TdF

Anybody watch today's action where they had a crash due to gravel on the
road and one poor fellow went over the rail? Ambulance time, 2 riders
out, and they were in the breakaway.
This year is a total free for all without Lance to dominate.
I have high hopes for Landis. He deserves a win.
Bill Baka

In article ,
Bill wrote:

Anybody watch today's action where they had a crash due to gravel

no gravel involved. was the heat (road deformed and top melted).
----------
"I was following right behind Verbrugghe," said stage winner Fedrigo.
"Because of the heat, the road was deformed, reminding me about the
crash of Joseba Beloki some years ago, also here in Gap."
from cyclingnews.com

Lance never dominated. He barely won any stages and just coasted in
last year's tour.
He will soon be forgotten. Merckx Coppi etc "DOMINATED". Lance just
won. Annd that was partly due to keeping out Cipo;inni and other graet
riders

Bill wrote:
Anybody watch today's action where they had a crash due to gravel on the
road and one poor fellow went over the rail? Ambulance time, 2 riders
out, and they were in the breakaway.
This year is a total free for all without Lance to dominate.
I have high hopes for Landis. He deserves a win.
Bill Baka

In article .com,
wrote:

This year is a total free for all without Lance to dominate.

you mean the race is open?
all the better for real bicycling enthusiasts.

ZeMascouflatte wrote:

In article ,
Bill wrote:

Anybody watch today's action where they had a crash due to gravel

no gravel involved. was the heat (road deformed and top melted).

Not the case - it WAS gravel (or probably sand, from the look of it)
in the corner, plain and simple. I watched the replay several times,
in slow motion -sand came from the inside of the corner (where it
looks like water had washed it halfway across the road).

Mark Hickey
Habanero Cycles
http://www.habcycles.com
Home of the $795 ti frame

wrote:
Lance never dominated. He barely won any stages and just coasted in
last year's tour.
He will soon be forgotten. Merckx Coppi etc "DOMINATED". Lance just
won. Annd that was partly due to keeping out Cipo;inni and other graet
riders

Little Jimmy Buttpacker {tm} trolls AND top-posts -- twice the droolery for
one low price! Well done.


***
Bill wrote:
Anybody watch today's action where they had a crash due to gravel on
the road and one poor fellow went over the rail? Ambulance time, 2
riders out, and they were in the breakaway.
This year is a total free for all without Lance to dominate.
I have high hopes for Landis. He deserves a win.
Bill Baka

ZeMascouflatte wrote:

In article .com,
wrote (didn't, actually):

This year is a total free for all without Lance to dominate.

you mean the race is open?
all the better for real bicycling enthusiasts.

Please learn to quote. Bill (the OP) wrote the above. Buttpacker
wrote...well, nothing (as usual).

Bill wrote:
Anybody watch today's action where they had a crash due to gravel on the
road and one poor fellow went over the rail? Ambulance time, 2 riders
out, and they were in the breakaway.
This year is a total free for all without Lance to dominate.
I have high hopes for Landis. He deserves a win.
Bill Baka

The amazing thing about the crash was that the third rider, Koessler
(sp?), who flew most spectacularly over the rail with his bike spinning
after, was apparently unhurt. He was shown shortly thereafter,
unmarked, back in the race, with a bunch of pieces of gravel stuck in
the airholes of his helmet.

I guess the other two guys are both out ot the Tour, though.

RichC

Mark Hickey wrote:
ZeMascouflatte wrote:

In article ,
Bill wrote:

Anybody watch today's action where they had a crash due to gravel

no gravel involved. was the heat (road deformed and top melted).

Not the case - it WAS gravel (or probably sand, from the look of it)
in the corner, plain and simple. I watched the replay several times,
in slow motion -sand came from the inside of the corner (where it
looks like water had washed it halfway across the road).

Yup. I thought today was a rest day (?), so hadn't had it on. Just caught
the end of the AM show, and sure enough the very thing they were showing was
the slo-mo of the crash.

The sand on the road was easily visible, and it /looked/ like the first
rider's "approach angle" was fine, but man he went down hard and fast. Poor
second guy didn't have a chance.

I liked the shot of him riding later with rocks still imbedded in the vents
of his helmet! Added weight! Added weight! (Gee, if he hadn't been
wearing a lid, he might have lost some chunks of skull and LOST a little
weight! Just another case of a helmet being counter-productive.)

Bill Sornson wrote:

Yup. I thought today was a rest day (?), so hadn't had it on. Just caught
the end of the AM show, and sure enough the very thing they were showing was
the slo-mo of the crash.

The sand on the road was easily visible, and it /looked/ like the first
rider's "approach angle" was fine, but man he went down hard and fast. Poor
second guy didn't have a chance.

I liked the shot of him riding later with rocks still imbedded in the vents
of his helmet! Added weight! Added weight! (Gee, if he hadn't been
wearing a lid, he might have lost some chunks of skull and LOST a little
weight! Just another case of a helmet being counter-productive.)

People are counting wrong, because the video clip darely shows the
actual first crasher, and then lets him leave the frame as it focuses
on the second and third.

Velonews: "Not so lucky were Rik Verbrugghe (Cofidis), David Cañada
(Saunier Duval-Prodir) and Matthias Kessler (T-Mobile). Verbrugghe was
leading the breakaway when he slid out because of what Fédrigo
[another rider in the breakaway group, and the eventual stage winner
-R] said was melted tar deforming the road surface and launched over a
guardrail. The Belgian rider sustained a complex fracture of his left
femur and won't race again this year."

Verbrugghe didn't slide on the sand that may or may not have caught
Cañada (who broke his collarbone) and Kessler (who flipped over the
rail but got up to continue riding, with cravel in his helmet. If you
watch the clip, he's well away from that part of the turn when his
front wheel seems to suddenly twist out from under him. It seems
possible that this is actually two separate crashes, one caused by tar
(Verbrugghe) and the others cause by sand. Cañada may have tried to
tighten his turn when he saw the crash developing ahead of him, not
realizing he was approaching a sandy spot on the road.

RichC