Tour de France

[DrGonzo]

Anyone else getting into it this year? I think the coverage on NBC sports has made it more accessible to people like me, who ride but don't quite understand the strategy involved in racing. As athletes go these guys are pretty fucking tough. The only thing that keeps me from becoming obsessed and not just a casual fan is the cloud of doping that hangs over the sport.

 

[HeHateMe]

Ole came back from his French tour with salmon pants.

 

[Nick80]

Avid follwer here, but I'm sports mental. (mad?)

Anyhow, yeah, because of the cloud that now hangs over the sport, it's tough to sometimes believe what you witness. Froome and Sky have taken alot of stick from the local main stream written media in France and it continued today on the rest day. Dave Brailsford, team director of Sky, has invited that the UCI and other governing bodies of cycling step up ways in which to remove drug cheats and make it harder to cheat. Along with that, he wanted to make it more accesable for all involved, including the top echelons of the media so that cycling becomes transparent. They want people to see how hard some teams are working on eradicating it from the sport. It's a noble ideal, but you need all parties to buy into it, and that isn't happening any time soon.

Quick example is they guy running things at Saxobank, team principal was caught as a rider and there are still question marks now about him as leader of Saxo. Funnily enough, Contador rides for them, it's a case of, I'm not saying, I'm just saying.

Anyway, on the positive side of things, cple of good days coming up and Thursday is the Queen stage, that'll decide who will win the Tour this year - barring any accidents.

On the note of Ole's Salmon pants, the only way to make them better - Cider stains, that is all!

 

[DrGonzo]

It's like every other sport at the elite level. The compliant athletes are often getting out-performed by the ones who are doping, so where's the incentive to be clean, especially when gaming the system is apparently pretty easy. Once I start watching a stage (edited for tv) I find it hard to stop, and I think a lot of other people on these boards would too if they checked it out (especially when there's not much going on in US sports at this time of year). I'm assuming you are pretty stoked that Froome has it about sewed up?

 

[Nick80]

I think personally he could well have won it last year too. Wiggins took it on the basis that Sky had built the team around him, it was his year. This year Sky have had problems with riders suffering injurys and missing the time limit. Froome is deserving thus far and yeah I would like to see him win it. The have been some murmurs in the media over here of his Kenyan back ground, which as ever is piss poor from the British press, but considering how they hang on every word that is uttered by David Beckham and taken like gospel, I'm not surpised.

The doping side of things will hold sports back as a whole. I think the concerning thing from someone who comes from a football and rugby first background is how many Footballers/rugby players have dabbled with it? It's encraoching on Tennis - I'd take a look at the likes of Nadal and a few others. It's a sad state of affairs.

For cycling, this Tour is one of the better ones in recent memory, quality bike racing with teams actually throwing the guide and form book out the window and making it a true run race rather than letting the bigger teams control the front of the peleton. I think it is pretty enthralling viewing. I think it's the Germans next as far as talent coming through, they have found their love of Pro cycling again after having alot of their sponsorship pulled after the late 90's and Jan Ullrich. We shall see!

 

[JosMin]

I've actually watched it a bit, so I'd be the wrong guy to talk about it. I don't know the first thing about racing competitively. I enjoy cycling casually -- I've never raced. I'm more of a guy who enjoys restoring bikes.

 

[DrGonzo]

GB won Wimbledon and now this - congrats! Didn't one of the young German sprinters win a couple of stages?

 

[Nick80]

Yeah, Kittel (think that's how you spell it) and Griepel, who wasa former teamate of Cavandish aswell, different teams and no love lost. Kittel is the future as far as sprinting in Germany goes right now. There is some good young talent coming through. Danny Van Poppel, young American talent, he just dropped out, only 19 though. They have high hopes for him, plus he became the youngest rider to start the Tour since the second world war. Pundits, but more the written media in the cycling world are excited by his talent so that's good news.

Wimbledon - people adore Andy Murray over here, all the English come out in stupid face paint and wear the Union flag in all it's various forms, thing is Murray has always been staunch in the fact he is Scottish first and foremost. Hilarious, but it doesn't seem to bother people too much, it bothers him mind you.

English folks, they are crazy.