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Tour de France: Stage 7 (ITT) Live Thread (Saturday, July 8, 2006)
VeloNews.com ^ | July 8, 2006 | VeloNews.com

Posted on 07/07/2006 9:52:43 PM PDT by nutmeg

Course: With a week of racing in their legs, the GC contenders finally get their day in the sun with this critical 52km time trial. The counterclockwise circuit has two distinct halves: narrow, hilly back roads at first and long, straight flat highways at the end. The final 15km are likely to be very fast with a tail wind.

History: A total of 13 Tour stages have finished in Rennes, the unofficial capital of the Brittany region, the most recent in 1994 when a massive 270km stage from Cherbourg was taken by Italian Gianluca Bortolami from a seven-man break that contained Motorola's Sean Yates - who took over the yellow jersey. That same day, Greg LeMond ended his career when he pulled out halfway through the long day. This was in sharp contrast to his victory in the 1989 time trial that finished in Rennes: LeMond used clip-on aerobars for the first time, winning the 73km TT from Dinard by 24 seconds over defending champion Pedro Delgado and 56 seconds on main rival Laurent Fignon.

Favorites: Dave Zabriskie will be the clear favorite on a course with long straightaways that could enable him to gain the maximum time in a bid to take over the yellow jersey. With Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso not starting the Tour, the Americans Floyd Landis, Levi Leipheimer and George Hincapie and Australian Cadel Evans will all be close to the stage win; but perhaps the most interesting statistic will be the amount of time lost by the "climber" favorites, Valverde, Damiano Cunego and José Rujano.

Graphics by CyclingNews.com


TOPICS: Sports
KEYWORDS: betterthansoccer; cycling; tdf; tdfstagethread; tourdefrance
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To: nutmeg

Has anyone heard what went wrong with Leipheimer? Also, word on Julich's injuries?


41 posted on 07/08/2006 1:19:16 PM PDT by luv2ski
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To: nutmeg

It was a somewhat dissapointing TT.

I have to say that I am really looking forward to the mountain stages.


42 posted on 07/08/2006 1:25:23 PM PDT by Eurotwit (WI)
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To: nutmeg

Better than soccer?

Blasphemy :-)


43 posted on 07/08/2006 1:26:59 PM PDT by Eurotwit (WI)
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To: luv2ski

Broken wrist is all I've so far re: Julich.


44 posted on 07/08/2006 1:27:08 PM PDT by Ready4Freddy ("What time is it? You mean now?")
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To: Eurotwit
Great graph / graphics of the mountain stages can be found at the bottom of this page:

A classic, cautious 93rd edition for 2006 Tour de France

45 posted on 07/08/2006 1:39:17 PM PDT by Ready4Freddy ("What time is it? You mean now?")
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To: luv2ski
But it's official, tho, letour.fr shows Julich as a withdrawal. Guess it's tough to stay on the bike w/ such unnatural riding positions that some of the riders have to assume.
46 posted on 07/08/2006 1:46:25 PM PDT by Ready4Freddy ("What time is it? You mean now?")
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To: Eurotwit

"Ronaldo"...hmm, I don't know of any real sportsmen who use only their first name. Are you sure that's a real sportsman's name?


47 posted on 07/08/2006 5:07:32 PM PDT by JRios1968 (There's 3 kinds of people in this world...those who know math and those who don't.)
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Comment #48 Removed by Moderator

To: luv2ski
luv2ski, nutmeg posted medical report in Stage 8 thread, post#3
49 posted on 07/08/2006 10:26:06 PM PDT by Ready4Freddy ("What time is it? You mean now?")
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To: Baynative

Thanks, Baynative!


50 posted on 07/08/2006 10:48:37 PM PDT by nutmeg ("We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good." - Hillary Clinton 6/28/04)
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