Tour de France: Stage 20 ITT Live Thread (7-23-05)

CyclingNews.com ^ | 7/23/05 | CyclingNews.com

[nutmeg]

Stage 20 - Saturday, July 23: Saint-Etienne - Saint-Etienne ITT, 55 km

The showdown! All things being equal (and even with a few inequalitites) the individual time trial should provide a great spectacle at the end of a gruelling three weeks - Armstrong thrives in this race against the clock, and his dominance is well documented. But if we have a situation like 2003, this could be the clincher for the leader going into the stage, or it could provide the challenger with a whisker of hope. Here's hoping the weather stays fine and we get Ullrich out firing and witness Basso's improvement in time trialling, which has also been well-documented. The distance suits Armstrong, but the undulating terrain suits Ullrich's ability to push the big gears and power along. A surprise may be in the works, but chances are it'll come down to these two, regardless of where they are on GC - but it's also likely they'll both be at the pointy end of the field.

[Aeronaut]

I visited that thread early this AM. I felt like I needed a shower!

[gopwinsin04]

It's showdown time!

[nutmeg]

LOL... yeah, it definitely was a nasty thread.

[gopwinsin04]

World ITT time trial champion Michael Rodgers is 1:31 behind the leading time of Karpets (1:14:51:67) at the third time check.

[stylin_geek]

John Kerry, shut up and go away.

[Andy from Beaverton]

Where in the hell was the flipflop warning. It's too hard to look at Kerry this early in the morning!

[leilani]

OK. Yall are killing me here. Which thread are you guys talking about? I think the best thing to do with those nu*^nuts as someone called them is to ignore them. They accuse all the cycling fans of being blind Lancebots but post ad nauseum themselves on every single TdF thread, betraying the fact that they seem to be ickily obsessed with the guy (unresolved homosexual inclinations perhaps?)Blessedly, they seem to have left the stage threads to the race fans. (Do they proctoscopically examine the marital status of opposing quarterbacks on Superbowl Sunday too, I wonder?) Ooh. Barforama. John Kerry.... Gotta leave the room.

[Aeronaut]

I would have preferred to watch six straight repetitions of the first season of survivor than to see J F'ing K.

[SShultz460]

Dude would seriously not shut up

THANK GOD HE'S NOT PRESIDENT

[nutmeg]

Ugh... John Effin' in the flesh! No warning on that one. Hey, does everyone here realize that Kerry served in Viet Nam?

I refuse to let John Effin' Kerry ruin my morning and enjoyment of the ITT...

Lance: please stay out of politics!

[leilani]

<Dude would seriously not shut up

I bet OLN gets hammered for this. They're already getting slapped around pretty good for the Sheryl shots. (Actually I think they've been pretty restrained about that.)

Go Levi! Go Specialized!

[nutmeg]

Here's that thread: Lance, you've already won

You're going to want to get the shower going after reading it, although last I checked, some of the more outrageous posts were deleted by the admin moderator.

[SouthTexas]

Ullrich is on, getting closer.

[nutmeg]

I bet OLN gets hammered for this. They're already getting slapped around pretty good for the Sheryl shots. (Actually I think they've been pretty restrained about that.)

I'm going to drop OLN an email about how I enjoyed their coverage again this year BUT did not appreciate the appearances by John Kerry and... I may say something about Sheryl. To be honest, I think I only saw one appearance by Sheryl with Phil, Paul, Bob, etc. Once was enough!

A couple of years ago I sent a glowing email to OLN stating how I enjoyed their excellent coverage of the TDF... they sent me a fairly long and very appreciative response. We'll see if they have any comment about John Effin' Kerry.

[luv2ski]

They had to go to a Picture-in-a-picture to keep covering the race! He WOULD NOT shut up! Poor Hummer was trying to take the mic away and Kerry is like, "...and one more thing...". What a pompous ass.

[SouthTexas]

Rasmussen down on a curve.