Posted on 07/04/2009 8:09:14 AM PDT by Mom MD
Today is day one! Armstrong riding. Astana is back! Predictions? Other comments? Does someone have the ping list from last year?
LOL! Maybe we can wheedle the mods into giving us credit for the infamous lost threads.
I think you would have liked this year had you had the heart to have gotten into it (but I understand perfectly why you were reluctant to invest time in it after all the garbarge cycling fans have been subjected to in the past few years).
There was lots of 'strategerizing' & head faking & tactical jockeying behind all the riding this time. The route was fantastic - it almost seemed to have been designed to force riders & teams to brush up on their chess-playing skills as much as flex their glutes. And the sprinters were VERY well showcased this year - it wasn't just a GC riders' show as per the usual.
If they did start at Vaticano/Rome, tho, they'd probaby have to do one of their 'cheater' days traveling by plane or train, lest it take them half the tour just to get back to France.
LOL, I guess I was too.
Life’s pretty good. I’m discovering here today that my memory is apparently fading pretty fast, tho. I hope I’ll be able to remember that life was good next month! ;-)
I was just thinking how my Linguia idea wouldn't work, they couldn't dis Rome were they to do a 1st Grand Depart in Italia.
I thought it was great as there were several legitimate contenders. Unlike last year where the contenders were not riding, and it was the best of the rest so to speak.
I thought it was one of the better tours, although I thought there would be a few more fireworks on Ventoux that there actually were. I think part of it was Contador holding back to protect LA’s podium spot. As always the TT’s were great, and it was nice to see the team TT back in the tour.
We’ll see what next year looks like with the break up of Astana and the addition of Radio Shack. Garmin was a nice surprise.
doing my part for 1000! ;-)
” I have really enjoyed chatting with ya’all while we let the tour take our minds away from politics for a bit. “
My pleasure. Nice to see we can cheer on our American riders, and truly appreciate the talents of the rest of the world.
Cycling appears to be one place that the nationalities get parked to a large degree, and the athletics truly take over.
Excellent. I’ll just tuck in behind ya here in the slipstream, then.
” Great analysis!
I think I’m going to start a Team Radio Shack thread next week, so we can keep track of the progress of the making of the Team. I think the process will be very interesting.
With y’all’s permission, I’d like to copy some of your, and others’, comments in re: Radio Shack to the new thread to get it going.”
Would enjoy that. Thanks for thinking of me.
” Thought you might like to know, according to this official page about next year’s Grand Depart, the Tour starts in Rotterdam & crosses down into Antwerp. Call your relatives now to reserve the guest room, lol! “
Thanks. We lived just outside of Brussels, and routinely drove into the other countries so am very familiar with the location/city.
” Most kids in NL start on a bike before they can walk- literally, because that’s how their moms all get around every day to the market, P.O., dry cleaners etc - with their little ones strapped in tightly on the back or front or even both.”
The town we lived in had several real hills. I can remember seeing the 60+ year old coming up them on their non geared bikes, with the baskets loaded up.
Told my wife, I’m going to bow down to them when I tried it for the first time on my own bike.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t want any credit for those other threads. They had some cool stuff, but if I never see any threads go off the rails like that again, I’ll be happy.
I felt like there was less “to” this tour than in the past. It felt like there were few chances for things to really change, maybe because of how few times they ended up on big climbs, or maybe it was something else.
Wouldn’t it be nice if that were the way it was in the US? Of course I can’t say I’m leading the charge on that. I have a hard time leaving the house here in Oklahoma during July much less getting on a bike. I will say the commute when I manage to do it on a regular basis saves a lot of gas money. While I’m sweating I just try to think of how much more wine I will be able to buy on the weekend. ;)
What if we want to root for another team in next year’s tour as well? :-)
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