Jump to content

tour de france

Guest guypjfreak

By Guest guypjfreak,
in Discussions

 Share

Recommended Posts

Alcatraz Collaborator

Alcatraz

Posted
Posted

Absolutely love it, and to be honest, Its served as a substitute for a real holiday in the sun in years gone by. Nowt better in sport than a dogged mountain stage battled out by the gutsiest of climbers and descenders.

This is Wiggins best year really in terms of chances. Outside of Cadel Evans, who's a real candidate? Denis Menchov at a stretch but he's been anonymous in the Tour as far back as I can remember.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
dingbat2 Community Regular

dingbat2

Posted
Posted

I love watching the Tour de France, a truly great event. I started watching it I think when it was on Channel 4 and they had Kraftwerk as the theme tune, in the Le Monde and Fignon era, then Indurain, and then the best era of all, the battle between Ulrich and Armstrong up the Alps. It was great to watch hours of cycling culminating in Armstrong finally breaking Ulrich up Alpe d'Huez. There's not much better is sport than watching the moutnain stages of Alpe d'Huexz, Ventoux, Tourmalet, Galibier. The flat stage are great as well, just because of how beautiful the scenery is

All this is countered however by the overriding question mark over the sport about drug taking. If Armstrong gets convicted then it will rock the sport forever. Unfortuanately drug taking seems widespread in the sport, not surprising really when you think how tough it is, biking 2000 miles in 3 weeks up the Alps and Pyranees!

I assume Abdoujaparov is a fan as well?!

Come on Wiggins!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
pryce Collaborator

pryce

Posted
Posted

love it .... love all road cycling to be fair

Giro is usually more exciting than le tour but with wiggo as fav this should be a cracker

got an each way bet on tony martin but he has had a mare of a start

wouldnt right off Nibali either. also if i was radioshack i would not have frank as team leader and would get behind Kloeden. might be too old but this route is much more suited to him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
guypjfreak Mentor

guypjfreak

Posted
Posted

wow great to see some tour fans i love it .Nibali is my fav for the mountains but yea if wiggins can stay up there its his best chance EVER with Andy S not riding.

ive watched it every year since christ know finyon [cant spell lol] was riding any way and i loved armstrongs races ill be gutted if hes found guilty but hopefully that will help clean the sport up ..

i reckon Gilbert or Leiphimer to day ..

Link to comment
Share on other sites
dingbat2 Community Regular

dingbat2

Posted
Posted

I will never forget the Fignon / Indurain final stage time trial in the eighties, I think it was what attracted me to the event. Awesome stuff, Indurain was behind going into the stage but ending up winning it and taking the Tour by only a few seconds

Link to comment
Share on other sites
dingbat2 Community Regular

dingbat2

Posted
Posted

... and Stephen Roche! Another fantastic memory was when Roche was overtook by Delgado up a mountain, cant remember which, and looked as if he was going backwards. Delgado raced up the mountain and beat Roche, but there only a few seconds behind him came Roche, nearly collapsed at the end. A monumental effort, and I can still remember the commentary when Roche came over he top just behind - "..its Roche, its Stephen Roche..." They thought he was going to be over a minute behind and lose the Tour but came back and won that year in the end

... Just checked the coverage is on YouTube - the stage was La Plagne if you type in Stephen Roche

Link to comment
Share on other sites
dingbat2 Community Regular

dingbat2

Posted
Posted

Great win for Cav yesterday, only just pipped it at the line. Can't see him repeating the last few years wins though, the Sky team do not have the lead out riders that he is used to, and I think they are set up to focus on a Wiggo GC win. I think there are also question whether to stick it out to Paris with the Olympics just round the corner

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...
Halcyon Newbie

Halcyon

Posted
Posted (edited)

^ indeed.

Depending on whether they strip him of some/all of his tour wins... the new winners of the Tour will be:

99 - Alex Zulle

00 - Jan Ullrich

21 - Jan Ullrich

02 - Joseba Beloki

03 - Jan Ullrich

04 - Andreas Kloden

05 - Ivan Basso

So potentially, one time winner Jan Ullrich could become the 5th most sucessful tour rider in history with 4 wins... behind only legend such as Merckx, Indurain and Hinault. Not bad for a guy that went into severe depression due to constantly getting beaten by Armstrong.

Not how he would want it to happen though.

Edited by Halcyon
Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...
dorlomin Newbie

dorlomin

Posted
Posted

Next years course is a brute. One for the climbers, Wiggins is pretty unlikely to feature.

Contador to be munching the dodgy steaks again.

Tommy V must be in with a good shout, perhaps Evans again.

Van Gardaren may be a good outside shout.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.


×
×
  • Create New...