i am useless at work right now. too excited. my ETA at Offside is getting earlier and earlier. 1321 at the mo.

I want to come. Damn my work.

Work firewall won't allow that.

firewall, hahaha!!

estimated timing for this afternoon's stage - just before 3pm at the top of Col de la Croix de Fer and around 4.30pm at the top of the alp d'huez. timings can be found here - they are currently a little on the slow side of the schedule.

I've been checking because I have found a meeting in the diary that draws me out of the office around 3-5pm! Am in the Brockley T-shirt.

you guys have a jolly afternoon. give me the highlights at east drinks. it is probably ways more entertaining than the itv summary

saunier duval and barloworld both announced they are ceasing sponsorship of cycling immediately

Ok think I'm going to head to the pub now. Never met any of you buggers before but should be able to pick out a bunch of cyclist cunts in a bar.

i'm sposed to be working, but there's not much being done...

Haven't done any work whatsoever so far today. Not because of the cycling, there isn't actually anything to do. Thank Christ I've got ITV4 on my TV!

Just an aside here but is Andy Schleck trying to steal the ugliest man on a bike jersey from Cadel Evans?

here we go...........

LOL I'm in charge of ours. What a laugh

schleck brothers = boy band.

Looks like Evans isn't content to sit on Schleck's wheel and win the yellow jersey in the final TT.

Saying that, knowing my judgement that will all change!

That young Scleck brother is just awesome. He just does not stop on those climbs

yeah, reminiscent of ricco, you might say.

I reckon CSC changed their team leader literally halfway up the Alpe d'Huez. Frank Schleck just did not/was not allowed to attack his team leader Sastre.

Evans has huge balls.

I'm confused, schleck looked like he had the legs on evans and yet never really put in the really fierce attack to try and break him, team orders? is castres good enough to beat evans in the time trial?

still two stages in which it is entirely possible to put time for either schleck or sastre to put time into evans.

Plus a real race on the Champs could happen.

better for CSC to have: sastre a minute and a half in front of evans
than:
sastre 40 seconds and schleck 30 seconds in front of evans. if schleck attacked and dragged evans along then it would limit sastre's gains. so the Schlecks were almost certainly ordered not to attack.

Wrong.

No way can Sastre ride away from Evans + teammates on a flat stage, and there is ABSOLUTELY no way they would attack the yellow jersey on the final stage. apart from the shame of it, no single team has the power to ride away from a peloton hell-bent on getting their sprinters to the line.

It's all about the time trial, simple as that.

Barloworld announced that a few days back didn't they? Didn't know about SD but then its not suprising.

The shame of it? There has been a race on the final stage before you know? I know its tradition not to but when needed its been done. I agree with you though it probably won't happen and yes this tour will be most likely decided on the time trial (although it may already be partly decided)?

Greg leMond once went out of the front on the final stage, stayed away until they chased him down on the Champs.

Shame, nothing. fuck that. it's a race.

I hope Cadel doesn't do a great time trial. he doesn't really deserve to win on the strength of his overall performance thus far, IMO.

Either Evans or Sastre, i don't think you can say more than that till the TT gets going?

CSC have also proved why they are the overall best team year after year, Bjorn Riis* is rather good as a team leader and tactition* Evans' group lost all the time to Sastre simply because of the brothers breaking up every attack and turning it into a cat & mouse style ride, this is why Evans took control towards the end. It must have been getting to close to the time he thought hee could loose to Sastre, he must have worked it out right?

lemond won the 1989 tour by 8 seconds on the final stage, but it was in a time trial. not the same thing. it's also one thing to attack and win the final stage, that happens all the time, but it's a completely different thing to do it for the yellow jersey. it doesn't matter anyway, there is simply no way that Silence-lotto would let Sastre or anyone else important take time off Cadel on the Champs Elysees.

did you see today's stage? Cadel worked harder than anyone else to pull Sastre back. he was excellent today.

Cadel was not excellent today. Cadel should have tried to pull him back earlier, clearly.

and LeMond did go out alone on the final stage in paris, not a TT, on one of his final tours in the early nineties, i think -i remember cos i was watching. he didn't win it though.

So you're saying he wasn't trying? Dude, he was fighting off attacks from all sides, and pushing to his limits. i'm sure it wasn't for lack of trying that one of the best climbers going around, Sastre, got away from him! And none of the other leaders (Menchov, Kohl, Valdevelde, Valverde) managed to pull any time back, either, and it was as much in their interests as Cadel's. Sastre was just too good today, but he's a better climber and he's had awesome support all week. Neither of which are true for Cadel, which is why he was excellent today.

he may well have done so, but not when he was in a position to steal the tour de france. as i said, going for a stage win on the champs elysees is absolutely not the same thing. and he got caught anyway.

There is no way that CSC will take time on the final stage.

Yeah, sure. Cadel should have just taken some of his proton energy pills and won the stage.. then done a little dance at the top to show how easy it was and celebrate his certain overall victory. Yeah, it's THAT easy.

"In 1989 the organisers returned to holding a time trial as the final stage. In it, Greg LeMond of the United States overtook the Frenchman Laurent Fignon, who held a 50-second lead, to win by eight seconds, the closest margin in the Tour's history."
"Since 1989 there has not been another individual time trial to finish the Tour de France."

A rider 'going out on their own' in a final TdF stage that's not a TT is allowed to do so, since the final stage is reserved as more of a victory parade for the winner. He would not have won, he is merely out there for the glory.

i still say Cadel wasn't, and isn't, excellent.

i say this to wind you up, as you are an australian

it's not your fault you don't understand cycling, as you are english and therefore incapable of understanding sport.

yes, so what? i'm just saying that on a later tour he did a lone breakaway on the final stage to paris.

That reason is good enough for me.

Cadel is unlikeable. Cadel is Australian.

These two facts may, or may not be related.

;-)