OT - TOUR de France. Does anyone care?

[mikershoein]

Mike, I must have missed the lectures about how the French all smell, are snobs, don't use soap and are weak.

Well, you got the gist

 

[WhiteBus]

Valverde was a dick with his late, meaningless move at the finish. What was that all about...to gain a friggin second.
Geraint Thompson was awesome protecting Froome

 

[rutrack]

Well, you got the gistt

Yeah if we listened to France, Germany and the rest of our allies on Iraq, we would avoided the worst foreign policy decision in the history of this country based on half truths, lies and fear mongering let alone the thousands of American casualties, and the cost of over 2 trillion dollars.

 

[DJ Spanky]

Actually quite a bit (even though both are hard to perfect at the highest level), but cycling 2,000 plus miles...going up 60,000ft in altitude over a 3 week period...

Wow, do they have to get clearance from air traffic control for that?

 

[Ole Cabbagehead]

Valverde was a dick with his late, meaningless move at the finish. What was that all about...to gain a friggin second.
Geraint Thompson was awesome protecting Froome

It was a great stage yesterday. It was awesome seeing all of the contenders go head to head at the end of that climb. I had no problems with the attacks... It is a race afterall. In a grand tour, the head games are important...so Valverde wanted to show that he was feeling strong enough to take time there. Of course it was meaningless, but that's part of racing. Plus I am sure no one is really thinking clearly by the end of that stage.

I for one was surprised to see Froome take on every single attack. The announcers made a big deal of the fact that he had teammates there pacing him, but ultimately you have to ride the bike. He was not going to let any of the GC contenders get away from him, even if it was only for 30 seconds.

Also awesome for Rodriquez to take the stage. What an incredible performance. He looked like he was in complete agony for the last 5k.

 

[WhiteBus]

Geraint Thomas is my winner of this Tour. On the big decent today he was knocked off the road by a fellow rider and hits a telephone pole and gets back up and finish the stage!!

Amazing.

Warren Barguill should be thrown out of the Tour!

 

[Knight_Light]

Current 6th Place Sky's Geraint Thomas (First Place Chris Froome's right hand man), hits his head on a telephone pole as he is knocked off the road by Barguill on the most dangerous turn on the decent yesterday.

Can't imagine how that crash would have looked in the past prior to riders wearing helmets.

 

[WhiteBus]

Sadly American Tejay van Garderen has to abandon the tour. Had a real shot at the podium.

 

[WhiteBus]

Congrats to Chris Froome. The last few Ks in Paris exciting. Greiple easily the best sprinter in the world but as I said before Geraint Thomas stole the show for me. The Sky Team needs to keep this team together

 

[RUfromSoCal?]

So, yes - I watch. I watch almost every stage -
Of course I DVR it and "speed watch". I think NBC does a pretty good job covering the event. The sights and helicopter shots of the country side and towns is cool to see every year.

I'm not a bike rider - I don't watch any other bike races during the year - but I do follow the TdF.

and yeah, i figure most of the riders a cheating/juicing somehow - and I think all the "unwritten" rules of how/when people "attack" or chase is kinda of stupid. But, it's still a pretty cool spectacle to watch once a year.

Was rooting for Tejay van Garderen - too bad he had to drop out.

 

[RU848789]

Tons of differences starting with the power source. Race car driver just sits there, these guys peddle over a 100 miles everyday!

All I can visualize from this post is a competition with door-to-door salesmen, lol...

 

[RU848789]

Well they are my views and I did serve in the military and graduate Rutgers. I'm sure there are beautiful parts of French culture, but unfortunately that's what I've been exposed to, so for now these are my opinions.

Since you're embarrassed for me, I guess I'm ashamed of you for not having a stronger knowledge of worldly politics, and being a graduate of Rutgers.

You seem to have forgotten how the French saved our asses in that minor little war almost 240 years ago - I would think that should count for something.

 

[RU31trap]

We love watching the race. When possible we tried to tune in for the stages. I was hoping "The Shark from Messina" Nibili would have done better.

 

[Knight_Light]

I love the tour...but unfortunately the top favorite riders just train specifically to be in peak fom for the Tour and thus skip the Giro d'Italia, which is a shame.

I know Contador won this year's Giro.and he is now about 4 mins behind Froome. I wonder how much of an impact participating and winning the Giro had in his form for the Tour? I don't think any of he other tour favorites participated? Anyone know for sure?

I personally wished all the top riders were required to participate in all three major races, Giro, Tour and Vuelta.

I hope not as that would hurt the quality of the most important one, Tour de France.

Other good options to get ready for the Tour de France in June are the Tour de Suisse (9 stages) and Criterium du Dauphine (8 stages), which is what many top riders did (one or the other).

Vuelta is pretty boring (not many fans on the road sides on way too many stages in Spain). I'd rather enjoy watching the US Pro Challenge out in the Colorado Rockies instead.

 

[Knight_Light]

Congrats to Chris Froome. The last few Ks in Paris exciting. Greiple easily the best sprinter in the world but as I said before Geraint Thomas stole the show for me. The Sky Team needs to keep this team together

Thomas was a force for 2 plus weeks but even he collapsed in the Alps over the past few days.