Tour de France - Worst Tour Ever?

I thought that this year's edition of Le Tour was fabulous.

I did have a bit of trouble with the commentators for a number of reasons, most particularly their chronic anointing of the "next great generation of cycling." I guess this makes sense given they probably had at least two directives from Versus this year, one being the pay-by-play and commentary and the other to reinforce the "remaining good things in the sport." In the case of the latter, given the recent doping scenarios from years past, I guess this strategy makes sense; but I kept wanting to hear at least one of the commentators, with some degree of consistency, offer some semblance of a caveat that many of these outcomes might have been different this year given a couple of critical factors.

Yes, Cavendish is a real bad @$$, but Boonen is still rather young. I assume (hope) that he finds his way and is able to come back as strong. No doubt it has the making of a great rivalry for years to come... but again, I think its a bit premature to hand over the proverbial torch to the sprinter from the "Isle of Man" just yet.

I was impressed with Sastre and I don't want to depreciate his stunning Tour, but I cannot help but think that Contador (or to a lesser degree Levi) would have altered the outcome significantly. Given his performance (supposedly without much preparation) at the Giro d"Italia this year, its really difficult to conjecture that he wouldn't have been a monster with the season to prepare for the Tour.

And while the Schleck brothers will certainly be a force, again Contador is rather young and could conceivably stifle the commentator's prophetical future for cycling. Much like Lance, I can really see a guy like Contador keep a whole generation of great riders "riding for second".

All in all, a great race and I guess its trite of me to ponder the "what ifs". Also, I can be naive. Whatever, I enjoyed waking up every morning and turn the tube on for a couple of hours while I worked. July is Christmas for me.

i thought there was too much of Vaughters, but i don't really like him (team yes, but he just rubs me the wrong way seemingly a little too pompus and snobby)

I liked both american teams doing well (I was worried they might just be tolken teams)

Of the 4 commentators (VS) i didn't like the young guy, Bob Roll is ok to me

I loved the great stages (esp in the mountains)

Some one mentioned breakaways making it...i remeber the first stage that had a break away the commentators made a big deal about it like it never happens (because it normally doens't) then by the end it was just routine

the Johan guy as a guest commentor was good, I liked his insight

The distincly "pro-american teams" talk was to be expected i guess, but seriouly there were times where they were bashing the 3rd place guy and hearlding a Garmin guy that got 4th....like there is a different scale for the american team, like they are part of a ******** cyclist guild and we needed to stand and clap because by god look what that guy accomplished as an "american"

Cav was fabulous ... I truly enjoyed watching him every day that a bunch sprint seemed likely. I can't wait until next year when he's up against Boonen. I hope that McEwen can find a way to get team support - he's an exciting sprinter to watch in action. It's a big handicap not having that. I was surprised that he decided to stay with a team that wanted nothing to do with him. Ultimately, I found Cadel an uninspiring rider this year. Chavenel, Jens Voigt, Cancellara, and Stuart O'Grady were much more exciting to watch. And who could have predicted Schumacher's dominance in the ITTs? Great fun!

All in all, a great race and I guess its trite of me to ponder the "what ifs".

Best race since 2003. One of the better TDF's in the 33 years I've followed it.

Could it have been a better race? I would have loved to see Cantador and Leipheimer in the mix on Stage 17.

However, its possible that Cantador would have dominated the race, and it would not has been as suspensful.

We'll never know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVRhk_u14m0&feature=related

Well, it ain't over til the doping tests are in.

that's the one thing I'm a fearin'

Overall I enjoyed it. It was definitely low key but That's okay imo. Only a few doping busts and Cavendish was exciting to watch, which was nice given Boonen's absence. No crazy attacks by Jens Voight, but maybe even more fun watching him put all his oomph right alongside Cancillara's, O'Grady's, et al.

I kinda wish Ciolek and Zabel woulda got a stage each. McEwen too....but the old boys have had their days and Ciolek will certainly have more to come.

If I see another Saab commercial that says:

"We recycle exhaust into energy" I think I'm going to go nuts. Next year I will have a standing sheet to check how many times they play certain commercials.

Other than that, Le Tour was boring to me this year...

If there wasn't a TdeF you'd all be complaining even more!
The worst tours ever? 1940 to 1944, there weren't any due to something called World War II (some of you may have read about it?) and 1914 to 1918 because of the 'war to end all war' (Yup, WW #1.
Qwityerbellyachin already!

I was impressed with Sastre and I don't want to depreciate his stunning Tour, but I cannot help but think that Contador (or to a lesser degree Levi) would have altered the outcome significantly. Given his performance (supposedly without much preparation) at the Giro d"Italia this year, its really difficult to conjecture that he wouldn't have been a monster with the season to prepare for the Tour.

I agree, but one thing that shouldn't be underestimated is just how great a tour Sastre had. According to VeloNews, it was the fifth fastest average in tour history, although this has to be mitigated by the individual tour routes and their difficulty, weather conditions, technological advances, etcetera... Still, Contador may have had his hands full too on this one.

Overall Tour speed
This year’s Tour was the fifth fastest in history, with an average speed of 40.5 kph.

The top 11 fastest Tours
41.654 kph: Lance Armstrong (2005)
40.940 kph: Lance Armstrong (2003)
40.784 kph: Oscar Pereiro (2006)
40.553 kph: Lance Armstrong (2004)
40.492 kph: Carlos Sastre (2008)
40.276 kph: Lance Armstrong (1999)
40.070 kph: Lance Armstrong (2001)
39.983 kph: Marco Pantani (1998)
39.920 kph: Lance Armstrong (2002)
39.572 kph: Lance Armstrong (2000)
39.504 kph: Miguel Indurain (1992)

I was there last year and saw it all up close.

Sastre has paid his dues and he deserves it.

Evans is a choke artist. A very good cyclist but a choke artist.

CSC is a powerhouse FULL of talent that cannot be matched.

Shumacher must have been practicing his TT in the offseason.

That dude that ran off the road over the side of the road off the mountain gets the BAMF award.

The "road furniture" was the highlight of the race for me. That SL2 in 3 pieces was epic.

JV dropping the F-Bomb was classic. WHEN I see him in public I will remind him of it.

I enjoyed it. I will watch it forever regardless.

I think it was a very good tour. OP might need a laxative.

being the 2nd tour i've watched(2005) and the first I actually watched almost every stage on I thought it was very entertaining especially stage 17 and then the time trail to decide.

The french newspaper, LeParisien, followed an American cyclist who was riding solo in memory of a friend and as a fundraiser for disabled athletes. The rider, Jesse, completed the entire tour. One of the video links to the French paper is http://videos.leparisien.fr/video/iLyROoafYXAy.html
There are several other news links listed on the website, www.ricksride.org

The daily blogs are very well written. This rider gave the TDF a whole new humanitarian side and made the mundane parts of the official tour take a background place for me this year. Jesse is interested in making this a relay next year. Any interested riders out there???

All in all I think it's been a decent Tour, I've enjoyed watching the SlipStream(Garmin/chipolte) team who being a young team I think have made a pretty decent showing. It's unfortunate there really wasn't anyone to hang with CSC. Least I won't have to hear anymore Saab ads.


Or rum ads! I swear I am hearing that song in my sleep. But overall a pretty good tour.

For those who wish to laud Mr Vansevenant's accomplishment this year, the WSJ has an article on him.... Apparently he does a good job as a domestique, it just isn't reflected by his finishing times.

Yup. He does pacing, handles water bottles, and all the other stuff... then when his job is done, he just hangs back to save himself for the next day to do the same. The tour at one time I think started disqualifying the last place overall rider at the end of stages to discourage the attention the red jersey was getting.

Man, this race had zero personality. Never have I been so apathetic about an outcome.

Evan's choking was a little bit of drama.

Where the hell was David Millar? Did he die sometime in the middle of the race?

Could the Schleck brothers be anymore boring than they presently are?

Could Versus shove Vaughters any further down my throat?

Was Chavaneul(sp?) in every break?

Why invite B. Telecom?
Why invite Agritubel?





Did McEwen have his testicles removed in the off season?


exactly what race did you watch? That was the best race I've seen since 2003

7 different leaders, 6 men within a minute after the second rest day, 5 men with a real shot at the podium on the last day...

what happened to Robbie was Mark Cavendish, did you not notice?

maybe if we put in some explosions and car chases you would have liked it more?

maybe you should stick to watching football. sounds more your speed.

I thoroughly enjoyed this Tour but it was missing some legitimacy without Astana. There was no way CSC could have bullied around the peloton with Astana there.

If I see another Saab commercial that says:

"We recycle exhaust into energy"...

With the sound off it was beautifully filmed. The woman and man in the car weren't wearing wedding bands, so I think they were brother and sister.

tcs

I thought it was great and really enjoyed watching.

Sure is a lot of whining on this board last two days. You guys whine this much when you race? If so, and if I do start racing I'm going to have to invest in some ear plugs...

;) :D

Cycling throws the dopers out. Other sports put their dopers into the Hall of Fame.

That's 3 red jerseys in a row him isn't it? Yet teams keep hiring him to ride the tour... Must take talent to be able to finish dead last but yet ride fast enough not to get disqualified and make it into Paris.

Ah, you don't understand what Vansevenant was doing, do you? Go read my posts in the Lanterne Rouge thread for a little cycle racing education.

tcs

I thought it was great and really enjoyed watching.

Sure is a lot of whining on this board last two days. You guys whine this much when you race? If so, and if I do start racing I'm going to have to invest in some ear plugs...

;) :D

Whining on the web is very commonplace, and actually encouraged. When you're semi-anonymous, you can get away with more. :lol:

The stage up L'Alpe was fantastic.

CSC put on a clinic on team tactics.

The race was in doubt until the last half of the final TT

A new dominant sprinter was corrinated.

Yeah the tour sucked.

It was not won by an american. An american sponsored team showed a good sprinter, but he was a Brit, not an American.

The Tour sucked.:innocent:

Oh and just how many different riders wore yellow? Very close to the most ever.

But The Tour sucked.:innocent:

If there wasn't a TdeF you'd all be complaining even more!
The worst tours ever? 1940 to 1944, there weren't any due to something called World War II (some of you may have read about it?) and 1914 to 1918 because of the 'war to end all war' (Yup, WW #1.
Qwityerbellyachin already!

The TDF was not run from 1940 to 1946. The 47 Tour was missing far more when it comes to riders than this years tour by a mile as it excluded the top 2 riders in the world at the time, 2 riders that almost always make the top 5 of all time.

I watched it every day and enjoyed it. The continuity of the "yellow jersey peloton" was monotonous, but it may be the way things will be in a drug-free tour.

What I admired the most was Sastre won it with huge nads on the L'Alpe and then kept it by doing what they said he couldn't - nailing the time trial. Here's to hoping his tests all come back negative, if so - he's my new hero.

As far as the commercials - I wore out my "mute" button. Between that dumb-assed rum dance and those annoying pricks in the Saab, I was ready to shoot myself.

I really enjoyed watching the Tour this year. It was exciting until the end, which is a nice break from earlier Tours, especially those featuring Lance. That got a bit old after a while. This year's Tour when through some of my favorite parts of France, and there was a good variety of stage winners and personalities. The coverage was pretty good, too. I'm looking forward to the Vuelta.

i thought there was too much of Vaughters, but i don't really like him (team yes, but he just rubs me the wrong way seemingly a little too pompus and snobby)

I liked both american teams doing well (I was worried they might just be tolken teams)

Of the 4 commentators (VS) i didn't like the young guy, Bob Roll is ok to me

the Johan guy as a guest commentor was good, I liked his insight

The distincly "pro-american teams" talk was to be expected i guess, but seriouly there were times where they were bashing the 3rd place guy and hearlding a Garmin guy that got 4th....like there is a different scale for the american team, like they are part of a ******** cyclist guild and we needed to stand and clap because by god look what that guy accomplished as an "american"

You don't watch much cycling, do you? :rolleyes:

You might not Jonathan Vaughters, but it is an American team from the ground up (Columbia is Telekom moved to California) doing far better than expected in their first tour, promoting clean cycling and eating burritos. JV was also a pretty damn good rider in his day. When they interview him, might be a good opportunity for you to run to the fridge or take a bio-break or something if it annoys you.

What are tolken teams? Hobbits? ;)

Bob Roll was also a very good cyclist in his day, and a good character that knows a helluva lot about it, and does a good job. Craig Hummer was necessary, as you need at least one 'anchorman' commentator to provide technical things like segues, intros, vo and be the 'voice of the casual fan' asking questions that Bob, Paul and Phil couldn't ask each other, but casual fans might wonder (like, why are they so-and-so). Necessary evil, if you will.

That "Johan guy" was not only a damn fine rider, but also DS for 8 Tour Champion campaigns. Not exactly some guy off the street.

What you saw was reaction versus expectations. Take the last TT for example, Cadel should have beaten Sastre by more than two minutes. Even though Cadel still outran him by about 30 seconds, it was seen as a bad ride by Cadel and a great ride by Sastre.

No, I will not shine, shine on! :twitchy:

By the way, am I the only one here who got the feeling that the French television network had someone producing the show this year who actually cared about what came through the camera viewfinder? I was seeing a lot more artistry in the camera handling over the last couple of years, beautiful overhead shots as the pelaton broke for a traffic island, long picturesque shots that bordered on a travelogue - and these were a day to day occurrence.

This year's television actually had me wanting to tourist through a lot of the areas the Tour passed through. The last two years definitely did not.

By the way, am I the only one here who got the feeling that the French television network had someone producing the show this year who actually cared about what came through the camera viewfinder? I was seeing a lot more artistry in the camera handling over the last couple of years, beautiful overhead shots as the pelaton broke for a traffic island, long picturesque shots that bordered on a travelogue - and these were a day to day occurrence.Maybe one cameraman. The rest just showed the legs of riders because they couldn't figure out the viewfinder. Kind of like grandma cutting off everyone's head with her polaroid. :)

Oh, and jerking the camera around to not show the giant penises painted on the road or whatever.

it was an alright tour, the sprint finish between quickstep and columbia was amazing, aple d'huez really sucked,
evans may have been fitigued but he should have won if he really worked for it.
what the hell was up with sastre leaving CSC's yellow jersey on the climb?!?
wish i got to see garmin get a stage, christian on the podium and millar with a TT win.

I thoroughly enjoyed this Tour but it was missing some legitimacy without Astana. There was no way CSC could have bullied around the peloton with Astana there.

yep me too.i said the same thing. put astana in there and csc gets their arses handed to em.

It was beautiful.

it was an alright tour, the sprint finish between quickstep and columbia was amazing, aple d'huez really sucked,


You're revealing the depth of your ignorance.

what the hell was up with sastre leaving CSC's yellow jersey on the climb?!?



I hope you're trying to be sarcastic. If not, this has only been explained about 50 times.

Sastre was farther down on GC than Schleck, so there was a better chance Evans would let him go.

Sastre's attack then put Evans in a dillema. Either chase Sastre and possibly blow, giving time to Schleck in the process. Or mark Schleck and hope he limited his losses to Sastre, knowing he could gain time in the final TT.

CSC knew they had to put time into Evans. Had they simply defended Schlecks jersey, he would have worn yellow one more day, and then lost a big chunk of time in the TT, and Evans win s the TDF.

CSC had 3 cards, they played them perfectly on Stage 17 and gained enough time to win the TDF.

What part do you still not get?

The only thing that sucked about L'Alpe d'Huez is that I wasn't there in person, half drunk out of my mind, running around in a bikini top and yelling at the riders as they went by. There are just some things that you don't do when you're over 50 years old, at least not without the help of alcohol. :o

this years tour was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!! not for one sec did i see some fore gone conclusion, ie LANCE will take it in the hills for example.. about 4 teams had a great shot. it was a real bike race this year. and even with the dope it was handled well enough. Garmin and High Road really impressed as did CSC with switching tactics so well.

good show!!!

Everyone's entitled to their own opinions, but was it really more fun when we knew in the prologue who would win (LA), and nobody every mounted a serious challenge to him?

yep me too.i said the same thing. put astana in there and csc gets their arses handed to em.

Would have been awesome if they brought Gusev.

I hope you're trying to be sarcastic. If not, this has only been explained about 50 times.

Sastre was farther down on GC than Schleck, so there was a better chance Evans would let him go.

Sastre's attack then put Evans in a dillema. Either chase Sastre and possibly blow, giving time to Schleck in the process. Or mark Schleck and hope he limited his losses to Sastre, knowing he could gain time in the final TT.

CSC knew they had to put time into Evans. Had they simply defended Schlecks jersey, he would have worn yellow one more day, and then lost a big chunk of time in the TT, and Evans win s the TDF.

CSC had 3 cards, they played them perfectly on Stage 17 and gained enough time to win the TDF.

What part do you still not get?

i never had understood the mentality of posting on a message board with the express purpose of ripping someone a new ******* when their views differ or they don't have the same perceived knowledge as you do.. Do you get dropped a lot in group rides? Does this make you feel better? Why the hate? Maybe you need to buy some Extenze?

FWIW, i agree with this article.

Johan (http://www.bicycling.com/tourdefrance/article/0,6802,s1-7-623-17684-1,00.html)

When you start a thread with a trolling title, then follow it up with ignorant (in the literal sense of the word) posts, expect be trolled on.

Let me ask you this, if this is the worst Tour ever, how many have you followed?

When you start a thread with a trolling title, then follow it up with ignorant (in the literal sense of the word) posts, expect be trolled on.

Let me ask you this, if this is the worst Tour ever, how many have you followed?

i didn't follow it up with any posts. i have followed it since Lemond won his first.

If you disagree that is okay, I don't really care, but I am not the only one who thinks:

1.) The Tour's organization is it's own worst enemy. Lack of consistency in the way they govern DOES have an affect on the quality of the Tour. How hard did they pursue Moreau when he dropped out for phantom back pain? Why is Rabbobank in the Tour? They had the most egregious lapse in judgement last year. They knew their rider wasn't where he said he was and they STILL tried to sneak him under the radar. Until the Tour organizers find some method to the madness in the way the govern the race is going to suffer. W/O Astana the Tour was minor league. One team dominating the mountains and one dominating the sprints. it didn't have to be that way. At least when you had team disco you had the "chance" someone would come along and dethrone Lance. See 2003. i was one of the few americans probably hoping someone would beat his smug ass.

2.) The breakaways were awesome, but the GC battle was painfully boring. Just because they were all separated by 49 seconds does not make it exciting. Other than Sastre's Alpe de Huez climb, ( after he sit in for the whole of the Tour up until that point ) the climbing stages were nondescript. everyone seemed to be content with status quo which was sitting on the wheel of the rider in front of him? i guess menchov tried but couldn't manage to stay upright....yawn...

3.) other than Cadel being a jackass in general, the rest of the GC had as much personality as an accountants convention. No brash predictions, no duals which defined the race, just a lot of guys afraid to risk their position.

Given that you've followed it since Lemond, how many tours since 86 were better than this year? I'll give you 1989, 1999, and 2003 off the bat. 2006 could have been better but for Landis' positive.

But the Indurain years certainly weren't any more exciting than this year's tour. Most of Armstrong's wins weren't either.

When your phrasing of the thread is way over the top, expect it to draw a negative reaction, which it did from about 90% of the people that responded.

And I mistakenly attributed the follow up post on attacking the Yellow jersey to you because that's the one you took offense to my response to .

Given that you've followed it since Lemond, how many tours since 86 were better than this year? I'll give you 1989, 1999, and 2003 off the bat. 2006 could have been better but for Landis' positive.

But the Indurain years certainly weren't any more exciting than this year's tour. Most of Armstrong's wins weren't either.

When your phrasing of the thread is way over the top, expect it to draw a negative reaction, which it did from about 90% of the people that responded.

And I mistakenly attributed the follow up post on attacking the Yellow jersey to you because that's the one you took offense to my response to .

Right, i don't really give a **** if people disagree. That is their right. I just think flaming people that really aren't yanking your chain is adolescent. You can disagree and not be a dickhead about it.

such as,

"yeah, this tour sucked..."

Something a 12 year old would post. But this is the culture that is the internet. people post **** that they would no more say face to face because they have anonymity.

Such as,

"You are proving the depth of your ignorance"

Just uncalled for.

Man, this race had zero personality. Never have I been so apathetic about an outcome.

Evan's choking was a little bit of drama.

Where the hell was David Millar? Did he die sometime in the middle of the race?

Could the Schleck brothers be anymore boring than they presently are?

Could Versus shove Vaughters any further down my throat?


Was Chavaneul(sp?) in every break?

Why invite B. Telecom?
Why invite Agritubel?

Did McEwen have his testicles removed in the off season?


The tour sucked because-
David Millar may not have been a gc contendar, but did you miss Vande Velde taking his place?
The Schleck Brothers were boring? Do you mean that because Andy won the white jersey while supporting his brothers yellow was boring?
Vaughters makes not only his team, but himself open to the media.
Cofidis was in every break, but one.
CSC pu ton a team clinic in the mountains, and no one answered the call, except another member of the team.
A bunch of riders and a wide open possibility of a new GC without Contador there made it exciting for me.

Right, i don't really give a **** if people disagree. That is their right. I just think flaming people that really aren't yanking your chain is adolescent. You can disagree and not be a dickhead about it.

such as,

"yeah, this tour sucked..."




Something a 12 year old would post. But this is the culture that is the internet. people post **** that they would no more say face to face because they have anonymity.

Such as,

"You are proving the depth of your ignorance"

Just uncalled for.

Well you started out with the proposition it was the worst Tour ever.

I, and others have give substantive reasons why you're wrong. Rather than rejoin with a rebuttal, and support for your position, you're the one that has chosen to resort to ad homenins.

I ask again, other than 89, 99, and 2003, give me some Tours in your post Lemond frame of reference that were better than this year.

And as for "the depth of your ignorance" I mistakenly thought that BradyV was the OP, rejoining with another off base comment. Hence the depth of ignorance. To Brady I owe an apology, he was only begining to scratch the surface of ignorance.

And by the way, if you think I've been rough here, I'd suggest not visiting the road forum.

And by the way, if you think I've been rough here, I'd suggest not visiting the road forum.

I always thought you came across as a lil' old pusseycat! :lol:

Speaking of camera work, there was one shot that, literally, took my breath away. There was a helicopter shot of the riders climbing near the top of the "middle mountain" in Stage 17, the Coix de Fer. The shot, from foreground to background, was face of the slope, road, riders, crowd, slope. All of a sudden, as it's scrolling across the screen, the "remaining mountain" behind the crowd disappears and it looks for a second like the crowd is standing on the razors edge of a mountain. It was only a couple hundred meters before the top and it was spectacular.

Yes, that shot was amazing--I think I got vertigo just watching it.

This for me was a great tour, made better by the fact that I could watch the utterly stunning scenery in High Definition as Eurosport started broadcasting in HD just in time for the Pyrennees!!! Man, you should have seen the Galibier...

Not only that I just thought that the close racing, the emergence of a sprinting star, the capture of a doper who thought he would be undetected and a tour winning attack on the most iconic climb really made it great :)

Definitely not "the worst tour ever". Actually a pretty darned good one.

Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to* Axel Merckxx:
ASO, the format was great! No fake prologue and no time bonuses. Excellent.
ASO, we really missed Astana. You had the chance to stage the greatest team-on-team match in the history of cycling and blew it in a fit of pique.
ASO, you got rid of the (obvious) dopers. Hooray!
Many 'big' names underperformed this year. I take that as a sign that doping is now widely considered to be too risky.
CSC is a great team. Why do I find them so annoying?
Mark Cavendish is simply amazing! And the second-best sprinter in the world seems to be on the same team!
How dare Beijing schedule so close to Le Tour??
Christian Vandevelde hasn't gotten enough credit. Imagine what he'd do with a stronger team (IMO the Burrito Boys may be good enough but lacked the experience to support a serious challenge).
Both 'new' American teams have impressed many riders on the ProTour, not only with results but with the programs and team spirit. Look for some big-name signings at the end of the season.


Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to* Al Trautwig:
Hummer wasn't terrible, but I still want Al back.
How dare Beijing schedule so close to Le Tour??
Were Bobke's wife and kids really being held hostage to ensure his good behavior? What's so wrong about insulting the French? They deserve it.
Johan started weak and ended strong. I think he's got a job should be ever tire of winning Tours. I'm gonna buy his book.
More from Paul about the amazing helicopter shots, please. France just may be the most beautiful country in the world.
Versus coverage needs a new director. The 'Jollity Fair' flavor of the face to face segments made the whole group of them seem to be idiots.
I really do hope that Phil rewrites the Surrogate Maillot Jaune rules for next year. Yawn!
Okay, we've got HD (sortuv). Now how about 16:9?
HOW many days until the next Tour? Can we get the Vuelta on TV?? Please?




*20 points to anyone who can identify who's signature tagline this is.