Tour de France

[Footbag]

Originally Posted by b128thopen

I know absolutely nothing about Bike Racing, but I turned the TDF on for the last 50 miles of the first stage and was amazed and the skill and teamwork that i witnessed. I watched the second phase yesterday and have TVOed the rest. I hope I can keep up or I am going to run out of room very quickly!

Agree, it gets much better in the mountains. Whether you like cycling or not, it is an amazing sport to watch!

[mugen910]

Originally Posted by Don Fernando

you'll get hooked just wait till they reach the mountains, then you will see man to man fights, teamwork and tactics as you never seen them before.

But I really enjoy the Team time trials...something about the speed and knowing you have a time to beat is awesome.

[j6ppc]

Today's ITT really shook up the GC; huge time gaps considering that the TT was so short.
Look for Thursday's stage to be interesting; first taste of mountains and a uphill finish

[Footbag]

Originally Posted by j6ppc

Today's ITT really shook up the GC; huge time gaps considering that the TT was so short.
Look for Thursday's stage to be interesting; first taste of mountains and a uphill finish

Waiting for the mountains... Not so patiently.

[Opusfxd]

Mountains are going to shake this all up something fierce.

I counted 5 riders in the top 10 of the GC from those two new US teams.

[b128thopen]

OK, as I have posted before, I am new to the TDF. I got home to watch stage 4 and it was individual time trials. Why do they do that? What does the winner get out of it? Does it help his team? Is it only the Captains that ride it or does everyone?

I was cool at first then I got board of watching just one guy ride his bike and turned it off. I understand today's stage (5) will be good though.

[Don Fernando]

Originally Posted by b128thopen

OK, as I have posted before, I am new to the TDF. I got home to watch stage 4 and it was individual time trials. Why do they do that? What does the winner get out of it? Does it help his team? Is it only the Captains that ride it or does everyone?

I was cool at first then I got board of watching just one guy ride his bike and turned it off. I understand today's stage (5) will be good though.

Everybody is doing it. The winner is gets to win the stage, it helps his team because winning a stage brings the team money and publicity. And riding a good time trial can help you to get a good result in the overall standings.

[Footbag]

Originally Posted by b128thopen

OK, as I have posted before, I am new to the TDF. I got home to watch stage 4 and it was individual time trials. Why do they do that? What does the winner get out of it? Does it help his team? Is it only the Captains that ride it or does everyone?

I was cool at first then I got board of watching just one guy ride his bike and turned it off. I understand today's stage (5) will be good though.

Individual time trials are just for individual times. The reason they start individually is because it eliminates the draft. Drafting is illegal in ind. time trials. So it really becomes a matter of pushing as hard as you can for the whole race.
In the other stages, every rider will have a chance to eat, pee, relax in the pack, etc. That doesn't happen in TT's.
Team TT's are very cool because they draft each other and just look amazing flying across the road.

[Footbag]

Soler pulled out the race.

[j6ppc]

Originally Posted by b128thopen

OK, as I have posted before, I am new to the TDF. I got home to watch stage 4 and it was individual time trials. Why do they do that? What does the winner get out of it? Does it help his team? Is it only the Captains that ride it or does everyone?

I was cool at first then I got board of watching just one guy ride his bike and turned it off. I understand today's stage (5) will be good though.

Also riding time trials decently well if not great is critical to winning the overall race. As short as yesterday's time trial was it still resulted in significant time gaps opening up between many of the GC contenders.

The sprint stages tend to be fun to watch but barring accidents or injuries are rarely decisive in determining the overall winner.

Time trials and mountain stages, however, do tend to seperate the wheat from the chaff. Anyone who aspires to be a GC contender needs to be pretty solid on both.

Alberto Contador's win of this year's Giro D' Italia is an example of how well that can turn out for a talented rider.

[b128thopen]

I really had no idea of how involved this was. I guess I just figuered they would ride in the pack the whole time until people started to separate. I am having a blast watching this pan out.
Thanks to everyone for helping me with all my questions!

[Footbag]

Originally Posted by b128thopen

I really had no idea of how involved this was. I guess I just figuered they would ride in the pack the whole time until people started to separate. I am having a blast watching this pan out.
Thanks to everyone for helping me with all my questions!

That's what the mountains are for!

[jdbwolverines]

Interesting to see how tomorrow will play out as we get the first taste of the mountains. It will be nothing like next week though in the Pyrenees.

[curtismayhem]

I like the idea of having no time bonuses b/c it makes for better racing. Any of you guy ride or race?

[Footbag]

Originally Posted by curtismayhem

I like the idea of having no time bonuses b/c it makes for better racing. Any of you guy ride or race?

I also like no time bonuses, but I'm sure it will be more evident when the race is closer to the end. You want 10 seconds, ride really hard and pick them up, winning the stage shouldn't be enough. Used to ride a lot and race a small bit.


Plus, I thought Lance should have let Roberto Heras win that mountain stage from his last race.