As an athlete, I am an avid follower of pretty much any world class sporting event, and the Tour de France assuredly falls into that category. While it may not live up to the World Cup or Olympics, it is an insane test of athleticism, dedication, courage, and both physical and mental endurance among other things.
The main reason I will be following the race is Lance Armstrong, who has solidified himself as one of the most dominant athletes in any sport ever. The fact that he did so after battling through cancer make the feat even more epic.
I thought it would be prudent to create a thread to follow this years action, discuss the events, and support our favorites. I have also posted a couple links to tracking pages below. Let the Tour Begin!
Former lax player? Lover of the Tour? I knew I liked you, WestCoast! (No homo.)
I have a good feeling about Lance this year. Remember that Contador hasn’t done shit without Johan Brunyeel as his manager. Lance and Johan make the fiercest combo in the sport when it comes to strategy. Lance is stronger this year than last. If Contador makes any mistakes, I expect Lance to fully exploit them.
[quote]eic wrote:
Former lax player? Lover of the Tour? I knew I liked you, WestCoast! (No homo.)
I have a good feeling about Lance this year. Remember that Contador hasn’t done shit without Johan Brunyeel as his manager. Lance and Johan make the fiercest combo in the sport when it comes to strategy. Lance is stronger this year than last. If Contador makes any mistakes, I expect Lance to fully exploit them. [/quote]
That’s what I like to hear!
Lance had a great start today, and showed that he is as ready for this one as he has ever been. Combine that with the team he has in place as you mentioned, and he should give a very strong showing this year. I will be rooting for him all the way.
I really despise Contador as well. He’s a very strong rider, but simply a poor sportsman, and doesn’t deserve to be on the podium.
Contador is the clear favourite no doubt. I expect a good ride form the Italian Ivan Basso. Having served a 2 year ban for a " supposed " doping offence from Opertion Puerto, and cominbg back strongly to win this years Giro D’Italia, I can see him matching Contador in the high mountain finishes.
His poor time trialing ability will propably hurt his chances for the overall victory though, but I wouldn’t put a podium finish past this guy.
Rough day for Lance, two crashes, and any hopes of an overall win were pretty much dashed. Hopefully he can finish the race in strong form, and remind everyone why he is one of the greatest athletes in recent history.
and in bike racing, also remember, you’re counting on a piece of machinery to help you. you can be in the best shape of your life, and a puncture, with no team car and your a minute or two behind.
also, look at the time trial. wet for some, dry for others. some guys had to break around corners others would fly around them in the dry.faster time for the guys in the dry conditions…
lance, a freak amoung freaks tallent wise, has had bad luck this year unlike his previous 7 tour wins…
when he won his luck was great. this year. his luck has changed…
i just hope he turns into a super domistique…helping levi
Well maybe something can happen, I doubt it but Radioshack does have the best climbing team put together. Too bad no time-trial to really bring back some time this year. If Lance can’t do it, I’d like to see another American, Cadel Evans, or anyone other then Alberto Contador.
lance just didnt have the legs today… he crashed on the flats going around that roundabout, but his 4 teammates pulled him back up to the contador/shleck/evans group, but during comercial break, an attack must have gone off the front and lance couldnt match it…at that point he was @:30.
why did he finish 11;00 back?? no legs today…
simple, and it happens.
[quote]LiquidMercury wrote:
Well maybe something can happen, I doubt it but Radioshack does have the best climbing team put together. Too bad no time-trial to really bring back some time this year. If Lance can’t do it, I’d like to see another American, Cadel Evans, or anyone other then Alberto Contador.[/quote]
I would love to see someone else from team Radioshack make a push for the overall title. If someone from that camp cannot, I to would be fine with anybody else whose last name is not Contador. He didn’t even look close to dominant, and hopefully the other riders saw that and will use it as fuel for th rest of the race.
[quote]spk wrote:
lance just didnt have the legs today… he crashed on the flats going around that roundabout, but his 4 teammates pulled him back up to the contador/shleck/evans group, but during comercial break, an attack must have gone off the front and lance couldnt match it…at that point he was @:30.
why did he finish 11;00 back?? no legs today…
simple, and it happens.[/quote]
You do realize he was involved in 2 more wrecks within the 30km mark? One right around 30k and one at 12k. After the second crash when he lost about 4 minutes just from that it looked like he just shut it down. I’d say Levi will now have Lance work for him, and I for one kind of like this (even though I truly would prefer Lance just to see him do it all again) but Levi seems to be a great guy from all his interviews and it’d be nice to see him win the whole thing. Considering how close him and Lance are I’d be surprised if Lance had any issue with that either.
I agree, I hope they just push for Levi now, and I think Armstrong would definitely be game to help.
Now that the World Cup is over, the Tour has taken over to serve as my early morning fix of epic international sporting events.
It is really interesting to see the different strategies that come out on stages that have massive climbs compared to those that have sprint finishes. Very exciting.
yea, a few crashes… all lasting 10 seconds. the one where he got tangled up with the dude getting a feed bag, he was down 10 seconds, but he lost it mentallty there. see how long he took there getting baqck on the bike and drilling it? no legs is all it was. remember when he got a feed bag caught on his bars and went down a few years back. he was back up and drilling it. he had legs that day. no legs yesterday = not being able to go in the red to get back on.
lance is a stud, but with an off day and the front gc guys drilling it, he was sol…
Fair enough. As a side note does anyone actually ride here? I’m looking at purchasing my first bike and could use some suggestions. No more boring cardio on the treadmill, it’s now duh duh duh Tour de LiquidMercury i.e. ride to work and not get killed.
I definitely woke up early and watched what I thought was today’s stage on Versus. I kept thinking to myself that this is eerily similar to yesterdays race, and I couldn’t believe Lance’s terrible luck again, and that the finish was exactly the same as yesterday!
I then realized that I was watching a replay of yesterdays stage as today is a rest day. FAIL.
~
I hope they can switch it on for Levi, and that the rest of the Radioshack team including Lance, will give him their full support and effort.
I would also like that crazy old man with the red devil jumpsuit and pitch fork to attack Contador on a serious climb, that would make my day.
how much you want to spend?
bikes are expensive.
what are your goals? to be a great rider?
just want to have a bike so you can lift one day and ride or run the next?
if you wanna get serious, you need to get a good bike, and train year round.
lots of people this time of year go out drop a grand(cheap) and ride a few rides, and come a rainny day or a windy day or cold days and the bike gathers dust.
so tell me your goals and i will give you ball park on $
[quote]spk wrote:
how much you want to spend?
bikes are expensive.
what are your goals? to be a great rider?
just want to have a bike so you can lift one day and ride or run the next?
if you wanna get serious, you need to get a good bike, and train year round.
lots of people this time of year go out drop a grand(cheap) and ride a few rides, and come a rainny day or a windy day or cold days and the bike gathers dust.
so tell me your goals and i will give you ball park on $
[/quote]
Ideally under 700 bucks (like I said planning on going used)
Yes I know bikes are expensive and it’s unlikely to find anything in this range decent but I can hope.
Long-term goals I’d like to start competing, I will mainly be using it as a cross-trainer for rowing putting in 20-30 miles a day on it at the least. But as I said, I’d love to start competing (I’m not sure of the classifications). As someone who has competed on the national level for rowing and has an ideal build for this (all legs, high VO2, 5’8", albeit carrying a bit too much weight up top) I feel as though I can probably do pretty well, especially if I start dedicating this as my primary goal.