Is anyone following the Tour de France?

[Poiuyt]

Just out of curiousity, how do the other riders feel about Lance? Do they respect him, annoyed with him because he gets all the publicity or acts too pushy, or do they think he's guilty of drugs/blooddoping, etc?

[tk2kewl]

1. i stopped liking him when he dumped his wife for Sheryl Crow

[bullimiami]

2. he dumped his wife for sheryl crow?

whaaa????

[tk2kewl]

3. he was with crow when he won last year. he divorced his wife

http://marriage.about.com/cs/celebritymarriages/a/lancekristin.htm

[Longhorn]

6. Your link clearly states that he didn't meet Crow until October 2003,

a month after he and his wife filed for divorce. So I don't think it's accurate to say that he "dumped his wife" for Sheryl Crow.

[northzax]

9. nor does he bother to mention

that his wife asked for the separation in the first place...

[RawMaterials]

12. but not before it was final

" filed for divorce in September, 2003 and divorced in December."

[The River]

4. All of the Above

and then some.
What he does OFF his bike is of no concern
to me. He is a World Class athlete.period.
I've been riding for 50+ years and I find him
to be truely amazing!

[driver8]

5. He is amazing, isn't he?

I read his book and he talked about his training regimen...unbelievable. I was watching a show on tv where Lance was being interviewed...they said that Lance can pedal a bike at 30 mph for an hour. The interviewer tried it and didn't even last 5 minutes.

Regardless of his personal life, Lance Armstrong is an amazing athlete!!

[Longhorn]

7. I'm watching the tour every day

and following the updates at www.letour.fr. I'm certainly pulling for Lance since he's our hometown boy but he has always impressed me. He was brash and full of himself when he was younger but his cancer experience seemed to teach him humility. He seems to care about the sport, about cancer survivors and research, and about his family. I can't say what other Tour de France cyclists think about him but I think he's great! :)

[HuckleB]

8. Most of the big boys are pretty respectful of one another in public.

There are feuds, and Lance has a couple ongoing ones, but that's fairly natural when you've got a sport with so many riders and so many ways to make a mistake that creates chaos in and/or out of the race.

[northzax]

10. I think they fear and respect him

flat out, he has the best team with the strongest discipline. In many ways, it makes it boring to watch- but the more exposure it gets stateside, the more money they all make, so they like that.

[Hav]

11. .

I think he gets respect from most of the riders and I actually thought that he meant it when he himself spoke with respect of other certain drivers.
That was until I read how he supposedly talked in American TV about "clowns that others call his rivals" or something like that and making fun of Ullrich for not driving outside during the time he was ill. He compared it with him driving in snowy New York.
That was when I understood why he gets along well with Bush. It's sort of like the Cowboy mentality. Portraying oneself tough and the others are weaklings.

Besides that he is a fantastic rider for years now and it's always a pleasure watching his style. I still have the greatest respect for him. And maybe these description aren't really representative of his real character and he is the great sportsman I always believed him to be.

[Baclava]

13. Lance is set to win his 7th tour...

He's an incredible machine...who gives a shit what others think of him or his personal life....

http://www.olntv.com/tdf/article/view/741/?ss=reports&tf=Body.tpl

2005 Tour de France: Stage 10
By Bob Roll

Cruising and predatory, Lance Armstrong asphyxiated the field and left in his wake, not just some, but all of the pre-race favorites. Basso was ruined. Ullrich, Klöden, and Vinokourov, the Team Mobile leaders, were annihilated.

Roberto Heras, Iban Mayo, Floyd Landis, Levi Leipheimer, Bobby Julich -- all great athletes, well-paid on the best teams. But you don’t tell Godzilla, the monster of the Tour, how to kill. You just step back and watch the destruction.

Discovery -- criticized just a few days ago for isolating Lance -- have come back strong and today set a bruising, spirit-crushing tempo. Lance had two teammates left after Ullrich, Vinokourov and Klöden were already dropped. The only men capable of matching Lance today were Alejandro Valverde, Michael Rasmussen, and Francisco Mancebo.

http://www.olntv.com/tdf/article/view/968/?ss=report&tf=DailyReports_read.tpl

"After his demolition on the finest riders in the sport, a new crop of names seems to have risen. Alejandro Valverde won the day, and was the only rider able to match Armstrong. He is seen as a future Tour winner. Michael Rasmussen, a new boy, but already 31 years old, is now second and looking for a place in Paris.

All of the rest are far behind, not least Jan Ullrich, at a massive 4-02 and Andreas Klöden, second last year, at 4-16. Jens Voigt, the overnight leader tried his best but in the last 13 miles he lost 38 minutes.

In the sprint, Alejandro Valverde got the better of Lance by a little, tiny bit. But the GC is litany of despair for everyone else in this field. The wienerschnitzel is bitter indeed."

[yowzayowzayowza]

14. The look determination Lance displayed ...

in stage 10 reminded me of the moment he slipped off the pedal on a climb last year and proceeded to walk up the mountain right past everybody like they were standing still. Itz certainly his to lose now.

I don't think Valverde sprinted away from him in the finish; it looked like Lance gave 'em the stage win.

[Longhorn]

15. I thought so, too.

The only thing the stage win meant to him was the time bonus and I think he feels he can gain more time on Rassmussen later.

It was an incredible finish!