TDF: a shiny new thread for 2012

[e3rdpower]

I should also add -- I'm still bummed at the thought of no more tour on TV every day.

Next race on NBC Sports is August 20, in Colorado. I'm also hoping we'll be able to watch the Olympic races on tv, even if we have to rely on late-night DVRing. Go Chris and the T's!!!

Here's the Olympic TV schedule that I found, FWIW.

http://brimages.bikeboardmedia.netdn...e-Schedule.jpg

[Crankin]

It was a little boring, but I like the whole experience of watching it. I do miss some of the "old timers" who no longer ride.
I always experience a feeling of loss when it's over. Summer's half way over.

[Koronin]

But are they going to be shown live or tape delayed and which channel will they be on?

[ny biker]

NBC Sports has this, but I don't see anything about how to see the races:

http://www.nbcolympics.com/cycling/r...les/index.html

[lovelygamer]

I enjoyed the tdf this year and cannot wait for the olympics. I have a phone app for each (love phone apps) and follow those for news, videos, stats, etc.

[malkin]

I love the tour.
Boring and brutal.

You can google it; Gesink withdrew after a crash injured his ribs and made it painful to breathe.

[pll]

Found the Gesink note this morning. I thought the following was cute in Cycling News, a quote of Peter Sagan:

"I didn't really feel the emotion of finishing in Paris, maybe because everybody spoke to me so much about it beforehand," he said. "Ivan [Basso] even told me that on the Champs-Élysées you don't feel pain, but in the finale we were going at 60kph and you need strength in your legs for that."

Basso's "poetic" description that you don't feel pain in the Champs-Élysées... and Sagan expecting that literally!

[jobob]

I thoroughly enjoyed this year's tour. The scenery; the daily stage battles; the bright young stars like Sagan, Van Garderen and Pinot; Voeckler in polka dots; Bradley Wiggins proving to be a very worthy winner; Jens Voigt's attacks, David Millar's stage win; Fabian in yellow; ... and on and on. Everything!

I'm with Kim.

[amnesiac]

Okay I will say it, I think this tour has been boring.

Usually I have little interest in the sprinters' stages in the first week, but this year that turned out to be the most interesting part, with Sagan and Greipel lighting things up.

Since then, having the #2 guy on the same team as the guy in yellow has taken the excitement out of the mountain stages. Liquigas tried to attack, but when you know the guy in second has no intention of riding as fast as he can, it's just dull. It would have been way better if Froome was on another team.

I agree. And I also find TT stages really boring.

[redrhodie]

The ironic thing is it was such a hard tour, you'd think it would have been more exciting to watch. It was just too hard. Too many great competitors out in crashes, and the rest were just spent. And, 3 time trials but no TTT. I love the TTT. I'm sure there's a reason they don't always have them, but I wish they were a requirement.

But congratulations Wiggins! He was superior.

[maryellen]

I love the TTT.

Me too! I don't know what US Postal was doing in terms of performance enhancement but watching them in the team time trial was amazing back then.

That said, TTs are not that thrilling to watch. Those are the days I'm particularly thankful for tv recording options so I can skip most of those stages. But I thought the last hour of Saturday's time trial was pretty exciting.

I'm no anglophile but I was very excited to see Bradley Wiggins win that stage by a good margin and the tour overall.

[malkin]

For TT I'd just rather check the results and be done with it. It is too repetitive for me to watch.

OTOH, I like long flat (boring) stages. I have to be in the right frame of mind for it, but it says lazy summer afternoon like nothing else. Watch a breakaway get out, doze off listening to Phil & Paul, wake up an hour or so later, check the distance, see if the breakaway is still out, notice the sunflowers or lavender fields, decide whether to wake up or not...

[ny biker]

A TT can be exciting if something important like the race lead is on the line, though most of it is still ho-hum.

I love TTTs.

I know just about every long stage will be dull for much of it, and I'm fine with that, especially since Phil and Paul are so good at telling us about the area they're racing through and the various sites along the way. I just prefer some good attacks to liven things up in the mountains.

[tulip]

I was really disappointed with NBC Sports network's coverage. So many ads! And their on-screen ad banners that obstruct the entire bottom half of the screen! Terrible! They also did not have the name of the castle or town, which Versus always had. No speed of racers, either. The had way too many bits of storyline instead of focusing on the race. Seriously terrible compared to Versus and Eurosport. Next year I'll stick with Eurosport however I can get it. Obviously, NBC Sports Network doesn't know much about covering cycling races. Even Paul and Phil were having to mention ad bits at every other sentence.

[jobob]

Oh, the NBC Sports coverage stunk to high heaven. I'd record the telecast on DVR and fast forward thru all the commercials ... I think the fast forward button on my remote has worn out. The Eurosport coverage was vastly superior but I rarely managed to get up early enough to see much of it.

But hey, no Al Trautwig ... I'm grateful for small favors.