Morning guys! Watched it all, just wasn't on here. Always fun getting together with you each summer...what to do with my mornings now?
Granted...not as exciting as the Giro and will have a hard time following the excitement of this Tour.
I don't know, I always had a soft spot for the Vuelta, often years I find it more entertaining than the Giro. I'm also very interested in seeing what will happen to the Gilbert, Vanendert, Van Den Broeck and co if the team really gets broken up. Doesn't look likely Gilbert and Van Den Broeck will end up on the same team, which will mean Vanendert will have to choose which of the two he'd rather follow.
In terms of pure excitement, definitely best Tour I've been fortunate enough to enjoy. Even better than 2003.
Trust me...I never really "knock" a three week tour. Definitely not easy. I always feel bad for the other tours..as they are usually great courses, but a lot of the big riders do not race in them. It's ok, i am still going to pay attention to. That htc could not get a new sponsor is NOT good news for the sport. It will be interesting to see if any of the "merger" talk continues.
Completely agreed! This was a wide open race which I honestly didn't expect. Seeing Bert vulnerable and Cadel finally get over the hump and in a very humble way. The attacks were also of a time that we don't see nearly as much these days. No major drama aside from poor drivers but aside from that maybe we can see a nice rebirth of the sport and Le Tour. Now off to see more of Chicagoland!
Well back in the old days, you weren't considered a big rider unless you competed in at least two of the three.
Even though I found it to be an exciting Tour just because we actually saw some Belgians doing some exciting stuff, I'm not sure it's a real classic. Apart from the one stage Andy seriously attacked and Evans heroically defended, there aren't many classic moments people will remember in twenty years from now. Most of the excitement came from the fact that the big guns waited so long to try and reshuffle the deck. Because of that it remained a relatively close affair until the very end.
I think Voeckler's rock-hard grasp on the yellow jersey will be remembered for quite some time. He's never been considered a great climber, but hung on with the best of them for miles and miles last week. His ascents of Luz-Ardiden and the Galibier (the first time, of course) should be an example to everyone of how to push when things get hard.
The great displays from various individual riders were definitely what made this Tour so great; Voeckler, Cadel, Gilbert, Hushovd, Boassan-Hagen, Jérémy Roy, Cavendish etc. Seemed like every day someone was animating the race.
See below. These are all reasons I believe this has been the best TDF in quite some time. Honestly my personal favorite moments of the race were Roland winning on l'alpe d'huez and Cadel having to deal with mechanical issues and keeping his cool. Great TDF for sure.
Well it's all subjective of course, which is why I said I enjoyed it immensely, though mostly due to the fact that for the first time in like forever, all Belgians acquitted themselves quite well. But in terms of things I believe I will remember from this edition in ten years time - that aren't related to any of my countrymen - I think it'll probably only be Andy's long raid and Cadel's reaction. The reason why so many non-favorites got to shine was because the favorites let them. The Schlecks disappointed for the longest time, and Alberto really disappointed from start to finish. I guess how much you enjoyed this Tour all depends what you expect from the event, but I like to see the big guns go at it more than a few times. We didn't get enough duels between the (assumed?) giants.
good stuff this year. Very satisfied with the success of BMC and Garmin-Cervelo. Voeckler and Hoogerland are as legendary as you can get without winning.
Congrats to the Aussies on having their Tour hero. Hopefully there's finally a winner who isn't involved in doping ... so my interest in this great sport might rise again.
a personal and admittedly irrational bias against all things australian made it easy for me to sign on to the received wisdom that evans was a gold plated twunt, but his intelligence and hard work in the mountains made me want to take a second look. i don't know how he gets along with all the media these days but the people at l'équipe and at FranceTele took a big shine to him right away this year, and his interviews were very good... he speaks french pretty well once you get past his italian accent! his huge CLM was the nail if the coffin for any dislike i harbored for him: sure he looks clunky, but only 7" behind a man-machine pulling 56*11, that's heart! i looked back at what he did on the same 42,5km in the dauphiné: the same performance this weekend would have made the yellow jersey a damned close-run thing, but he obviously wasn't going to have any of that. so chapeaux bas for a real champion.
I'm feeling a little empty today. I was very happy for Evans, he was a colossus throughout the tour and his ITT was a very loud statement of intent. It really was a great Tour.
Thanks to all posting in the thread. It was fun to follow even though I was always behind since I was watching after work in the evenings. I'm pretty psyched for the US Pro Cyling Tour in CO now. Hopefully, I'll get to go see at least one of the stages.
