Tour de France

[stormin]

One more day for the sprinters and then the real fun begins.

I was spoiled last week watching the coverage in the morning. The evening coverage sucks. I timed it last night. 6 minutes of coverage then 2 1/2 minutes of commercials. That doesn't count the plugs during the actual coverage. Makes it hard to watch.

[Bigwaved]

Originally Posted by stormin

One more day for the sprinters and then the real fun begins.

I was spoiled last week watching the coverage in the morning. The evening coverage sucks. I timed it last night. 6 minutes of coverage then 2 1/2 minutes of commercials. That doesn't count the plugs during the actual coverage. Makes it hard to watch.

Welcome back to the grind, my friend. Viva le Tivo.

[Alpedhuez55]

Originally Posted by stormin

One more day for the sprinters and then the real fun begins.

I was spoiled last week watching the coverage in the morning. The evening coverage sucks. I timed it last night. 6 minutes of coverage then 2 1/2 minutes of commercials. That doesn't count the plugs during the actual coverage. Makes it hard to watch.

Well, it could be worse. We could be back the the 1/2 hour evening wrap up show on ESPN2. Or just that weekly wrap up show on CBS. You would get to see some hack like Bob Neumeir or Adrien Karsten (RIP) spend more than half the coverage trying to wax poetic about how beautiful France is before turning it over to Phil for a 30 second sprint call. I remember one year, before I had OLN, watching the CBS coverage hoping to find out who won the green jersey and they did not even mention it. It was the only part of the race that still mattered.

I remember in the mid 80s watching the CBS show on the weekends and thinking how great that was. Now the coverage is more or less around the clock for three weeks on OLN. Hell, even Al Trautwig seems to have picked up some knowledge this year. He is not asking as many stupid questions of Bob Roll. The commercials stink, but they do not interupt the big final climbs.

And Bobke rules. His books are must reads. I love the story about him getting on a helecopter after one of the mountain stages. He tells LeMond something like "Way to stick it to the Frenchy's" after he took some time against Hinault. Then he looks to the other side and sees the Badger on the Helecopter shooting him a mean look

[Alpedhuez55]

These are the results from a web poll on OLN's website:

Who was the greatest rider ever to win the Tour?
Jacques Anquetil 1% 427 Votes
Lance Armstrong 59% 21914 Votes
Bernard Hinault 1% 616 Votes
Greg Lemond 4% 1595 Votes
Eddy Merckx 32% 11946 Votes
Marco Pantani 1% 438 Votes

All I can say is WTF????

Lemond will tell you that Merckx & Hinault are better cyclist than he ever was. Both Merckx & Hinault raced full seasons. Merckx would have won at least 6 if not for that kidney punch that some French fan suckered him with.

Coppi is not even listed as an option. You think he could have won a few more Tours if WW2 had never come along? Probably a few more than Lemond would have won if he had decided to go fishing with his BIL instead of hunting

Big Mig is left off of the poll. But Pantani is and gets more votes than Anquetil? Pantani was a great rider, but does not belong in this poll. (sorry Moses). 1998 was soiled by drug scandals and lost the last mountain stage was turned into a parade to a riders strike. Jullich & Ullrich lost their last chance to attack him.

At least 32% of the people are getting it right!!!

[Bigwaved]

Originally Posted by Alpedhuez55

These are the results from a web poll on OLN's website:



All I can say is WTF????

Lemond will tell you that Merckx & Hinault are better cyclist than he ever was. Both Merckx & Hinault raced full seasons. Merckx would have won at least 6 if not for that kidney punch that some French fan suckered him with.

Coppi is not even listed as an option. You think he could have won a few more Tours if WW2 had never come along? Probably a few more than Lemond would have won if he had decided to go fishing with his BIL instead of hunting

Big Mig is left off of the poll. But Pantani is and gets more votes than Anquetil? Pantani was a great rider, but does not belong in this poll. (sorry Moses). 1998 was soiled by drug scandals and lost the last mountain stage was turned into a parade to a riders strike. Jullich & Ullrich lost their last chance to attack him.

At least 32% of the people are getting it right!!!

I doubt many of the voters even heard of the greats. The cannibal is my choice. No mercy.

[Bigwaved]

My guess is that stage 11 is the one that has a big bang possible. Will someone attack and be marked by Phonak/Landis or is going to be a free for all, carnage, GC upside down kind of day? It should be interesting.

[steve471]

Merckx would have won at least 6 if not for that kidney punch that some French fan suckered him with.

I agree with above statement but let's not forget the TdF he WON because the leader crashed out of the race.

I personally don't see tomorrow shaking things up to much because of the long run into the finish after the climb. 40 k's is alot of time to catch back on to the group. Thursday is the day for fireworks and the real contenders will most definately come out to play then imo.

Viva le Tivo

.

[Alpedhuez55]

Originally Posted by Bigwaved

My guess is that stage 11 is the one that has a big bang possible. Will someone attack and be marked by Phonak/Landis or is going to be a free for all, carnage, GC upside down kind of day? It should be interesting.

Nobody will win the race tomorrow, but I think some people could lose tomorrow. I acouple of contenders could drop down after the mountains.

Look for Rasmussen to try to break to take all the top mountain points on the stage.

[Bigwaved]

Originally Posted by Alpedhuez55

Nobody will win the race tomorrow, but I think some people could lose tomorrow. I acouple of contenders could drop down after the mountains.

Look for Rasmussen to try to break to take all the top mountain points on the stage.

You hit it right on the head. It should be fun to watch.

[Marathon]

Originally Posted by Alpedhuez55

Nobody will win the race tomorrow, but I think some people could lose tomorrow. I acouple of contenders could drop down after the mountains.

Look for Rasmussen to try to break to take all the top mountain points on the stage.

Bring on the chicken! I've been waiting for him!

I think everything will go pretty calmly after the second climb on the long run down to the finish, unless one (or more) of the GC contenders is in trouble during the climbs; then I look for the leaders to hammer it all the way out to do some damage.

[Alpedhuez55]

Floyd took yellow!!! It was a pretty good stage. I was just glad to see Kloden get dropped.

But why can't the Americans have a normal winner.

We have Lemond winning two of his three tours after a near death hunting accident

We have Armstrong Winning the tour after a near death experience with cancer.

Now Landis is the favorite to win, but he could win it with a dead hip joint that has ground awway an inch of bone and will be replaced shortly after the tour.

So who will be the next American winner of the tour? THere is only one logical conclusion:



I will go with Dexter Benjamin, the one-legged NYC bicycle messenger. But someone needs to shoot him in the balls first

[stormin]

Originally Posted by Alpedhuez55

But why can't the Americans have a normal winner.

Normal Americans don't ride bikes! They drive Ford F150's with guns racks.

[stormin]

A great day to watch yesterday. We finally got some fireworks from the GC contenders. Landis is certainly looking strong. Don't know if his team has the horses to bring him home though. Leipheimer looked good as well. Discovery still no where to be found. If this Tour has shown us anything though, its that things can change in a hurry so don't count anyone out just yet.

[mosesbotbol]

Paolo is out

[Alpedhuez55]

Originally Posted by mosesbotbol

Paolo is out

THat was a tough break. Disco lost two riders today. That is probably why there was no urgency to chase down Popo. Gerolsteiner should have done some chasing, since two of their riders lost position to Popo. But I do not think anyone wanted to do any chasing today.