Tour de France *** 2010 *** [LIVE THREAD]

Various incl letour.com / versus.com / steepjill.tv ^ | July 3, 2010 | Numerous - ongoing LIVE thread

[Vision]

Can’t believe how fast the leader is going. It almost looks like he’s going downhill.

[commish]

All the sprinters have fallen off the back and are forming their own group out of the way of the climbers.

Hopefully LA is ok and the fall doesn’t have too much effect.

[Ready4Freddy]

A veritable who’s-who of sprinters:

15:57 - Grupetto Forms...

Cavendish, Petacchi, Hushovd, Cancellara and a number of others have been dropped by the peloton.

[commish]

Lance has lost Popo off the back already. Looks like Popo may have used his legs up bringing Lance back to the peleton after the crash.

[Vision]

Falling within the first 6k of the climb too.

[Vision]

Talking about commercials...

Boy is that “Uh oh, I want some more...” Vegas commercial amazing.

Say goodbye to MY heart tonight; I’m ready to go to Vegas again(and I was just there in May.)

[Ready4Freddy]

Hopefully LA is ok and the fall doesn’t have too much effect.

Assuming he's OK, & it appears so, the biggest effect will be the energy that Lance & Popo have to expend to get back up near the front of the peleton. LA cannot afford to be caught back on this climb.

On top of that, as Sean Kelly said on the eurosport feed, once they do get back to the front, the other teams will be testing LA & Popo to see what they have left. This is a bad situation for Lance, potentially very bad.

[commish]

Yesterday’s rabbits are fading Puineau, Vouckler, and the Yellow Jersey (Chevanel) are all off the back.

Lance has lost Paulihno now in addition to Popo. Contador has lost most of his support too. Both are riding basically alone

[commish]

Yesterday’s rabbits are fading Puineau, Vouckler, and the Yellow Jersey (Chevanel) are all off the back.

Lance has lost Paulihno now in addition to Popo. Contador has lost most of his support too. Both are riding basically alone

[Vision]

It’s just brutal. I’d probably be a little worn driving up it.

[Ready4Freddy]

Kloden taking over for Popo?

[commish]

Le Mevel is off the back. Some of the top climbers are getting shredded today.. really surprising.

Radio Shack loses Brokovich now.

[commish]

Armstrong is off the back!

[Ready4Freddy]

Damn, LA off the back of the peleton, Horner trying to bring him back.

Fook fook fook. Or maybe it's the rope-a-dope...?

[Vision]

Not good. No rope a’ dope.

“...this is absolute chaos here...”

[Vision]

It would be really said for Lance to be eliminated here and end the story.

[commish]

YOu have to begin to wonder how much the horrible crash in the Tour de cali followed by all the falls in this race (including twice today) have taken out of Lance.

[Vision]

It’s an understatement to say it’s a tough sport.

[commish]

Armstrong crosses 1 minute behind COntador, Evans, Wiggin, Schleck, Liepheimer.

The good news is Lance has a large group around him, so they may be able to make up some time. but Are there any legs left for the final climb today?

[commish]

Eurosport discussing how much the effort to get back to the peleton after the crash may have taken it out of LA just before the climb in this heat.

They are discussing that Lance may not have had a chance to recover his legs before the climb began. May be false hope on their part, but they are saying he might be able to recover his legs before the final climb.