redsnapper
Vintage Urban
TdF Greatest Moments is on ITV4 again tonight, if anyone missed it the other day it's well worth watching.
Congrats to Sastre and CSC as well while I'm here
Congrats to Sastre and CSC as well while I'm here
Le Tour de France thread
- Thread starter stavros
- Start date
Paulie Tandoori
shut it you egg!
You mean the Pyramid du Louvre? It covers the entrance to the Louvre Museum and was completed in 1993.
Well done to Sastre and the CSC team, his Huez attack was well worth the effort.
Whilst Sastre was superb up Alpe d'Huez and again in the TT yesterday, and has to be applauded, it seemed to me that CSC were a huge advantage to him. Evans was totally alone in the climbs, whereas CSC ran the whole show through O'Grady, Arvesen, Cancellara, Sorensen, Voight and especially the Schlecks in the mountains, meaning Sastre was partially rested and away from the pressure. Hats off to them all.
We've now had three post-Armstrong Tours, and all of them have been won by different Spaniads.
Anyone know the odds on Cav taking the stage in Paris next year? There didn't seem to be an outstanding sprinter without him there.
We've now had three post-Armstrong Tours, and all of them have been won by different Spaniads.
Anyone know the odds on Cav taking the stage in Paris next year? There didn't seem to be an outstanding sprinter without him there.
ScallyWag II
New Member
CSC's tactics were brilliant, and they were such a strong team. Silence Lotto were MIA as far as Cadel was concerned, pretty poor this year, but then they've never really been behind him. Talk on eurosport today was about a new russian team, previously tinkov (sp?) and that he was linked with them.
Well, the finish in Paris is flat, if cav's in the right place at that last corner and he's got similar form to this years tour (and isn't too knackered by getting to Paris*) then he would be a good bet. Would any bookie put a bet on a year before? What if he gets injured or ill?
*good chance if he doesn't finish the giro next year. imo this years programme for him had the olympics in mind. He should have good form after the tour, great confidence and stamina levels
This pyramid is a far bigger affair and is a field day for illuminati symbolism. I finally identified it, it's the Cite de L'or museum - not surprising that such a building would be dedicated to gold. Note the removed capstone (there is actually a second much smaller pyramid on top of the flattened top, if I recall correctly from the helicopter shots).
ScallyWag II
New Member
Only 49 weeks to wait for any road racing on terrestrial or freeview now.
BBC are showing the olympics and the world road racing champs in September
twistedAM
Left Of The Dial
Only 49 weeks to wait for any road racing on terrestrial or freeview now.
ITV4 are doing a highlights show every night of the Tour of Ireland - late August.
Columbia/Cavendish down to ride
Both true. I guess what irks me is how relegated cycling is in the media. Why isn't the TdF shown live, every stage, on ITV1? It's not as if they've got anything else to show and the Beeb manage to abandon every other programme they have during Wimbledon. I want to see the Vuelta, the Giro, the Dauphiné Libéré and the classics like the Flèche Wallonne and the Liège-Bastogne-Liège. It can be argued that it doen't have the fan base but isn't that largely to do with the scant regard the media give to the sport?
tommers
Currently in investor / advisor mode.
is the fan base not there? I went to the pub with 2 different groups of friends over the weekend and had 2 separate conversations about how much we had been enjoying the TdF - with people that I never thought were into cycling.
I don't know if it is or not, but I do think it'd be used by the media as reason for not giving it the exposure. It does seem weird how Andy Murray and Lewis Hamilton get wall-to-wall coverage for being near the top of their field, but Mark Cavendish gets barely anything despite laying waste to absolutely everyone at the TdF.
twistedAM
Left Of The Dial
Well, it's not exactly very television friendly for the people without knowledge of the sport. And people do find cycling hard to understand, such as the role of the team.
For instance, the five hours of live coverage on the d'Huez stage had very little happening until the last 25 minutes when Sastre blitzed the field and in retrospect nothing happened after that as Evans had no wheel to hug. I found it pretty fascinating right from when Cancellera and O'Grady started the CSC train but I doubt few others would have perservered.
Plus, the drugs don't help.
Anyone else remember the Kelloggs City centre races in the 80s? They were eventually pulled presumably because of low figures and/or low advertising spend.
twistedAM
Left Of The Dial
Oh in and in answer to my own question about why Schumacher was doing those breakways as opposed to helping Kohl it seems that Gerolsteiner are withdrawing their sponsorship so he was riding for a contract. Who knows what would have happened if he'd been a super-domestique for Kohl in the alps??
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Having drugs in the sport doesn't make any difference to fan interest or television coverage. Actually bothering to catch your drug cheats however seriously screws with the image of a sport.
In my view there are plenty of performance enhancing drugs still in cycling, but probably less than in most other professional sports. If you want to dope as a professional cyclist you have to go to quite serious lengths to avoid the drug testing regime. And yet many still take the risk, even though the rewards, when compared to many other sports, are pretty low. Any sport where speed, power, recovery time or endurance are important and any sport where there is significant amounts of money involved is certainly rife with drug usage.
Even football, despite its joke of a drug testing scheme, where you would have to be a complete moron or fabulously unlucky to get caught, has stumbled on a few. The few they did catch, or who were done for running away from testers, are the tip of the iceberg. And that's in a sport where it is at least possible for less than fabulous athletes to do well.
If you introduced the current drug testing regime in cycling, complete with the constant tracking as well as cutting edge testing, into Rugby, American Football, Baseball, Ice Hockey, Basketball, Football, Boxing or just about any other sport the result would be total carnage as vast numbers of cheats would be caught immediately. However, the sports authorities know what a pr disaster actually making some efforts to catch cheats has been for cycling and athletics, so they turn a blind eye.
Lack of knowledge isn't exactly helped by lack of experience. Cycling is also fairly unique as a competitive sport in terms of how its location differs so much, and the mountain stage panoramas are truly stunning. Twenty blokes who you can't really see driving round in circles for two hours doesn't sound too thrilling on paper, but Formula 1 gets million of viewers.
twistedAM
Left Of The Dial
Track is better for TV but I much prefer the roads. Maybe a combo of both such as hillclimb TTs would work.
I prefer roads too. A lead-out followed by a free-for-all sprint, or a psychological mountain battle, or the peloton vs the breakaway, they're all absolutely joyous to watch.
I do like track as well though. It was actually Chris Boardman's unbeatable triumph in the pursuit in 1992 which first got me interested in competitive cycling.
ScallyWag II
New Member
Bit of a bump, but i just heard on 5live that Schumacher has tested positive for EPO during the tour. Can't find a link online yet, but if true for fucks fucketys sake
Twat if true 
turing test
Nearly Toowrong
Stefan Schumacher tested positive as well. Well Armstong will be back next year, at least we know he's clean.
turing test
Nearly Toowrong
Yeah I did not think about it either, but I was in Germany at the time so I guess I was a little excited to see him do well.
The day Ricco won his second mountain stage, when we saw him attack on the last climb, my wife and were both sure that guy was doped. Even my father in law (who does not normally watch cycling) said that was his reaction.
So it's funny what your biases will do.
turing test
Nearly Toowrong
I have always been suspicious of him.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
turing test
Nearly Toowrong
Does the fact that some keep doing it, despite all the positive tests and ruined careers, suggest that there are those who're slipping through the net?
Of course, there are a lot different of ways to beat tests
