Tour de France
 

OK, lost its popularity, rightfully so, but heres my picks in order.

(reserve the right to delete any who fall out due to injury:( or accusations :mad: )

Vinokourov
Pereio
Mayo
Kloden
Valverde

With the TDF starting in London and the first stage being only 40 miles from my house- I think I an the winner this year. Won't be going to the time trial in London- but I have my spot already planned out for the only hill climb on the route on the Sunday. Providing I can beat the 50,000 others that want to get to the same viewpoint.

What about Carlos Sastre, the Mastre of Disastre?

Good list-I would love to see Hincapie, at least way up there, and Chris Horner is proving to be very interesting.

I'm in the group that lost interest;) .
Really!

I still like to look at the villages they ride through. :)

Take plenty of pictures, stapfam! I really enjoyed the Tour de Georgia experience but would feel like I had gone to heaven if I was able to catch this event.

Really? I remember - here in the USA - when Bike World would have two paragraphs of Tour coverage in their November issue, and a little group of us tuned in to the BBC on shortwave in the middle of July nights to get the news. Now my local Midwestern paper prints every stage result, Versus TV has daily coverage and there are websites that have minute-by-minute updates.

TCS

PS - Record crowds at the Giro this year, BTW.

Must be the final phase of giving in to the French. First the Chunnel, and now this! :rolleyes:

I like Vinokourov as well. Also, the Astana team seams okay and performed well in the Tour de Suisse. However, a possibility is Levi and team Discovery. It is going to be interesting.

We don't subscribe to cable or satellite tv. I'm depending on you guys and girls to provide updates on the TdF. Unless there's a website for current stats, etc., and I'm oblivious to it.

I'm fond of Hincapie; obviously others here know more than I...or at least have different opinions than I...

Check out http://www.velonews.com/ and www.si.com and look under other and cycling.

[QUOTE=Red Rider]We don't subscribe to cable or satellite tv. I'm depending on you guys and girls to provide updates on the TdF. Unless there's a website for current stats, etc., and I'm oblivious to it.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/ usually has highlights of each stage.

www.cyclingnews always has good live reports and recaps.

Vino would be my top pick, but I think the race is up for grabs. Levi is looking very good this year. George Hincapie is in good form and could grab a stage or two, but I don't see him being the GC winner.

I don't know that much about it, but I will be watching it for sure.

I didn't pick Levi cause I am hearing George is looking to move to another team next year. I fear they won't have the team chemistry to make it work.

I don't see anything in US today, or local papers anymore since that Floyd, Lemond fiasco(sp).
I think whomever paid the big $ at Versus to get coverage is out looking for a job. :(

And yes I still will follow the tour..... I used to follow baseball close, but gotta admit I ain't rooting or celebrating when Barry Bonds surpasses Hank.

I think pro cycling and the US public are looking for the next Armstrong. IMHO, the doping situation has muddied the water and threw out some prospective well known candidates but is not the problem with poor coverage. If the US public and the news media lack interest, it is due to the lack of a charismatic winner. Even if we dismiss the doping, Floyd and Levi are fantastic cyclists but too low key and do not appear to have the win at all cost attitude (no cheating) and leadership that it takes to win consistantly and capture the media.

If you look at the PGA golf tour, I only watch tour events when Tiger Woods is winning or in contention. He is exciting to watch and the other guys so so. Ratings of no Tiger golf events are not as good.

I think Versus does a lousy job covering non TdF cycling but it is all we have. Yesterday in their coverage of the Tour de Suisse, they did a minimal recap of the week’s racing showing a couple of final sprints and then presented the time trial. The TT coverage was okay but a TT is a little boring on its own. Versus should put together a show similar to HBOs Inside the NFL highlight show. Versus should show 30 minutes of highlights from the racing and then show a stage in its entirety.

Last years TdF coverage on Versus was okay.

If baseball had any integrity, Bonds would get nothing but balls thrown at him until he decided to retire (without the record). He should get intentionally walked every time he steps up to the plate.

You must not remember when we had to scan the ESPN and ESPN2 listings to see if the coverage was scheduled for 3:30am or 4:00am and on which channel. Then you had to set the VCR to record a few hours beyond the scheduled time in case a game ran long or they just decided to run a fishing show instead. All this to catch a 30 minute recap of the days results hosted by John Tesh. And forget about any coverage at all of other races. The daily live coverage of the TdF and the weekly or more summaries of the classics and tours is an absolute luxury imho.

I like the racing better when there is no superstar presumptive favorite. I was never a Lance hater, but the racing got pretty boring after he dominated for so long. I like the drama of a race where we don't know the outcome. To me it's about the racing, not the hero worship.

What about the other 300-400 players who likely took various drugs during the last 8-10 years?

One lesser known factoid is that pitchers used steroids more than hitters. There are some insider guestimates that over 50% of all MLB pitchers were using drugs in the late 90s and early 2000s.

Another lesser known factoid is that a lot of marginal players doped. People tend to look at the big home run hitters as the center of the problem. But players who were playing for $15,000 a year in the minors were doping in order to make MLB rosters as middle inning relievers and reserves, where they could make $300,000, and more if they could hang around for 4-6 years.

Bonds was a late adopter, going to them after knowing that their use was widespread.

The entire era is tainted, but it is hard to blame the players when management was shutting their eyes and ears to the problem.

Cycling has had tremendous difficulties in eliminating doping even with extensive testing. Baseball didn't even bother to test for about 20 years.

+755

Absolutely. A passing glimpse of an old stone wall is better than watching a bunch of punched-up pros battling it out for the Wheaties box. Goes for all pro sports. :rolleyes:

Agreed with all the above...but, Bonds is a punk, and Hank Aaron is a hero.

If there's any justice in this world, Bonds won't take that record away from Hammerin' Hank.

No argument there. Having Hank Aaron as the record holder is classy. Having Bonds is a$$y.