Tour de France

[pohibaba]

So, is there anyone else who loves watching this as much as I do? I've watched nearly every stage of every race since 2000, and I look forward to it every year. I know that most people think lolsteroids, but who do you guys think are going to win? My money is on Cadel Evans to win the yellow, Thor Hushovd to win green, and Yaroslav Popovych to win the polka dot.

[Auspex]

Thor?

My money's on him.

[skurlover]

I got my money on Lance. He'll come into the race around the 11th stage and even with his one testicle, he'll win every single event including who has the nastiest groan rash.

[pohibaba]

Today's stage was very entertaining with a mountain-top finish. The Italian rider Ricardo Ricco pulled out the win, but the most important part was that the yellow, green, and polka dot jerseys all changed hands today. Sylvain Chavanel grabbed the lead in the King of the Mountains and Kim Kirchen grabbed the lead in both the green and yellow jersey competitions.

Tomorrow's stage should be just as good with two category two climbs back to back near the end of the race. I expect that one of the mid-range GC contenders (Millar, Menchov, Valverde) will try to make a run at the second cat. 2 climb to try to put their stamp on this race. Make sure you tune in for it!

[fantasticdan]

Is this the thing where people hit dogs with bicycles?

[Kuya]

Not that it bares any mention, but suffice to say that there is more than one reason to see the Tour de France. Seriously, wow.

[Scorp]

There is something compelling about the tour no matter who is riding, drugs or not. I can't help but feel that the lack of an obvious rivalry this year has let it down a bit. I really miss Ulrich v Armstrong, even though Ulrich failed pretty hardcore.

Contador v Evans v Valverde would have been very good, with contador out, valverde looking shaky and evans seemingly crippled it isn't what it could have been. I'll still watch the lot though. Cavendish's sprinting and prickishness is good enough for me.

What the hell happened to Ivan Basso though, i'm guessing drugs but ?

[pohibaba]

Yeah, I do miss the great rivalries of the years past, but the last two years have had their own drama because the tour was pretty much wide open without any clear favorite.

Valverde has been pretty disappointing so far; Evans looked pretty good until that crash today, now I'm wondering if he's even going to be able to finish. Basso was caught up in the Operation Puerto thing in 2006 and then got suspended for two years in 2007. I think he'll be eligible for the 2009 Tour de France and he recently signed a contract with Liquigas, too.

Ricardo Ricco looked very impressive in today's stage, with an almost Contador-esque sprint up that last mountain. Next year's tour should be pretty amazing if Contador and Ricco both show up in top form.

[Scorp]

I think he'll be eligible for the 2009 Tour de France and he recently signed a contract with Liquigas, too.

So he just signed for the only team to have a rider thrown out this year... dubious XD

[Aymee]

... My father got me hooked on this when I was really young... I don't even know how to explain the interest, but it's epically addictive when you get into it. Mountain finish stages are one of the few things in sports whatsoever that I actually drool about. The one today was incredible... with no one dominant rider anymore it's such a free-for-all. And a 1 second gap after 10 stages?! The logistics of that alone should impress any normal sports fan who blows off cycling. Statistically speaking, that's closer than some damn nascar race won by 0.0001 second (100ns).

Pro Cycling is one of the top 3 of sports americans ignore for no good reason, along with soccer and formula1.
...Wait, those are the only sports I even remotely consider watching. I guess I don't make a very good american. ...Oh crap, I live in the midwest, too. It's best to just hush about any sport that's not the nfl around here...

[Akiyama]

Most of them use steroids anyway, so meh.

[Xavier]

Tour needs another Lance to get me interested again, hasn't been the same for me without him.

[pohibaba]

... My father got me hooked on this when I was really young... I don't even know how to explain the interest, but it's epically addictive when you get into it. Mountain finish stages are one of the few things in sports whatsoever that I actually drool about. The one today was incredible... with no one dominant rider anymore it's such a free-for-all. And a 1 second gap after 10 stages?! The logistics of that alone should impress any normal sports fan who blows off cycling. Statistically speaking, that's closer than some damn nascar race won by 0.0001 second (100ns).

Pro Cycling is one of the top 3 of sports americans ignore for no good reason, along with soccer and formula1.
...Wait, those are the only sports I even remotely consider watching. I guess I don't make a very good american. ...Oh crap, I live in the midwest, too. It's best to just hush about any sport that's not the nfl around here...

I agree with you. That stage today was amazing. I was slightly disappointed with Cadel not being able to keep up with Frank Schleck's group and couldn't pull away from the group he was with, but I guess that may have something to do with the crash.

I was super impressed with Christian Vandevelde's performance today, and I think that if he had made that move 2km further down the road he may have been able to take yellow himself.

I doubt there will be many fireworks in the next week or so, but the race should be won and lost next week as there's so disgusting looking stages starting around #16. That's what I'm gonna be looking forward to.

[pohibaba]

Update:

This tour has the possibility to be the best in recent memory. Currently there are 6 people who still have a chance to win the race; that's practically unheard of this far into the race.

Frank Schleck is currently the yellow jersey holder and has to be considered an underdog because it's still not clear if he's even the leader of his team.

Another big surprise has to be Bernard Kohl who came within 7 seconds of taking the yellow jersey yesterday. I honestly don't think he has a huge chance of winning because as far as I know he's not a very good time-trialest and so he would have to put quite a lot of time between himself and the favorites in the mountains which I just don't think he can do.

Cadel Evans is third after yesterday's race by 8 seconds to Schleck, and is still the favorite to wear yellow in Paris in my mind. He's shown that he can stay with everyone else in the mountains, plus he has to be the favorite in the time-trial towards the end of the race. Plus, I think it will be a relief for him not to have to defend the yellow in the mountains anymore.

Denis Menchov looked very good yesterday and is only 38 seconds out of the lead. I think he had a great chance of breaking the rest of the leaders yesterday if he hadn't of crashed going around the bend. He's always been known as being decent at time-trials too and so he wouldn't have to put much time between himself and Evans to wear yellow in Paris.

The only American who still has a chance to win the race is Christian Vandevelde who is 39 seconds out of the lead. He has surprised pretty much everyone with his performance in this year's tour, even his own team as he wasn't the team leader coming into the tour, David Millar was. He is known as being a great time-trialest, probably nearly as good as Evans, and so it won't take much for him to be able to win the race.

Carlos Sastre is the last rider who has a chance to win the GC and is 49 seconds behind. He is the traditional leader of Team CSC, the best team in the race by far, but it will be very tricky for them because Frank Schleck is wearing yellow right now. What makes it even more tricky is that CSC's best domestique is Frank Schleck's brother Andy, and you know who he'd rather work for. I think this split in the team may mean that neither are going to be able to take yellow in Paris.

[Bagel]

Tour de Franzia > Tour de France

You ride around on bikes all day while drinking box wine.