the Tour on TV

[ChainsOflove]

Prime for Fastest Sprint to the bathroom whilst commercials are on. : )

[Trek420]

ChainsOflove wrote
"Prime for Fastest Sprint to the bathroom whilst commercials are on. : )"

how could I forget the sprinters jersey!

[pedalfaster]

Today's stage was the most entertaining flat stage I have ever witnessed. Yes, even though my man Mayo got dropped hard I was impressed with what I saw (taped coverage at a friend's). Great team strategy at work. Gnarly crashes. Heartbreak. Amazing technical skill and sheer power. What a sport!

[bounceswoosh]

Definitely an interesting stage. The whole road racing thing baffles me, though. It's like politics -- lots of temporary alliances among people who eventually will have to fight against one another

[ausgirl]

It's interesting how people talk about who they want to win the tour and that is important, but not about the maillot verdi (green jersey). Now for the tour my fantasy results include Stuie O'Grady in yellow at the end, ah, but in reality i would be happy with Jan Ullrich. On to the important stuff - who's going to win green? Robbie McEwen and Baden Cooke are of course favourites having won it before, with Zabel and Petacchi being popular as well, but what about the famous sprinter Mario Cipollini? I thought he was supposed to be some great sprinter, but at this moment he is only on 16 points, 77 behind the leader - all that fuss about a man who does nothing and will probably yet again pull out of the tour the instant it hits the mountains.

One last thing, today Robbie wears Green and Gold (yellow) - the colours of his country!!! And a sign of things to come in future years!

[massbikebabe]

Ausgirl:

I am going to truly date myself here, but I have to tell you that Super Mario was indeed that on the sprints. Mario has had a LONG and distinguished career...look him up sometime,you will be blown away. I hope your aussie boys get to achieve one half of what Mario has achieved in his career...and still have the ba!!s to wear some of the outfits that he does

On another note...that team trial today was amazing. When it was over I looked over at my son and all I could say was..."yeah
that's how you do that"...USPS was flawless...breathtaking...
dancing on the pedals...


karen

[snapdragen]

Ah, my beloved Posties. George and Eki, oh, and what's his name?

Cipo could eat crackers in my bed anytime......... What a gorgeous man, for an old guy (from someone 10 years his senior!)

[Dogmama]

Ditto on the posties (cute name!). Looked like a snake the way they were so seemingly effortless. Almost dropped old whats-his-name off the back at one point. The boy had to get off the saddle & do some work!

Lance could eat crackers in my bed if he'd keep his mouth shut.

[ausgirl]

Massbikebabe:

Our boys might have a way to go before they achieve all the things that Cipo have, but they are relatively young on the scene - it was the 80s before an Australian cyclist won the maillot jaune in the tour. They will get there. I'm mainly saying though, that if Cipo pulls out when this tour hits the mountains as he has done in the past, then the question has to be asked what type of cyclist is he who is captain of his team and pulls out of a tour without injury because of mountains, when 100+ riders are suffering similarly yet have the guts needed to make it through the mountains and down to the Champs Elysees. They didn't allow Domina Vacanze into the tour last year for those reasons (the star of the team had pulled out too many times) and if he does it again he will only be proving such a decision correct.

As for looks, there are so many good looking men on the tour that it would be hard to choose between them!

Ausgirl

[pedalfaster]

Originally posted by ausgirl


As for looks, there are so many good looking men on the tour that it would be hard to choose between them!

Oh yeah!!!

Have to agree about the Australian sprinters too. McEwen's speed and his ability to put himself in the right place just amazes me!

I think we are coming to a point in the sport where the sprinters have to be good "all around" riders. Kind of like "climbers" had better be pretty darn good time-trialists to hold their own.

The importance of having a really really strong all-around team (cycling IS a team sport) was very well illustrated both yesterday (Mayo's climbing team wasn't strong enough to close the gap in a flat stage) and today in the team time-trial. Postal clicks along like clockwork.

[ausgirl]

pedalfaster said that "cycling IS a team sport" and nothing could be more true. At a club level most people race as individuals and will make alliances on the day as suits them to be in the best possible position at the end, but at an elite level you race as a team. There are lots of great riders, but would they have been as great without such fantastic groups of riders behind them? Who knows, maybe, maybe not. It's the same for all the other riders - the hill climbers and the sprinters, well every sprinter needs a good lead-out man.

[magrat22]

Cipo's just in the race these days to pay the bills and to keep his sponsors happy he's such a great cyclist and he was the Lance of his day that no amount of rules could keep him out of it. Having said that if he does drop out again this year (which he probably will) I doubt he'll be allowed back next year as the refs can only turn a blindeye for so long without the press slating them.

I'm cheering for the only Irishman in the race Mark Scanlon. Having watched Stephen Roche when he won in 1987 and how we all got a day off work I'm hoping we'll get another leprechaun on the podium before the end of the Tour.

[Trek420]

hope you don't mind my bumping this back up to the forefront with a funny dailypeloton article which I thought some of you gals might enjoy:

http://www.dailypeloton.com/displayarticle.asp?pk=6620

[pedalfaster]

Great article

And men wonder why we are glued to the set when the TDF rolls around


I was also reading some of the "Sheryl Crow" posts. Here's a solution. Since I don't have TV I have friends record the live day-time coverage (bonus points for friends with TiVo!). I am enjoying a blissful commercial-, Kirsten Gum- , Al Whatshisname - AND Sheryl Crow-free TDF. All bike racing, all the time

[Irulan]

I have a tv, but no cable. I need friends lik that!!

~I