'Le Tour ' - am I the only one still watching?

[Baclava]

Turning out to be a great one...the high mountains are supposed to separate the riders, not tighten the standings up.

Well, things certainly heated up today. That was a pretty exciting stage to watch. Cadel Evans lost the yellow at the very end to Frank Schleck. The top 3 riders are only 8 seconds apart, and the top 6 only 49 seconds. Christian Vandevelde (US) is one of the top 6. He's a good time trialer so if he's close after L'Alpe-d'Huez on Wed., he's still got a good shot to win a podium spot.

Huge crashes in the rain today. Oscar Pereiro crashed out in spectacular fashion over a guardrail on the descent of the Col d'Agnel and fell like 20 ft down onto the road of the next hairpin lower down. First they said he had a busted femur, but I think the last report changed it to just a broken shoulder blade.

Yeah - I always watch the mountain stages...the next two stages in the Alps will be the killer.

http://www.letour.fr/indexus.html

[Syrinx]

1. races bore me

Whether bicycles or stock cars. Give me college football. Won't be long! :)

[Baclava]

3. 'Roll Tide'!

Sorry - I meant "Go Buckeyes!"

Yeah - it's the football offseason - we fill up the void as best we can.

[Syrinx]

4. Go Buckeyes!

Ohio State is actually one of my favorite non-Crimson Tide teams!

Woody Hayes was quite the character!

[Eurobabe]

2. I used to watch it.

But all the doing scandals have really turned me off. Too bad. I'll check it out on Eurosport now.

[Baclava]

5. The aerial shots of the mountains and castles are still cool.

They're getting better testing the dopers. They took away a stage win a few days ago when a guy got busted.

[Eurobabe]

6. I know, I always enjoyed the scenery

when I lived in the US, now I live over there, so I see it everyday. LOL.

[Baclava]

7. Well that's cheating.

Not fair.

[Eurobabe]

8. LOL, I always say one of these years

I want to go to the French Alps with a handbag. :rofl:

[Baclava]

16. I think it's ironic that some people are piling on bicycling because of doping

Pro cycling has perhaps the most stringent testing and stiffest consequences for doping. The reason that "so many" (but it IS only a small fraction!) are getting caught is because they are going after it so aggressively.

Test positive? Wins stripped; expelled from the race; canned by your team; and sometimes the team loses its sponsor. Oh, and police interviews and a court date.

What happens in American pro sports? A slap on the wrist.

[CatBO]

9. We are

We're still watching.

Not much else on to watch thanks to summer reruns. That, plus I just got into cycling this year. I'm still a newbie to the Tour so I can't comment on what's supposed to be normal, or what makes it interesting just yet. It's all still interesting to me.

Beautiful scenery. I would love to live in France.

[Baclava]

10. The thought of a 100 mile bike ride makes my butt hurt

I like my mountain bike because it mainly goes downhill....both ways.

It's still fun watching the pros though.

[ColbertWatcher]

12. Welcome to DU! n/t

[BB1]

11. yesterday's race was great!

and I'm looking forward to tomorrow's as well.
I've been an avid follower since 1994, but then I live in the Netherlands so I can support a local team (Rabobank). I still think Menchov (#131) can win it this year, but last year the yellow got snatched away from the team by some dope story about Rasmussen. Mechov will be trying, at least, to bring home the yellow to Holland!

This year Ricco made his debut as a bigmouthed 'user'. Gave him great coverage, but unfortunately in cycling 'bad publicity' is still bad publicity. He can say goodbye to his career for the next five years.

So yeah, Baclava, I'm on it allright.
BTW, your name makes me feel like bying baklava tonight. Yummie!

[Baclava]

13. Too bad Cavendish pulled out after winning 4 sprint stages

Not worth killing himself in the Alps though...he's headed to the Olympics.

btw - I lived in Greece...not many bicycles...just those noisy little mopeds 24hrs a day.
I liked the little bakeries where I could eat all the homemade baclava I wanted though...the bread shops were great too.

[BB1]

15. typical for the sprinters to cut out before the second row

of mountains. A lot of riders give up during the Alps as well. Something with a shortage of EPO, or so I'm led to believe.

Not a lot of bikes in Greece, but they do have their share of forestfires this year. Another sad summer. I'm glad we've had only rain so far:)

[On the Road]

14. I Watch on Weekends with My 18yo Daughter When Possible

She's the Tour fan and has to educate me about the subtleties of the rules.

What a bummer that Pereiro crashed. Will have to make sure to catch the end -- sounds exciting.