Le Tour est fini....

[aka_kim]

Every July for the past 8 or 9 years has revolved around the tour. I actually watch it live in the morning, read everything on velonews and cyclingnews (and this year letour.fr and lequipe.fr), and then watch "expanded" coverage again in the evening. For 3 weeks! It's always a huge letdown when it's over, and this year was no exception.

Awk, what will I do tomorrow?

[TrekJeni]

Yes, I too am sad. I looked at the BF tonight in fact and said it.
Regardless that people were thrown out - people I had used as motivation to get me through hard rides, and that I now would like to stab in the eyes (oh wait, did I say that out loud?)... but I digress.
Yes, I'm sad. My last three July's have focused on working, riding, watching the Tour, and squeezing in some sleep.
Come back! Come back! I wasn't ready for it to end....
jeni

[Tri Girl]

I'm crying baby alligator tears now also.
I'll miss the tour. When they were signing off, I was thinking "don't go away- don't leave me."

At least we'll have the Tour of California in February. It'll be a mid-season cycling fix. It's supposed to be on tv- so I'm very excited!

[VeloVT]

I too am sad.

Have to admit to pulling a few double TDF shifts myself (watched live in the morning, as I did every morning since I much prefer Phil & Paul's race coverage, then for some reason had to tune in again at night).

I'm left with the question though: is there a single rider in the pro peloton that is truly, 100% clean? Googling around, reading a little about the history of modern doping in the sport (the Festina affair, Pantani's sad story, lots of ex-pro riders "tell-alls"), it appears to be deeply entrenched in the culture, seemingly more so than in the elite level of other sports that have had doping scandals (like track & field). I have to say I feel a little bit badly for the teams that got kicked out this year, for Vino, etc (of course I suspect some of my sympathy for Vino comes because of that pretty face). While I absolutely think all sports should be dope-free, and I do believe it's possible for cycling, it also seems to me that the problem is bigger than a handful of "cheaters", and the ones who got caught are just, well, the ones who got caught and they sort of got trapped between the "old culture" (doping was tacitly encouraged, and you had to do it to win, and everybody knows how to perform a transfusion on themselves) and an externally imposed "new culture" of non-doping (though, of course, in spite of my sympathy, I do think the cheaters who are caught do need to be punished).

[Pedal Wench]

I'm missing it too. I was home recovering from surgery during the first stages, and it really made the time fly - I would watch it live in the morning, and then Bob's version at night. Last week, I was able to get on the trainer, and there's nothing better than watching a bunch of cyclists in gorgeous locales to get your legs moving.

I'm sad today.

[roadie gal]

I got up early this morning, ran down to turn on the TV and then realized that it was over. This happens every year. What am I going to do with myself in the morning???

[bikerchick68]

yep, despite being really annoyed at how it went down with the doping stuff, I will really miss it too...

I went out yesterday and bought a bunch of new books... nothing else much that I consistently watch on TV...