Thread: Tour de France anniversary edition

Originally Posted by barrylad66

my moneys on froome, in real good nick at the moment after a few recent impressive rides

good bet in my mind. I'd say better than 50 / 50 chance.

Originally Posted by prawnograph

^cheers, VIP Box I'd be lost without it. And the link in 1stv post steephill.tv has so much info.
The Corsica start will be a change of scenery - saw a flyover video last night, looks tough (not for them would be the death of me!)
On the commentary - one of our TV sports channels is GMM Sportone - don't watch it often as has eg dubbed US 'wrestling', dubbed World's Strongest Man, dubbed US boxing - but see they are advertising TdF in conjunction with Eurosport so maybe I'll have two viewing/language options after all.

My MacAfee is telling me that site has virus, spyware, etc, I didn't bother as much as I'd like to be viewing the tour.

^

That bike is like it just came out of the box, I'm going to sell it as I'm retiring and don't want to store it.

Don't need the money but its taking up space, if I get a good price I'll let it go if not I'll keep it.

Tour De France is on now so a good time to advertise it. A serious buyer will snap it up.

Turns out David Harmon is suffering from depression, Eurosport hopes he'll be back at the start of the Vuelta in late August. Kirby's improved a lot however, not such a pain anymore.

ive heard of cavendish taking the piss but that was something else.. typical cheese eating gops

Wow, that was the most amazing flat stage for many years. It's not over yet, Froome couldn't close the gap when Saxo attacked, and he doesn't have a team left to help him out much. If this happens far from the finish like for Valverde who tumbled down from 2nd to 16th today, he can still lose it. Poor Valverde, same shit like in the Vuelta last year.

very interesting stage. unexpected move by team saxo, froome did well to limit his losses after shedding team mates again. cant wait for ventoux on sunday - the game is far from over

Originally Posted by Shrinking Violet

val rides for my team but cant cheer him due to his scummy drugs cheating. great stuff by cav today after a difficult few days

Cycling is the working men's sport, and so it takes all the heat and scruntiny. And excesses, last month was reported that doping substances were found in urine samples of Laurent Jalabert from the year 1998. 15 years later. Unheard of in the boring sports of the rich kids, Tennis and Golf. I actually never heared that the players are even tested.

i used to love Team ONCE's tussles with my Banesto boys back in the 90s, espeically jalabert and the eye-sight chalenged alex zuelle. fairly uneventful stage today, cant wait for Ventoux tomorrow

back to my earlier posts re commentary in Thai, didn't change on the cable EuroSport channel we get fortunately and it's been business as usual with full live coverage every night

Originally Posted by Shrinking Violet

cant wait for Ventoux tomorrow

I am not so knowledgeable and didn't know what/where for Ventoux, off to Google I go, found this on a sports forum A giant, smouldering 6,000-foot-high slagheap: Why Mont Ventoux is so feared

When Doctor Pierre Dumas leant over Tom Simpson after the British bike rider had crashed to the ground for the last time during the Tour of 1967, his mind would have gone racing back 12 years to the Tour of 1955.
On that occasion Dr. Dumas had to prise open the jaws of fallen cyclist Jean Mallejac in order to administer oxygen and then inject a stimulant to restart the stricken rider’s heart. Unlike Simpson though, Mallejac survived.
more

and this article in The Guardian 14 July 1967: Simpson dies after collapse on Tour

British cyclist Tommy Simpson on the Mont Ventoux climb of the Tour de France 1967. He later collapsed and died. Photograph: Krieger Roger/L'Equipe

i think tommy already had enough stimulant in him that day..

great racing today, ventoux looking as barren and alien as usual. shame my boy quintana couldnt hold on but froome is on another level..just hope's he's clean. as for contador, looks like he needs some of that red meat from a few years back.fucking typical that im working thurs on probably the best stage

I read an interview with Richie Porte yesterday in which he described what it was like to work for the Tour winners Contador, Schleck, Wiggins, and now Froome. He thinks Contador was the strongest because he didn't need a team. He probably didn't dope deliberately. Glenbuterol is unusual in cycling, but the choice of bodybuilders and weightlifters. The court of arbitration for sport agreed that Contador did not dope knowingly, the dosage found was only 1/400 of an effective one. I like the conspiracy theory that it was retribution for chaingate.

Hope Froome starts in the Vuelta vs Nibali.

^only kidding about contador. my idol, indurain, once failed a test with Glenbuterol but it was strangely over-looked

With Gay and Powell now, 9 out of the 10 fastest sprinters ever have a doping history. Won't make the headlines for years as in Armstrong's case.

froome-legend. im not his biggest fan but he was sublime today. to beat your rivals when in the last few Ks the conditions are against you takes real guts

I hoped Bertie would win, but denied again. Never didn't win a mountain time trial during his career. Looked good on the second split (the one in the internet, not TV, in the valley between the hills) when he was 20 sec ahead of Froome. Live - Tour de France 2013

Purito also almost won, who would ever have expected this? The man lost countless Grand Tours with dreadful time trials, lost once more than six minutes in a TT in the Vuelta. Now he's 34 years old, and can suddenly do it.

good two days for my moviestar boys. stage win yesterday and quintana cementing his young rider lead - could yet make the podium. disturbingly, i hear some riders are very concerned about the decent off alpe du huez - hope this proves unfounded

Originally Posted by Shrinking Violet

quintana

He's been very entertaining. Hope he can put some time into Contador on the morrow. Twice up alpe d'huez should sort the men from the boys.

bloody working but i'll find a way to sneak off

Gonna be watching it at work: Eurosport online does the job nicely.

my shitty laptop at work doesnt support such nice things

Dunno why they're making a fuzz. All the climbs in the Tour are gentle, d'Huez is 12km long and just over 8% steep. There are mountains in Giro and Vuelta with ramps three times and more that.

Looked up what Nibali is up to these days, and he'll start in the Poland Tour from 27.07. That small tour is undergoing a serious upgrade this year. No longer at the same time like the TdF, the first two stages take place in the Italian Alps, and the endless circles in cities reduced to a minimum. Also, no longer a race for sprinters, 4 of 7 stages are mountainous.