# This year's Tour de France - Lance looking good **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 8, 2002, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-years-tour-de-france-lance-looking-good/117939 "2002-07-08T18:12:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2002, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-years-tour-de-france-lance-looking-good/117939/1 "2002-07-08T18:12:26Z")
At least half the pleasure of being able to watch the Tour de France live on OLN is seeing the beauty of the European countryside in the summer. Isn’t Luxembourg just drop-dead gorgeous? Unfortunately, I could only see a little of the German countryside today, as I was late to work. We see it live starting at 6:30 a.m. here on the west coast of the U.S. I’m an unabashed Lance Armstrong fan, and that first day prologue time trial was really a sight to see. Laurent Jalabert really put forth a grueling effort and took a second off the next-best time, and his time stood as the fastest until Lance came along and blew two seconds off of Jalabert’s. That man is scarily fast – watching him spinning powerfully along inspires me to get my fat butt on the bike more often and to try harder. If he can do it after chemotherapy and surgery, I can sure as hell do it with sore knees or cramped hands. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2002, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-years-tour-de-france-lance-looking-good/117939/2 "2002-07-08T18:31:12Z")
That Plano boy is a machine. What an inspiration! ---
**Author:** ![scout1222](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/34f0e0/32.png) [@scout1222](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scout1222)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2002, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-years-tour-de-france-lance-looking-good/117939/3 "2002-07-08T19:14:11Z")
Amen. I’m not a cycling fan, but I am an Armstrong fan. I don’t get the channel that’s showing the Tour. Any good websites to get updates and stories? [probably if I googled Lance Armstrong I’d find one, but if you’ve got one you like…] ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2002, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-years-tour-de-france-lance-looking-good/117939/4 "2002-07-08T19:45:34Z")
**scout1222** , I like [velonews](http://www.velonews.com/), which is updated pretty quickly as the Tour progresses. Once we discovered that OLN provided live, relatively unchopped-up coverage of the Tour, we went ahead and ordered the package which contained this channel. It’s worth every penny. Thanks, Canada, for having this great channel so we don’t have to wait for the puke-y network coverage on the weekends. ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2002, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-years-tour-de-france-lance-looking-good/117939/5 "2002-07-08T23:49:33Z")
Did you see that Norwegian guy just completely blow up today? He could NOT pedal any more from leg cramps. It was painful to watch. Armstrong, what can I say? He makes the Tour boring. You just know he’s going to win it - he’s in great form, and he is strategically the best rider out there. The US Postal team has never been stronger. Lance is the Michael Schumacher of cycling. He’ll arrive in Paris in first place. There is no athlete on this planet for whom I have more admiration than Lance Armstrong. No one, I repeat **no one** has come such a long way. EVER. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-years-tour-de-france-lance-looking-good/117939/6 "2002-07-18T15:43:16Z")
And Lance takes Le Maillot Jaune! What a performance – he and teammate Heras passing leader Laurent Jalabert just a few kilometers before the finish. It was a demonstration of how teams win the Tour, not individuals. Heras is a monster hill-climber, and he dragged Lance up. Wow! I didn’t even see a sheen of sweat on him until the last kilometer.