The most interesting tour for years

[Anonymous]

Yes i was there, like every year since 1984. I saw them start the Tourmalet , I had ridden it the day before with a group from NY. We were thrilled, of course. I was able to rush back straight to tarbes in time to see the finish of the stage. While the bunch race down the other valley. I cried for cycling. That stage was enough to make never want to return to watch it. Then a year has gone by and suddenly in spite of everything , I want to believe this year will be better. Hope is all i got , right? Somehow it has become like a bad dinner in a restaurant you used to love but should have dumped when the food got worse.
Too bad I rarely have free time in may-june

Great description. But you are right, hope is all we have, and I don't think this is the year I quit watching for good.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Well now it will be really boring. Boonen is out. There goes half my interest. Gilbert is out, another 25% of interest gone. Valverde is out, that's another 10%. Not much left at all.

do you support team drug addict? It would be shame it Vino was out. (not including gilbert)

 

[hfer07]

The TDF will be interesting as soon as the competition gets a balance & carries the battle all the way through the end, in a way that generates surprises & upsets, but must of all , that at the end of the race, the tour delivers a rightful winner that arises above the usual doping doubts & the media inspection.....

 

[Mellow Velo]

do you support team drug addict? It would be shame it Vino was out. (not including gilbert)

I was watching the Ventoux stage of the 2007 Dauphine, yesterday.
When Duffers read out the team roster for Astana, two things hit me.
1) How many of them had since served doping bans
2) The team included Steve Morabito.

Now, can we not criticise other posters for having different favourite riders to yourself and the leave the other stuff for the clinic?
Pretty please?


Anyway, back on topic.

I prefer to have low expectations of this Tour, as I will be more likely not to be disappointed and possibly pleasantly surprised.
Hold high expectations and prepare for disappointment.

 

[lancewillwin8]

Looking back on the history of this so-called "feud" between Armstrong and Contador, it was Armstrong who instigated it and kept fueling the fire all throughout and after the Tour.

He used the press to make cryptic, sniggling little comments. He kept on with the petty, childish antics like conscripting team cars to pick up his entourage at the airport when they should have been used to transport Contador to the start line of that last time trial stage, and relentlessly attacked Contador in the press long after the dust had settled with his sarcastic "King of Spain" comment.

Contador made one comment, and he made it after the Tour was over. He said Armstrong was a great champion, but as a person he was zero. Which is the truth. He then left it alone and kept moving forward with his career.

Whereas Armstrong has been nothing but a classless, whiny sore loser.

Contador has behaved like a true gentleman throughout this whole ordeal. He has no need to give Armstrong "The Look" or contrive some sort of mana-a-mano showdown at the OK Corral during the race.

This feud nonsense is what the press feeds to the babbling minions to get them foaming at the mouth over what will turn out to be another bore-fest.

The hype and the mania will be much more exiting for some than the actual race.

Deleted by moderator

 

[Francois the Postman]

Can we have a shortcut on people's profile post headers to the "ignore" feature? I can see that coming in handy over the coming weeks for the regulars here.

 

[Angliru]

The people complaining about the Tour sound like people that complain about a restaurant and keep going back.

Watch something else.

I take the action as it comes. I personally think it's impossible to confidently say that the 2010 Tour will be a snoozer. I guess it doesn't take much to satisfy my cycling appetite. Give me a grand tour mountain stage and I'm in pure heaven. The sprint specific stages generally are pretty predictable though and they, for me, are simply hours of filler, with the requisite doomed to failure break in the middle, followed by a few km's of a HTC lead out train decimating the peloton. With Cav's performance leading up to the Tour, I'm hoping that will be changed, hopefully with Oscar Freire getting a couple of Tour stage wins as a prelude to his triumphant, unprecedented 4th WC road win.

 

[Tangled Tango]

I take the action as it comes. I personally think it's impossible to confidently say that the 2010 Tour will be a snoozer. I guess it doesn't take much to satisfy my cycling appetite. Give me a grand tour mountain stage and I'm in pure heaven. The sprint specific stages generally are pretty predictable though and they, for me, are simply hours of filler, with the requisite doomed to failure break in the middle, followed by a few km's of a HTC lead out train decimating the peloton. With Cav's performance leading up to the Tour, I'm hoping that will be changed, hopefully with Oscar Freire getting a couple of Tour stage wins as a prelude to his triumphant, unprecedented 4th WC road win.

I´m with you on this Tour. I think the mtn stage finishes will give me enough juice as will the cobble stages, should be hairy enough. I too would like nothing more than to see Cav and HTC come up short and spread the sprinting palmares around.