Tour de France 2005

[The Shaman]

ABC used to usually cover the final day (in about an hour as I recall). I loved watching it and wished I could see more.

Wide World of Sports - I lived for that snippet of coverage every July.

Fortunately OLN is doing G_d's work and covering the Tour live - now they need to go back to covering the Giro and the Vuelta live as well, and start covering Paris-Roubaix, and the Tour of Georgia, and Liege-Bastogne-Liege, and....

American as a top finisher or not, this race is an amazing feat and worth following.

Like the swallows returning to Capistrano, each July brings out the sports columnists who try to put themselves on the map by saying that pro cycling isn't a sport, and that cyclists aren't real athletes.

Part of me wants to set them straight, and part of me wants to beat them to death with a seatpost.

I'm going to be buying my own bike soon after years of not riding at all. Of course I won't be racing or anything, just a little exercise and maybe sometimes riding to work, but watching the race always makes me want to ride a fast bike. Too bad the really nice bikes cost so much more than I can afford.

I have a bad disk in my lower back that prevents me from riding anything more than about five miles. My Pinarello road bike and my Rocky Mountain mountain bike are wall decorations.

 

[Timothy]

Today I really liked the picture of Boonen and McEwen riding to the finish together. Their hands were almost roleplaying how their bikes slid out undeer them...

And I liked Vino attacking. That gives the tour a bit more colour.

What I don't understand is what all those dutchies are doing in the mountain sweater. Are biggest mountain in Holland is 350 meters or something (Although Boogerd can climb quite good as I hope to see later in the Tour)

 

[The Shaman]

What I don't understand is what all those dutchies are doing in the mountain sweater. Are biggest mountain in Holland is 350 meters or something (Although Boogerd can climb quite good as I hope to see later in the Tour)

Stage 7, Lunéville - Karlsruhe

Typical weather for the first week of the Tour...

Wilkommen, bienvenue...

Working lunch...

Another sprint, another crash...

Seeing spots...

 

[johnsemlak]

So what's up for tomorrow? A bit of a bumpy stage with 3 early category-3 climbs, and a late category-2. Will these force some of the spinters to fall behind a bit? Or is it another sprint finish?

 

[johnsemlak]

So what do people make of the weekend's events? I think it's clear Lance isn't concerned about loosing the yellow jersey, but a lot is being made of the Discovery Channel's collapse on Saturday, though I think it's easy to get carried away.

Any thoughts?

 

[Bobitron]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/4682099.stm

Armstrong moved into the lead after Wednesday's stage but McEwen believes he has done it without any real effort.

McEwen told BBC Sport: "I spoke to him afterwards and said 'you're playing with them aren't you?'

"And he gave me a wry grin and said he'd had to say to the cameras he was suffering before cycling off."


Hehehe.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Great pics Shaman. I'm not really into sports related stuff, but this has piqued my attention. I'm wondering, is tTour de France televised in the States?

My favorite pic, as it is somewhat captures my fantasy in my mind and has a surrealistic look to it:

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Great stage today. Lance really battled it out at the end. Gotta wonder if he won't have choice words for the team, as they left him all alone again -- particularly with another big stage tomorrow.