope with the added difficulty of taking more turns at the front and tracking other riders on his own

I rather do enjoy it.

Big day today with the time trial. A lot can change. Brad Wiggins put a good effort in your never know.

Far from it. At 37 I think he's been superb and he has actually said he'll help Contador win the tour. Contador has pulled away on a couple of the mountain stages, but he's 12 years younger and hasn't had a 3 year break from cycling. To be 4th in the tour is an outstanding achievement.

Agreed, it would have been easy for Armstrong to come back only on the basis that he would be team leader and everyone else should sacrifice themselves for his benefit.

That he's prepared to put his own personal glory on the line to help Contador says a lot about him as a person IMO.

While I'd love to see Wiggins do well in the time trial and Contador has been making worried noises about him in the press, I can't see him making up enough time to win it.

Perhaps more satisfying would be to see Cavendish first across the line in Paris and then giving an extremely large two fingers to a certain Norwegian...

The way Contadour put the hammer down into Verbier showed he should be Astana's top man - Wiggins was awesome on that stage - in the correct team he is a potential winner - especially as he appears to have conquered the mental side of the climbs.

The performance of Wiggins has been nothing short of outstanding. To go from being a gold medal winning track cyclist to these performances in the mountains in less than 12 months has been a joy to watch.

Its a well overrated sporting event.

I think that your user name indicates exactly how much credence we sould give to your opinion.
It's the single event that attracts the largest live audience of any sporting event in the world.
It obviously doesn't float your boat though.
So just ignore it.

Do you mean live as in stood on the side of the road?