Posted on 07/05/2008 7:43:02 PM PDT by Cecily
The Caisse d'Epargne rider caught Luxembourg's Kim Kirchen to finish ahead of Belgium's Philippe Gilbert, with Jerome Pineau of France in third.
Valverde, 28, is one of the favourites to win the Tour, along with Australian Cadel Evans, who finished sixth.
Britain's David Millar came home in 11th while Mark Cavendish finished two minutes back in 120th place.
Local boy Lilian Jegou and Spaniard David De La Fuente spent 185km of the 197.5km race from Brest to Pulmelac in front but were caught by the peloton with 7km remaining.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
No worries, if anybody but France wins this thing, they will be banned from receiving the prize because of drug allegations. ;-)
Venus and Serena Williams won the women’s doubles final at Wimbledon, so at least we’ve got that going for us. :)
We do need another serious T de F contender from the USA.
I'm not up to speed yet... why is there no Prologue this year? And what happened to the time bonuses? Is George Hincapie the "leader" of Team Columbia?
Ditto
Spain is on quite a roll right now.
Now, if I can just remember to catch it when the Tour is broadcast. Strangely, I actually enjoy watching it more now that His Lanceness is no longer competing.
I’ll try to post a thread when I can, and maybe someone else can help out...
First time since (I think) 1967 that the Tour has started without a Prologue. No wimpy warm-ups this year - get right into the racing.
Where’s Al Trautwig? This Hummer guy is insipid and squeaky-voiced...
Ed
Trautwig is doing the US Olympic Trials for NBC.
I liked the race without a prologue, I think the route they chose for stage 1 was absolutely terrific. A rolling stage with a tough climb at the end, it was reminiscent of an Ardennes classic, which makes sense because finishing 1st was 2 time Liège-Bastogne-Liège winner Valverde.
Today’s stage also was not a standard sprinter’s route, and although many non-sprinters including Cancellara tried, the stage was won by Hushovd, whos team NEEDS some wins as they are looking for a new sponsor for 2009.
Tomorrow’s stage looks to be totally flat, and it has to be considered Mark Cavendish’s or Robbie McEwen’s to win. Don’t count out the other pure sprinters, but it is going to be a bunch sprint.
A pure time trialer like David Millar could be in yellow after Stage 4, but Super Besse (Stage 6) is going to shake the pretenders from the contenders.
My cable company took off versus to add yet another hunting/fishing channel :yawn:
True. I wish I had been able to watch the Wimbledon men’s final yesterday.
That was the first tennis match I watched in about 20 years, and it was a classic!
Great race yesterday, wasn’t it?
Vande Velde was great, the finish, spectacular...what acceleration!
Too bad there were a couple of bad crashes. The French guy who broke his wrist, that was his first TDF!
Man, Hummer’s voice REALLY grates on me!
Ed
Tomorrow will tell the tale. It is a short time trial and we’ll see who is really going to contend. Today was a surprisingly good stage and the breakaway group stood their ground. The American rider is actually in third place overall and I’ll be very interested to see what he does tomorrow.
There are two American teams but only four American riders. I truly hope we have seen the last of the doping scandals. So far, so good.
I miss Trautwig as well. I hope he is back next year. But it is still a great tour anyway. This is the gold standard of cycle racing and dwarfs everything else.
Things can get weird though, and hearing a finish without Phil Leggett was sadly short of spectacular.
Speaking of weird --- can't wait for the zaniness of the hills...
Borat goes to France?.....................
It is good to see le Tour all month, kind of like a vacation, in a way. I, too, am pissy about the whole Landis farce. I had a sad feeling they'd string him along, let him appeal, and then lower the boom. And others are conspicuous by their absence. We had storms over the weekend, so my reception of the first 2 stages was blocky and interrupted. I heard a French guy won one of them - gee, I'm shocked. Still, I'll be tuning in and grateful you can ping us!
What is new with Landis?
Last month, Landis learned that he lost the appeal of his doping case, which meant that he lost his 2006 Tour de France winner title. He is also suspended from competing for two years.
So is he a lier?
Great time trial today. Some of the big names didn’t do so well.
Both American teams are keeping people up near the top.
Things can get weird though, and hearing a finish without Phil Leggett was sadly short of spectacular.
Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen have been doing the live coverage every morning on Versus... how did you miss Phil?
Same here... I'm not convinced he's "guilty", but no matter, he's gone and I assume his cycling career is ruined forever.
What about Contador's win last year? Is he still the winner? Who is now the winner of the 2006 TdF? I love the Tour, but this is all getting ridiculous. We invest all this time each July following this marathon, then we don't even know who the true winners are...
Same here... I can't stand him! I really miss Al Trautwig, but I assume he's off getting ready for the 2008 Olympics in China.
I like Bob Roll, but it's not The Tour unless I hear daily commentary from the great Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen (live morning broadcast on Versus). I don't get why Versus deletes Phil & Paul's commentary for the evening "expanded" broadcast and insert commentary by Bob Roll and the grating Craig Hummer.
Ideally, I think I'd like a live broadcast with Phil, Paul and Bob Roll. And NO Craig Hummer...
Who knows? He claims he is innocent of the doping charges.
I watched the early broadcast and never heard Phil or Paul once. I had to leave at about 20k from the finish. In the evening I watched the replay and the finish was called by Roll and a voice I’ve never heard before.
Huh? I don't understand... I've watched the LIVE broadcast every day since the Tour started and heard Phil and Paul exclusively. (Usual start time: 8:30 or 8:00AM ET / 5:30 or 5:00AM PT)
There is a pre-race show (runs 30 min) before each race with discussion by the "panel": Craig Hummer, Bob Roll, Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen. The evening reply is called by Bob Roll and Craig Hummer (grating voice). Al Trautwig isn't hosting the Tour this year, unfortunately.
I don't understand why you're not hearing Phil and Paul during the live morning broadcasts. Perhaps you're getting some kind of different Versus feed on the west coast? I assumed Versus runs in real time across all time zones...?
Wow, if I couldn't hear Phil and Paul call the race each day, I would be e-mailing Versus, complaining about it big time... :-(
It wouldn’t surprise me if French media pressure starts to come down on Stefan Schumacher like it did Rasmussen last year, especially if Schumacher keeps the yellow jersey through the Pyrenees.
Cycling fans may recall that Schumacher had a funny doping test result before the World Championships last year, the funny result was blamed on an illness and Schumacher was cleared to race. Then, he finished on the podium of the World Championships despite having an illness. Now, he pulls out an uncharacteristic time trial win where he not only beats everyone, but by a bunch of time...over the best time trialists in the world.
If he cracks on the finish at Super Besse, then no big deal, then, because perhaps his win can be attributed to him putting all his energy into that and leaving nothing for the next couple days. Anything else is going to be treated with suspicion.
I like the idea of having one thread on FR for the whole Tour.
I heard them at the end of the TT today - maybe the last four riders.
pls add me to your ping list if you post TDF threads
Thanks!
Yo R4F! Where you at?
I agree. I like Bob Roll, but if I don't get to hear the Tour called primarily by Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen, I probably won't watch at all.
For the life of me, I don't understand why Versus deletes Phil's and Paul's live commentary for their "expanded" night show and inserts that boring and slow commentary by Bobke and Craig Hummer...
I think that's how Versus does it on the evening prime time shows. They take out all of Phil and Paul's commentary from the morning live race, insert Bobke's and Craig's (yawn) commentary, then give the viewers only a few minutes of Phil & Paul at the tail-end of the race. Strange format, in my opinion...
Watch, tape or Tivo the morning live version if you can (unfortunately 5AM PT for you)... you WILL hear the race called exclusively by Phil & Paul.
I simply can’t watch the evening broadcast, even though I would have loved to have seen Bobke’s b’day party celebration.
Craig’s voice and delivery is just to whiney, squeaky and whispy.
By the way, they sure the heck are playing a LOT of ads during the Tour!!
Ed
Phil and Paul are masters, aren’t they? I truly believe that they could announce ANYTHING, soccer, football, Deadliuest Catch or bowling, and I’d be entranced.
It’s wonderful seeing such true professionalism from that team.
One of them lives in Africa, by the way, and owns a diamond mine!
Ed
The switch in announcers for the 8PM show is nothing new, they’ve been doing it for years. I actually watch both when I can, because I love to hear the analysis from both Sherwen and Roll — both Tour riders who love to share stories from their time as professionals.
The clip reel of Bobke “highlights” on his birthday was fantastic — although I’ve seen many of those clips before.
I was hoping when Craig and Bob had Greg LeMond on for a chat the other night, that it would lead to a funny Bob Roll story from 1986 — specifically, the helicopter ride shared by LeMond, Hinault, Roll, and Hampsten after a mountain stage — but alas, no. Pick up Bob Roll’s book if you want to read about that one.
Heya luvvy! I’m here, but barely mustering interest. 2006 was about it for moi.
Whew! That’s a relief!I was worried about you!
I wasn’t sure I was going to get excited either this year. I decided to go ahead and watch the first day so, naturally, I am hooked now. I just can’t resist the sound of Phil’s and Paul’s voices early in the morning! :-D
You’ve gotta love Phil after the unbelievable sprint finish on the first day! In describing Valverde’s ascent to the front he said, “Just look at that acceleration! He’s riding like someone scalded his behind!â€
Thanks for the ping. Interesting.
And me too, to add to your TDF, if it exists, ping list.
ESPECIALLY since one of my favorite companies, from Oregon, Columbia Sportswear, is kickin’ butt with Hincapie and Cavendish!
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