General Cycling Discussion - Le Tour de Armstrong!

The 165lb. Texan Lance Armstrong has sealed up his fourth Tour de france victory! Lance has done us Texan's proud. Congrat's Lance!

Yawn...

Zzzzz...when's the Vuelta Espana?

Not from Texas, but equally proud of LA's accomplishment. The man is phenomenal.

Originally posted by threadend
Not from Texas, but equally proud of LA's accomplishment. The man is phenomenal.
Me too! In my book, anyone who can even finish the Tour de France, or any other similar race, is phenominal.

There is a sad side to Mr. Armstrong's victories. Unless it's baseball, football or basketball, most Americans don't seem to care about other sports (like cycling) unless we have a hero involved in them.

Shouldn't he be named Lance Legstrong?

It was an amazing accomplishment, but also a bit of a yawn. I like when things are close to the very end. Adds a little exitement. I thought one of best legs was when Boogerd won. He was truly ecstatic about the win.

Congrats Lance (and all who raced). I watched every stage of the tour on OLN, I was bummed to find out CBS would be covering todays stage. I was at work at the time, and didnt catch the end.

I have to say that because it was in the bag for Lance after about the mid-point, the stage wins ended up being much for fun to watch. I thought Virenque winning the Ventoux was the best moment of the Tour, and I was really happy for Boogerd, Botero and Frigo. Bummers:Sevilla, Verbrugge, Durand, not finishing and Zabel not winning the green!

Do I hear FIVE?!?!?

I am with Velocipedio and Wabbit. No one contests Mr. Armstrong's abilities, but the yellow jersey was the least exciting part of the race.

Jalabert's heroic efforts and the battle over the Green Jersey were the highlights for me--although I am sehr entäucht, very disappointed, by Zabel's loss.

But, he was ever the gentleman about it. He admitted to having made a mistake at the end in how they (the Telekom Express) set up for the sprint and he said, "McEwen was just a tick faster than I." With respect to the mistake, he started to say something like "the curve made us..." then he corrected and said, "we made a mistake (ein Fahrfehler)". Interesting change of emphasis.

Cheers,
Jamie

Originally posted by Joe Gardner
Congrats Lance (and all who raced). I watched every stage of the tour on OLN, I was bummed to find out CBS would be covering todays stage. I was at work at the time, and didnt catch the end.

I felt disappointed about that too. I was so pleased with the job OLN did every day only to be disappointed with the more shallow and obviously more commercial coverage by the network.

I want to see Lance do 6 (or more) in a row!

Carl

I've been thinking about racing in the Tour de France myself.

Now that Lance is en route to win his 5th, I think I'll skip it. I would just hate to be the guy that deprived him of something he will no doubt deserve come July, 2003.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I just don't see anyone challenging him. He'll have to beat himself, since no one else seems able or willing to make the sacrifices needed to win.

Bernard Hinault says he can win for 2-3 more years, since there appear to be no riders in the pipeline that can beat Lance. He says it really takes 2-4 years of TdF preparation before a rider can seriously hope to win it all. That means Lance has some very strong endorsement for having the ability to win 6 or even 7 in a row.

Is that unthinkable or what?

I appreciate what Mr. Armstrong has done and is doing for cancer survivors, Americans, and bicyclists. We need to strike now, whilst his public image is strong, to improve our accommodations (e.g. wide curb lanes, motorist education, etc.).

Agreed. I was reading an article on the same page as that MSNBC article, about how some athletes are choosing to do only a few major events a year, like Tiger Woods, Serena Williams and Lance Armstrong, and the effects that these "superathletes" are having on the sports. Like shrinking attendance, having to get bigger prizes, etc. And I did agree with one thing in the article- that Armstrong is in a perfect position to promote cycling in the US, but he rarely appears in any races there, whereas most Euro racers do all kinds of smaller races, crits, etc. But armstrong makes so much money he doesn't have to, and it's a shame because he could put something back into it. But after the Tour he virtually disappears. Even Indurain did races in spain, the Worlds and the national champs, even lemond did all kinds of American races. He's in a great position to promote cycling in a big way back in the US where it really needs to be promoted and it's too bad he's not doing enough of it.

Originally posted by John E
I appreciate what Mr. Armstrong has done and is doing for cancer survivors, Americans, and bicyclists. We need to strike now, whilst his public image is strong, to improve our accommodations (e.g. wide curb lanes, motorist education, etc.).
Agreed.

Well done to Lance Armstrong for winning another Tour, he makes it look so easy. I was wondering about his dominance of this particular race. Paul Sherwin spoke about Lance riding several full stages in training earlier in the year. From what I have read he trains specifically for just this race and does very few other races. It got me thinking about how Lance would go if he did a full season of cycling like most of the peleton. Obviously his preparation gives him an advantage. Most riders don't have the luxury of picking and choosing which races they will compete in, as the team boss decides.
Would he be so dominant if he had to ride a regular season?

Just a thought, but the guy is a legend!

CHEERS.

Mark

There was an article in today's Oregonian (it's probably in OregonLive, on line too) about Dr. Craig Nichols. He's the Oregon Health Sciences University physician who's the expert in testicular cancer who treated Lance. My wife worked with him (she's a hospital pharmacist), and saw him at work at OHSU on Thursday. Today, she found out that he was in Paris for Lance's triumph Sunday. It explained how he approached the treatment of Lance's cancer, and his responsibilities as a survivor, then went on to explain how Lance has set up the Lance Armstrong Foundation:

www.laf.org (http://www.laf.org)

I am very happy for what Lance has accomplished since his cure, and the hope he continues to bring to concer victims worldwide.

I watched the tour on OLN--got the channel just for that, and will return the box soon. We taped much of the tour. What struck me was that this was a tour of France. We were treated to glimpses of France I could not have gotten any other way, and the photography was nothing short of spectacular. It not only showed the bicycling, but also France itself, in a way no other television medium could match. Overall, it made my July.

Congratulations Lance, and keep up the great work.

John

The above was supposed to read "bring hope to cancer victims worldwide."

John

That's kind of what the article was saying, Dutchy. After the tour, most of the other guys go back to their season. Two days later and they're all doing crits- Michael Boogerd just won one, by the way. That's how they earn their living- most aren't paid millions and they have to race. I remember Eddy Merckx, who is a friend of LA saying that he has no idea how Armstrong just does so few races- he said he'd have gone nuts not doing the spring classics. But then again he's Belgian. ANd Bernard Hinault, when he was world champ, said that he felt that it wasn't enough to just be the world champ, he felt he had to work extra hard and be in as many races as possible, even Paris Roubaix which he really hated! I kind of agree with them, in that it seems odd to be an athlete and spend most of the season training rather than racing.

With the outcome of the Tour de France being so predictable this year, and the previous year, I found it to be the most boring Tour to date. Armstrong is good, too good, it has killed the race....yawn yawn yawn:sleep: :sleep: :sleep:

Originally posted by John C. Ratliff
I watched the tour on OLN--got the channel just for that, and will return the box soon.

Wow - I'm glad that I'm not the only one! I'm returning my box after the Vuelta though! :D

That's the good thing about the Giro and the Vuelta. The giro is totally unpredictable- you never know who will win. THis year in particular- by the end all the big contenders were gone. And the giro doesn't have the trend of repeat winners- there are no five-time consecutive winners like in the tour. Even Eddy Mercx! Same with the vuelta, except for Tony Rominger winning three times in a row and Alex Zulle twice. I love the giro best- it's just much more fun. I really felt the lack of big contenders in the tour this year, that's why so many people find it boring. I really wished Cipo was there- I wanted to see him do the opening prologue in some wacky skinsuit. I'm going to miss him! THe guy is just a hoot. Lance Armstrong may be great and all that, but he has nowhere near the style of some of these guys like Cipo.

Originally posted by wabbit
That's kind of what the article was saying, Dutchy. After the tour, most of the other guys go back to their season. Two days later and they're all doing crits- Michael Boogerd just won one, by the way. . . I kind of agree with them, in that it seems odd to be an athlete and spend most of the season training rather than racing.
FYI Lance, on the 30th July finished 1st in the
Profronde van Stiphout. Race included Cipo (4th), Boogerd(3rd),
Lombardi (2nd). I'm not sure what other Crits LA is doing but
I do know he is going to be at NYC criterium this w/e (flying
back on Concorde).

Marty

It is truly remarkable what advantages we can get as cyclists, those suffering from chronic illness and as Americans in general from Lance's accomplishments. Now, next year when he ties the record for most straight wins, the following year when he breaks that record, and hopefully when he breaks the record for most wins overall we will see a long period of increased interest in matters of cycling.

GW asked him to "Come see me" in a cell pone call immediately after the race. If Lance can get the Pres on a bicycle for a lap or two on national TV. Hmmmmmmmm.....

Carl

Well, GW Dumbkopf is a pretty fit guy and into running, so who knows, maybe he can be convinced to get a road bike.

Originally posted by velocipedio
Yawn...

Boy, some things never change Mr. V

I say, great for Lance.

Originally posted by wabbit
Well, GW Dumbkopf is a pretty fit guy and into running, so who knows, maybe he can be convinced to get a road bike.
Huh?????

Marty

Originally posted by LittleBigMan


There is a sad side to Mr. Armstrong's victories. Unless it's baseball, football or basketball, most Americans don't seem to care about other sports (like cycling) unless we have a hero involved in them.

We seem to only like what the media wants us to like. If there were more sports on the tube each of the overpaid performers would be able to demand less and all sports would be better off.

Now is the time to try and cash in on LA's victories and get more noterity for cycling. But how when he doesn't even race much here? Can we get him to race and be a spokesman for cancer surivors and bicyclists?

ok soapbox mode off

Joe

:beer: