Tour de France Question

[Fredwina]

I'm thinking I'll be cheering Levi on, because that was my grandfather's name!

(Um, what is Giro? What am I missing?)

The Giro'd Italia (tour of Italy) is the considered the second most prestigious bike race, followed by the Vuelta a Espana (Tour of Spain)

[margo49]

. The Dauphine was covered by a second string announcer who was...uh..just awful. Couldn't pronounce any names right, wasn't even consistently wrong in pronunciation and his color commentar was limited to Rider X is "having a bad/good day at the office" and "let's just watch"....uh...I'm on audio only!!!

Some people dislike their first-string commentators, but I enjoy it as background noise at work, particularly, the British-isms that don't translate so well. DH has dubbed the commentator as "weenie bits" because riders win, lose, and miss by "a weenie bit"

This is the one and only David Duffield.
An *institution* not a commentator. Perhaps an acquired taste. Perhaps you have to be a bit of a Brit. But he has a huge following to the point where people inundated Eurosport's TdF forum when he was *not* commentating on the TdF 2 years ago. It was a disaster as far as a lot of us were concerned. Many of us even thought he had gone to that Great Commentary Box in the sky as he is nearly 80. He has a tremendous knowledge of cycling and cyclists going back past his favourite rider of all time Fausto Coppi. He is very involved in British cycling and there is a ride in his name (CTC, I think).
He will be in the London studio for this TdF doing the intro every day and some phone conversations, I believe.

[crazycanuck]

I'm cheering on Robbie.. the other robbie..Robbie Mcewan..not the singer Robbie williams..

C

[Keely]

I'm going to be having a sleepless July again this year!!! SBS (Ch 28Down Under) shows the racing live. This year they have 2 daily shows at reasonable hours giving updates and showing the finish of each stage. Can't wait!!!

[hurleygirl]

Add me to the "sleepless July" list.

In addition to my normal office job... let's add

Anywhere from 3-5 hours of almost daily Tour to watch (I TiVO the live morning coverage because it is waaaay better than the "expanded evening broadcast").

And I'm training for a triathlon on July 22nd.

I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to manage this - except to burn up some vacation days.

[NJBikeGal]

So...perhaps a poll? How many riders will actually compete in the tour this year?!

Petacchi has been suspended by Milram for a questionable test result at the Giro. Kessler has been suspended by Astana for an "adverse analytical finding of testosterone." Di Luca has to go before CONI for a strange test result from the Giro...situation TBD.

Looks like we'll have a rather small showing! Zabriskie signed the UCI rider's antidoping commitment paper this week and he's not even sure that he's racing! Cancellara on the other hand, said that the document is a load of horse poop and he is 100% against the actions of the UCI. This is going to be an interesting tour!

[Kalidurga]

In typical 'Dave Z' sardonic humour, he told Cyclingnews, "I am for 100 percent transparency and am willing to wear a GPS locater so that doping control officers can find me 24/7." Calling from his home in Spain, Zabriskie told Cyclingnews, "If they wanted to do a GPS locator system I would not disagree, I think it would be easier than filling out the athlete location forms."

DZ rocks If he doesn't end up on the Tour roster, I'm gonna have to flood CSC's website with complaints.

[chickwhorips]

good ol' Dave.

I can't believe its that time of the year again. Phew! Seems like just a few months ago it was time for the tour and here it is again.

I have the DVR all set up and ready to go.

[Darby361]

After reading how you could look up Versus online to see if it is in your area... I have upgraded my cable! Turns out it is only available on the digital box in my area. Of course I tell myself, I will go back to basic in August... HA!
Trish

[Zen]

My cable service used to be Adelphia, it's now Comcast.
When it was Adelphia I downgraded to basic service. I looked to see what a digital upgrade would cost with comcast and I can get a deal for a year that will actually save me1/3 of my cable bill! Ha!

[NJBikeGal]

Astana names it's team...which will NOT include Eddie Mazzoleni - due to what, ladies?? Of course, DOPING allegations! I'm not sure whether to cheer these teams on for doing the right thing, or start crying because the sport is turning into a sideshow!

Astana has put Vino, Salvodelli and Kloden on the roster, of course. Should be a great year for Vino!

[Aggie_Ama]

Do not fret about missing the Giro, VS only showed abbreviated coverage of it. The tour is on every day but the Giro was only on Cyclism Sundays and I think maybe Saturday.

Darby- Not crazy we are getting an extra DVR (an extra $6 to the cable bill) so we can watch in the bedroom if we choose. We pay for Digital Cable only for Versus and Cyclism.

My parents recently gave us their 57" ginormous HD TV first words out of DH's mouth? "I can't wait to watch the Tour!!"

I hope Big George can win another stage, I like him better than Levi but he isn't Disco's leader. And if CSC doesn't put DZ on the team I will cheer against them!!

[margo49]

Just checked out the Route for the Prologue on the TdF Official website.
I know every inch and cobblestone of that route. Must of done it a zillion times as a messenger . Before some of these riders were born!!!
Think I will need to do ECG *before* the Tour even starts at the current rate of excitement...

[PinkBike]

Carlos Sastre, Fränk Schleck, Jens Voigt, Stuart O'Grady, Fabian Cancellara, Inigo Cuesta, Kurt-Asle Arvesen, Christian Vande Velde and David Zabriskie.

go DZ!!!!!
go jens!!!!!!!

[Kalidurga]

Carlos Sastre, Fränk Schleck, Jens Voigt, Stuart O'Grady, Fabian Cancellara, Inigo Cuesta, Kurt-Asle Arvesen, Christian Vande Velde and David Zabriskie.

go DZ!!!!!
go jens!!!!!!!

Ok, now I can get excited about watching the Tour!