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?

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?


For me, it died when Soler dropped out. I was really looking forward to watching him in the mountains.

Millar is off of the stuff.

The Schlecks still have a long way to go until they mature into even better riders than they are now.

I don't have cable.

Frenchies do as Frenchies do in "their" race: Try to grab as much TV time as possible for their sponsors.

Who else is there? (Astana doesn't count. :p)

For me, it died when Soler dropped out. I was really looking forward to watching him in the mountains.

Yeah, good point. It would have been nice to watch him battle Tricky Riccy.

I enjoyed it. Schumacher is frikkin myrmidon. He worked just as hard as everyone else in the mountains and still uncorked a great TT (I was rooting for Fabian).

We had some breaks that worked. Some cool sprints, alhough it was sad to see McEwen not have it.

And Sastre riding a cadence so low I couldn't believe it. Like he had to pretend it was a mountain to give it the juice.

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

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?

Isn't Agritubel second in the team classification?

I agree re Vaughters, it was getting to be too much. Matt White was entertaining in a unique Aussie way, though.

Isn't Agritubel second in the team classification?

I agree re Vaughters, it was getting to be too much. Matt White was entertaining in a unique Aussie way, though.

Agritubel is last in the Team Classification.

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.

^^ :lol:

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?

I concur with a couple of your criticisms, but I think this has been an excellent and entertaining tour. I would have liked to see another strong team in to give CSC more of a challenge, but I think it would be tough to top this year's edition.

This was my 34th tour that I've followed. I'm not sure when I saw my first one on TV, but in all honesty, I've never seen a bad one. There was a lot of excitement this year, the mountain stages were awesome and some of the descents were nail biters. I can't wait to buy the DVD to use while I'm on the trainer this winter!

I think it's been a great tour. The tactics at the end of stage 19 between the Spaniard and the German was as exciting as anything I'd seen in a while. And the Mastre of Disastre crushing the field up the Alpe gave me the same disoriented feeling as when the Jets beat the colts for the NFL championship. And Sastre's coughing up lung tissue in an attempt to improve his aerodynamics were truly memorable. Now if Astana would have been there, perhaps we wouldn't have seen the team effort of CSC be so dominant.

Yes this was one of the best tours I have seen.

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

So your guy didn't win this year, eh :p


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


Watch the Alpe d'Huez stage again and see how the Schleck brother made fake attacks and thereafter slow down imperceptible so that Sastre got more time gains, or how they scared the other contenders into not dragging Evans up. Especially Andy seems to ride with brass-knuckles under his gloves; when Kreuziger attacked to gain white jersey time, Andy callled off the CSC-SB counter attack and asked permission to personally attack him which he did until Kreuziger said "Uncle" and asked for peace.



Was Chavaneul(sp?) in every break?


So now attacking too much is a crime. Chavanel is a stage winner, enough said.


Why invite B. Telecom?
Why invite Agritubel?


For the same reasons American domestic teams gets invited to Tour de California.


Did McEwen have his testicles removed in the off season?

It sounds like a bit fat lie, but apparently McEwen didn't get the supporting riders he wanted so that Cadel Evans could get more support.

--
Regards

So now attacking too much is a crime. Chavanel is a stage winner, enough said.



Plus, he was most aggresive rider 3 times during the tour. He impressed me too, I'm glad he finally won a stage!

Without the dope the attacks are few and far between. So that takes alot of the entertainment value away.

I just wish Astana was in the tour. It would have been awesome to see CSC go head to head with Astana.

I was impressed with how well Chipotle and Columbia did.

Without the dope the attacks are few and far between. So that takes alot of the entertainment value away.Kicking out the dopers also leveled the field (case in point - Ricco's performance - too bad they didn't catch him in the Giro). Without the dopers it was anyone's tour right up to the last TT. I personally enjoyed the hell out of it.

...Watch the Alpe d'Huez stage again and see how the Schleck brother made fake attacks and thereafter slow down imperceptible so that Sastre got more time gains, or how they scared the other contenders into not dragging Evans up. Especially Andy seems to ride with brass-knuckles under his gloves; when Kreuziger attacked to gain white jersey time...

What sucks for me is that I can't watch Andy ride back to back fantastic Alp stages without that loud nagging voice in my head yelling "doper!"

That's not fair to him, I know, but I've been fooled by so many great performances before.

I can't wait to get over my cynicism. :/


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

I believe that's why we've seen the last of sprinting time bonuses for a while, re-adjusting is too messy.

All in all, it was a good tour. The route was especially interesting this year.

I watched every day of the tour (sometimes multiple viewings in a day) and I am going to have to come back to the harsh reality of TDF-less television in a few days. I've found this tour to be totally exciting so maybe we just watched two different races or maybe I'm just easily impressed.

I think Merlin pointed it out - the GC had six guys within a minute of each other in the last week, and the very last day of real racing was nothing short of a nail-biter. I think some of the sprints were more exciting last year (I was sort of hoping to see Hushovd and Boonen duke it out, and it would've been awesome with Cavendish thrown in there), but there were some pretty amazing performances regardless.

Sure, I'm bummed that Astana didn't get an invite and that so many big names are either retired or suspended, but not having some of the big guys really made this one a toss-up, and I've found some great new riders that I hadn't given enough attention to. Plus, it gave a hint of who the big names in the next few years are going to be.

Cadel's antics with the media were at least entertaining, VDV is a class-act, David Millar is indignant about dopers (who knew!?!), and that little punk Ricco got tossed (thank the cycling gods for that one).

As far as Vaughters goes, I might be the only one who enjoyed his commentary. I guess I just really believe in what he's trying to do with the team and maybe I give him a little slack on being annoying. Seriously, I could care less who's talking about something cycling-related on TV - there's so little of it, I'm going to enjoy every bit.

There was tons of drama in this tour. If you love the formulaic "put the blue train on the front, drill it, have lance grab a few seconds in the last few km uphill" then yeah, this tour wasn't for you.

Very enjoyable tour with a few surprises.... I just wished they could have found a way to allow the defending champion from 2007 Contador, into the race. But without his teammates, he would have had no shot of winning the tour. So he took it out on the Giro instead this year...

I was kind of impressed by Agritubel and Chavannel this year. Agritubel won a stage, held yellow, and were in a lot of breaks with Feillu. Chavannel impressed me for the same reason. I only started paying attention to him since I saw him win this years French TT.
Bouygues didn't show me anything, they're my new Euskadi-Eusaplaghidimahgquaghyi

Without the dopers like Ricco, team tactics plays a bigger role. Depends what you want.

Chavanel is always trying to get in a break. He did the same thing last year, but this time, he won stage. That's probably why he was so happy.

Only my third Tour since the 70's - I was out of cycling completely between '77 and '05. The best I've seen in my short re-experience, by a long shot:

1. I've always read that Tours are won by teams, not individuals. CSC-Saxo Bank explained that to me, in spades.

2. Maybe I'm short-sighted, but I get the feeling that Cadel should be looking elsewhere for his next contract. I seriously wonder what he could have accomplished if he'd have had a TEAM backing him. As it was, second for a solo effort ain't all that bad.

3. Yeah, next year an Astana vs. Saxo Bank (remember, CSC is out at the end of the year) head to head. Should be interesting.

4. Too much Vaughters? Remember, you're watching an American broadcast. It's our equivalent of Agritubel and Boyes Telecom - only productive and entertaining. And if Vaughters is the vanguard of clean cycling, I've got no problem with giving him airtime. Success while playing within the rules is one hell of an argument.

5. For next year, in fairness I should think the Scott-American Beef, Liquigas, and whatever they'll be calling Barloworld shouldn't be invited back. Oh yeah, only Liquigas has a chance of that happening - the other two have changed their names. The real key for making doping in the Tour too expensive to risk is immediate expulsion AND no invite the following year. You'll see an almost paranoid level of self policing within a team at that point.

6. If you've need any other example of how unpredictable the competition was, I believe the new kid was skunking the three experts on the Versus broadcast pre-show yellow jersey - all through what had to be a bunch of lucky guesses. Either that or professional bull riding is a prime training source for handicapping the Tour.

7. All the wining to the contrary, the kid wasn't too bad.

Best of all, I not only got my annual Tour de France bike built during the broadcasts (it's become a tradition, mountain bike instead of a roadie this year), but also got a second road bike roughed together - it's out this weekend for first road tests before tearing it back down and sending the frame off to the powder coater.

What sucks for me is that I can't watch Andy ride back to back fantastic Alp stages without that loud nagging voice in my head yelling "doper!"

That's not fair to him, I know, but I've been fooled by so many great performances before.

I can't wait to get over my cynicism. :/


IMHO 100% of the top 30 riders are using or have used doping products. Just because a rider looks like he is suffering and never win, doesn't mean he doesn't dope. Even after you stop using Epo you still have some speed advantage. But I do think that team CSC-SB's internal doping program makes it very difficult for the riders to use the most powerfull doping techniques like blood doping and huge Epo doses etc.
If UCI, ASO+RCS, WADA and the teams get together and make the "blood passport" work we may actually see some more progress in dampening the most rampant doping. Testers say now that at least 30% of riders are using doping products. They can e.g. say with 100% certainty that a rider dope with a Epo like product, but since the product may be brand new or unknown they can't bust the rider for it since no WADA approved test exist for that particular doping product. Ricco wouldn't have been busted if UCI had tested him since the test for MICERA Epo isn't WADA approved yet.

I do think that there where some evidence that the peleton this year was less doped than usual, but just /less doped/ not /doping free/.

But I do know the feeling of getting burned. It is hard to be emotionally invested in the sport with the nagging feeling and cynicism that all the doping is causing. On the other hand, not facing the truth helps nothing.



All in all, it was a good tour. The route was especially interesting this year.

Yes. It was some nice route changes. Hope ASO continue to experiment.

--
Regards

Chavanel is always trying to get in a break. He did the same thing last year, but this time, he won stage. That's probably why he was so happy.

Definitely went into the "cheering for small victories" department. With all the times he's tried, I really wanted to see him succeed, at least once.

Definitely went into the "cheering for small victories" department. With all the times he's tried, I really wanted to see him succeed, at least once.

His brother is one to try for the breaks also, but Sebastien wasn't able to make it to the finish this year.

Agritubel is last in the Team Classification.

You are right, I got them mixed with AG2R.

Be glad Astana was not invited.

Had Gusev tested positive at the tour and not through team tests Astana would be done.

The OP is right. I much prefer the GC leader to be booted off the race for doping. I think the same person winning over and over really adds to the excitement. There weren't enough NASCAR style crashes in this tour, either. That really keeps me on the edge of my seat. :rolleyes:

105 years. 95 Tours. And no other rider has ever - ever! - accomplished what Vansevenant has this year. The 2008 race has delivered the greatest Lanterne Rouge in Tour history.

tcs

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.

Worst tours ever would be the few where men have died. Any year when there are crashes yet no fatalities is a good year. The rest is just window dressing. It's pretty flippin' miraculous that more than 150 men haul themselves over the highest mountain passes on the continent, with hairpin turns and no guardrail, and manage to arrive alive.

Cadel - big crash, wondering if that was it on one day, gets the yellow jersey the next day
Freire - wearing green, flips over a guardrail, breaks his shoulder, back on the road the next day
Vandevelde - clean rider manages to stay within the top 6 for two weeks, beats the top 5 at the last TT
Chavanel - the "so close, but no cigar" for so long, finally gets a stage win

Nah - you're right, not enough drama. Maybe they'll have the king of the mountain juggle fire wands on the Alpe d'Huez ascent next year to spice things up.

Worst tours ever would be the few where men have died. Any year when there are crashes yet no fatalities is a good year. The rest is just window dressing. It's pretty flippin' miraculous that more than 150 men haul themselves over the highest mountain passes on the continent, with hairpin turns and no guardrail, and manage to arrive alive.

Cadel - big crash, wondering if that was it on one day, gets the yellow jersey the next day
Freire - wearing green, flips over a guardrail, breaks his shoulder, back on the road the next day
Vandevelde - clean rider manages to stay within the top 6 for two weeks, beats the top 5 at the last TT
Chavanel - the "so close, but no cigar" for so long, finally gets a stage win

Nah - you're right, not enough drama. Maybe they'll have the king of the mountain juggle fire wands on the Alpe d'Huez ascent next year to spice things up.

lol wut

Pereiro...

Yup - noticed I got the names confused....lol

hrm, best tour ever you mean? posters on these forums often don't seem to even understand bike racing!

Your NEGATIVE ATTITUDE will surely help in the demise of professional cycling coverage (here in the U.S. anyways). It is what it is (was). How could it have been better for YOU? I think everyone in that race, dopers and all are riding as best as they see fit at the time...
Imagine if American Pro sports were under the same scrutiny and testing as cycling...
All in all I thought there was quite a bit of excitement and challenge in this years tour.
I don't have cable and ended up watching a lot of it from the European coverage...
Maybe that's the difference, not as much emphasis on nationalism and personality as Versus "Stars of Cycling" show.
Thanks for your NEGATIVE whining...
Imagine next year , when you'll only be able to watch highlights of the Tour on TV every Weekend...

Imagine if the NFL was testing football players for dope, and kicking out the positives...and dont tell me football players are clean

105 years. 95 Tours. And no other rider has ever - ever! - accomplished what Vansevenant has this year.

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.

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.


I feel your pain Merl, I personally think this one was the best ever.

...Could Versus shove Vaughters any further down my throat?
could have done with a lot less of vaughters, and could always do with even less of bob roll, but otherwise enjoyed this tour immensely...

maybe due to the fact that it was my first tour with TiVo...:love:

What sucks for me is that I can't watch Andy ride back to back fantastic Alp stages without that loud nagging voice in my head yelling "doper!"

That's not fair to him, I know, but I've been fooled by so many great performances before.

I can't wait to get over my cynicism. :/




I believe that's why we've seen the last of sprinting time bonuses for a while, re-adjusting is too messy.

All in all, it was a good tour. The route was especially interesting this year.


Precisely why the dopers need to be taken out back and shot. When I see an awesome performance I want to know it wasn't epo-assisted.

Very exciting Tour; the route was fantastic. Vandevelde was outstanding. Sastre made a brilliant attack and it paid off big time. Can't wait till next year for Cavendish and Boonen to go at it. Columbia had a strong leadout most times but that time he looked boxed in but still managed to snag the win was straight out of McEwen's playbook.

I don't think I've seen a Tour where so many breakaways succeeded.

Six! different Yellow jersey winners.

As for Cadel, he can always remember Raymond Poulidor.

This tour was awesome. WTF you smokin?

I agree, great tour.

Stage 15 was the best, I could watch that again and again.

Also good to see two US teams, and both doing so well -- Columbia pulling in finish after finish, and Garmin-Chipotle making a respectable GC showing for their first year. Can't wait to see what argyle does from here out.

I don't have cable or satellite TV, by choice, so I was limited to Velonews and the forum, but I enjoyed following this one. I had long liked Sastre, and it was good to see him win this one. FWIW, I virtually ignored last year's TdF, and thought I would never pay attention to it again, but this one pulled me back. Cycle racing is the only professional sport I follow. I do love Super Bowl Sunday, but only because everyone else is inside watching TV, leaving me more room outdoors.

105 years. 95 Tours. And no other rider has ever - ever! - accomplished what Vansevenant has this year. The 2008 race has delivered the greatest Lanterne Rouge in Tour history.

tcs

Bah. I could have done a better job of the Lanterne rouge :D. Actually probably not - you actually have to finish all of the stages. My problem is that I probably couldn't make the elimination time on the prologue (if they still had one).

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.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121691877739881571.html

Great race. Enjoyed each day!!