Tomorrow is the prologue, this year in London. Will you be watching/following the tour? Who's your favorites?
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Tomorrow is the prologue, this year in London. Will you be watching/following the tour? Who's your favorites?
My fav is Mr. Gene Do Ping, I'm sure he will be the winner this year. ;)
Fredi
Hehe let's hope not. But I expect that someone will disappoint this year as well. Vinokourov is one of my favourites for the yellow jersey. And Benjamin Rasmussen is a great climber!
Benjamin? Not Michael (previously a mountainbiker)?
Btw, I only have a fav for the first days, Fabian Cancellara. The rest is pretty much an open field.
Fredi
I'm going to Goudhurst (in Kent), to watch one of the hill climbs with my dad.
We used to bike together and we're both still interested, though he's a bit past two-wheeling these days.
Hopefully the weather's reasonable and I can get some decent snaps.
Sorry, I meant Michael. Hushovd will beat Cancellara;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Subway
I like Team CSC though (have their jersey in my closet), and hope they will do a good tour, even though they maybe don't have any big overall favorite on their team.
Cancellara will have a bigger gap between him and the rest than the gap between the second and the 10th. ;)
Fredi
My business partner is a big chief at our national cycling association, so he's there doing "research" for the entire Tour. Bastard.
How can I ever take this race seriously again, when there's so much drug tainting around?
Well, at least now you know that they all cheat. :D
To quote that German rider: "Everyone uses doping, so it's still the best that wins."
Now I don't fully agree with him as not everyone uses the same doping or even has access to the currently best substance, but there's defenitely at least some truth to it. ;)
Fredi
But if I want to watch artificially stimulated sports I may as well stick to Playstation.
I used the love the Tour, always stayed up late to watch it on Aus TV, but now, meh, not so interested. Even with a couple of decent Aussie riders, I'd like to believe they were above the cheating, but let's be realistic here... :(
They've already got rid of many riders who has used doping, and of course, there are probably some of the still in the game, but the control is getting better (at least until gene doping gets common:()
And if someone you don't like wins, you can just say that "nah, he used doping"...
Yeah, right. If the cheaters are German or French, they'll invariably look the other way.
Why not just let these guys tank themselves completely and give us a real show? They could have fist fights for the yellow jersey prior to each leg, have a daily 'roid leader and last one to hemorrhage before the finish line wins.
Mad Max meets Running Man meets Lance Armstrong meets Clubber Lang.
I could live with that.
Okay Subway. Cancellara has 7 seconds to go to Klöden now. He's going to win!:)
edit: He beats Klöden with 12,56 seconds. Really good!
Klöden was a bit too good for my extended prediction, but ... told ya. :D
Fredi
Cancellara is best known as TT king and will stay that way. Same with Robbie McEwen who have been known for his superpower sprinting skills. Also with Cadel Evans with his great climbing skills. I've alway put bet on these guys to take Armstrongs' spot base from their skills and manpower, but these guys will be be sticking to the specific podium where they belong. I'm looking at the previous champions: Ivan Basso, Jan Ulrich, and Floyd Landis (I've met and ridden with him). With all these pointing fingers about doping issues, it's hard to pick one favorite to wear the yellow jersey this year.
I saw the first stage as it ran through Sissinghurst in Kent (five miles from Goudhurst, where I thought I'd be).
Very cool, great atmosphere, well worth the effort to get a look at the greatest race of them all.
The pic is of the four leaders as they came through, at this point five minutes ahead of the peleton - they were eventually caught outside Canterbury.
it's impressive to see.
i'm not really a big fan or anything, but last year i happened to be in an area down in france where they were riding through so went down to see them pass. was stood on a roundabout and it was cool to see this swarm of bikes coming towards you and then splitting down the middle to go either side of the roundabout. pretty cool.
such a good atmosphere down there too- all the villagers were out there most of the day with their deck chairs and picnics (with large quantities of wine of course)- made a real day of it!
Now THAT'S how I'd like to follow the Tour. Drugs or not, if I'm out sitting in the sun in the south of France with some nice wine and surrounded by a partying town... yeah, that would be a great time!Quote:
Originally Posted by carly1979
*adds to long list of travel destinations/events he must attend.
Wow @ Cancellara! Tricked out all the sprinters today and won the stage. :p
Fredi
:yikes: :thumbsdow :thumbsdow that's a boring finish... he was already tired before he crossed the line... what a lucky man! I heard the crowd's loud BOOOOO!s That was a nice move though... very slick. Although he's not a sprinter, he used his TT skill in a final quarter mile. QuickStep's and Predictor's sprinter were caught off guard. Better watch out McEwen and Boonen!Quote:
Originally Posted by Subway
Ok, I've just seen a discussion on TV with anti doping experts, riders that made doping confessions and other experts and something was made really, really clear:
Till 1998 (Festina scandal):
- 99% of all riders used doping
- Riders and team officials, team doctors ... all talked openly about it and it was always known who used what and when, there simple was no secret between riders
- It was organized doping by the teams, everything payd, many doctors involved
- First question when you got into a team was "you want to win, so when do we start with the doping procedure?"
After 1998:
- They stopped talking about it
- Riders often did'nt knew anymore what they got so that they were'nt able to confess easely
- Teams were still involved, but not as official as before
- Many riders now had to pay themself for the doping
- Many had to organize the transport of blood and substances on their own, but they always knew were to get it, often from team officials
Now:
- Anybody that wants to win the big races still uses doping
- Many substances used are not detectable
- It's now much harder to get the substances, but still easy enough for most, mainly because there are still the same people (doctors and such) that deliver the drugs as most of them never got caught
- There are a few teams and riders that stopped using doping (sub 20%), but there objective is'nt anymore to win the big races, it's just not possible even with the most talented riders
There you have it. ;)
Fredi
I always wondered how anyone can be expected to ride 3500km +/- in three weeks (inc. Alps and Pyrenees ascents) without having some sort of chemical enhancement.
It's good that all this is now starting to be revealed by different sources. Only public knowledge can save this sport. If they go on with the lies, nothing will change and new scandals will pop-up every couple of years.
A German doctor and hobby cyclist recently made a self-experiment with EPO and other substances. He first climbed the Alpe D'huez without and a few weeks later with doping preparation. It was like day and night. Not only was he sprinting up there compared to his first ride, the most impressive thing was that he was'nt exhausted at all when he was up there and would have been able to do another 1000hm like that.
This really shows that doping works way too good for endurance sports. If someone else takes it, you simple don't have a chance against that guy if you don't take it as well.
Fredi
Subway: I think that there are some riders who use doping, but many who don't.
Hushovd finally won a stage:D Cancellara has done 2 great stages so far (including the prologue). I hope Klöden will compete in the top 5 this year by the way.
I don't share this illusion anymore, sorry. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by MagnusVS
Fredi
This is freaking amazing: http://www.ubilabs.net/tourdefrance/ :)
Fredi
Really cool!:)
Yeah, neither do I. And has taken a huge amount of the interest out of the Tour de France for me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Subway
That is cool.Quote:
Originally Posted by Subway
Almost makes up for not being able to find any web-based video coverage.
(Listening to commentated coverage - Eurosport - is OK for five minutes, then it starts to drive you... freakin... NUTS!)
Robbie McEwen is out of this year's Tour. He didn't finish before the time limit passed yesterday.
Did you guys see the Columbian guy take the first big mountain stage today?
First tour, new team and he wins arguably the hardest (physically) stage.
Talk about advantage gained from living at high altitude.
I'm currently cheering for Contador, for his amazing uphill sprints, but overall I still don't have a real fav. Maybe Iban Mayo, for all the bad luck he had in previous tours.
Fredi
It was fun to see the Columbian win today's stage. I'm looking forward to see how Michael Rasmussen will perform the next couple of days. He said that his goal is to wear the yellow jersey at Champ-Elysées! Mayo seems strong to, as does Valverde.
German rider Patrik Sinkewitz from the T-Mobile team used doping previously to the tour in a training control. Now suspended for two years and has to pay about half a million. He had a big crash yesterday, currently in hospital. German TV decided to boycott the tour!
Fredi
Ok, Michael Rasmussen should be excluded from the tour. If you train in Mexico and you're not reachable, multiple times, for doping controles, and not even your team knows where you are, than you're basically doped even without positive tests. The reglement clearly tells you, that your location at all times has to be known, three months in advance, exactly for the reason that you can't just disappear, train your body with doping, wait till that doping is'nt testable anymore to come back for the tour.
Fredi
Go Robbie Hunter go!!
It's just the danish cycling association (or whatever their name is) who's being a**holes in this case. Michael Rasmussen has been unreachable 2 times. The rules say that you may get a punishment if it happens 3 times. The danish cycling association let him compete in the danish national championship after these 2 incidents (the last one happened 29th of june, I think). To come and say this now, when he's leading the tour is in the worst case, extremely bad timing. Probably somebody there doesn't like him.
He's been tested several times before and during the Tour and he hasn't tested positive so far.