Tour De France Thread

[sherer]

ok we've had threads on F1, Football and Rugby now it's time to start one on the greatest sporting even on earth

2000 miles in three weeks with just your legs and a bike.. no other sporting event is quite like this one.. three weeks of agony just to even finish and only about 5 people out of the 198 starters can even win the thing

60mph with just abit of lycra between you and the road when you crash!!

Should be one of the best races for awhile although 03 was also pretty special

Will be following Lance again this year but also hoping Heras can give him a run for his money, he should be right up there for the KOM anyway

not sure about T-Mobile Vinakourov is prob the best rider in the team but too many chiefs and not enough indians in their team with Kloden and Ullrich as well

also Basso, Sastre, Valverde should also be in the hunt for stage wins and high placings

[Halcyon]

Great idea to start a topic on this.
I'm very much interested and when I'm in France over the summer follow it.
Last year they went through my gran's home town and it was such a great day.... lots of promotional cars coming through the town, a great community spirit as everyone was out cheering on the cyclists, it was a great day. I'l try and post up some photos.

As you say, it is a very big thing this race. Every day having to cycle in incredibly hot weather...... they are certainly top sports people.
Its also great watching as you get to see the countryside, local villages, and towns, as well as the big finishing in Paris which is always great to watch.
Its definately going to be good.

[sherer]

the best thing is it's free to watch as well

was planning to go to Paris and see the final stage and last race of Lance's career but couldn't get over there

just to see what they do in the mountians is amazing and then they do it all again the next day.. once the race starts will post some updates on what's going on hopefully a few people on here will be interested

race starts tomorrow with the prologue starting at 1 think Eurosport start at 3Pm the big guns should be off from 5 ish

[Gogogo]

ok we've had threads on F1, Football and Rugby now it's time to start one on the greatest sporting even on earth

2000 miles in three weeks with just your legs and a bike.. no other sporting event is quite like this one.. three weeks of agony just to even finish and only about 5 people out of the 198 starters can even win the thing

60mph with just abit of lycra between you and the road when you crash!!

Should be one of the best races for awhile although 03 was also pretty special

Will be following Lance again this year but also hoping Heras can give him a run for his money, he should be right up there for the KOM anyway

not sure about T-Mobile Vinakourov is prob the best rider in the team but too many chiefs and not enough indians in their team with Kloden and Ullrich as well

also Basso, Sastre, Valverde should also be in the hunt for stage wins and high placings


Oui, le tour, terrific always enjoy this, got to find the time to watch on TV.

:)

[Halcyon]

Its great as the Tennis ends and then its the Tour de France.
Excellent sporting action.

[Nidge]

I wonder who's looking after Lance Armstrongs wife while he's away? :shocked: :shocked: :shocked: If she needs a hand I'll send her my number :D :D :D

[paul11974]

also ex crystal palace player geoff thomas is trying to do le tour in aid of leukaemia http://www.geoff-thomas.com/

[sherer]

fraid Lance has split up from his wife.. but he is going out with Sheryl Crow

[sherer]

meant to post here over the weekend but didn't get time

great start to the race with the time trial.. never thought i'd see Lance overtake Ullrich on such a short time trial but showed he is on top form.. One point to remember is that the day befre the race started Ullrich went through the back windscreen of the team car so was bound to be affected by that crash no matter what the team said

never would have picked out Zabriskie to win the openning TT in a million years but all credit to the man for his performance

well done to Tom Boonen in winning yesterday.. will be all about the sprinters for most of the week but the Team Time Trial is on tomorrow which should be good then back to the mad sprinters for the rest of the week

Been reading some stats and the average speed for the entire race over the past few years has been 40 KPH :Yikes:

[sherer]

what a team time trial yesterday.. i know alot of people say these are boring but yesterday's one proved that wrong

over 67K their average speed was 57 kph :Yikes:

what a performance from CSC and Discovery Channel and heartbreak for Zabriskie crashing with 2k to go.. a few more corners and he could still have been in yellow

[Wicked_and_Crazy]

fraid Lance has split up from his wife.. but he is going out with Sheryl Crow

and she was at the start
__________________

heartbreak for Zabriskie crashing with 2k to go.. a few more corners and he could still have been in yellow

There would have in fact been 2 leaders as Armstrong would have caught his 2 seconds

[sherer]

not sure how they would have worked out the leaders.. timings go down to tenths now so might have seperated them that way

this is from the BBC website from today



Stage five of the Tour de France has been briefly delayed by a stoppage at the official start in Chambord.
Six-times Tour winner Lance Armstrong asked for the delay to change into the race leader's yellow jersey.
The American did not want to wear the "maillot jaune" in the neutral zone before the proper start out of respect for compatriot David Zabriskie.
CSC rider Zabriskie lost the lead by falling just over a kilometre from the end of Tuesday's team time trial.

which i thouht was pretty good