2004 Tour de France

I know there are some cyclist out there watching everyday on OLN channel like me. Well their on Stage 4 of the Tour, and Lance has taken the Yellow Jersey early this year. Team U.S. Postal also has won a time trial! Looking forward to the mountain stages soon. For up-to-date info goto

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/more/specials/tour_de_france/2004/

Tbird.

Thanks TikiBird for the update. While on vacation this last week we were visiting family with great cable coverage on the race but now back home we have no coverage. The site is great and I imagine I will be checking it regularly.

I watched some of the Tour over the weekend, and I think I saw more of Lance during the commercials than I did during the race coverage!

This week I'm paying more attention to the Olympic swimming trials -- my cousin is in several events.

Of course The Pineapples are glued to LTDF - we found out just before the race that OLN was added to our basic cable - Woo-hoo! All Tour all the time! We'll be missing it next week while on vacation, but will be back home for the mountain sections.

Yeah, the commercials are ultra-repetitive and all seem to feature Lance, but that's preferrable to most (or all) other commercials.

Go Postal! Wait, I mean, Go Lance!

I've always appreciated OLN for their occasional airing of surfing programs but those damn commercials are enough to drive you away - not necessarily the content but the frequency! A couple weeks ago they aired a mini-documentary about Bruce Brown's Endless Summer and they broke away for commercials every 5 minutes! I eventually got tired of watching Lance Armstrong in Subaru ads so I turned it off!

The Tour is probably my favorite racing to watch. The commentators are the best. Great programming and these guys are the best racing out there. Been a Lance fan since he came back from cancer. Go USPS and hopefully number 6 for Lance!

Huge fan of the tour as well as Cycling. Had the big opportunity to ride with Lance for a very short amount of time at the first Ride for the Roses. That was before he won the first tour, and in the crit that year he didn't even win it. Phil Ligget the commentator can make just about anything seem interesting. We've really seen nothing yet, stay tuned as stages 13, 15-17 will determine the winner. They are a little less than two weeks away. You can't beat a mountain time trial with a stick especially when it ends on L'Alpe Duhez. Go Lance, and go TIKI. This is a great site. Just bitten by the tiki bug. Found the hardcover book of tiki at half price books for 4.98.

Is Sheryl Crow still winning? I keep hearing them mention her name.

I also like the tour, and watching it every year since i'm a kid
I also like to go at the arrival at the Champs d'Elysées.
And god, they're going real fast, it's hard to imagine it from the TV...

Lance looked great today, tommorow he will take the lead. Only Basso can challenge him from here on I think.

Basso may challenge but I think from the sounds of how fresh Lance looks he will not really be challenged, unless some unforseen event takes place he will make history and chumps of a lot of naysayers (screw you Lemond!)

Absolutely TT, I put the odds at 98% Lance, 2% Basso 0% anyone else. Voeckler is puting up a class fight though. Jan looked the worst of the top 20 riders. lemond is pathetic.

Wow everyone is counting Jan Ulrich already! Its a long way to Paris, it just takes 1 good fall. Looking forward to the next several stages.

Tbird.

One of the things that makes Lance so good is his ability to aviod falling and when he does minimizing the loss, also perhaps his greatest asset of all is the way he recoveries from injury. Jan will likely improve as the tour goes on as he always does, but he was horrible today and is now 4 minutes back, I really don't see him having any chance at all.

On 2004-07-16 14:26, McDougall wrote:
One of the things that makes Lance so good is his ability to aviod falling and when he does minimizing the loss

Does anyone here know if Lance has broken his collarbone(s)? It's supposed to be a rite of passage for cyclists.

Dont get me wrong McDougall i want Lance to win & go into the record books but having Jan give him a run would be great, if ya watched the Tour last year, man that was great, when Jan was going for it & fell in the last stage going into Paris. Jan makes Lance better, but damn Jan is like the Buffalo Bills of Cycling, always coming up short for the last 5 years. Gotta be heart breaking.

tiki bird's right...we need some excitation, and rivals, or this is just gonna be boring. But, hey, we all know who's gonna win...

Well today is the last rest day. Lance has won stage 13, and is currently in 2nd place overall, 22 seconds behind the leader. You really see that Lance loves the mountain stages, hes made up over 9 minutes. At this rate he will probably be wearing the yellow jersey for the last 6 stages.

I hear you guys about good competition being exciting and I think Iban Basso is actually providing that this year, he is very close to Lance, much like Jan was last year. Over the last 5 years the tours Lance has won have provided excitement beyond words and Jan is a large part of that. This year for me the most exciting part is watching what I consider to be the most difficult and prestigous sporting event being dominated by perhaps the best athlete ever. I love it, can't wait for the time trail on Wensday which I recommend everyone watch, it will be classic I promise.

Agreed anything can happen any day on the tour. I guess one of the guys got knocked out of the race by a stray dog. Basso may hang in the mountains. But he would shock the world to win in the flat time trial. You don't see an expert at both disciplines. Indurain would win time trials but I don't remember any dominate mountain stages. Lance is dominating in both.

we shall all see very soon.

LANCE TAKES THE YELLOW! He saved himself for the later stages and here he is, ready to win it all again. It is good to see Basso and Jan close to him though.

Lance won stage 15, but CNN/SI doesnt have the overall times, does anybody know?

Tbird

Lance in yellow.

Basso is about 1:30 behind Lance, with the time trial coming up tomorrow.

Basso is supposedly a lousy time trialer, but it's a hill climb.

Should be a good one!

SPOILER
DONT READ IF YOUR PLANING TO WATCH OLN'S AIRING OF STAGE 16!
SPOILER

Lance won stage 16 time trials, he's now has a 3 minutes 48 seconds lead over Basso. With 3 more mountain stages, which Lance is unbeatable, and if he doesnt fall hard, Lance will be the 2004 Tour de France Champion!

[ Edited by: TIKI BIRD on 2004-07-21 11:19 ]

He deserves a ticker tape parade!

On 2004-07-20 09:52, Tiki Bird wrote:
Lance won stage 15, but CNN/SI doesnt have the overall times, does anybody know?

Tbird

To know it all, check out :

http://www.letour.fr/index.html

There's an english version.

Lance is crushing them. Ullrich had nothing for him. A great finish, but I wish Landis had been able to win. Richard Virenque was excellent as well. King of the mountains! Good for him!

After winning three mountain stages, finishing second to Basso in the other, and being at the front of the peloton whenever there is a hill, I can't figure out how Lance isn't in a yellow jersey with red polka dots!

I wonder if the race leader is not allowed to be both.

I guess I have more learnin' to do about those mountain points they give out.

Oh, man, that finish was great this morning! Everyone thought Kloedis had taken the stage and I was stunned to see Lance kick in the afterburners and overtake him so swiftly and powerfully. Great stuff.

On 2004-07-22 10:38, Geeky Tiki wrote:
After winning three mountain stages, finishing second to Basso in the other, and being at the front of the peloton whenever there is a hill, I can't figure out how Lance isn't in a yellow jersey with red polka dots!

I wonder if the race leader is not allowed to be both.

I guess I have more learnin' to do about those mountain points they give out.

I with you, will research more on this. Now going to stage 18 with a 4 minutes 9 seconds lead, Lance just has to watch out & ride safe. Does anybody know what Jan's trailing by?

[ Edited by: Tiki Bird on 2004-07-22 11:15 ]

For King of the Mountains, riders crossing various summits get points (Lance is second). Early in the race, Virenque and others contested those while Lance stayed in the pack. Concieveably, Lance could have contested the early summits in today's race and taken the Polka Dot jersey for himself (you can give a jersey to someone else to wear if you have more than one), but that strategy would not have benifitted him unless a main rival had tried to break away early in the race.
Ullrich is 8'8" behind. Here's the official site: http://www.letour.fr/2004/us/index.html Here's one that I enjoy more: http://www.bicycling.com/tourdefrance/0,3479,,00.html

[ Edited by: foamy on 2004-07-22 13:09 ]

WOW - I'm so glad mr. p, me and the t-birds aren't the only fans of cycling and tiki! Lance will win, it's hard for me to distance myself, because we follow it so closely, but we got to turn my brother and his in-laws onto the beauty of le Tour, because we did have OLN on vacation, and we wathced evreyday! It was fun explaining the 'team' aspect of cycling to novices, they got pretty caught up in it! I'm glad to hear Lance giving so much credit to the team, the reason none of the other contenders really had a chance is because they don't ALSO have a Floyd, Georgie, Jose, Victor, etc. on their team, the first day in the mountains showed them as a team and it was awesome!
GO LANCE!

Y'know what I love? That my primary source for coverage of the Tour de France is Tiki Central. Vive la Lance!

I dont know about you, but im already goin to miss Bob Roll's color commentary for the Tour de France. He seems to have a hand gesture for anything he says. Go Bob!

On 2004-07-23 14:51, Humuhumu wrote:
Y'know what I love? That my primary source for coverage of the Tour de France is Tiki Central. Vive la Lance!

Maybe next year Utopiandreem & i will go to watch the Tour in person & i'll where a tiki shirt running next to a rider, then there will be tiki @ the Tour!

It's my lifelong dream to watch the Tour en Francais! One of these years, we're going to rent a caravan (RV in eurospeak!) and be one of the loonies who stand along a mt. pass screaming for the riders! We'll travel the whole route! We have the SF Grand Prix here, and Mr. P and I watched the race last year at Liverpool Lil's, right on the route, we drank bloody mary's ALL day and the race was on the TV, so we watched as they came along, and ran outside every lap to scream for Lance and Georgie! It's so incedibly exciting, it's hard to explain! I have an amazing photo of Lance that I shot, it's just a bunch of riders whizzing by, and, when we got the film developed I was looking at them, and I couldn't beleive my luck! I'll get Mr. P to scan and post it tonight! We have a LOT of respect for these guys getting back on the bike everyday, we do the math and relate it to our ride, whew...

I, too, will be in a spot of bother when the Tour ends. :)

I heard a nasty rumor that fans along the sidelines were spitting on Lance. I don't know if this is true or not but I know there are alot of people out there who don't care for Armstrong that much. If these rumors are true something should be done about it. That is just a disgrace and poor sportsmanship by the fans (selected fans I should say) Has anyone heard anything else about this?

On 2004-07-23 23:17, tikilee wrote:
I heard a nasty rumor that fans along the sidelines were spitting on Lance. I don't know if this is true or not but I know there are alot of people out there who don't care for Armstrong that much. If these rumors are true something should be done about it. That is just a disgrace and poor sportsmanship by the fans (selected fans I should say) Has anyone heard anything else about this?

Believe me this is not true. I've seen the tour lots of times from the sidewalk and everybody loves him. I've never seen so much american flags (hanged by french !).
Maybe there's some fans who don't like him, but usually, they are very respectfull of his art (they must be some exceptions but very rarely).

Well, now, back to the tour. (anyone with me tomorrow at the Champs d'Elysee, it's just a 20 min walk from here :P )

Thanks for confirming those rumors false Virani. I should know by now that you can't believe every thing you hear.

On 2004-07-23 14:55, Tiki Bird wrote:
I dont know about you, but im already goin to miss Bob Roll's color commentary for the Tour de France. He seems to have a hand gesture for anything he says. Go Bob!

i;ve been a fan of Bob Roll's , since his 7 11 days..Bob rocks....

Unfortunately, the German fans were spitting a few days ago, the day of the mt. time trial. There were some fans along the route who had been drinking all day, or for several days, and they got out of line. They were pretty rude to a bunch of the riders, including a German rider who rides for Cofidis or CSC (I think) calling him a traitor for not riding for a German team. It's good to know that Raider fans aren't the only idiots! (I apologize to any Raider fans who aren't idiots, the ones I've encountered, well, are.)

So, yeah there are always jackass fans, but I think Lance is pretty well loved in general, if anything he's done an amazing job of being the greatest athlete on the planet, while at the same time being a huge celebrity, fundraiser and awareness spokesman! I personally couldn't imagine doing one of the jobs he does!

It cracks me up though, he takes it on every front, one day the press is on him for giving Basso the stage 'gift' and the next they're on him to 'taking' Kloden's, whatever! GO POSTAL!

I'm also REALLY jealous that you get to see the end in person, have fun and take some photos!

mrs. pineapple

"You're the mayor of shark city, people think you want the beaches open."

[ Edited by: mrs. pineapple on 2004-07-24 18:47 ]

That's it, the tour is over.

Today, i saw the bikers 8 times around the Champs d'Elysee (anyone saw me on TV with my tiki shirt ??), I saw Lance with his new trophee (congratulations), I saw some guys with shirts like "Texas is bigger than France" (!!!??!!), lots of foreigners, much more than i ever saw on the tour, and finally, I saw Will Smith !!

See you next year...

"saw some guys with shirts like "Texas is bigger than France"

Idiots. And we wonder why the French aren't over keen on Americans.

I miss Le Tour already. I kind'a feel bad for Ullrich, that he wasn't more competitive. Maybe he'll get it together next year. Wouldn't count for as much if Lance doesn't ride against him though. I agree with Phil Ligget: Voelkler was the brightest thing to come out of the Tour this year (aside from the record). Wish he'd been able to hang on to the White Jersey.

Wow, what a tour, what did everone think of Filippo Simeoni passing Lance before reaching Paris, which traditionally no one challenges the yellow jersey out of respect for the sport until reaching paris & doing a ceremonally lap.

p.s. even though postal & the rest of the pelaton put him back in his place! I love the tour & its tradition of sportmanship!

[ Edited by: Tiki Bird on 2004-07-26 09:44 ]

On 2004-07-26 09:43, Tiki Bird wrote:
what did everone think of Filippo Simeoni passing Lance before reaching Paris, which traditionally no one challenges the yellow jersey out of respect for the sport until reaching paris & doing a ceremonally lap.

[ Edited by: Tiki Bird on 2004-07-26 09:44 ]

I think Simeoni was wrong, but Lance didn't have to catch him himself, he could have send someone of his team.

Where does one go to get one of those oh-so-trendy yellow wristbands? Supporting cancer research rocks. Looks like they're sold out on the website, which is just as well, since I don't want 10 of them. I'd love a child size one, 'cause, well, I'm child size.

.

[ Edited by: mcdougall on 2004-08-04 21:15 ]