Mark Cavendish to Team Sky? Bad Move

Daily Mail

First, there’s a ton of Tweet-love going around for Mark Cavendish (HTC) today, but I haven’t figured out why, so whatever I’m missing, I’m sorry.

But this thing with Sky? I know that aggressively pursuing Cav undoubtedly makes huge sense on an emotional level. But, on a practical level it’s a great big, ugly mistake for both Sky and for Cav.

Dave Brailsford (“British cycling’s performance director as well as Team Sky boss”) really, really thinks it’d be great to have Cav AND Bradley Wiggins on the same team. It’d just be no problem to have the support guys spend sprint stages riding for Cav and the mountain stages riding for Wiggins (Wiggins rides the most beautiful time trails of anyone alive and is also a pretty good GC guy).

1. Have you talked to the support guys about this? Are they aware of the fact that instead of having sprint stages to recuperate, they would instead have to ride to their limits for pretty damned much every single day of a three week stage race?

2. Is Wiggins cool with having one of the following:

A weakened support group as the team domestiques are worn to the bone due to the impossibly difficult task of fully supporting both the team’s sprint goals and it’s GC goals?:

A reduced support group no matter what else happens, because Cav takes one guy out of the mix for Wiggins:

A reduced support group because the domestiques could be split into the Cav guys and the Wiggins guys:

A constant battle of egos and wills as both Cav and Wiggins fight to ensure that “their guys” are as fresh as possible when it’s time to ride their (Cav’s and Wiggins’) respective stages:

The potential to have to sacrifice his own race so that he can support Cav in the sprints and points jersey competitions (you do remember Micheal Rogers, right?).

3. What about Cav?

Will he be ok with any of the following situations:

Sprinting with a weakened sprint train:

Sprinting with a reduced sprint train:

Sprinting with no sprint train:

The potential that he might have to sacrifice his chance to win sprints and points jerseys because he’s needed to support the Wiggins’ GC efforts?

Cav has proven that he can win without Mark Renshaw. But even without Renshaw Cav still had the entire HTC team utterly sacrificing its GC chances in an effort to give him 100% of its support. Every rider on that team, including some guys who’d be better riding for the GC or in support of it, put everything they had on the line for him.

That will NOT be the case at Sky unless Wiggins is willing to completely sacrifice his career in support of Cav.

Astana Listens to the Voices in Its Head

Cycling News

So Alberto Contador is leaving Astana at the end of 2010. Blah, blah, blah.

Read these next two paragraphs and tell me, am I the only one who sees a massive discrepancy?

“We did all we could for Alberto for three weeks by sacrificing ourselves for him. I only hope that he didn’t take the decision before the start of the Tour,” said Vinokourov. He added that the team had never put pressure on the Spaniard to extend his contract, contradicting Contador’s claims that he’d been given an ultimatum to agree to a new deal by July 27. “Alberto had been pushing for a new contract for four months, and it was he who was pressing to re-sign with us,” Vinokourov stated.

Speaking to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Astana directeur sportif Giuseppe Martinelli admitted he had started to have doubts about Contador’s commitment to the team from the halfway point of the Tour. Martinelli said he thought that the Tour victory might convince Contador to stay with Astana, but added: “Even before the Tour it seemed like the Astana project was over for Contador.”

Vino says, “Oh, it was totally that little pipsqueak Alberto, begging, whining and crying for a new contract, which we, of course, were not certain he was deserving of.”

Vino, how can you say both that you hope Alberto didn’t make his decision before the Tour AND that he was like a gnat in your face with his demands for a new contract?

In one case or the other you’re having an obvious break from reality. No worries, with therapy and medication you’ll be ok and those voices telling you to . . . well, lets not even talk about what they’re telling you. We don’t want to see you locked up or anything like that.

Vino, as we all know, is the self-appointed Godhead of Astana (another sign that perhaps a little time in a therapist’s chair wouldn’t kill the guy). As such he is all knowing and all seeing, at least in his own mind.

But Astana management bigwig, the guy who, at least on paper, trumps Vino, Giuseppe Martinelli, says quite plainly that he sensed long before the Tour that Alberto was sick and tired and hoping to move on.

So this guy (Alberto) who clearly had no interest in hanging around was, just for shiites and grins, relentlessly pestering the team for a new contract.

Makes sense to me.

Not a Shameless Attempt to Spam Google

There are no NAKED PICTURES OF BRITNEY SPEARS on this site. And like I would share those if I had them!

There are no HOT ASIAN WOMEN, here, and to be honest, I think I’m more disappointed with that than with having no naked pictures of Britney (which, again, would be just for my own personal viewing pleasure, of course).

There are no VIDEO AND PICTURES OF LANCE ARMSTRONG AND JOHAN BRUYNEEL HAVING GAY SEX, and, really, aren’t we all more than a little happy not to have to see THAT?

Also no NAKED PICTURES OF ANGELINA JOLIE, though how you could get a camera back far enough from her to get more than just her lips in the pictures is anyone’s guess.

No VIDEO OF DONALD TRUMPS GROSSLY UNDERPAID STYLIST PREPARING HIS RIDICULOUS COME-OVER.

No VIDEO OF LANCE ARMSTRONG INJECTING HIMSELF AND TEAMMATES WITH EPO.

Nor VIDEO OF LANCE ARMSTRONG FLOGGING AND BERATING TEAM RADIOSKANK TEAMMATES FOR FAILING TO JUMP PRECISELY TO THE MM AS HIGH AS ORDERED.

No VIDEO OF JESSICA ALBA HAVING LESBIAN SEX WITH LUCY LIU, which is truly something to be saddened over.

Though as a consolation I did manage to find the LUCY LIU “SEXY LEGS” VIDEO:

Yes, there is VIDEO OF LANCE ARMSTRONG SAVAGELY SHOVING A HELPLESS OLD MAN AGAINST A FENCE. But who really cares about that? Certainly not journalists, who are too afraid of Lance to utter a single syllable that he may find disfavor with.

There’s also no FREE IPHONE, FREE IPAD, AND FREE XBOX 360.

Nor can you get THOUSANDS OF FREE TWITTER FOLLOWERS MERELY BY CLICKING THIS LINK.

There is no link where you can find THOUSANDS OF FREE X RATED VIDEOS.

And finally, and almost as sadly as my lack of HOT ASIAN WOMEN and JESSICA ALBA AND LUCY LIU LESBIAN SEX VIDEOS, there is no FLOYD LANDIS AND GREG LEMOND PRESENT HARD PHYSICAL EVIDENCE OF LANCE ARMSTRONG DOPING VIDEO. . . (YET!)

Energy-boosting Properties of Lucky Underpants

@TrainRight asked via Twitter (and has since deleted it) if lucky underpants supplied an energy boost.

It just so happens that I’m totally in tune with the science behind this, so let me answer.

The basic answer is: Yes.

Here’s why.

One molecule of luck attaches to one sugar molecule, this boosts the boost energy value of sugar molecule X 2.57, which you can see is considerable.

However, lucky socks will give only a X 2.33 boost.

Scientists are not positive about why. It would seem that one luck molecule is one luck molecule and so the boost should be equal regardless of the source.

It is speculated that the drop in energy boosting properties, though this is counterintuitive, is due to the possibility that foot-stink degrades luck molecules at a faster rate than butt-stink.

No studies have been performed on other lucky garments, though it is generally believed that a lucky condom will actually reduce energy levels.

Tour de France 2010: More Thoughts #tdf

— Mark Cavendish (HTC)

Mark Renshaw’s disqualification from the Tour was a net gain for Mark Cavendish.

Now, every time some nitwit blogger asks if Cav can get it done without his mighty leadout man, Cav can give a big, yellow-toothy grin and say, “You don’t race bicycles, you don’t know anything about bike racing, and HELL YES I can win without Mark, I’d just rather not.”

Cav really sucked for too damned long this season, and I don’t give a damn about his whiny azz excuses. But, he’s definitely gotten his groove back and he’s THE guy to beat again.

Right now I’m back to wondering, as I did last year, if everyone else is just sprinting for 2nd place when he’s going for the win, or is there someone who can really give him the shiite.

Now if he can just keep from being such a sniveling biatch off the bike.

— Robbie “Head-Butt” McEwen (Katusha), like many riders, went head to head vs the asphalt on multiple occasions and spent the better part of the Tour scabby and bruised. Yet he still managed 8 top ten finishes, including 6 top fives and finished 5th in the Green (sprinters) Jersey competition.

Blah, blah, blah, ok, Head-Butt is tough (maybe not quite Tyler Hamilton tough, but really close). So what?

What pisses me off is that now that’s he’s gotten older and the wins are coming less and less often (in his prime Robbie was a genuine sprinting badass), he’s also gotten less entertaining.

Robbie, dude, you can’t stop being the guy we love to hate and just morph into a guy everybody loves. It just ain’t right.

— Tyler Farrar(Garmin) maybe comes across as a little girlie if you watch his commercial, but on the bike he’s a toughazz mofo.

Riding cobbles is a biatch. Riding cobbles with a broken wrist? I can’t even imagine.

Taking second in a bunch sprint with a broken wrist?

It amazed me that he wasn’t just riding to finish, he was still riding to win.

Add to his toughness that he’s just a really nice and gracious guy and he practically seems like the Anti-Cavendish.

Then, just as I’m thinking he must be freakin’ indestructible, he drops out of the damn Tour.

— Cadel “The Executioner” Evans (BMC)

Ok, Cadel, we need to talk.

It’s great that you rode damned near the entire Tour with a broken elbow. It’s great that daily you out toughed an injury that sucked away your strength and will until all you had left was the insane chittering in your head demanding that your legs keep churning out the pain-filled miles until you crossed that final finish line in Paris.

But the whole, Cadel-is-a-really-good-guy thing has to go. Yes, even if it’s true.

You’re just not that interesting if you aren’t smacking journalists or threatening to cut their heads off.

And one more thing, your wife freakin’ rocks.

— Thor Hushovd (Cervelo)

Thor is an odd duck. He’s a sprinter who isn’t all that good at sprinting, but who rides his azz off even for the intermediate sprint, which to me shows that he has more respect for the Green Jersey than a guy like Cavendish who ignores everything except the final bunch sprint of any stage.

During the Tour, Thor admitted that he’s improved as a climber and as an all-around rider, but that he’s lost something as a sprinter.

So where does he fit now? Is he morphing into a support rider? Or will he fight to get his sprinting form back?

— Sylvain “The Trashman” Chavanel (Quick Step)

Maybe not the coolest guy in the whole peloton, but the coolest French guy in the peloton.

Yeah, just seeing him put his empty gel pack in his jersey pocket instead of tossing it on the ground is that amazing when there’s nearly 200 guys throwing them down all around him.

He helps redeem the peloton’s bad reputation and almost overcomes the uncoolness factor of being a French guy in the peloton.

Winning 2 stages and briefly holding the Yellow (leader’s) Jersey didn’t hurt, either.

— Jens Voigt (Saxo Bank)

Maybe Jens should just quit the Tour after Stage 15 if he’s inclined to stick with it another year, because back to back years with godawful crashes on descents during Stage 16 seems like a really bad omen to me.

I’m betting that many times more people will miss Jens when he retires than will miss Lance Armstrong (RadioSkank)

— Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank)

Ok, I was totally wrong to suspect that Fabian used an electric motor to win any of the classics.

He proved in the Prologue, again in Stage 3 over the cobbles and for a third time during the time trial (TT) that, as Frank Schleck said, he only needed the motor in his left leg and the motor in his right leg to win.

But, really, isn’t he a lot more fun to think about as the terrible, bike-doping villain than a flatland riding Superman?

I’m just sayin’.

Where Do You Come In From?

If you don’t mind too terribly, open up the comments section and let me know how you came across this blog.

Or not. It’s entirely up to you, but I’d really appreciate your sharing.

Thank You

Bikezilla

Tour de France 2010: Thoughts #tdf

UPDATE*

— Lance RageGate saw Lance Armstrong ride by a pedestrian after Stage 16 and shove the old man into a fence.

OzCycling.com was the only outfit with the guts to post the video, but not one journalist, not even Oz, had the balls to confront Armstrong about it.

Armstrong’s second public assault of a fan that was actually caught on video in two years and he just keeps on getting a “get out of jail free” card. Literally.

*UPDATE: I wrote to OzCycling.com and expressed my disappointment with their unwillingness to confront Lance on this. Here is their reply.

“I love your passion for the sport. Lance is a friend of mine and a friend of the website. The video was simply a drummed up attempt to get more hits on our you tube page and not intended to offend anyone.

I do not see the point in confronting Lance about the clip when you only get a minute or so with him at the finish each day and also its not something he would want to talk about.

Thanks for the feedback anyway,

Dan Jones”

Not a satisfactory answer, but an honest one.

Lance is a friend (don’t want to risk making your friend unhappy).

Lance wouldn’t want to talk about it (a journalist’s first job is to make sure they don’t ask questions the askee doesn’t want to answer. Everyone knows that.).

Which sucks on the part of Oz, but can hardly be considered a flaw held only by Oz. END UPDATE

— For Stage 20, the traditionally ceremonial final stage leading into Paris, Lance Armstong tried to go all LiveStrong on the Tour. Each member of Team RadioSkank wore a black jersey with the #28 on the back, representing the 28 million people in the world fighting cancer.

Or not, as race commissars said “no” and made the team change into their official team jerseys before allowing the stage to begin.

Was it just an enforcement of the rules (and TdF / ASO rules have been proven time and again to be “more guidelines than actual rules”)? Or was it just a chance to tweak Armstrong’s nose that ASO couldn’t resist?

— Cyclng and suffering is a beautiful combination, though the author seems not quite certain of what the article’s focus really is.

— Stage by stage w/ winners of each Jersey.

Great resource for bloggers.

— Denis Menchov (RaboBank). WTF?

Denis blew off his the entire race season because he was so intensely focused on winning this year’s Tour de France.

Then he gets to the Tour and spends three weeks just kind of hanging out in the background as part of the Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) / Alberto Contador (Astana) entourage. Again I say, WTF?

Maybe he just couldn’t resist watching Alberto’s silly little wobble / wiggle and needed to position himself to the rear so he could have the best view.

Now you can say, “3rd place in the Tour is a damned fine result” and you’d be 100% correct. But Menchov didn’t forsake the early season race calendar for the purpose of merely riding the podium. He said his goal was to WIN the Tour.

Yet, neither he nor his team ever made a move, except the move along with Alberto to take time on Andy when Andy’s chain dropped.

I kept expecting that they were just biding their time, waiting for the opportune moment, but here we are, Tour over, and apparently the moment never did quite become opportune.

You never tried, Denis. You never even forkin’ tried.

— Chaingate? Crybabies. 39 seconds, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

First, “Chaingate” was fair payment for “Cobblegate”, where Andy gained a similar amount of time on Alberto after Alberto had problems.

So call it turn-about and take it as even up.

I think that’s pretty much how sports in general go: You have one bad call or unfortunate occurrence that goes against you, but you have another that goes in your favor and it all comes out just about level.

Over time it all seems to balance, as it clearly did for Alberto and Andy this year.

— Andy Schleck and big brother Frank.

Last year Andy had Frank and Alberto had pretty much nobody. What was the result? Right, Alberto won his second Tour de France.

But last year Alberto was stronger and Andy was weaker, so maybe Frank would have been that little something extra that would have put Andy over the top. Maybe.

A few days after crashing out, Frank Schleck tweeted that his goal for next year is to beat Andy Schleck.

Does that indicate that the brothers will not be riding on the same team next season?

Frank seemed the stronger of the brothers coming into the Tour. It would have been interesting to see which of them sat higher on the podium had Frank not broken his collarbone.

— Andy and Alberto Contador.

Ok, it’s nice that the two best road racers in the world are bestest best buddies. It’s also nice that the chaingate hatchet was quickly buried.

But listening to Alberto talk about their “relationship” and watching his extended and repeated touches of Andy’s face, shoulder, then face again, was . . . creepy.

GAAAAAAAAAAK!

— Twitter.

Twitter is amazingly fun and cool. It gives me a place to jot down my hurried thoughts as the race goes on and lets me look back on them as a source of notes while I’m writing up the post race articles.

It’s also a very strange form of social gathering; follow, unfollow, read tweets but not blogs, tweet complaints but not comment in articles, tweet your thoughts, retweet someone else’s, agree, debate, all in 140 characters or less.

I’ve really enjoyed the whole Twitter experience this year. I think it considerably enhanced following the Tour.

— Going into this year’s Tour I put up a list of contenders and my opinions of their chances.

How’d I do? Honestly, I have no idea. I haven’t looked back at it.

So this look with you is my first clue, as well.

And since I took mine from The Cycling Examiner I’ll rate myself against him and see who wins.

I’ll give us 1 point each for being correct, 0 points for being wrong, 1/2 point if we partially got it. No, really, I haven’t looked at any of it yet.

1. Lance Armstrong (RadioSkank:

CE: 1

Bikezilla: 1

We both thought Lance was lacking something and that his age might be a factor.

2. Ivan Basso (Liquigas)

CE: 1

Bikezilla: 1/2

Both said Ivan wasn’t gonna double up on Grand Tour wins.

I expected Liquigas to have multiple stage wins and top ten GC guys. They ended up w/ zero stage wins and w/ Roman Kreuziger taking 9th.

3. Alberto Contador (Astana)

CE: 1

Bikezilla: 0

CE thought he’d likely win it all.

I thought he seemed too much weaker than last year and lacked an adequately strong team.

4. Cadel Evans (BMC):

CE: 0

Bikezilla: 0

Cadel was taken out early by a broken elbow, though he suffered through the entire Tour and did finish. So no telling if our predictions for him were worth a damn.

But it’s for damn sure that BMC has no reason to feel let down. Cadel gave them one amazing season.

5. Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas)

CE: 0

Bikezilla: 1

CE gave an opinion but not a prediction beyond “contending”.

I rightly predicted a strong showing but no overall win and no podium.

6. Denis Menchov (Rabobank)

See above for more on Menchov.

CE: 0

Bikezilla: 0

CE again gave an opinion, but no prediction beyond “contending”.

I thought Menchov would be a real contender for the overall.

7. Michael Rogers (HTC)

CE: 0

Bikezilla: 1

CE thought he’d be a real threat for the overall.

I thought he’d be lucky if the team remembered that he needed water bottles.

He finished 37th.

8. Carlos Sastre (Cervelo TestTeam)

CE: 1

Bikezilla: 1

We both expected his back injury to keep him from serious podium efforts.

9. Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank)

CE: 1

Bikezilla: 1

We both correctly predicted that Andy wasn’t gonna be dropping Alberto in the mountains.

10. Fränk Schleck (Saxo Bank)

CE: 0

Bikezilla: 0

See notes above for more on Frank.

Another top guy taken out early by injury (broken collarbone).

11. Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Transitions)

CE: 0

Bikezilla: 1

Vande Velde also crashed out, but I said I wanted to see more than the jagged ends of his broken bones before I’d believe he could win. I, in fact, saw only more jagged bone ends.

12. Bradley Wiggins (Sky)

CE: 0

Bikezilla: 1

CE believed that Wiggins would contend.

I thought his Giro performance said that he couldn’t.

He finished 24th.

Final tally?

CE: 5

Bikezilla: 7 1/2

Victory is mine! Mwa ha ha ha ha ha haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

I crush you, little Cycling Examiner man. I CRUSH you!

Lance RageGate #lanceragegate #tdf

NOTE: A couple days ago I posted an article that showed Lance Armstrong assaulting some old guy after Stage 16 at the Tour.

Here’s that article if you need the background, and here’s the article on what lead up to THAT.

Via @Cycletard all of that is now known as “Lance Ragegate” and can be followed in Twitter with #lanceragegate . END NOTE

Here’s the video again:

As a response to those articles “Anonymous” (yes, I do believe that that is really his name, why would anyone lie about a thing like that? Though I suspect he’s also know as @Cycloid who tweeted me something similar) left me this comment:

“Do you even ride? Ever ride a bike at very slow speed?

He didn’t shoulder-check the guy – he overbalanced and bounced off the guy.

Then he stops, looks back to see what the outcome was, and gives some kind of wave or gesture.

It could easily have been a “hi, sorry” wave.

The youtube doesn’t show any middle finger. Unless there’s a better copy somewhere that you have seen I don’t think you can justify all the drama you’re imagining.”

Let’s take a look at that scenario.

1. Lance Armstrong, a guy renowned to be not merely an adequate bike handler, but an extraordinary one, can’t manage to keep his bike upright while traveling at approximately 10 MPH and pedaling.

2. He knocks a guy into a fence, then stops and stares at him. Instead of saying “I’m sorry” or “Are you ok?” he merely tucks his hand in close to his chest so that the guy is the only one with a really clear view of it and then “waves” or “gestures” “I’m sorry”?

3. Lance, unable to ride his bike in a safe and controlled manner, chooses to wobble recklessly through a throng of pedestrians, putting their health, safety and wellbeing at risk, actually managing to “accidentally” knock one of them into a fence.

Well, that’s certainly plausible.

By the way, this has been picked up by The NY Times. Now maybe some responsible journalist AT the Tour will have enough balls to ask Lance for an explanation of his assault on this poor guy.

Why has not even a single “journalist” had the guts to ask Lance Armstrong for an explanation of his assault on that old man?

If it was anyone else there would be questions for the assailant, the victim would be found and interviewed, witnesses would be interviewed. But it’s Lance, so he gets a free pass.

Even if you spin it in Lance’s favor, it’s something deserving of journalistic investigation. Instead all fawning “journalist” Lanceophiles stick their heads in the sand and pretend it never happened for fear of losing access to The Boss.

It’s pathetic and disgusting.

Tour de France 2010: Stage 17: Menchov and Sanchez Blow It #tdf

Last year when Alberto Contador (Astana) unleashed his blazing, climbing attack Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) could match it. But, then Alberto just kept on and on and on and no one, not even Andy could hang with him.

Now Alberto seems a little weaker and Andy a little stronger than last year.

Alberto still has the amazingly fast jump, and Andy can still match it. But Alberto isn’t able to keep up the acceleration this time around. Which leaves the two of them dead even in the climbs.

All Alberto had to do today was stick with Andy and except for one failed attempt to surge ahead that’s what he did. He was the new Cadel Evans (except fast), sucking Andy’s wheel like a ramora.

And who says that Alberto is a total no class jerk (not me, I would never confuse Alberto with Lance)? He didn’t bother contesting the final sprint, allowing Andy to take the stage, as acknowledgement that Andy did nearly all the work pulling the two of them up the Tourmaline.

And, there’s no limit to Andy Schleck’s coolness.

But with the last day of climbing over I have to ask, what the hell were Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel – Euskadi) and Denis Menchov (RaboBank) thinking all Tour? Especially Menchov.

Denis made a point, a big point, of letting the world know that winning this year’s Tour was his entire goal for the season, not finishing it, not making the podium, but winning it.

He and RaboBank have sat back, as if waiting in ambush, the entire damned Tour, and in the end all they did was jump out and yell, “Psych! Fooled ya!”.

Sanchez put it out there. He tried. But come on, neither he nor Denis were gonna best Alberto and Andy, at least not alone.

And today Sanchez and Menchov both lost all the time they’d gained over the past few stages, plus some more.

What if they’d worked together? What if they had alternated climbs or climbing days jumping Alberto and Andy? Only one of them ever had to go, meaning the other could have a relative rest, each day or each climb, while Alberto and Andy would both have to cover the break each and every time.

They could have worn the two superior riders down while suffering minimized wear and tear themselves and each might have had a chance at the overall. But no.

Really, guys, did you both come into this thing aiming for a 3rd place finish? Or were you too untrusting and paranoid of each other to attempt joining forces?

So now what?

If things play as it seems they should, all Alberto has to do is perform to expectations during the Stage 19 51km timetrial (TT) on Saturday.

Where does that leave Andy? Will he surprise us all and blow Alberto away during the TT? Will he attempt a break during Stage 18 tomorrow (Friday)? Will he contest the “ceremonial” final stage into Paris on Sunday? Or will he just sit on his hands and hope that God / Fate / The Universe has something nice, like an ice cream cone only faster, fated on his behalf (kind of like Menchov seems to have done all Tour).

Tour de France 2010: Rest Day #2: Lance Armstrong vs Jens Voigt #tdf

UPDATE: Come see the comment that Lance Armstrong left for this article over at the Bikezilla.blogspot.com site, via a blocked IP, HERE.

‘Member the other day when Lance tried to put on his Big Boy Pants and win a stage, but didn’t have the strength, speed or endurance? Remember how obviously upset he was?

I mean, not just bummed, but seriously hurt. It really looked like it was devastating to him.

He came into this Tour believing that he had an honest shot at winning it all, then he finds out he doesn’t have what it takes to win even just a tiny piece of it (no matter how the butt-licking media tries to make it look like his performance was and continues to be one for the ages).

It was clear from his post-stage interview that he was barely keeping his emotions chained, though I’m not sure exactly what he was feeling. It was probably a mix of things.

First anger, because Lance is perpetually angry about something or at someone, especially since nothing is ever his fault, which makes it soooooooo annoying that the entire rest of the world is populated by screw-ups and assholes. Poor guy.

Second, humiliation, partly from within as the realization finally hit him that he’s fallen hard and far, partly from without (at least in his perception) as he imagined the whole world laughing at him (and while there are a good many people rejoicing at his fall, I don’t think many at all really laughed).

Third, frustration over seeing his planning and training come to nothing.

Fourth, his natural childishness at anyone’s nerve in not conceding his greatness and falling to pieces, leaving him to snatch the day’s glory to his breast. That is to say, at least part of the roiling emotions eating him up that day came down to a pure tantrum.

And that’s a lot of what we’re about to see in this next video clip.

Lance, cruising his bike back to the team trailer, awash in all of those emotions, the anger, the humiliation, the frustration, the immaturity induced tantrum.

There’s more, but I’ll get to that after you watch the video.

Did you hear the people clapping and cheering? Did Lance hear that and take it as laughter? Laughter directed at him as penalty for his failure? Or did it make him bitter because they were applauding his greatness and he is clearly great no more?

So he’s meandering his way back to the bus and this poor old guy in the white shirt happens into his path. The guy wasn’t being a jerk. He wasn’t even hogging the road, as he stuck politely and tightly to one side.

But Lance just saw a target and as he went by he actually leaned toward the guy to shoulder him into the fence (did you get a feeling of deja vu as you remembered the LiveClean Devil Lance shoved into the snowbank last year?). To add insult to injury, Lance turns around and flips the guy off.

Classy, Lance, really classy. It’s also another example of how Lance behaves when he thinks the cameras aren’t on him.

Kind of makes you feel sorry for Team RadioSkank’s Merry Band of Slaves, doesn’t it?

But did you notice what was happening when Lance reached the bus? Ok, yeah, he was getting pushy, telling people to leave him alone, but did you really SEE him? He was as close to tears as a man can be without breaking into sobs.

And that’s not something I in any way want to ridicule. I understand that he was feeling devastated and I sympathize.

But does that excuse his abuse of some poor guy who did nothing but politely share the path home with him?

Lance got off free and clear after his assault of the LiveClean Devil. I hope this guy presses charges and takes Lance’s a** to court, both civil and criminal.

Things go bad for Lance and he takes his toys and runs home. Screw Levi Leipheimer, the team’s best remaining GC threat, let him fend for himself. If Lance isn’t gonna win it all then who gives a shiite about anyone else?

And now we come to our contrast: Saxo Bank’s Jens Voigt.

Read this article and watch the accompanying videos.

Jens is a great guy who doesn’t know what “give up” means.

Last year he crashes out with face and head injuries and before he’s even out of the hospital he’s thinking about how he can reach out to his fans.

This year he comes in from a stage where he’s just suffered another massive crash, rode maybe 20 km on a kid’s bike with toe straps, and he’s joking about what happened and genuinely thankful just to be able to continue racing.

Jens has never known one tenth the glory that Lance Armstrong has known, but he’s ten times the man that Armstrong is.

Just for the heck of it, visit Jens in his hotel room.