Tour de France 2005

[Crankin]

Spazz,

I saw your comment about Comcast at the beginning of this thread. When we got Comcast 2 years ago, it was right before the Tour. They lied and told us my town had OLN, which we didn't. After we called and complained and got lots of others to call Comcast, they put OLN on and it has remained. I read about this happening in other places, where cyclists annoyed the hell out of them and they put OLN on just to quiet them down. You could try this tactic, if you know others in Medford who want to keep the channel all year long.
Robyn

[spazzdog]

jobob, you're right... that was a pretty (stupidly) general statement. Apologies...

I'll revise that to be the French sporting authority... it just seems kinda like harrassment.

As to Sheryl... she's a big name that's all. I mean they usually get Robin Williams up there as well. Celebrity privilege and all that.

spazz

[snapdragen]

As to Sheryl... she's a big name that's all. I mean they usually get Robin Williams up there as well. Celebrity privilege and all that.

spazz

Yabbut - Robin Williams is funny, in a manic, bipolar sort of way........ Oh, he's also a kick-azz cyclist.

[Trek420]

I've read that Williams has a bike stable to die for. There's a picture of him in one of my local bike shops where he went to get an Orbea, just one of a garage or two full of bikes.

[wingsonwheels]

There's "form" and then there's sportsmanship -- he lost his third place to O'Grady today for "headbutting" him on the way in... I admire the fact that he can scuffle while riding at 45 or so mph, but really..

[MightyMitre]

There's almost a Bush-like attitude amongst some Lance fans - if you don't basically worship the freakin' ground he walks on, there's something wrong with you - "if you're not with him you're against him". Which is the reason why I don't belong to the Cult of Lance - I refuse to be told who I must root for, and I'm tired of him and his yellow bracelets and his endless self-promotion and his superstar girlfriend shoved down my throat.

- Jo.

Thanks jobob - for saying exactly as I feel. As this is an American board I've always been aware that there's probably a lot of support for Mr Lance and I've never wanted to upset too many people or step on anyone's toes.

From a view slightly closer to France and having been to the Tour for quite a few years I wouldn't say the French hate Lance - in fact in recent years they've started to warm to him.
One thing they disliked initially was his lack of passion - winning for him was a job (as he's often said) and the French like to see some emotion. He came across as cold and detached.
Initially Lance's french wasn't very good and he refused to give interviews to French TV in French, which didn't really help either, but he later explained that he didn't want to speak French in case he made an embarrasing mistake or said the wrong thing. I've heard him do interviews in French recently so he's obvioulsy been learning.

DISCLAIMER; I'm not French so any corrections welcome and this is only what I've picked up as a very general French feeling, so I could be totally wrong.

As for Ms Crow - maybe the Crow-bashing was my fault. I was joking about Lance hearing one of her songs and doing badly in the TT, because he had it stuck in his head. Thing is - I didn't even know she'd done some new stuff - there's not much call for Crow over here, so I was just mucking about.

[spazzdog]

MM- seems like a good explaination. I'll take it

I get curious is all, and have nothing against the French (love the food and the wine and the fashion).

The recent news about the ridiculous defamation suit and then the French athletic body's "random" pull of Lance's number for an additional pre-race drug test... it just has gotten old.

I also get it that this is the crown jewel of French sporting events and they haven't had a champion in years. I'm sure that gets them a tad testy. I appreciate all opinions from either side of the old pond

On McEwen's (not McGee) antics at the line: I'm glad he was "relegated". That was soooo blatently impeding some else's line. They should've taken a time penalty too.

From the UCI rulebook:

12.1.021 In stages races, all punishments and penalties shall count against individual general classifications. They may, depending on the gravity of the infringement, and if so decided by the Commissaires Panel, be applied to individual stage classifications.

If in the judgement of the Commissaires Panel, an infringement committed by a rider gives an advantage to the general classification by time of his team, a time penalty of 30 seconds shall also be applied to the team.

10.1.2 Stage Race
1st offence: relegation to the last place in his group, point 1st offence: relegation to the end of his field, point classification penalty equal to the points + 100 + 30" in general classification awarded to the first place of the stage, 200 + 30" in general class.

2nd offence: relegation to last place in the stage, point 2nd offence: relegation to end of stage + 100 classification penalty equal to the points awarded to + 1' in general classification the first place of the stage, 200 + 1' in general class.
3rd offence: elimination + 200 3rd offence: elimination + 200

spazzdog

[betagirl]

Holy S***! Zabriskie totally wrecked. Hard. Poor guy, I feel horrible for him. You can see the pain from his road rash and just losing the jersey all over his face.

Ouch.

[slinkedog]

No kidding! Poor Dave! That road rash looks to be very nasty. And how terribly humiliating, I'm sure. I hope he's feeling 100% again soon. I like that guy.

But, the Blue Train continues to rock on, even if the hue is a little lighter blue. I'm glad, however, that CSC still managed to finish as strongly as they did, in spite of Dave's crash. I almost wanted them to win... almost.

[jobob]

Today proved that CSC absolutely rocks.

[jobob]

Today, those of us in whose only option to watch the tour is on the Only Lance Network were treated to a split screen image of Sheryl Crow grimacing in concern watching as Her Man crossed the finish line.

jobob's Gag Me rating: 5 spoons.

[betagirl]

jobob, I second that and raise you 2 gag spoons.

Give me a break already.

[MM_QFC!]

I agree - bad deal for Dave Z...only got the velonews updates at work so I didn't see his injuries as some of you did and I hope he can rest and recover to still have a strong ride.

chuckling about the "OLN" reference, jobob; you're so right...I wish they'd just stop all of the yammering on and on (and all of the freakin' Survivor and other OLN show commercials too - sheesh!) and just show the riding. Also, they and other press are the ones who fawn all over Sheryl, Robin Williams, even Arnold the governator when he was there a couple of years ago too. I think that I saw Kristen (former Mrs Lance) give a couple of interviews and she even had her own corner of the website for a while too. I doubt that she or Sheryl or others are doing anything other than responding to the press requests.
If the press would dig up interesting background on others - and there are lots of terrific personal interest stories to share, for sure - then we could all enjoy lots of additional and interesting viewing, no?

[slinkedog]

I wonder if the same thing happens to the SO's of cyclists in other countries. Maybe in, say, Australia, they're all over Robbie McEwen's gf/wife/SO, or something like that. I don't know.

[MM_QFC!]

I remember seeing McEwen with his son on camera on the last day...(his name is Ewan McEwen - i swear!@)...but Robbie's head-butting and then complaining about his penalty has had me put him on my sh@t list...for bad or no sportsmanship on that one...