Tour de France 2005

Tour de France 2005 July 2nd-24th. I dont know about the rest of you, but im really looking forward to this years tour. Especially since Lance has decided to make this tour his last. Just now seeing the Discovery channel commericals for Lance. Hopefully his team will still be top notch & be able to fund/equip as good as USPS. Its alittle weird to see him in the Discovery Channel bike jersey instead of the USPS jersey. For route/race info. goto...

http://www.letour.fr/2005/presentationus/index.html

Can Lance do it again?...

TBird.

Woo-hoo! We can't wait, either. Should be a good one.

I don't think he can do it this year.
Floyd Landis jumped to Phonak, I think.
He was pretty important last year.

Plus Vinakourav is stroking hard right now. He's the best threat to the title.

Of course, you can never count out the tough Texan. He's a bitch when he needs to be.

I'll miss Tyler Hamilton in this year's race. Poor guy was SHAFTED by the UCI over a "new" blood test and told he had had transfusions from someone. Right now - there are doctors lining up to testify against that test which was forced and flawed. Too bad Tyler's out for this year's Tour - it might have been the one.

Georgie! George Hincappie is my favorite unsung hero of the tour!

And I really am enjoying Axel Merckx following in dad's footsteps! Go Belgium!

Of course, I'll be once again with you to follow it and probably as well in Paris for the arrival.
GO FRANCE...oh well

Just a reminder for those cyclist out their, OLN Tour de France broadcast starts tomorrow...

http://www.olntv.com/

Set your vcrs, dvrs, & tivos!

TBird.

I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait!

Seriously, last year we went on vacation in Ocean City, New Jersey, and we rented a house with my brother and his family and we were SO psyched when we realized they had OLN, every morning we'd get up and watch, and within a few days, my brother, and his 4 year old were HOOKED, we explained the strategy of team cycling, what this guy was doing to help Lance, and this guys role, etc. It's a beautiful day in America when a 4 year old girl knows who Lance Armstrong is, and what he's doing on his bike in France in July!

Virani, you're a lucky guy, promise to take some pictures when they get to Paris!

OK, I'm watching the pre-show this morning and there's a Trek commercial with Bob 'busy hands' Roll, Al Trautwig, Phil Ligget and the other British guy... and it's for a Trek scratch off game, and they're all scratcing their cards and winning stuff, and Bob Roll is wearing a tiki necklace!!!! Someone else please verify this when you see the commecial over the next 3 weeks!

The Discovery Channel team is pretty deep - and I think they know their roles...I make no predictions, but Lance is a pretty good bet (duh!) Odds-makers have T-Mobile at 5-4 favs - Lance and the boyz are at 7-4 (at least in London) Bettair has them both in a dead-heat at 1.9-1 I think I'm going to catch the Stage One time-trial re-run at 11:00 local time on OLN I'll look for the tiki necklace, too! What a hoot! The best time of the year to be a sports fan!! Wimbledon (Way to go, Venus!! Compton, representing!), The British Open and the Tour, all in a row!! Woooo hooo!

O.K. We have tiki-necklace confirmation!! It looks like he's wearing one of those orange/red Spencer's Gifts tiki shot-glasses around his neck!! Way cool!

http://www.spencergifts.com/proddetail.asp?proddept=drinkup&sku=491068

And did you see Lance reel in Jan Ullrich today?? He is the MAN!!

[ Edited by: PapeToaTane on 2005-07-02 14:16 ]

That looks like the one. He must have shots of "Maniacal Hand-Magic Juice" in it.

I spotted counterfeit "Live Strong" bracelets for sale at the De Anza College flea market this morning. ugh.

Man, what a great 1st stage of the Tour. Lance gets second place, 2 seconds behind the leader. And just think, Lance lost 1-2 seconds at the start of his stage when is right foot clip came off the pedal. Looking forward to seeing the team time trials in a couple of days!

TBird.

ok, I haven't seen today's stage yet...

I wonder if it's totally demoralizing to Ullrich to have Lance catch him on the first time trial? Sheeesh, that's gotta suck. But on the other hand, it's a long 3 weeks, a lot can happen. I was really amazed last year at how smart the postal service team rode, on the bad weather days, the cobblestone days, etc. The team really took care of Lance, I hope the new guys are as good as Floyd Landis and some of the other guys who've moved on. I have to figure out when todays stage is on again...

So, yesterday's stage was pretty cool. I'm actually LIKING the French tv feed, featuring, the other 180 riders who aren't Lance! He'll get his, (later today, or technically earlier today...) it's nice to see the WHOLE race, as opposed the local SF News, which shows Lance, and the sportscaster's commentary consists of "Lance Armstrong rode his bike in France today, he's in second place. Now, more about the struggling Giants bullpen..."

Apparently Ullrich was DEVASTATED by the lapping he took from Lance, he ate humble pie in the German press. I can't wait to see the team time trials when I get home today!!! I love the TTT, it's like ballet!

But the last 2 days the finishing sprints were CRAZY! Did anyone else see the Aussies going at it at the finish line Monday?? What was up with THAT? Phil and Paul calling it at the line is poetry :wink: Mr. Pineapple's favorite line is 'he seems to have gotten himself into a spot of bother...' I think he was describing a gaping wound on some guys ass!

Settle down, there. :wink:

Discovery is looking good.
Now for the "protect and serve" part of the race.

Tiki note: I logged on to the OLN Network website - and I played the aforementioned Trek Lucky Seven "scratch off" game to see if I would win a bike! It's pretty silly - it's set up like a big lottery scratcher ticket - and you "pick" your own "item" to use to scratch off the three windows. You can choose, I forget all of them - a penny, a paperclip, a horseshoe etc. - but one of the "choices" is a tiki-mug shot glass. Just bizarre!

Great team racing today! It IS a long race - but sheesh! Discovery is sure sending a message!!

I would like to win a Trek bike! I rode one of their carbon fiber demo bikes for 3 days on the AIDS Lifecycle and it was SWEET! (Trek donated a trailer full of parts, back-up bikes and 3 bike techs to the ride! The head mechanic had worked for the USPS team until he got married and couldn't spend half the year travelling)

Maybe I will try to win one! What I really want to win, is the trip to France to view the Tour!
Maybe next summer....

I rode a carbon fiber Trek once - I found it too flex-y. But I weigh 210!! Light, yeah....smooth....yeah - out of my price range - certainly. I'll keep scratching with the tiki mug and hoping.

yeah, I've heard that complaint about the carbon fiber, but it was awesome going from the steel bianchi with broken shifters, especially since I had already ridden close to 300 miles that week and had another 300 to go! The water bottles doubled the weight of the bike!

Hey, I won a keychain! Woo-hoo!!!
But I can't find any info about how I'm supposed to claim it. Oh well.

ok, I just watched the team time trial, Discovery is sending a message all right. But man, that crash at the end, that's gotta suck. I can't even imagine crashing at 35 mph and hopping up and getting back on the bike, I'd be laying on the ground in a fetal position, waiting for the ambulance :(

I went over the handlebars at 5 mph and I woke up in the ER.

GO LANCE!

Wow! What a stage!! Pretty boring, until that crash in the corner with 2.2 Km to go, which made my heart stop for a bit!! Lance passed it without incident - but - it was too close for my taste! Robbie McEwan gets my "stud of the day" award. Top sprinters all at the front - he just hit the after-burners with 50-meters to go and BAM! Took it!! Half-a-wheel! And he barely got around that crash!! God, I gotta make it over there some year! OLN coverage is not too bad.

No more luck with the tiki-mug scratcher! :(

There are Lamprey's on the Tour! Well, actually, they are Lampre-Caffita, an Italian team, Go Lampres!

Well Team Discovery Channel came back from a bad stage to help Lance retake the yellow jersey. I think its goin to be a yellow jersey roller coaster for the next couple of stages.

TBird.

OK - It was a few days ago, but GEORGIE!!! On the weekends I've been getting up super early to watch the morning stuff, and during the week I usually get downstairs and turn on the TV to see the finish, then try to watch the highlights at night. Was it Sunday George won? anyway, I came downstairs turned on the TV and heard Phil or Paul super excited about whichever Team Discovery rider was winning the stage, then they showed George, with his groovy white glasses, crossing the line! How awesome for him? I'm so happy for him, he's toiled for so long to get Lance to the finish line and he finally gets a slice of glory! YEAH GEORGIE!!!!

Anyway - things look good for Lance, I think this year has been very exciting, I'm glad T-Mobile FINALLY attacked, and I hope Vinokourav comes to Discovery next year!

Virani - are you still going to Paris? Send a report, please :)

PS - Hanford, the spell check is awesome, thanks!

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

[ Edited by: mrs. pineapple 2005-07-20 10:30 ]

yes, Georges won Sunday...it was a nice battle, I watch it live all day.
Yesterday also, a discovery channel guy won...

I've been watching all the live I could, and seeing at least the end of all days, it was great.
I guess I'll be at the final, yes. You know, I only live 20 minutes walk from the arrival at Paris.

On 2005-07-21 00:07, virani wrote:
yes, Georges won Sunday...it was a nice battle, I watch it live all day.
Yesterday also, a discovery channel guy won...

I've been watching all the live I could, and seeing at least the end of all days, it was great.
I guess I'll be at the final, yes. You know, I only live 20 minutes walk from the arrival at Paris.

I...am....so..............JEALOUS!!!!!!!!

Virani - My sister and her husband live near Stuttgart, and they went 2 weekends ago to the French-German border finish. They called me when they got back, and they were drunk and beyond excited! They were at the top of the last mountain sprint, and they said it was amazing! She was trying to talk her husband into going to Paris for the finish, and they're pretty sure that can't miss this opportunity! It's kind of funny, Lance makes it look really easy and mundane. They had a NHL hockey player on OLN yesterday, and he was talking about how unbelievable these climbs are, and they make it look so easy, etc. I guess he has been on a tour, where they ride part of the ride with Davis Phinney. Mr. P and I try to calculate some of these climbs against rides we've done, and it's like, "ok, 4 times up Mt. Tam, at 20 mph????" uhhhh yeah. NO. I'm sad it's over, what will I do????

Tommorrow's stage 20 will be the best to watch, especially for new viewers to the tour. Hoping Lance will finally get a stage win, been kinda hard to watch him mellow out for the last couple of stages with break-aways ahead of the pelaton 10 minutes plus. Also hoping Jan does well so he can be on the podium with Lance & Basso.

TBird.

CONGRATULATIONS, LANCE!! Thanks for seven great Tours!! Good show, Team Discovery!! What will next year bring? Should be interesting!

Oh - and does anybody else think that Cheryl Crow looks like she needs to throw down a few good ol' American Fatburgers? Sheesh! They say that "T.V. cameras add 15-pounds" ??? If so - then somebody kidnap that poor girl and take her to Bahooka for a big plate of ribs!! Hers are showing!

Sooo, now, Lance is not really sure about living the tour and cycling. Maybe we'll see him again next year, as he's thinkng it's the best way to anger the french (as a french newspaper found out that some of his victories might be tainted by drug use)...who knows the truth, anyway, he's a godamn good biker, that's for sure.

To make it fair, they should just pump ALL of the bikers full of drugs for the Tour, THEN we'll see a helluva race!!

I dont know if Lance has it in him to pull off another win, after this last tour, i did see some talented riders attacking him very hard & Lance not being able to deal with them as easy as in the past. As far as the drug alligations, i tend not to put to much stock in them. Virani, i thought in the past several years the French seemed to warm up to Lance.

TBird.

Why does L'Equipe(?) dislike Armstrong so much? They're always taking shots at him. Does Ullrich have a chance with Armstrong gone?

On 2005-09-11 06:48, foamy wrote:
Why does L'Equipe(?) dislike Armstrong so much? They're always taking shots at him. Does Ullrich have a chance with Armstrong gone?

They don't dislike him. They made really nice article on his victory's days. But then, they like to make troubles everywhere. I just think Lance must be as on drugs as the others, but it's easyer and more sellable to touch at a superstar.