How do you celebrate TDF time?

[PinkBike]

i've been watching since 98. i LOOOOOOOVE the tour. i work swingshift so i watch in the morning. cant stand all the commentators tho. i love lance but hate the fawning lance-hype. i guess that's for the noncyclists tho, i get that.

DVR it also, and maybe watch highlights again after work (midnight).

paint the logo on my driveway.

wear yellow the whole month.

last year i was in california for the start because my dad died. we were in a hotel and their cable channel froze up on versus. i told the hotel but they werent fixing it fast enough so i called the cable company myself. several times. meantime i watched the prologue on some internet site i found on steephill-tv. like tulip, i kinda liked the commentary from a different slant.

this week i have been watching all the DVDs from 99-2005, just revelling in the anticipation of the start.

cant wait til saturday!!!! go fabian!!!!!!!!

[redrhodie]

I'll be putting the red polka-dot sheets on my bed tomorrow! I live for the tour.

[jobob]

I did watch the very lame Contador vs Armstrong special - basically a rehash of last year's Tour. I wish they would show Contador the respect he deserves.

Veronica

Oh, lordamercy, that was the lamest thing to hit the airways e-ver. I give it five eyerolls.

But were it not for Lance we in the USofA would not have anywhere near as much cycling coverage. So, thank you Lance. gag retch.

That said, I'll be rooting for the Schlecks, Christian Vande Velde, and, oh yeah, Contador!! for GC.

I would root for Levi, and I probably will, but naturally he'll be Working for The Man so Levi's chances for GC are pretty much nonexistent, unless Lance winds up in traction or something.

And I'll be sending out a cheer for Jens every chance I get. And Fabian and Stuey.

Vive Le Tour!

[loopybunny]

I'm a teacher so I have the month of July off. I'll definitely be watching. I'm also taking part in a Tour de France themed knit-a-long on Ravelry. We join teams and knit Tour de France or cycling related projects then generally make silly comments and share our progress with the group.

This year I'm looking forward to watching on my new LED-LCD HDTV that I've had for two weeks. It's going to be a different experience.

Most of my friends pretty much don't understand my interest in the race. However, I've gotten my mom hooked. We don't live near each other so we usually send several e-mails during the stages making comments on the action. I was surprised last year by some of her insight.

[Owlie]

(Am I the only road bike-owning person who doesn't care?)
Having said that, I really don't need to hear any more about Lance. I understand why there's so much hype, and that a good deal of that hype is marketing. I'm just tired of it.

[Possegal]

Maybe I can party with these guys - their car is parked at my hotel.

[mudmucker]

I start off by buying a bouquet of sunflowers and put them on the kitchen table. My own aren't ready yet this time of year.

Then I watch every stage by either recording or catching the extended version at night. I take a 2-week vacation which mostly coincides with this time of year so sometimes I can catch the live earlier version

[SheFly]

There is a restaurant in Boston that has a dinner for each night of the tour, based on the region in France the tour is going through. It's a pricey place, so we go once during the 3 weeks. They also have great beer, and keep Versus on in the bar during the Tour. A few times, they have raffled off a Trek bike, too.

Crankin - where is it, and what's it called? We're on vaca next week...

SheFly

[Possegal]

Maybe today I'll party with this guy?

[Aggie_Ama]

For all you non-Lance lovers just be glad you don't live in Austin! Our local paper writes an article a day about him but didn't cover the Tour when he retired. Please tell me what other Americans are doing. Tell me what interesting pros are doing, just don't think I want to hear about Lance all day. Oh and it just gives the non-cyclist in Austin a place to blog about how anyone who rides here is a Lance wannabe. Luckily, I spend the summer mountain biking and can avoid the hateful motorists around here. Maybe it isn't Lance but the hot weather making them so cranky?

In our house we DVR the live coverage and then watch together. We try to challenge each other to pick the stage winner, we're rarely right. I love to hear Paul's history insights and Phil's quirky comments. I can't listen to Craig Hummer so we don't watch the night time coverage. Versus has some flaws but I am glad they cover cycling some. I miss when they used to show more, including mountain biking!

[katluvr]

OMG Possegirl!
We watched the prologue on dvr after I got off work & drank Dutch beer!
K

[gnat23]

PS: for those without TV/Cable, I'm loving the coverage via the Versus Tour Tracker. It's $30 for desktop&webphone access and $15 for the iphone app. LIVE streaming coverage sans commercials and for me so far it's worked *great*. I can finally stop complaining about my cable company and their crrrazy pricing structures and packages!

-- gnat!

[Possegal]

Today maybe I'll party with these guys (that's Horner bringing up the back of the peloton.)

[Possegal]

I don't know who this guy is, but what I do know is that he rides for Euskatel Euskadi, and he signs autographs for people, even in his underwear.

[redrhodie]

I don't know who this guy is, but what I do know is that he rides for Euskatel Euskadi, and he signs autographs for people, even in his underwear.

I wish I were there!!!!