OT - TOUR de France. Does anyone care?
- Thread starter WhiteBus
- Start date
I watch it in passing. Can't say I follow it too closely. Steroids or no steroids, what those guys do is incredible.
I have watched/followed since the Lemond years and have attended 5 TDFs when I lived in London. Fun times.
TJ Vangarderen is in 3rd place on the podium and the only USA contender. There are only 3 USAs in the race.
The winners of the 1st 5 or so stages are often irrelevant ....most drop out a few stages later.
The real race starts this year in stage 10,,when the mountain stages start...thats when the real race starts.
TJ Vangarderen is in 3rd place on the podium and the only USA contender. There are only 3 USAs in the race.
The winners of the 1st 5 or so stages are often irrelevant ....most drop out a few stages later.
The real race starts this year in stage 10,,when the mountain stages start...thats when the real race starts.
I watch the stage when they go through Alpe d'Huez, which is the mountain climb with 21 hairpin turns. I went skiing there 20 years ago, and I always get nostalgic when I see the chalets and other parts of the town that are as they were when I was there. A lot of memories during that week.
No Greg Lemond, no Lance Armstrong - add to that a sport I really didn't care about that is neck deep in drug controversies......no I don't care anymore.
What! Those bicyclists should stay off the roads!! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
I do watch though not religiously - like to see what new bike tech is being introduced and such. It's pretty amazing to see how fast these guys can go and amazing that not more were hurt in that Stage 3 crash. Just picked up a new road bike myself (Giant) to go along with a hybrid I have so that has upped my interest a bit more than usual too.
I do watch though not religiously - like to see what new bike tech is being introduced and such. It's pretty amazing to see how fast these guys can go and amazing that not more were hurt in that Stage 3 crash. Just picked up a new road bike myself (Giant) to go along with a hybrid I have so that has upped my interest a bit more than usual too.
Lance Armstrong was crucified because he cheated better than the others.
The scenery is awesome. Great TV event. Who ever produces this does a magnificent job. Phil Liggett is a great annocer as well. A sport with geography and history at the same time.
Wet and windy today. Tomorrow a must watch as they travel through Normandy!
Last of the truly great spectacle races. 2000 miles and 21 stages - including a finish stage in Paris. With the doping and esoteric rules the race and riders can be hard to warm up to but I don't even know if liking the riders matters (it helps though and some are likable). Having so many moving parts to the race is unique. Most riders can't win the TdF and can only to win sprint or mountain stage competitions within the big race. Drafting and breakaways are key (it helps people to realize all peloton riders - the big mass - get the same finish time, and riders have to break away from peloton to get winning leads. That's one place the drafting and position battles come in as secondary riders try to help their main riders. But race aside, I can't imgaine what it must be like to plan and shut down so many roads in France. Add in all the elaborate things the fans do along the routes. Its quite an undertaking. From chosing rider chainrings on bikes to winning races inside of races to shutting down the Champs-Élysées its a big event with a lot of layers. Can't think of anything quite like it.
It would save lives since over 10 cyclists have been killed since 2010 - more than Formula one, Indycar and NASCAR combined. Nobody wants to crash at over 50 miles an hour or get hit by buses wearing only fancy underwear and a glorified egg carton helmet lol.
Much of the first week was special...as they showed/discussed some of the WWI Historic sites/battlefields/National Cemeteries of multiple nations, (also passed towns/villages hit hard in WWII) its still easily the best sports production on TV today...as to have scores of cameras in helicopters, motorcycles, cars, etc...for a playing field that is over 2,000 miles long...the pictures of France (and in this Tour, Netherlands and Belgium too) are just spectacular.
Good thing about not having an Armstrong in the race is that almost all networks besides NBCSN don't cover the race...so you can DVR it and even a day or 2 behind...you still won't know who won the race, who's is yellow, green, poka dot, white, etc...
And yes, the crash at high speeds on Stage 3 this year was horrific.
Good thing about not having an Armstrong in the race is that almost all networks besides NBCSN don't cover the race...so you can DVR it and even a day or 2 behind...you still won't know who won the race, who's is yellow, green, poka dot, white, etc...
And yes, the crash at high speeds on Stage 3 this year was horrific.
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Here's some cool GO PRO footage from a lot of riders inside Stage 5...which included a big crash in the rain, but it also shows the amazing speed they churn toward the finish line as fans are just a blur.
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 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.
The tour is like the Triple Crown. DE tour is the Derby and the rest are just nice wins
Some top guys skipped the very long Giro and raced in the Criterium du Dauphine instead, which is mostly mountain stage racing in the SW of France...and Froome won that, Van Garderen came in 2nd and Costa was 3rd.
NBCSN only carries the final hour of each of the 8 days on the Criterium du Dauphine just piggy backing off France's telecast which is a bummer.
Froome won the Criterium du Dauphine in 2013, then won the Tour de France.
Froome obviously won the Criterium du Dauphine in 2015...and has a nice lead in this year's Tour.
Some that are skipping the long Vuelta, will run in the mountain heavy US Pro Challenge in Colorado in mid-August. (Which has drawn huge crowds on the mountains in CO)
http://usaprocyclingchallenge.com/route
Tons of differences starting with the power source. Race car driver just sits there, these guys peddle over a 100 miles everyday!
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...seems almost impossible to do (hence why steroids were such a big part of this sport...as it was so hard to go almost all out on so many days in a row...steroids/HGH helped cyclists recover faster every night, plus provide them more power when needed.
The French, bunch of smelly, weak snobs. Totally dissed the US time after time, never open up air space for military cost us millions in additional fuel cost for defense department. Yet, they would be speaking German if not for the US and british. You remember this CNN report on the tour de france:
CNN is reporting that Lance Armstrong may be stripped of his 7th Tour de France title. In a random check for banned substances, three were found in Armstrong's hotel room.
The 3 substances banned by the French, that were found in Lance's hotel room were as follows:
CNN is reporting that Lance Armstrong may be stripped of his 7th Tour de France title. In a random check for banned substances, three were found in Armstrong's hotel room.
The 3 substances banned by the French, that were found in Lance's hotel room were as follows:
- Toothpaste
- Deodorant
- Soap
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.
Rutrack, I'm a Francophobe.
Here is a 300 year cliff notes version of us and French relations.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-French_sentiment_in_the_United_States
Here is a 300 year cliff notes version of us and French relations.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-French_sentiment_in_the_United_States
Mike, I must have missed the lectures about how the French all smell, are snobs, don't use soap and are weak.
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