Pedal pedal baby...it's the Tour de France

Cafe Society
61

Well, I heard the rumour flying around that no one was especially sad when Rene Haselbacher didn’t start the seventh stage. He was the one that caused the crash with less than a kilometer to go in the sixth stage. From what I heard almost all the other racers consider him an idiot who endangers them every time he gets on a bike.

I’m also curious about what the riders think of Cristophe Brandt, who was disqualified for having Methadone in his urine sample. Yesterday I heard that the second test was also positive, and he is now accusing his teammates of possibly having it in for him, and giving him something that caused methadone to show up in his urine sample. I mean methadone is not what I would consider a good doping substance. It’s an opiate, and is used for therapy of heroin addicts (given as a heroin subsitute). I can’t really imagine it helping your performance unless you want to ride up the Madeleine or up to alpe D’Huez in a trance. :eek: What do the riders think about his case?

62

Urrrrgggghhh. I totally know that. Curses.

63

Is it me, or is there a lot less hype about the Tour this year? I mean, I haven’t even heard any bloated, attention-seeking sports writers complaining that “Lance isn’t an athlete” like in years past.

64

That’s last year’s story. This year’s story is “OMG! Sheryl Crow!” I was at the dentist yesterday, and I was stuck listening to some awful “inoffensive” easy-listening radio station. They played a Sheryl Crow song, and then the braindead DJ said something like, “And her boyfriend Lance Armstrong is currently stuck all the way back in 6th place in the Tour de France, but he hasn’t given up yet.” :wally

If I didn’t have a drill in my mouth, I would have shaken my head sadly.

65

Now for a new topic…

I’m currently a day behind, so you’ll have to excuse me for commenting on Tuesday’s race now.

What did people think of the shove of the Domina Vacanze(?) rider when he tried to get in the front of the peloton? Did anything come of that? One commentator seemed to think it was appropriate, but the other seemed to think it was not.

66

From here.

The things are tiny, and I can’t imagine that they add any measurable amount of time to their rides. I seem to recall someone saying that every quarter pound of weight (4 ounces or 113.4 grams, if you prefer) that could be eliminated from the riders’ bikes would reduce their time by only 2-3 seconds. Aside from which, all of the riders have them (at least on their first bike), so no one is disadvantaged.

That is most likely one of the reasons to have the photo finish - just in case it’s a close call and one of the riders made a bike change earlier. Aside from which, a little digital readout from a transponder could be questioned while photo finishes have been trusted for some time…

67

I’m curious about that shove of the Vacanze rider, too. The commentators made it pretty clear it was illegal. It shouldn’t have been TERRIBLY difficult to figure out who did it from the tape – the commentators were hinting that they knew exactly who’d done it … so is this some kind of outrage, or a tolerated thing like some of the clandestine holding that NFL linemen do in every down?

68

The rules (which are really short) actually say:

So no need for transponders for the pack.

69

Do the riders have radios in their helmets so they can hear broadcasts telling them who’s in front and by how much? How do they keep track of breakaways?

70

Yes, they do. Look close at a picture of Lance, it is in his right ear, and you can see the cord coming down off his shoulder

71

The transponders could be for the TV crews. Someone says, “let’s cut to yesterday’s stage winner”, someone punches up his transponder number, and they then know which camera to switch to.

72

I think the transponders are for timing – for TV.

They have “receivers” set up at different places along the course so that, e.g., Virenque goes by and it records when, then the Peloton goes by, and it records that time and gets it accurately. Then they give it to you on the TV.

I think they still use the photo for the finishing.

I imagine in the future they will find a lot more to do with them.

For instance, in NASCAR, the cars have the transponders and the receivers are all around the track, so they can show you in real time how fast a guy is going, if he’s gaining/losing on the leader, his exact deficit. They can show you a chart of all the drivers and if they moved up or down on the previous lap. They are also tied into the TV signal somehow, so that the broadcasters can show you a pack of cars, but place a little arrow over the top of a single car in the pack to point him out.

Of course, NASCAR has the advantage of setting up the receivers on a fixed track, so they can set up a lot of them, and the logistics are a lot easier.

This would all be a lot more difficult for an ever-changing bike race, for obvious reasons.

There’s been a couple instances this year of things like a rider holding on to the car for too long, or falling back and drafting behind a car for too long (I think Mayo did this in an early stage when he fell or had a problem)

I think the judges actually use their brain a little in these cases and look at the big picture – knowing that it doesn’t amount to diddly, or knowing that even if it does, it might make the tour less interesting if they penalized him.

73

Just got done watching today’s stage.
One question, what color jersey does the best cow herder get? :wink:

Them boys was flying today, the finish was about 20 minutes earlier than expected.

74

Does anyone think that Virenque has a realistic shot at winning the whole thing? I mean he’s a great climber. The next time trial is up L’Alpe d’Huez. If he can pick up a couple more minutes on Armstrong by the time the Alps are done, he really can’t lose, can he? I really think that letting him get away yesterday was a huge mistake by Armstrong, Ulrich, Hamilton and Mayo. They really can’t expect to make up much ground on him in the mountains. Also, this Voeckler kid is pretty impressive so far. I’m guessing that he’ll crack tomorrow or Saturday. If not, he might be a contender too.

75

I should be penalized 2 minutes for overuse of the word “really”.

76

Tommorw will be the stage to watch I think. Voeckler has been very good, but did you notice that he almost got dropped out of the lead group on the last climb yesterday? He came back, but I think the big boys will chew him up tommorw.

77

No, unfortunately I don’t get OLN so I can’t watch it at all. It sucks, because I loved watching the TDF when it was on ESPN.

78

I don’t think Virenque will contend for the GC. His goal was just to take all the points on an early mountain stage and take such a huge lead in that competition that he can mostly just sit back with the peloton for the rest of the race. He did the same thing last year. I’m sure every director sportif has had July 14th marked as “le jour de Virenque” ever since this year’s route was announced.

At any rate, even if he does decide to go for yellow, he doesn’t have the time trialing ability nor a strong enough team to compete with Armstrong, Ullrich, and Hamilton. Personally I don’t think a pure climber can win the Tour de France, even with an Alpe d’Huez time trial, unless he has a very strong team.

Voeckler seems to have a bit of climbing ability, but he probably doesn’t have the legs to keep up for the rest of the race.

79

The transponders were mentioned on the ITV coverage the over day, this year is the first year that they have been fitted and they are still in the trial stage, hence the photo finish gear is still the primary tool for deciding placings at the moment.

Voeckler looks a fair climber. Whilst he has no chance of contending until the end of the race, a Frenchman defending the yellow jersey is almost honour-bound to die on his sword so I fancy he’ll give it a big shot tomorrow and try to hang with the leaders for as long as he can. There are only 2 climbs, albeit huge ones, so it’s not beyond possibility he could have a good day and keep the lead for one more day.

I’m not sure Virenque has the motivation to go for the overall classification, he can take his seventh King of the Mountains, maybe look for another stage win. To go for an overall win would mean maybe taking his eye off those balls. It would be a long shot for him anyway, he’s need a good 4 minutes more over Armstrong and Ulrich to stand a chance going into the final time trial. Maybe more…

80

Noooooo! Armstrong’s done it again. He left Ullrich behind and I can’t see anyone beating him now. I can’t stand the guy but he will go down as the greatest ever. Move over Mercxx, move over Indurain, and all hail Armstrong.

Someone please tell me that I’m being presumptuous. Please give me a reason to think that somebody will beat him this year. Please!