[OT] Any Tour de France Fans out there?

[EOL]

The first is that it's more about pharmacetics than about cycling.

The second, little known, thing, is that it was created by an anti-dreyfusard.

The third, that I nearly forgot, is that the current organisators of cycling events are blocking all innovations in the bicycle sector. They only accept the same old classic bike, while more efficient designs have been made (the speed record with a non-conventionnal bike is 130 km/h!). And because of them, we don't see these new, better bikes in stores. Grrr.

As to points 2 and 3 I must confess my ignorance, being neither and expert in the Dreyfus affair nor someone who has spent a lot of time looking into advances in to cycling technology. However as to your first point I think it does deserve some commentary.

Cycling is widely percieved to be one of the more "dirty" sports in terms of the amount of drug use. I think that in fact cycling is one of the cleaner sports because the drug testing is so extensive. The unenviable consequence is that with so much testing abuse is bound to be discovered, however in other sports (I speak here primarily from the reference of American sports) there is almost no testing. As one example there is no testing for steroids in baseball. I don't think that the human weakness which prompts athletes to seek the advantage of performanve enhancing drugs is limited to cycling, I think it's universal, and given that do you think there's likely to be more drug use in the sports where there is extensive testing or sports where there is no testing?

Anyway this thread is already off-topic and this particular rant is even more off-topic, so I'll let it lie here.

 

[Maitre Du Donjon]

damn i thought this thread was about kraftwerk

 

[GamerMan12]

Cycling is widely percieved to be one of the more "dirty" sports in terms of the amount of drug use. I think that in fact cycling is one of the cleaner sports because the drug testing is so extensive. The unenviable consequence is that with so much testing abuse is bound to be discovered

While you asked to let this lie here, I think the history of cycling is the worst of any sport with respect to extensive and intensive drug use, whilst now, it probably has less drug use than any other due to the wide spread testing that is carried out.

GamerMan12

 

[Zarrock God of Evil]

Yeah I agree the flat stages are not as interesting as the TTs or the mountain stages.

So do most Danish root for CSC?

Yeah, I think so. I'm not a heavy fan of Riis's team myself but I hope they'll do well (not the same without JaJa though).

Interest in bicycling has been fading a bit here after the retirement of the Golden Generation of the Nineties with Bjarne Riis, Rolf Sørensen, Bo Hamburger and Jesper Skibby (and the doping scandals didn't help either).

-Zarrock

 

[johnsemlak]

The second, little known, thing, is that it was created by an anti-dreyfusard.

A lot of pioneers in American sport weren't particularly savory people either.

Al Spalding (of the Spalding sports equipment company), who I believe founded the baseball American League, was an extreme racist and helped create the color barriar in the major leagues.

The third, that I nearly forgot, is that the current organisators of cycling events are blocking all innovations in the bicycle sector. They only accept the same old classic bike, while more efficient designs have been made (the speed record with a non-conventionnal bike is 130 km/h!). And because of them, we don't see these new, better bikes in stores. Grrr.

That's interesting. Is that widely known?

 

[romp]

The first is that it's more about pharmacetics than about cycling.

This is because cycling has actually had people die from drugs while participating, not just in practise like American Football, or by accident as in auto racing.

They say that the best selling shirt on the internet is a yellow jersey with a map of France colored like the Stars and Stripes and with the caption ... dominated by the USA since 1999... hahahahaha i'll bet that cheeses off French people who have not had a decent rider since Hinault retired

 

[johnsemlak]

Australian and Briton 1-2 in Tour de France stage 1

The 1st stage just finished; Australian McGee finished first, just ahead of Britain's David Miller. Miller would have finished first (and taken the yellow jersey) but for a problem with his chain in the middle of the race.

Jan Ulrich was a suprise first among the contenders, just 2 seconds off the pace. Armstrong is 7th, 7 seconds off.

 

[EOL]

When you think that Millar was second by just 0.08 seconds, just looking at his chain probably cost him the stage let alone having to reach down and fiddle with it. Overall I expected Armstrong to do a little bit better, but in the end I don't think there were any big surprises, though I would agree that Ullrich did better than expected.

 

[johnsemlak]

Just reading the highlights of todays stage. Wow, looks like there was a large crash. Anybody know the status of Tyler Hamilton, is he out?

Good thing Lance wasn't in the crash (if you root for him, of course)

 

[Zarrock God of Evil]

Just reading the highlights of todays stage. Wow, looks like there was a large crash. Anybody know the status of Tyler Hamilton, is he out?

Good thing Lance wasn't in the crash (if you root for him, of course)

Looks like he's out - catastrophic for CSC: one year's planning thrown out the window. Tragic for Hamilton - he looked focused and ready to ride a good race.

Uh, and about the French riders since Hinault. I think Jalabert (one of the most winning riders of all times) and Virenque (who ruled the mountains for many many years) qualify as "decent" riders...

-Zarrock