Professional Cycling For the Fans - This Tour is seperating the real fans from the Lance effect fans

I have noticed many people saying to me things like this years tour is boring, this years tour sucks, I've never even heard of these people, etc...

It's not boring whatsoever if you are a fan of cycling, ill take any race on TV, i dont care who is racing in it i love watching it.

I think it kind of shows who are real fans and those that were just watching when Lance was riding. I enjoyed watching Lance win, and the OLN commercial with the climb hightlights from the past years tours is awesome. But enough was enough.

I have noticed many people saying to me things like this years tour is boring, this years tour sucks, I've never even heard of these people, etc...

It's not boring whatsoever if you are a fan of cycling, ill take any race on TV, i dont care who is racing in it i love watching it.

I think it kind of shows who are real fans and those that were just watching when Lance was riding. I enjoyed watching Lance win, and the OLN commercial with the climb hightlights from the past years tours is awesome. But enough was enough.

Never forget one thing, and it has been confirmed for over 100 years:

"It's the Tour that makes the stars. and not the stars that make the Tour !!!" (I think it's from Goddet, but not sure)

I have noticed many people saying to me things like this years tour is boring, this years tour sucks, I've never even heard of these people, etc...

It's not boring whatsoever if you are a fan of cycling, ill take any race on TV, i dont care who is racing in it i love watching it.

I think it kind of shows who are real fans and those that were just watching when Lance was riding. I enjoyed watching Lance win, and the OLN commercial with the climb hightlights from the past years tours is awesome. But enough was enough.


I'm semi-guilty, though not of the "Lance effect."

I'm an Ullrich fan and was looking forward to the Jan-Basso showdown, so when the news came down about the drug mess, I was pissed and summarily pronounced it the "Bore de France 2006" a few times in the opening days, but once I got over the initial disappointment and shock, it's just as exciting as any tour I can remember. I'm enjoying the hell out of it.

but when one looks at it objectively, the first week of the tour was
pretty uneventful if you are not a fan of the green jersey competition.
that said I've got to say this is a pretty weird tour, I'm too used
to one team (postal/discovery) doing their thing, controlling the whole
peloton etc.
I don't see any one team showing dominance, it's more like the tours of old
team support sure but not team domination.

I don't even know anyone else watching aside from my wife and me. I think Lance had a lot to do with getting us interested in watching the Tour, and now we're still watching daily. And realistically, this tour has been a bit boring... until yesterday. No team time trial, 11 days before we see a real hill, and no huge statement in the time trial, unless you define Levi pedaling backwards as exciting. That's and you've taken Basso and Ullrich out, and that was supposed to be the battle to watch. At least yesterday, there was some mystery in what the heck t-mobile was doing, seeing if Disco was going to make a statement and watching the other teams look a little confused about what was going on with the peloton being dropped like a rock. Imagine if the breakaway 2 had worked all the way to the 1km line, the peloton would have really been spanked. Today we'll see how AG2r reacts, and that'll be interesting. I'm guessing they didn't have a lot of plans to protect the yellow jersey today.

So sure, the Lance effect is there, but there have been a few other things working against the Tour as well.

3 things decreased interest in the first week. First, To me Operation Puerto had a huge effect. Second, no TTT to break up the flat sprint stages was a mistake. Third, was no Armstrong. To me that makes the race more interesting, but to the vast majority of Americans who never watched the TDF prior to 1999, it has the bggest effect. I'm hopeful that Landis' performance may bring some of those guys back.

People are sitting around saying, theres nobody to watch! Yeah, except like 170 other guys.

I was really looking forward to this year's Tour more than ever but when the 2nd-5th place finishers from last year's Tour were barred it took away a lot of my interest. Imagine looking forward to the Super Bowl and both team's starting QBs and RBs were barred from the game the night before. How would you feel? It also didn't help that Valverde crashed out and some riders look so weak in their dope withdrawal.

Personally, I think this year's Tour is very boring. No suspense, no excitement, nothing. I don't even recognize most of these riders' names.

I wish it was an exciting, suspenseful Tour like in 2001 or 1969.

This is shaping up to be one of the best Tours in a while. Sure I enjoyed the Lance era, but then it was a question of who would be able to drop him in the mountains and each time, not a single contender could. This one is too exciting since no one wants to even rule out a now struggling Gontchar, before the last TT. Can't even write off Levi, given his performance today. Kloden's not so hot anymore. I had thought maybe Simoni would deliver something, not yet. Sastre, we'll have to wait. Cadel Evans...there are infinite possibilities. This is indeed one of the best tours.

I have noticed many people saying to me things like this years tour is boring, this years tour sucks, I've never even heard of these people, etc...

It's not boring whatsoever if you are a fan of cycling, ill take any race on TV, i dont care who is racing in it i love watching it.

I think it kind of shows who are real fans and those that were just watching when Lance was riding. I enjoyed watching Lance win, and the OLN commercial with the climb hightlights from the past years tours is awesome. But enough was enough.

I am one of these lame-ass Lance-o-philes, but I have to say this year's tour is anything but boring! Sure, I "admit" I started watching when Lance was doing so well, and largely because of him -- but it also happened to coincide with getting into riding more myself, learning more about riding and racing.

I have to say, if anything, this year's tour is one of the most exciting in a while as all of the mystery is getting sorted out. Lots of different folks in yellow and even though today's stage may have amped things up a bit it's still far from assured who's going to take it to Paris. Many of the guys are unknowns to me but it's all the more interesting to look them up and learn more about their histories and such.

Personally, I think this year's Tour is very boring. No suspense, no excitement, nothing. I don't even recognize most of these riders' names.

I wish it was an exciting, suspenseful Tour like in 2001 or 1969.

:lol:

1982 was another close one.

I have been watching for years when you only got a few highlights on Wide World of Sports and the internet did not exist. I think every year has something exciting to watch and I was actually rather bored with Lance/Disco dominated for so long. I think the sprints in the first few weeks are a blast to watch and now we get to see the agony of the mountains. Being able to watch 2-4 hrs a day on OLN is great and the letour.fr website is fun to follow in realtime. I do miss the TTT, I think that is the best event in cycling.

This has been kind of a weird tour. But that makes it even more interesting. Every day I expect certain teams or riders to take control. And every day I'm pretty much wrong. The fact that every stage is a suprise has made this the best tour in a long time. And the best is yet to come. If Lance was within 7 or 8 minutes of the yellow at this point you knew he could take it in the last week. No such rider today. Anything could happen between now and Paris. How much more suspense could there be?

SB

I miss waiting for Lance to drop the hammer, that was the real pleasure for me watching him all those years, knowing that at some point he would make guys cry. Having a dominant American rider was an added bonus, but the Tour is and always has been my sports highlight of the year. Even my wife has stopped calling it the Tour de Farce and let friends and family know that I'm simply not available during the month of July.
My heart was rooting for Ullrich, my head said it would be Basso, and I'm both disappointed and really angry that these guys got themselves involved with the doping scandal.
And the 2-4 hours a day of coverage, even with Trautwig calling Landis "Amish" is wonderful. You younger guys probably don't remember the '80's, when you got perhaps an hour at the end of three hours of boxing on Sunday afternoon, complete with John Tesh (sp?) doing a soundtrack seemingly as important to the TV execs as Lemond making history. And seeing the 7-11 team at the Tour, although it was startling to see that as much as they dominated racing here, they were barely qualified to be in the Tour, Bobke, Andy Hampstead, Alexi Grewal, Davis Phinney, all right there with Roche, Fignon and the big boys.

I wish there weren't so many flat stages in a row during the first week. Kinda feel like the whole first week is one big prologue stage to the mountains.

I first wathced the tour back in the 80s with the CBS wrap-up shows and only recently started watching the full tour on OLN when Lance took over. So, it takes a love of cycling to actually sit thru it all. it's a great sport no matter who the players are.

the tour needed a shake up.

I am enjoying the Tour this year but I miss having Lance there in the peleton, just waiting to strike. Of course I'm pulling for Landis and Hincapie. I think Floyd has what it takes to win the Tour.

Go Floyd go!

After several years of focus on whether Lance would or wouldn't and when, I am enjoying the sense of wonderment as "What's Next?" is revealed.

...And seeing the 7-11 team at the Tour, although it was startling to see that as much as they dominated racing here, they were barely qualified to be in the Tour, Bobke, Andy Hampstead, Alexi Grewal, Davis Phinney, all right there with Roche, Fignon and the big boys.

These boys you've listed by the way were all very good cyclists. They may have been new to the racing scene in Europe and had language problems among other issues to deal with. But they all have accomplishments on par with other good euro pros of the time. Sure they were not Roche or Fignon, we were well represented in the winners circle by Lemond for that. Even Bobke is one tough rider.

I love it. I've never been big on rooting for anyone in particular. I like to watch the race, and so far this has been a great one.

How could anyone follow today's stage and say its a boring race?

I'm enjoying the tour more without Lance....I only watched last year to see him and Landis yell at one another....

I see Mr Armstong is playing golf this month...and planning to run the NY marathon in the fall....

Hau Hau Hau, pas des fathead americaines with z'air seely accents sont venus ici, eet eez great in la France zees summaire!

Hau Hau Hau, pas des fathead americaines with z'air seely accents sont venus ici, eet eez great in la France zees summaire!

Well, your father smelled of elderberries

I was really looking forward to this year's Tour more than ever but when the 2nd-5th place finishers from last year's Tour were barred it took away a lot of my interest.
+1

I am actually excited to see whos going to pop out of the woodwork.

So many flat stages has been a little boring, except for the finishes.

No team time trial is the stooopedest thing I have ever heard of.

Great, wide open race.

This year is better than last, because when they go up the mountain, not only are you wondering who's going to go off the back next, you're wondering who is going to be up front. This is as entertaining as the 2005 Giro was - but better because you don't have to pay extra to watch it.

Oddly enough I haven't missed a pedal stroke this year, at least any they have shown on TV. I watched off and on with Lance. This tour is better. I like when the field is level - makes for a much better race.

Personally, I think this year's Tour is very boring. No suspense, no excitement, nothing. I don't even recognize most of these riders' names.

I wish it was an exciting, suspenseful Tour like in 2001 or 1969.

Oh sarcastic! But 69 had its suspense. Would he win hte final stage and make sure no one else had a prize on the final day.

And what a huge contrast to 68 where going into the final stage no one was even sure of finishing on the podium! at least 4 guys at the top within a minute!

This year 11 stages 5 leaders, 6 lead changes. At least 2 breaks stating til the end and almost every mass sprint having 4 or 5 guys who are right there.

The racing is great. Now if someone says they have a hard time caring because it seems like a 'strike season' I can agree. When #1 retires and then most of the rest at the top are out it does make it seem like we are not watching the best.