Tour De France 2011

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Well its the eve of the Tour De France and I will admit regardless of any skulduggeries, I love it. Its the modern version of the epic struggle. Three weeks of pain, suffering, drama, intrigue, magical scenery, unexpected happenings, dogs shooting out from roadsides, humour, pathos, heros, villains. Its got everything.

Heres a little snippet.
Four riders (sprinters - so poor climbing ability) from different teams are lost off the back of the peloton on a mountain stage (actually stage 8 not 12 from the 2009), they fight to finish within the time limit cut off of 43 minutes behind the winner - or their Tour is over, thats their whole and only objective for the day.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTPKaeFbcA8[/youtube]

actually got to ride up alpe d'huez once. really tough climb. if you're in the usa, hope you have versus. wall to wall coverage.

well, i got to watch stage one with ripley today and wow, was it intense.

hope you got to see it.

i was a bicycle racer and had a chance to ride on six continents. jesus, how i loved it. run over by a drunk driver while on a training ride. that was it.

alberto c. will have to do some serious crazy riding to make up 1min 20 sec on schlecks and evans.

Unfortunately the Tour has no real impact on me anymore. I used to stay glued to the tele to watch it live everyday, but not so much anymore. I guess after following it so closely for about 10 years I've finally got bored of it. But I do have fond memories of the Tours of the last decade. Although the tele will show it everyday , I'll be surprised if I watch it all. I would like Andy Schleck to win though.

Here in France the TV will be dominated with it. I guess the winner will be the best undetectable performance enhancing drug - as usual.

I watch every year as per normal. i hope cadel evens never wins.

I enjoy it. I could not watch an entire race, though. My parents went to Paris last year to see the cyclists finish. I wish I could have gone too, but it was their thing.

in the good ol' usa, every participant in professional sports most likely uses some sort of enhancement drug.

i heard rafael nadal say he took pain killing injections in his foot before wimbeldon (sp?) matches. if he was a cyclist, he would be crucified.

i tried blood doping once ,as an amateur , and it helped some. way expensive so that was it. i was never going to win a race or even place well, like sprinters on a mountain stage, so i just enjoyed the intensity of it.

i was best on downhills....fearless.....50/55 mph, clipping apexes, passing guys who had passed me 20 miles before. simply, the best time of my life.

please do not dislike cadel evans for crying....at least until you've been there. just a really emotional guy.

crap, i'm about to cry now......anger about what happened to me.

good to hear you recovered ok from bad crash.......i was 39 when it happened, had just gotten back to the usa after training 2 months in australia, couldn't walk for a year, lots of permanent injuries. that's the way it goes.

my favorite web site is called steephill.tv.....they have videos and photographs of each stage of t.d.f. and many other races.

the site 'versus' has a fantasy t.d.f. league. thousands play. my team is called aspergians. group is dogs rule. i chose climbers, no sprinters. check it out.

here's hoping anyone interested has been watching the race. it is the best start in memory. insane number of broken bones, head injuries and guys getting hit by cars......great racing with unexpected winners, but speed leads to crashes.

a netherlander today ended up in a barbed wire fence, ripped up quite seriously. finished the race, close to the back.

the race has come down to about 10 guys with a chance to win. usually 2 or 3. the mind games have already started and will only intensify.

big mountains next week so maybe the close dangerous racing will end and no more crashes....please.

for americans, their best shot at winning is out.

for brits, the leader of sky, bradley wiggins, is out.

for aussies, cadel evans is third and looking good.

ah, the Tour, or as I know it, the month during which food must be placed within reach of the couch or my dad will starve to death. I watch with him on and off, and I must say I am impressed with the balance these guys have on their bicycles - I know they are the world's best but still, I can't imagine riding my bike and peeling/eating a banana at the same time!

But Dad is very upset about the Kazakhstani team. One of their riders broke is femur and will probably have to retire, he says. Poor guy!

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http://defeatingthedoginthedaytime.blogspot.com/

the trials and tribulations of a girl pretending to be normal

even i could do the banana thing while riding.........some guys eat soup.....out of a bowl.....with a spoon.

the first mountain stage was today, frank schlek is really looking good. two more stages in the high mountains before another rest day. loved seeing the gorilla win a sprint stage, he looks like he could tear a bicycle into pieces.

what about sky racing for the world wildlife fund, how great is that.