tour de france

I watch it on and off. I was glued to the TV when Lanse was riding. I still tune in, but infrequently.
 
I've followed it for years, used to ride a lot but my bike riding these days is just commuting stuff. A treat one year was seeing Lance race at my town, we have a six-day stage race every summer. He used it as training to get back into shape after cancer. He pulled at the front of all stages, all day, apparently for the workout, and although never winning a stage, he won the overall race, though sheer consistency. It worked, the next year he started his reign at TDF.

I don't have cable, do you know a website I can get audio coverage? I really miss Liggett and Sherwin, they were available on the net for a couple years but seem to not be now.
 
I always try to get some of it. Would love to get to Paris for the final part one year.

It's always fascinating to me to see how different the competitors are, not so much anthropometrically but just genetically; some have large calves and quads and some are really skinny yet they train similarly.

Particularly noticeable to me this year was how little muscle mass they carry in their upper body. I mean, their arms are like sticks. SAID principle again. I pointed it out to my lad and he said "Yeah, you're massive compared to them dad." Made my day (I think?)!
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(mewlingthunder @ Jul. 17 2007,09:53)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I've followed it for years, used to ride a lot but my bike riding these days is just commuting stuff. A treat one year was seeing Lance race at my town, we have a six-day stage race every summer. He used it as training to get back into shape after cancer. He pulled at the front of all stages, all day, apparently for the workout, and although never winning a stage, he won the overall race, though sheer consistency. It worked, the next year he started his reign at TDF.

I don't have cable, do you know a website I can get audio coverage? I really miss Liggett and Sherwin, they were available on the net for a couple years but seem to not be now.</div>
ill bet the official tour site has some video and audio downloads for critical points of race coverage.

i agree with your comment on ligget and sherwin. i could listen to them do the play by play for my neighbor cutting his grass. they just have a good sense/ability of how to call  a race.
fortunatly i get the -VS- channel and can catch the AM coverage with those two calling the action. i was out the other day (sunday) and had to watch the "expanded" coverage with bob roll and al trautwig calling the action for 90% of the race. what a difference. bobs a goof but hes ok since hes unique, been there and knows what hes talking about. al on the other hand is a waste of oxygen. he spends the whole time worrying about when an american (levi) is going to take control. "wheres levi?, when is he going to move up? has he lost the tour today? how can team discovery let this happen? etc etc. the man has no appreciation of the other teams and riders in the race let alone the strategy/tactics of a 3week long race.
 
Roll's fun, sort of the Alex Karas of cycling.  Even Trautwig is a big improvement over Adrian Karsten. Sad what happened to that guy, but honestly, he really made my teeth hurt.

The provencial POV in reporting, probably just human nature, gets pretty bad during the Olympics too. I haven't ever traveled, but I imagine coverage in other coutries is biased as well.  I think the Tour might beat almost any other sport in number of nationalities involved, it's kind of cool. Also to have such an international mix to each team, except Euskatel. I like Euskatel's angle too though, using only Basque riders, must give a real sense of unity and pride that a corporate team can't really match.  

Prediction? Nothing I'd bet more than a nickel on. Rasmussen's looking awfully tough but I don't know about his TT ability. Be cool to see him end up KOM and yellow both, has that ever happened? Maybe Merxx, come to think of it. I'm suspicious of Levi's allegedly not feeling well, but still doing well, is that more of the Lance type fake-out stuff? So much psych wit these guys, you never know.

On the upper/lower body physique, any idea why women aren't more competitive with men in distance cycling? I've done a fair bit of distance running the last few years, til a chronic injury indefinately ended that. When you get into longer ultramarathon distances women are very competitive with men, and sometimes beat the men outright for overall. For instance Badwater 135 miles, Pam Reed won that race two years in a row. I don't know another sport where that happens, it's a great thing to see. Even in RAAM cycling, where there is by definition not gonna be any sprinting, some women have done exceptionally well but never come close to winning.
 
yes trautwig is an improvement over karsten who was a big improvement over sam posey (of the infamous quote "this race has plenty of up hill climbs and down hill decents!"). of course that was back in the old ABC days with 1-2hrs worth of coverage a week and only on weekends about mid-day. LeMond changed most of that but still before lance started to win it was easier to find a bbq cookoff on tv in july then it was to find the tour.

ill put my money on kloden. he looked real good in the prologue and has been mostly quite yet always in contact thru the 1st set of mountains. add to that his pedigree and prev. exper. and i think hes just marking the main rivals until the 1st real TT and the pyrenees.

unless hes drastically improved rasmussen is quite avg in the TT so hell lose as much time in that as he gains in the mtns. ive never had much faith in levi winning the tour. he reminds me more of hampsten then armstrong (all incredible cyclst to be sure but we are talking about winning the tour) with the way he always talks of not feeling super strong, almost never attacks and is content to follow and hope for the best. i realize how difficult it can be but at some point you have to make a move like moreau or contador. he seems to always be waiting for either A.) the magical day he feels super strong and just rides away from everyone B.) all the main rivals to crack one by one over time and his "play it safe", ride tempo consevative game plan will in the end win him the tour. like hampsten sounds like a great strategy for finishing in the top 10 but typically the grind of the tour catches up with you at some point and since you never made moves to gain time you quietly slip back slowly while the winner takes a chance and pulls something great out of his ass (or happens to be an armstrong or indurain, hinault etc in which case your almost always in charge).

i do believe vinokourov will be the spoiler in the pyrenees, they say going poorly in one (alps) typically means good form in the other and since he is out of the gc race yet still an incredible rider he is going to go for some stages and murder some folks, all to the possible benefit of his teamate kloden.

should be fun

btw this is the tour main page which should give those interested what they are looking for
http://www.letour.fr/2007/TDF/LIVE/us/1600/index.html
 
I have to say how impressed I am these guys can keep going for the breakaways when they have such a microscopic chance of success, like maybe 5% of these succeed? Work like demons all day and get pipped at the end, man that has to hurt, and yet there are always volunteers. I think one of the Tour historical high points has to be Tyler Hamilton's long solo breakaway a few years back, when it was late in the Tour, and he was in top 10 GC, and was riding with a broken collarbone. To take that kind of gamble and pull it off was about the ballsiest thing I've ever seen.

You could be right about Kloden, I had kind of written him off with that cracked tailbone, couldn't imagine him holding up to the pain, but I forget these guys are beyond tough. I sure am liking having a race that's unpredictable, even as much as I liked Lance.
 
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