donrhummy

While Floyd's team was not that strong, you have to give props to Hunter. A few reasons:

1. Hunter crashed in May and required pins in his shoulder. As a result, he did almost ALL of his training for the Tour de France on an INDOOR TRAINER!

2. He did the entire final TT standing up because of saddle sores. Ouch.

https://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?s...5518934C841751

The first one though - man! That's dedication.

bikingshearer 

I'm disappointed that the TdF judges didn't give him an exemption fromt the time cut-off, which they have in their power to do. (I believe that a certain Paul Sherwen benefitted from such an exemption once.) Regardless, that is yet another story of how tough the pros are.

And I love the idea of Eddy putting down a bet on Floyd after the Big Bonk. I knew I liked Eddy . . . .

user0ne

they have been prejudice towards america for sometime now, my guess would be well after they gave us the Statue of Liberty in 1886


got this is from https://www.uspsprocycling.com/

In 1996, when the Postal Service first started it's cycling sponsorship, I'm sure the organization didn't realize that their sponsorship of a sports team would become one of the most successful ever.

It was in 1996 that the Postal Service, with the help of Thomas Weisel and Eddy Borysewicz, decided to embark on a journey that would lead to the world's premiere cycling event, the Tour de France. It was a long-range goal, but one they wanted to obtain as quickly as possible.

The first year, the team raced mostly in America, competing against powerhouse teams such as Saturn and Motorola. Borysewicz was the director on the team and at age 57 he was one of the oldest team directors on the circuit. Eddy B, as he was known by practically everyone, was one of the most experienced and successful coaches in America. He was the natural choice to start a new team with the goal of entering the Tour de France.

Just after Eddy B took the reigns, Thomas Weisel brought in 1984 Olympic Gold medal champion Mark Gorski to manage the team. Gorski put the wheels in motion to put together a real Tour de France team. His first premiere signings to the team were Viatcheslav Ekimov and Andriano Baffi. These guys were two established veterans who had a load of credentials. Everyone knew who they were and everyone respected them. Most importantly they were good! All of a sudden this small-scale team had hired some real hitters to win races.

Immediately the team tasted some success with victories in Europe. And they made a very strong impact at Paris-Nice, with two victories. With more than just the Paris Nice victories under their belt many thought the U.S. Postal Service team would get a much deserved invitation to the 1996 Tour de France.

However, they were overlooked by Tour de France director, Jean Marie Leblanc, who had a preference toward inviting French teams. Two French team move in front of what many considered the U.S. Postal Service's spot. Thus, the USPS cycling team didn't make its first trip to the Tour de France until1997.

baj32161

All of which has what to do with Robert Hunter?

user0ne

they streched the time limits for riders more than once during the race, and if the rider in question was french, im saying he might have been able to finish.

merlinextraligh

They stretched the time limits because a significant percentage of the race would have been DQ'd had they not. The rules speicifically allow them to do so in that circumstance. I'm not aware of a situation where they've waived the time limit to benefit one rider because his butt hurt.

Moochers_Dad

He had saddle sores. What makes you think he wanted to ride stage 20 into Paris standing up anyway?

Laggard

Exactly. This conspiracy against America crap is just stupid. It makes less sense because Robbie Hunter is not even American.

alanbikehouston

Over the past hundred years, there have been many times when the time limit was waived for just one rider. Typically, it was a situation where the rider was very close to the cut-off time, and had ridden bravely to overcome some unique situation that put him behind the peloton. A crash, an injury, an equipment failure.

Given how close Hunter was to Paris, and given his courage in racing with physical problems that would have caused many cyclists to quit, no one would have complained if the limit had been waived so that he could ride into Paris.

There are a lot of very small men in positions of power, and the men who ran the 2006 Tour de France are often the smallest of them all. The strongest evidence for their lack of character have been the barrage of sneering, belittling remarks targeting Lance Armstrong that began flowing last August. Yet, those same men fawned over Armstrong whenever they were standing next to him on the podium in Paris.

marqueemoon

So they let him "unofficially" ride stage 20 anyway? Weird.

bikingshearer 

Sorry, Laggard, but I can't buy it. Hunter is South African, if memory serves. Phonak is a Swiss-registered team. The French press and the the French puboic have been pretty kind to Floyd in the wake of his resurrection, and the only bad thing they said before was that he was riding too conservatively. I just don't see a big anti-American conspiracy at work here.

I don't even think it is or was anti-Americanism that led to the Lance-bashing. That is a combination of (1) personal dislike based on Lance's brash style, (2) a refusal to believe that anyone can come back from such a serous cancer without believing in "better living through chemistry," (3) being tired of the repetition and seeming inevitability of his wins (Merckx used to get the same treatment from the French press), and (4) the big one, redirected anger and frustration over the fact that the last Frenchman to win the Tour is the guy who now zips up the back of the podium yellow jerseys, and it's been 21 years now since he won his fifth and final one. I think if Lance had not made his comeback and Ullrich had instead pounded the peloton into submission four or five times, the French press would have yanked his chain, too.

Another factor that leads me to think the French reaction to Lance has more to do with personality and, especially, with dominance is how they treated Anquetil and Hinault. Anquetil was admired, but not particualrlly popular, because he won by dominating the time trials and sticking, but not attacking, in the mountains. Poulidor never wore yellow, and was never so much as the race leader on the road, yet he inspired much more adoration becuase of his personality and his "panache" - not to mention some bad luck that lead him to crash or experience some other catastrophe just when it looked like he might finally take over a Tour.

Hinault was chastised for creating an era of "negative" racing. He was the undisputed "patron" of the peloton, and he quickly had everyone more or less cowed into submission. It was good for Hinault's palmares, not so good for the public perception of him. It wasn't until 1985, when he had to overcome a nasty crash and some problems in the mountains to get the fifth TdF win that he was really embraced by the French press and public.

This is all a long-winded way of saying that the French press has a long and storied history of dumping on anyone who is, in their eyes, too dominant for too long. In that regard, nationality doesn't seem to matter as much as a perverse demand that the struggle is at least as important - maybe more important - than the result. Not does it really have to hurt, it has to look like it hurts.

baj32161

This is rubbish since, in your post you assumed that Robbie Hunter is an American when he happens to be South African.

merlinextraligh

Article 22 of the Race Regulations covers time limits, and does allow for the extension of the time limit under exceptional circumstances. Sore ass is not one of the enumerated special circumstances. https://www.letour.fr/2006/TDF/LIVE/d...nt_2006_us.pdf

Walter

bikingshearer,

While I agree with your synopsis of the French press I think you've got Laggard on the wrong side of the "conspiracy." I'm pretty sure he was calling the existence of a conspiracy "crap" not condemning its existence.

baj32161

I also came to this conclusion

bikingshearer 

Doh! I hate it when I do that. Walter and Baj-man, you're right. Nothing quite like clicking the wrong "reply with quote" button and then not double-checking the quote I'm quoting. (Did that make sense?)

As for you, Laggard, many apologies. Substantively, I stand by everything I said (and a few things I didn't say, but thought), but it should have been directed at a different poster.

alanbikehouston

The organizers MAKE the rules, and the organizers decide how to apply the rules. They have granted exemptions for all sorts of reasons, including to avoid the embarassment of having some of the top contenders eliminated. Pretending that the amoral thugs who run the Tour felt FORCED by the rules to screw Hunter is absurd.

merlinextraligh

No, what I'm saying is that having a sore butt is not the type of compelling circumstance that typically merits an extension. And what is absurd is to suggest that Hunter was entitled to an extension because of his sore butt, and that he didn't get it because the Organizers hate Americans, and therefor needed to screw the South African. (which is where this thread started)

lotek 

I think the elimination was caused by the previous apartheid regime

baj32161

No worries mate!

Cheers,

Brian

Laggard

+1000

user0ne

maybe this was not this case, and I was wrong to say it.

however, the lack of respect to Floyd (pre-bonk) and team Phonak,(media/commentators) cut tire before prologue, UCI making him change ... ill say IMHO, Phonak was not catching any breaks, like some teams might have.

and what about the postal spot in 96 ? wheres the loveeeeee