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American domination of Tour a sore spot to some French fans
Mercury News ^ | 20 July 2005 | BOB FORD

Posted on 07/20/2005 7:58:43 PM PDT by Dolphan

REVEL, France - (KRT) - Lance Armstrong is counting down the days now, and the rest of international cycling is counting right along with him.

"It's been great, but it's time to do something else," Armstrong said as he approaches Sunday's finish line of his seventh straight Tour de France victory.

He doesn't get any argument from the other riders who have tired of chasing the Texan for all these miles over all these years.

The American domination has become something of a sore subject, particularly in France. It is one thing for the French to be second-best to Italy, Spain or Germany - all great cycling nations - but to constantly finish behind a rider from America, where cycling is about as popular and well-understood as team handball, well, that is something else.

The French newspaper L'Equipe cattily noted the other day that if you combined the times of the top five U.S. riders in the Tour and the times of the top five French riders, the American were 3 hours, 24 minutes faster. In the interest of completeness, the paper pointed out that the home team was also behind Spain, Italy, Germany, and the states of the former Soviet Union.

(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: axisofweasels; eurotrash; ingrates; oldeurope; tourdefrance
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To: texasbluebell

It doesn't matter. He still left his wife and children for his sport.

That's not good any which way you put it.


61 posted on 07/21/2005 9:07:01 AM PDT by It's me
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To: USMA83

See post #62.


62 posted on 07/21/2005 9:08:00 AM PDT by It's me
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To: USMA83

Oooops! I mean see post #61.


63 posted on 07/21/2005 9:08:27 AM PDT by It's me
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To: Dolphan

France, a nation in decline. Get used to it Frogs, when the Islamofacists take over the only thing you are going to be good at is begging for mercy.


64 posted on 07/21/2005 9:11:27 AM PDT by John Lenin (The RATS have struck out but they continue to run the bases)
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To: saquin

I think that I just read that the U.S. Soccer team has moved up to 6th place in the FIFA rankings. Ahead of France and England. Ha!


65 posted on 07/21/2005 9:47:45 AM PDT by CollegeRepublican
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To: It's me

He hadn't even met his wife during his bout with cancer. They met when he started setting up his foundation.

Why do people struggle so hard with the fact that if someone finds something they have very specific gifts for and then they work to optimize those gifts they will be successful. Armstrong has a higher VO2 max than most other world class athletes by a good margin. That isn't something that a drug can do only genetics. He also works harder than anyone else that isn't something drugs can do only will.


66 posted on 07/21/2005 2:24:06 PM PDT by Mr. Blonde (You know, Happy Time Harry, just being around you kinda makes me want to die.)
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To: It's me

And now he is leaving his sport for his children. What category does that fall into? It would take a very strong person to walk away from making history no matter what the circumstances.


67 posted on 07/21/2005 2:25:46 PM PDT by Mr. Blonde (You know, Happy Time Harry, just being around you kinda makes me want to die.)
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To: Mr. Blonde

Then he is superman. But still, a man who leaves his wife and children for his sport is not a man of good character. No matter what history ha may be making.


68 posted on 07/21/2005 4:21:15 PM PDT by It's me
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To: Dolphan

Let the sore spot accompany their regular brown spot.


69 posted on 07/21/2005 4:22:15 PM PDT by A CA Guy (God Bless America, God bless and keep safe our fighting men and women.)
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To: It's me

That should read:

No matter what history he may be making.


70 posted on 07/21/2005 4:23:09 PM PDT by It's me
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To: Mr. Blonde; Shazbot29

There are no political differences between the 'people of Iran' and the United States. The differences are between the government of Iran and the government of the U.S. Every single expert on Iran has said that Iranians are one of the most if not the most pro-American people in the world.

Iran is a dictatorship controlled by a government who breeds on anti-American hysteria. The government has no reason to listen to the people - in fact they never do.

The government and the people are two totally separate entities. The admiration you heard for US wrestlers by Iranians is well known. During a match between the US and Iran - Iranians started chanting USA - USA.

During the soccer match between US and Iran during the world cup the Iranians brought flowers for all the American players.

Iranians are a total separate entity in the region.

Iranians are the only ethnic Persians in the region surrounded by Arabs
They're the only Indo-Europeans
They were in control of one the largest empires in the history of the world - the Persian Empire
They were our strongest ally in the region if not the world pre-1979


71 posted on 07/21/2005 11:45:23 PM PDT by freedom44
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