So the particular descent he was complaining about is a feature of the tour de france each year?

I wasn't including multi sport events and I more or less meant annual events.

Tour de France should be a top priority of any sports fan. When you meet someone else who likes the tour de france you know they're a legend, it's like a club of legends. Especially in this part of the world because you know they're one of the other legends who stays up late every night for 3 weeks watching this amazing spectacle.

No, they change the course every year. But they know what the course is going to be a year in advance and they often have finishes at the bottom of descents.

If you can't descend well, improve your skills, simple as that. Everyone is in the same boat. Why are you arguing? It's an undeniable whinge.

It'd be like someone complaining about a mountain top finish being too hard and criticising the organisers for putting it in the course.

I actually thought you were sending yourself up with the initial comment, but apparently you weren't!

Anyway I'll leave the thread at this juncture because, fun as it is to have a bit of banter with Mint, I suspect I'm detracting from the discussion of the sporting action. Though I will try to catch the finale - your discussion's got me a little interested.

The penultimate stage is a time trial. A lot on the line and will most likely determine the winner but it's not the sort of stage that will probably excite a new viewer.

You need to watch the daily highlights show and the last hour or so of a big mountain stage or two in the first tour you follow to really get drawn in.

The Schleck sandwich has been toasted!!! Burnt to a crisp in fact!

Bloody amazing Cadel Evans. What a ride. This is one of the greatest nights in Australian sport. Calls for a national holiday have been made!! (won't happen though )

Fuck, man. I woke up when Andy was arriving (after a long night) and couldn't really see Cadel, but I'm so happy for him. As I said before, this was his year, he had to win right now and he nailed it. And as much as I love Andy, I was expecting more from him. What he did is what he usually does or he was even worse?

Congrats to Australia, Mint. You're liars but still winners, I guess.

I think Andy came about 19th or 20th in the stage which is probably pretty good for him. I don't think you'd expect him to be top 10 in a time trial...and he would have had to come 3rd on the stage to keep the YJ.

Evans rode the time trial of his life...just 7 seconds behind the stage winner Tony Martin. 3rd place was Contador, another minute behind.

Enjoy it, Mint - sounds like your sleep deprivation has been worth it. Well done to Monsieur Evans.

Australia. We got a message from a friend at home last night telling us that Cadel had won and we sung a very hearty Advance Australia Fair at 3am in the club we were in. Congrats Cadel!

Yeah but the ban is retrospective so he'll be racing again in August. Sure he'll be stripped of his titles but he'll have been racing the majority of the time of the ban so he'll not have lost anything when he comes back.

I'm sure he'll win the veulta a espana in September.

how on earth can that ban be retrospective? its not like he was 'in custody' and unable to race during the investigation. that sport is killing itself

I think cycling suffers from being the most popular of all the more pure athletic sports. Doping in cycling is like its own industry.

I do think it is cleaner than it was 10 years ago though. You don't see the Lance Armstrong era superman performances so much anymore.