I did the climb on a cheap, rented mtn. bike from a shop in Grenoble… on the day of the Tour in '97. Now that was amazing. Half a million people lining 9 miles of roadway, waving flags cheering, and spraying you with water and other assorted beverages. One of the greatest experiences in my life.
My time was somewhere in the viscinity of 2 1/2 hours, and i didn’t even go to the top (stopped at a turn about a mile from the finish to get a better view). Pantani did the thing in about 40 minutes. But that was only because i was in the middle of a backpacking trip and had been living off day-old bread, peanut butter, and beer. If my diet’d been right, i’da kicked his ass!
The best part of “the look” was a few moments after. Ullrich watched the burst but made no move to match then he dropped his head and looked straight down at the ground as if he’d just admitted defeat right then and there. Maybe he put his head down to “bear down”, but it was one hell of a moment.
I’m glad to see that there are bicycle racing fans on these boards. In the NY area, we only get 2 half-hour shows on Fox Sports Channel and on MSG. I have to record both of them and then watch them at night. ESPN’s coverage over the past few years was a lot better.
While I like Lance, I still think that Indurain was the best ever. Of course, I never watched Merckx or Anquetil. But Miguel Indurain’s heart rate at rest was 28. That’s 28 beats per minute folks! Now I remember when I was in prime shape (relatively speaking, of course). I could only get my pulse down to around 52. So I can’t even begin to imagine the kind of shape that Indurain was in when in his prime.
Stage 12: Cardenas wins the stage, Laiseka takes second and Armstrong is third. Lance moves up to second place in the overall standings, having trimmed a bit more off of his time.
Go get 'em Lance!! Yellow jersey by tomorrow, do you think?
Guess the riddle of the day: If you only have one, you can still have two.
Ok. Little bit by little bit. Lance is third, 28 seconds behind Kivilev, nine minutes behind Simon, who knows his days in the yellow are numbered. Lance also put another 23 seconds on Ullrich, his main threat.
OLN (outdoor life network, I think) is not available in your area? Bummer. The coverage this year is the best US coverage of the tour in history. Several hours every morning, repeated at night. My heart goes out to you…
OLN coverage has been great. Got sucked into watching the whole thing this morning - that was a great stage. Fascinating stuff.
As far as news etc. on the web…velonews is good, but so is the “official” tour site itself. The English version also has the live audio feed of the OLN show, so you can listen to Paul and Phil as they call the race.
Links:
OLNTV.com click on any of the Tour links will take you to the same site as
The official site. The top nav bar here click ‘listen live’ and follow instructions
