The Tour de France begins Saturday

[footballworld]

No Lance No Floyd
George Hincapie is probably the best bet the Americans have

Anybody care?

 

[GB-Hack]

Honestly, I feel a certain ennui about the event this year.

 

[sportschick]

No Lance No Floyd
George Hincapie is probably the best bet the Americans have

Anybody care?

Actually it's Levi Leipheimer, but I guess that's proof that nobody scares.

 

[footballworld]

I should have said I'm rooting for George

 

[Brooklyn Bridge]

I was going to start a TDF thread and wasn't sure of the response it would get. (we got five pages out of a women's golf thread over on the Journalism page, so we should be ok).

For Americans, don't forget about David Zabriskie--He and Leipheimer both ride for Discovery.

For the overall, how about last year's runner up, Oscar Pereiro? I also like Alexandre Vinokurov from Kazakhstan, I think he would've been right there at the end last year if basically his whole team wasn't disqualified.

I hope it will be a clean tour, like 19 of the 21 teams have signed the UCI's anti-doping pledge. And say what you will, cycling has a much tougher drug policy than MLB, NFL or whatever. Those guys are checked right at the end of a stage. That's analogous to checking Barroid after he steps on home plate after hitting a home run.

The prologue is in London this year. Should be a cool race.

 

[Idaho]

Zabriskie rides for Team CSC and is not a threat for the GC. Only Leipheimer can legitimately be considered a GC threat this year.

And EVERY cyclist has signed the pledge, which to me means very little at this point.

I'll watch and read coverage most days. I don't expect it to be a popular sport. I expect it to be a niche sport like it always has been and always will be.

 

[Brooklyn Bridge]

Zabriskie rides for Team CSC and is not a threat for the GC. Only Leipheimer can legitimately be considered a GC threat this year.

And EVERY cyclist has signed the pledge, which to me means very little at this point.

My bad, did a quick check at a website and it had Zabriskie on Dicovery. I didn't think that was right, but didn't check any further. I would think that at some point, the sport has to clean itself up.

 

[Idaho]

The sport is dirty, plain and simple. It's probably cleaner, though, than the NFL and MLB because it has an actual anti-doping program and when someone is busted, it's publicized because it happens where lab workers are more than happy to leak info and test results. That'd never happen in America where players unions work very hard to protect the athletes and, in the opinion of some, prevent anti-doping programs from having any power.

Once they figured out what EPO was and how to identify it, the sport started getting cleaner slowly. We're two or three years at least, though, from getting the sport to the point it is respected as a clean sport.

 

[Claws for Concern]

ZZzzzzzzzzzz

And no, I don't live in Utah.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

I'll watch, if only because Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen are a great sportscasting duo.

 

[footballworld]

me too they are the best TV Crew on VS! Better than any football crew or baseball tv or radio

 

[Just4Fun]

This is the biggest event on Versus!

 

[Idaho]

I'll watch, if only because Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen are a great sportscasting duo.

I admit to getting a little rush of adrenaline when I hear Liggett and the cyclism theme song.

Cycling is very much an aquired taste. I don't fault anyone for not being excited for a bike race or for thinking the sport is boring or dirty. But as a once a year thing, the TdF is pretty dang cool.

I'm going to go watch/preride the 2009 TdF if all goes according to plan.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

I'll watch, if only because Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen are a great sportscasting duo.

I admit to getting a little rush of adrenaline when I hear Liggett and the cyclism theme song.

Cycling is very much an aquired taste. I don't fault anyone for not being excited for a bike race or for thinking the sport is boring or dirty. But as a once a year thing, the TdF is pretty dang cool.

I'm going to go watch/preride the 2009 TdF if all goes according to plan.

I find myself watching certain events even though I don't normally follow the sport like several sports during the Olympics, America's Cup yachting, Tour de France cycling and Stanley Cup hockey.

In 2009, the route will go back to L'Alpe d'Huez, right? Good luck with that. I'll expect daily trip reports.

 

[Idaho]

My boss will expect the reports, too.

Think my wife will mind me going over there without her?

 

[Inky_Wretch]

I don't think "Baby, it's a work trip not a vacation" will work on this one.

 

[Idaho]

But who will watch the kids for four weeks while I'm in France?

Actually, there is a group I ride with occasionally that is targeting 2009 as a big vacation trip to ride along with the tour. They allow all us Yankees to preride each stage -- usually just the first or last 50 miles or so of the really long stages -- before the actual peloton rides. If I go, I'll make sure to take some white paint and give SportsJournalists.com a big shout out on the road.

 

[Football_Bat]

I love watching the race just to see the countryside. That the race starts in London will be a treat. But won't it create a traffic snarl on the Orbital?

 

[MartinEnigmatica]

This year can only be better than last year, when all those big names got purged from the start list. And then, after Landis won, that whole fallout. It wont be the kind of big-name slugfest it has for the better part of the last 10 years, but there will certainly be good action - sprints, climbs, TTs. It'll probably be a different name each day making news, until the final handful of stages, and definitely worth watching at that point.
Even for cycling fans, the first few stages before the Alps are dull unless some accident or issue occurs - there's no much GC effect, sprinters reel in breaks, they bunch sprint to the line, and someone - McEwen, Hushovd, Boonen - raises his arms in victory.

 

[Lollygaggers]

This should be a 10-inch story every day with a small blurb notched in about the next stage, then run results on the agate page. If an American is close to the lead in the last week, then maybe give it 15 inches. Maybe. If they all get busted for blood doping, 35-inch centerpiece. I think that about covers it. This thing would be in briefs style if it happened during football season.