Le Tour De France (R)

[Breakwood]

I don't follow cycling that closely, as it is very much a niche sport in Canada. However I always like to follow the Tour as much as possible and luckily for me it is always presented live on television every year.

This years edition starts tomorrow in London, England with the Prologue, a 7.9km individual time trial. Stage 1 takes place on Sunday when the cyclists race from London to Cantebury before switching to the mainland for the 2nd stage which enters Belgium. The race then returns to France in stage 3. The race finishes up on the 29th in Paris.

http://www.letour.fr/2007/TDF/COURSE/img/lacarte.jpg

[Douai]

Damn you beat me to it.I was going to start this thread since I am a cyclist, and I love the race.Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland won the prologue yesterday.

[Nanbawan]

Animated vid of the route.

http://www.letour.fr/2007/TDF/COURSE/fr/popup_youtube.html

http://www.letour.fr/2007/TDF/COURSE/us/le_tour_2007live.html

People seem very keen to pardon the race despite its recent past despite all the affairs. So, hopefully, it will be a quiet - from that POV - and yet vibrant edition.

Personally, I love to take a nap while half listening to the commentary as the caravane goes through our beautiful country ! ;)

The tour ==> My July relaxation. :)

[Douai]

People seem very keen to pardon the race despite its recent past despite all the affairs. So, hopefully, it will be a quiet - from that POV - and yet vibrant edition.



I heard that no one is wearing number #1, because of the Landis controversy.

[guignol]

Personally, I love to take a nap while half listening to the commentary as the caravane goes through our beautiful country !The tour ==> My July relaxation. same here. i use la petite reine as primary means of transportation, but am not very knowledgeable on cycling as a sport. sure, i know who coppi and anquetil (and poulidor) were, etc... and i enjoy listening to stories like hinault's offering the alpe d'huez to lemond ("comme une fleur")...

anyway, the drone of the TdF is something that no lazy summer afternoon can do without. i love it!

[Pierre-Henri]

Personally, I love to take a nap while half listening to the commentary as the caravane goes through our beautiful country !

anyway, the drone of the TdF is something that no lazy summer afternoon can do without. i love it!

And to think that Sarkozy was elected on his "work-work-work" program :) .

[Nanbawan]

I heard that no one is wearing number #1, because of the Landis controversy.

From what I heard, it's true. The numbers start at #11.

[Nanbawan]

And to think that Sarkozy was elected on his "work-work-work" program :) .

Yeah but I don't think guignol and I were too sensitive to Sarko's rhetoric anyway ! ;)

[guignol]

Yeah but I don't think guignol and I were too sensitive to Sarko's rhetoric anyway ! ;)no, i'm all for it! get to work nico you stupid dwarf! we'll watch from here!

[Douai]

Stage winners so far:
Prologue-Fabian Cancellara (SUI)
Stage 1- Robbie McEwen (AUS)
Stage 2-Gert Steegmans (BEL)

Steegmans won when the race went through Belgium. Good for them.

[lefutur]

From what I heard, it's true. The numbers start at #11.

thats funny, cause mine goes to 11

[Douai]

A Frenchman hasn't won the race in a long time :( . I mean the general classification by the way, not specific stages.

[Douai]

Astana Withdraws, Vino Suspended


By Phil Liggett
July 24, 2007

Alexandre Vinokourov’s positive blood test announced Tuesday has stunned everyone from riders to organizers. Since his crash, he has been portrayed as a limping hero of what, so far, has been a marvellous Tour. Now, he seems to have been caught introducing homologous blood into his system just before the time trial he won in demonstrative fashion.

His Astana team has withdrawn at the invitation of the organizers and Vinokourov was suspended by Astana pending the confirmation of his positive test in his B analysis. It is very unusual for the second test not to confirm the first. In short, Vinokourov, one of the most respected riders in the peloton, will now leave the sport in disgrace.

British rider David Millar, himself a reformed drug taker, has been leading the campaign to clean up the sport. His comment during his own Saunier Duval team’s press conference in Pau, sums up the feelings of most: “I just feel like crying right now.”

Paul, Bob and I are, for once, speechless. We are all very upset with such a stupid action at a time the sport looked to be putting its own house in order. It is incomprehensible that Vinokourov could do such a thing when he must have known he was under suspicion because of his dealing with disgraced doctor Michele Ferrari in Italy. He must have known he would be tested at every opportunity and the time trial was the perfect occasion.

Tomorrow we will know more.
http://www.versus.com/tdf

Sad indeed :( . He appeared to be such a great and diligent cyclist.

[guignol]

my take is that the hypocrisy of the cycling world concerning performance enhancing drugs is insurmountable. why? because the tour de france in itself and the cycling season in general is just too demanding for normal human physiology.

LA didn't win 7 straight tours because he doped, or even because he doped better than the others. he dominated the TdF because he didn't do the giro or vuelta or paris-roubaix.

anquetil and coppi's straightforward comments are now half a century old, and going back to the XIX century, you could read in l'auto (forerunner of l'equipe) that the third requirement to be a winner was the stomach to hold "la charge"... in a day when they used caffeine, morphine, even strychnine to "enhance performance"... in other words hold body and soul together while doing inhuman feats.

hinault, lemond, fignon, indurain... they ALL did la bomba, and even admit it in more or less veiled terms. the list of champions who didn't is not simply short, it's nonexistant.

the TdF a l'eau claire is an impossibility, a contradiction in terms. a cycling race that would be doable w/o a pharmacy... would no longer be the legendary grande boucle.

here's advice for the pollyannas: YOU do the alpe d'huez, and then get your ass on a bike the next day with nothing but a plate of spaghetti and some mineral water, and then sing us a tune.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/tourdefrance/drugs-lies-and-betrayal/2007/07/06/1183351461502.html

[Pierre-Henri]

Don't forget that blood is a rare ressource. Hospitals sometimes lack of it. The idea that cheaters use it is bad because :

- some victim of accident or disease may need it more than riders. And, who knows, lives could be at stake.

- Worse still, it means that somehow, medical blood left the healthcare circuit and was bought and sold. It means trafic of organic stuff exists, and that's worse than mere doping.

[Pierre-Henri]

Boom. Cofidis too is out now.

http://www.lequipe.fr/Cyclisme/breves2007/20070725_172716Dev.html

Tell me. What's the name of this new cycling team we see a lot on the Tour, this year, with the blue jerseys ?

http://www.lequipe.fr/Xml/Cyclisme/Titres/Media/250707_moreni.jpg

http://img.lequipe.fr/Xml/Media/moreni_boyer_VIT.jpg

What you say ? "Gendarmerie Nationale" ?

Woaw. Their sponsor must be happy, with such a media coverage :D !

[Douai]

Boom. Cofidis too is out now.

http://www.lequipe.fr/Cyclisme/breves2007/20070725_172716Dev.html

Tell me. What's the name of this new cycling team we see a lot on the Tour, this year, with the blue jerseys ?


Do you mean Team Astana?

http://delivery.viewimages.com/xv/71557844.jpg?v=1&c=ViewImages&k=2&d=7429C8CDE11A5C7AEF1D66F2F40F0315FD5ABBF5F7AD341F

Or do you mean Quickstep?
http://kinetic.com.au/images/products/srm/rider5%20quick%20step.jpg

[blackjack]

And now Rasmussen has been thrown out. This is sickening.

[manudo1987]

Rasmussen out,this is becoming a f'n joke:eek:
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/tdf2007/news/story?id=2949116

[guignol]

what the...:eek: ... he was awesome going up the col d'aubisque anyway.