[Berkeley Mike]

at L'alpe d'Huez. 21 Switchbacks. 10 miles. Average grade of 7.9%. Drunken and abusive spectators who spit on him shouting vile things at he and other riders. He managed to bury everyone but the memory of Pantani who's record he missed by 1 second. Just awesome.

 

[pacman]

The road paintings showed conflicting opinions about Lance, one said "EPO Lance" another said "Rip Their Balls Off Lance".

 

[moschika]

i saw a few spectators flipping him off and heard a lot of "boo-ing" as he rode by. didn't quite notice that with the other riders.

 

[Trevor!]

I saw this on TV.

US EPOstal

 

[chuffer]

the 'rip their balls of lance' painting was great and rip their balls of he did!

and as for that azzhat that spit in lance's ear, lance is a better man than I. I would have stopped directly and given that man the worse beat down of his life. again, i thought i was seeing things when the jackazz ran along on lance's right side, got his face real close to lance's and then spit. sadly i read this morning on cyclingnews that my eyes had not deceived me.

i am not the biggest lance fan, but the more i see the antics of the anti-lance camp in contrast to lance's generally very cool reaction to all criticism and negativity, the more respect and admiration i find for him.

 

[2fast4u]

motorcycle escorts??

i noticed that the motor cycle escorts for ulrich were right on is rear wheel. with lance they seemed to be back a bit..great idea on paper, bad idea in reality..maybe two motocycles in front to clear out the goons or a snowplow..

 

[lifelover]

Sad to See

I'm curious to see how it effects LA desicion to come back next year. He certianly has nothing left to prove.

 

[WHCSC]

I'm curious to see how it effects LA desicion to come back next year. He certianly has nothing left to prove.

His contract with Discovery requires him to race the Tour next year.

 

[scorcher seb]

I'm curious to see how it effects LA desicion to come back next year. He certianly has nothing left to prove.

Yeah. It will probably increase his desire to go for seven. He loves that sort of stuff really.

 

[blizzardpapa]

May be he will have Jesse James or the OCC Boys to do the pacing for him next year.

 

[adkmtnbkr]

Dropouts

Don't get me wrong I am a big Lance supporter, but isn't it odd of the majority of riders that are not goint finish the race? Anybody else feel the same way?

 

[otis24]

That's why the toughest, fastest, most focused riders in the world race it. It's really hard, you're going to have dropouts.

 

[roadiegonebad]

Don't get me wrong I am a big Lance supporter, but isn't it odd of the majority of riders that are not goint finish the race? Anybody else feel the same way?

the majority? maybe the majority of pre-race contenders/pretenders... there are always plenty of guys who drop/crash out, about 25% or so.

The interesting thing is that the time limit made everyone truly race the tt yesterday. No way the guys out of contention could dog it.

 

[roadiegonebad]

i noticed that the motor cycle escorts for ulrich were right on is rear wheel. with lance they seemed to be back a bit..great idea on paper, bad idea in reality..maybe two motocycles in front to clear out the goons or a snowplow..

Apparently there was some issue b/w Bruyneel in the Postal car and the TV motorcycles yesterday.... everyone knew there would be problems with only the top 5km or so being barriered off.

 

[papajohn]

Don't get me wrong I am a big Lance supporter, but isn't it odd of the majority of riders that are not goint finish the race? Anybody else feel the same way?

Say What?

 

[jrm]

That was insane when he caught and dropped Basso...

at L'alpe d'Huez. 21 Switchbacks. 10 miles. Average grade of 7.9%. Drunken and abusive spectators who spit on him shouting vile things at he and other riders. He managed to bury everyone but the memory of Pantani who's record he missed by 1 second. Just awesome.

Between that and watching urlich suffer..man that was nuts. In regard to the fans and the road painting "Lance Sucks". Its not Lance himself its those things that represent the US and its policies.

 

[The Weasel]

2 words

at L'alpe d'Huez. 21 Switchbacks. 10 miles. Average grade of 7.9%. Drunken and abusive spectators who spit on him shouting vile things at he and other riders.

Jealous Losers!

 

[mergs]

... In regard to the fans and the road painting "Lance Sucks". Its not Lance himself its those things that represent the US and its policies.

Yet, that's no excuse for their despicable behavior. Coming from Europeans, the people that consider themselves enlightened both environmentally and culturally, this is surprising behavior.

Lance took it all in stride. And he's a better man in my eyes for it... not that I didn't think he was the King before... but I was impressed by his composure after running that gauntlet of crass nitwits and idiots

.

 

[jrm]

Yet we can torture the very people we are supposed to be freeing

Yet, that's no excuse for their despicable behavior. Coming from Europeans, the people that consider themselves enlightened both environmentally and culturally, this is surprising behavior.

Lance took it all in stride. And he's a better man in my eyes for it... not that I didn't think he was the King before... but I was impressed by his composure after running that gauntlet of crass nitwits and idiots

.

never mind...

 

[scorcher seb]

Yet, that's no excuse for their despicable behavior. Coming from Europeans, the people that consider themselves enlightened both environmentally and culturally, this is surprising behavior.

.

Not particularly surprising when you consider that the pic is in the Pyrenees, the fans are probably Basque, and much of the graffiti on the road is in support of a terrorist organisation, albeit an anti-Spanish not anti-American one. They're behaviour is almost as bad as American golf fans.

Anyway, I think Lance responded to the OTT German fans on the Alpe in the best possible fashion.