18k on a broken leg!

I'm not much of a Contador fan, it's not the beef thing, it's just I don't really like him much, but yesterday really upped my opinion of the man.

David Miller tweeted that when a rider falls and breaks a bone, they pretty much know it, so to get back on a bike, after two falls, one a very high speed, knowing in the back of your mind that you have really done yourself some damage, and try to ride back into the race with a broken tibia, well chapeau Bertie.

He looked awfully uncomfortable when he first got back on the bike...unsurprising in the circumstances. He even had the grace immediately to thank his teammates when he stopped. Considering the pain and disappointment that's impressive.

Makes the high diving drama queens of the world cup look pretty lame.

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Weird story about Contador's spare bike being broken while still attached to the roof of his team car:

http://velonews.competitor.com/2014/07/ ... ash_336328

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Johnsqual":3swelq0l said:

Weird story about Contador's spare bike being broken while still attached to the roof of his team car:

http://velonews.competitor.com/2014/07/ ... ash_336328

Click to expand...

Directly in contradiction of Nicolas Roche's description of the events:
Contador's bike broken before the team cars arrived

Re: Re:

grahame":2xrq50pa said:

Johnsqual":2xrq50pa said:

Weird story about Contador's spare bike being broken while still attached to the roof of his team car:

http://velonews.competitor.com/2014/07/ ... ash_336328

Click to expand...

Directly in contradiction of Nicolas Roche's description of the events:
Contador's bike broken before the team cars arrived

Click to expand...

The Velonews story contains at least four, maybe more different versions of the story. There is mention of the broken bike being caused by a crash, but then several other versions suggesting the bike was damaged after Contador's fall.

Sparks off all sorts of conspiracy theories (if you're into that sort of thing): are the teams under instructions from their bike sponsors
to try to disguise or conceal severe failures of carbon frames?

The fact that the supposedly 'spare' bike had Contador's race number on (when spares don't normally carry a race number, apparently) does raise some questions about what was going on here...

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Greg LeMond made some comments on EuroSport after the stage suggesting the crashes thoughout the TdF this year were potentially due to inconsistent braking performance from carbon rims. I bet that doesn't go down well with manufacturers either.

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I'm not really bothered about how the fall happened, and frankly some other forums are doing the 'his bike broke' theme to death, while ignoring the fact that a rider was seriously injured.

The whole point of this thread was to give Contador (and Froome and others) some credit for carrying on, especially when contrasted by the overpaid drama queens seen at the World Cup.

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I would agree ;-)

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I agree too, the whole TdF this year puts the World Cup to humiliating shame as a sporting spectacle. The TdF provided more excitement and spectacle in the first stage than the entire World Cup. And that was before the cobbles and the climbing stages that followed!

I do think the broken bike thing and Contador getting hurt are connected: if he got hurt because of a dodgy bike and his team tried to cover it up, that is pretty awful. Not saying I'm sure that is what happened, but there is something odd going on there.

I always had mixed feelings about Contador. The steroid burger and chaingate stories don't do him any favours. However, he shows great spirit and determination. I remember him standing up on the pedals on a descent in last year's tour - scary and exhilerating to watch.

He also interviewed Marianne Vos on Belgian TV. He really spoke to her as an equal (which he should do - but it doesn't always happen. Hushovd came across as arrogant and patronising in a similar interview).