AZ_Kurt

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?

HWS

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

BananaTugger

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. )

AZ_Kurt

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

SpongeDad

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.

HWS

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

haimtoeg

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.

BananaTugger

Agritubel is last in the Team Classification.

merlinextraligh

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.

jaxgtr

^^

USAZorro

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.

Suzie Green

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!

The Weak Link

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.

yellowjeep

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

interested

So your guy didn't win this year, eh

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.


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

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

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

Suzie Green

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

SunSwingsLow

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

Mash Master

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.

heavyMetal

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.

G-Whacker

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.

rpmxs

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.

MacMan

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.

gpsblake

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...

CrimsonKarter21

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

efficiency

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.