Ok, (aside from the fact that if my man Tom Boonen gets busted for doping with that current situation in Belgium I will quit watching pro racing for the rest of time), the TT is on. Woo. Should be an interesting year with less familiar names of the remnants of the peleton while the big names talk with their lawyers elsewhere. What do you think? Who are the favorites?
Does everyone see this at the same time? Should I be using spoilers, for example, to refer to Stuart O’Grady packing it hard just now
Zabriskie’s about to start. . .
O’Grady has the dubious honor of the first crash this year…not a good way to start, Stuart!
I’m having coffee with Phil, Paul and Bobke now. No favorite yet, it usually takes a couple of stages for me to find someone to root for.
Viva la Tour!
Merci, merci.
I’ll be watching the recap later and full on coverage Sunday morning. I need a Belgian to root for, it will make my mother happy.
I recommend Tom Boonen, because he’s a God, or Axel Merckx because it’s his last tour and he lives in dad’s shadow.
Today was interesting.
The funniest part today was watching Cancellara almost catch the policeman ahead of him. I laughed out loud when that happened. Jeez, he was flying.
Good choices. I did not realize that Axel was hanging 'em up after this Tour. I remember his father.
Yeah I have to agree I have a soft spot in my heart for Axel. Eddy was SO awesome! I LOLed too when Cancellara almost caught up with the motos(got some drafting too). I was happy Team Discovery Channel did so well because 1)I think Hincapie deserves some glory after bringing Lance to so many victories and also because 2)Levi is a hometown favorite for me(Santa Rosa, CA). I’ve actually seen Levi on the road out here while riding and I saw him in the last couple Tours of California. Too bad he didn’t perform too well in the prologue.
I’m a little sad that some of the epic mountain stages have been left out of this tour. It kind of seems like it’s built for the sprinters but, if nothing else, we have the Col du Galibier. And the finish at Plateau de Beille should be pretty hardcore.
O’Grady’s wipe sucked but it seems like he’s ok, and his recovery was well done(didn’t it seem like he was totally stunned? Poor guy.)
Looks like Boonen won’t get to repeat his awesome maillot jaune finish in Beligium this time, too bad.
Ah, right, Ghent’s already on Monday or something. Well, they all adore him anyway-- THAT will be a crowd in the streets. Good racing fans there.
Was just watching an old docu on Eddy and there was tiny widdle Axel age 3 or something.
What a finish! Way to go, Robbie!
That was something special.
Wow-- that rocked! But then Tom gives up a half second early giving Thor 2d-- BAH!
Good good sprint, Robbie.
It should be a wide open field this year, non?
I have a confession to make. I think bicycle racing is the dullest sport in the world to watch, if all you watch is the cyclists, because they’re all doing pretty much the same thing in the same way. (And I say this as a person who’s been cycling on and off for years and is currently losing weight and having great fun cycling around my town almost every day.)
What I like about watching the Tour is the background scenery. You see a lot of parts of Europe you don’t ordinarily see, because movies and TV shows tend to focus on the “toursity” areas or the slums, rather than all the places regular folks live. Plus, the crowds are a lot of fun. That said, the only way I can stand to watch the Tour is in the background while I’m doing something else. Just watching the leaders cycling or the pelleton jostling gets old fast.
This is pretty much the same thing with pretty much every sport / spectator activity.
Think about baseball games and golf tournaments. Dang, those are hypnotically boring. Yet, somehow they are billion dollar businesses. What about the NHL, NBA, and NFL? When I see those events, all I process in my brain is a bunch of guys endlessly going for a puck / ball.
For me, bicycle racing should be a participation sport. You don’t really appreciate the difficulty and training required until you actually race. It’s also much more fun being the person that drives the action instead of watching it.
It’s a tradition that in every bicycle racing or soccer thread someone must express how dull it all is. Thanks for sharing! Now that we’ve gotten that over with,
Ah, East Flanders. Pouring rain! I hope there are no horrible pile ups. . . that include my favorites. Another sprinters’ day, I figure-- I suspect the breakaway can’t keep it up, but we’ll see.
OH MAN huge pile up in the last 3 K!
Hooray, Quick Step controls it in Ghent!
I gotta remind myself not to read this thread until after I go home and watch the race. :o
But I wasn’t saying wathcing the Tour was dull. If it were all that dull I wouldn’t watch at all. I said that the scenery and the crowds made it exciting, not the endless shots of cyclists pumping away on their bikes. The occasional pileup and the sprint at the end add to the excitement, and you don’t generally have to worry about people getting killed or seriously mangled in the pileups.
I am afraid your hopes will be dashed.