TdF stage 5

[europa]

So, what happened on the final climb? I was enjoying the scenery and the racing, then some commentator's making a mention of all the breakaways up the last climb and the riders are all putting their bikes away. Huh? Did I fall asleep or did they cancel the telecast for my benefit

Richard

[sogood]

I think you fell asleep. There were many individual attacks both early and late on that hill. Some of them failed almost instantaneously.

[moosterbounce]

I fell asleep too!! Had a filling fall out the night before so I was in ouch-land and hadn't slept much (irrespective of Tour watching). It had stopped hurting last night so I took full advantage and hit the record button. I'll watch it tonight.

On the up-side, my gap has now been plugged so I can eat liquorice once again

I wonder if I can go teh day without finding out how it ended

[Hotdog]

I found it a fairly suprising stage, partly because of the alarming frequency with which riders were getting up close and personal with the tarmac/verge/ditches (including the big names), partly because almost all the pundits were wrong in their expectation that all the sprinters would get dropped on the last two big climbs.

[sogood]

I found it a fairly suprising stage, partly because of the alarming frequency with which riders were getting up close and personal with the tarmac/verge/ditches (including the big names), partly because almost all the pundits were wrong in their expectation that all the sprinters would get dropped on the last two big climbs.

Well, big names like McEwen and Boonen did drop way back.

[Hotdog]

True, but it still ended up being a bunch sprint finish, which I'd gathered wasn't in the script.

[mikesbytes]

I've never seen so many accidents before and it hasn't even been wet that much.

[X-wing]

It was the most exciting stage so far imho.
To see the speed of the peleton, stretched out for such a distance, was just great. And the way they kept that pace going for so long just amazed me.

I have nodded off a couple of times during stages 3 and 4, but this was just terrific.

It was pretty incredible to see how hard the Astana boys had to work to pull Vino back up to the peleton, and when they got there the peleton was broken up. It was funny to see some riders see the Astana team swing past, and then pedal like mad to get on the back of the train.

Hats off to them, they sacrificed like crazy to get their wounded captain back up there... it was a great lesson in team work.

[moosterbounce]

What a great stage. Glad I taped it...and managed to not find out the result all day

I'm going to be tired for another 2 weeks, but I just don't care!!

[X-wing]

I hear you Moo... I decided to take Stage 6 'off' so that I could recharge my sleep cells. With Stage 7 having so many climbs, and great climbs, I wanted to make sure I was ready for it.

I actually told my boss a few weeks ago in a planning meeting that I would be suffering from 'fatigue' during these three weeks... his look of concern turned to confusion when I explained that the bike racing I would be watching wouldn't end until about 2am each morning. So I guess he isn't a fan. Thankfully his boss is, so we stand around the coffee machine each morning, yawning, and talking racing.

I do love this time of year.