Le Tour De France

Since Mark Webber cant seem to keep his car off white lines i am now putting my aussie pride behind Cadel Evans

Anyone else watching to tour this year?

I know a lot of people only watch for views of the landscape etc

http://tdf.sbs.com.au/tdf2008/

absolutely love this event.

both for the racing and the scenery.

some serious tactics and sportsmanship involved in the sport which i never knew about until about 3-4 years ago. have been an avid fan ever since.

go cadel! he's certainly come a long way since i first heard of him as a cross country mountain biker!

I was lucky enuf to get to go for a dirt ride with him waaaaaay back in the day, pretty quiet guy but very polite

no doubt! nice one.

closest guy i know to cycling is a cousin of stuart o'grady.

god that family is full of creatures. *shudder*

Have you met Daren?

nah, i used to know a simon, kathryn and a nathan.

Love the tour!

And how can you go past Phil Liggett's voice - HOT! LOL 

Men in lycra - yum. 

and to make the adelaide race more competitive they are climbing the 'notorious willunga hill' twice this year what a joke!

TDF kicks arse, these guys are ANIMALS!

Can't say I am a avid fan  but certainly don't hate it at the same time. Will watch it if theres nothing else on. I respect it a lot for the athletes and their dogged determination and fitness levels. After reading Lance Armstrong's bio (It's not about the bike), it certainly made me more aware of the extremeties of the sport and also some of the more quirky parts to it. (ie: Peloton protocol etc)

that hill's over-rated, had to go up there a couple of times for our mountain biking camp in high school. they'd be doing the old road i reckon too, much more condusive to riding i think.

I know a Daren that knows Stewart O'Grady. Not family though. Would he be the one you're talking about? Believe he got banned from the velodrome for headbutting other competitors during races...

I friggen love Le Tour De France. Haven't missed any of it so far and dare say my nights will be spent watching every stage till the end. One of the great sporting events.

Even better with an Aussie in contention.

Ive been on a few rides where Darren O'grady has been in the same pack. ( Alan Gills group)
Have also ridden with Pat Jonker a couple of times and once showed Magnus Backstedt how to get back to the AIS at Henly Beach.

I found this today,

wicked review of Evens bike ( 08 ridley helium )  off the rictor machine!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2008/tour08/tech/probike.php?id=/tech/2008/probikes/cadel_evans_ridley_helium08

image not archived: Lotto_Ridley.jpg

love watching the tour, been onto it for years... never did like that fucken american floyd landis n it turned out he was a drug cheat  few years ago..

the thing i find most amazing is the way they seem to be going flat out with heart rates 150bpm+ then someone takes off others chase and break the peloton apart.. its nuts. all the tactics n teams n specialist riders etc make it so interesting

pyrenees tonight!

They scare the shit out of me, im used to going down hills on fat knoby tires with brakes bigger than most cars covered from head to toe in body armour, these dudes do it with a helmet & poxy excuse for brakes! ! !! 

Tonight in particular is going to be awesome.

Will definitely seperate the contenders from the rest of the bunch by stage end.

Do they put helium in the frame or something, or is it called that just coz its so light?

Does it need helium? i dont think it makes 6.8 how it is!

Doubtful. I thought about this idea for race cars, but came to the conclusion that it won't work.

Basically you can reduce the downward force of the vehicle, but not the mass. Essentially you lose all the good things of weight (pushing the tyres onto the road) and retain the bad bits (momentum).

Did you know most race cars use nitrogen (sp) in the tires because it wont expand or shrink in heat

Yes.

yup me too, noble gasses would be even better but at a much greater cost.

Wow 6.8kgs, wicked

i havent been watching it much this year, might chuck it on this eve tho!

go cadel

last night's stage was pretty awesome.

cadell should take the lead in tonight or tomorrow's stage.

you know me and i share the exact same name as both an international cyclist and international golfer useless trivia for ya

There also like F1 cars some of them ( mainly the smaller riders ) have to add weight to the bike to bring it up to the mimimum UCI legal 6.8

Big ups Cadel Evans who just grabbed the yellow jersey. First Aussie to have it since Phil Anderson back in 1982.

awesome!!!

nice one for cadel - interested to see how he handles being in yellow (even though its just 1 sec) i read that he had trouble when he was leading another pro-tour race recently...

was good to see kircken n valverde crack! touted as two of cadels biggest rivals pre race

how was the last few k's? an incline of 10% thats intense - the south eastern freeway up to the hills is 7% and i would die riding up that....

Your a marked man when wearing yellow!
Cant wait for the last three big mountain stages.

Stage 15 - Sunday, July 20: Embrun - Prato Nevoso, 183km
Stage 16 - Tuesday, July 22: Cuneo - Jausiers, 157km

and the famous L'Alpe d'Huez

Stage 17 - Wednesday, July 23: Embrun - L'Alpe d'Huez, 210.5km

I cant believe it i feel asleep with the tour on but woke up just as Evans crossed the line to claim the yellow!!

1 second is all it takes! 

you fell asleep because it is boring, i tuned in for no more than 3 minutes last night zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

great effort for cadell last night.

i reckon he won't let the fucker go now.

pretty sure mc'ewen and o'grady have held it before the tours hit the mountain stages, anderson was the last aussie to have it in a mountain stage tho..


how good was last night tho, one second he holds the yellow by, even the commentaters had no idea for a while who was up ...

hooked on it again this year

Last night was real nice. First time I have watched without changing channels.  Awesome vievs from the chopper.

definitely.

i actually thought that patrick jonker had as well for a day or so about 10 years ago.

Its one of those things that good if you watch it from start to end & it does help if you have someone there who understands the tatics to explain things.

I will admit it doesn't have the visual impact of other sports but it is something you can watch on Sunday do on Monday kinda thing.....

Pretty sure Mc'ewen has only ever held the green.

My facts were just going from what the commentators said last night so I assume it was correct.

"Cadel Evans today became the first Australian rider since Robbie McEwen in 2004 to wear the yellow jersey of the Tour de France"

disagree x10000000.

i think it has the more visual impact than pretty much any other sport just for the countryside they ride through. no other sport i can think of gives me such a love of how beautiful the countryside in france is.

ooh yeah i cant wait to visit france! its amazing, looking at all the towns and hills and forests and the like.

The only downside is the French people inhabiting it.

Cheese eating surrender monkeys.

P.S. GO CADEL!

I agree the country side is awsome & i do look at those roads & dream about driving around there. I guess when i say visual impact im comparing it to say free riding where they jump off cliff faces & other crazy shit like that.

yeah fair call.

though i reckon when they are on some of the downhill slopes, it shows just how crazy they are. even the motorbikes can't keep up with them around the corners.

all with limited braking powers too.


i rate this event so highly.

the other night on some downhill hairpins the referee car n team cars were screechin tyres n stepping the back ends out! was choice!

that castle from 900 ad was pretty amazing last night too

 I watched the last 3/4 of the stage last night, it was amazing. I didn't think I would like it to be honest.

 Wow. Hooked!

 The young Aussie guy did so well to win the stage. 

told you! if only you ever came out from your room to watch it when we had it on at labrina.

it was an awesome stage for sure. gerrans looked done and dusted about 3 times in the last 20km's. seriously belted them in the last 500m.

it's so close at the top now. evans struggled towards the end with no help from his team. he'd be hoping they come to the party on some of the other big alps stages.

Best sports event ever IMO

[video: www.youtube.com]

That video sums it up for me. Nothing more needs to be said.

My avatar reflects the awesomeness of this event.

I know your keen for a kayak, Do you ride much ya self?

Funny you ask that... I hadn't been on my bike much because I had too much work happening, and cause the bottom bracket was screwed and the back wheel was fucked (as in, out of true because it was damaged). I just got it back from a full service and new rear wheel yesterday and am going to try and make time to get on it on a regular basis again.

It's just a mountain bike though which has been modified a bit to make it more suitable for on road riding with slick type tyres and clip-pedal things (forgot the term).

Yourself?

I had to put off the kayak purchase unfortunately but will almost certainly get one later this year (when it starts warming up).

I just got a new light as Cannondale

I only get wednesday & half of sat off work so its hard to fit in this time of year & its just been to cold & wet to ride to work.

Im planning on taking some time off from lifting after the INBA In october so i hope to get some more riding in then

A road bike?

Yep road bike, I had a Avanti D8 downhill bike but never got time to get out to the hills so i replaced it with this one. At least now i can just ride without having to look for a dirt mound & tow car

image not archived: l_3ea2dd3856ff2bcd529d0df3c501fd47.jpg

Holy shit that stage was crazy. Those dudes are nuts!!! Sucks to be that young dude - first over the peak then first one to crash. Lucky he didn't go as far down the hill as his bike did!


Btw catastrophic: Fair enough, nice bike.

i actually tuned in for a bit last night just as they were reaching the peak of the highest stage in the tour, got pretty boring then they started the downhill part...OMFG!!! those dudes are nuts. it inspired me to youtube "le tour crashes" this morning 

[video: www.youtube.com]

 Got the IQ set to tape it tonight. Can't wait.

I'm obsessed with everything to do with this race.

Not just the actual cycling and the incredible fitness of the riders, but the scenery is mind blowing. Some of the shots from the helicopters are just amazing. Combine all that with Phil Liggot who is arguably the best sports commentater going round and you have one of the great events in the world today.

Gonna be gutted once it's all over.

exept when he spies snow on the alps and says "winter cant be far away" then the other guy corrects him by saying "well, no phil, its actually the middle of summer"

 

but seriously that stage tonight was incredible.. big ups to cadel for busting his guts hard solo against the strongest team and keeping the overall win in his sights! so impressed by this years event

it really is the kind of thing you need to follow from start to finish though.. tried to get a few mates into watching it but they lose interest because they dont actually know whats going on.

That's why Phil Liggot is so brilliant. He commentates in a way that explains what is going on perfectly for somebody who doesn't understand the sport.

yeah your right, he knows his shit n its great. it was just classic when he said that tonight.

was suprised to se menchov blow up so early on the alp d'huez n then get back. cadel did so well to match the accelerations of the other guys then lead the yellow jersey pack to keep the time gap to sastre beatable in the time trial.

another awesome hting about the coverage is that theres virtually no ads for the last hour of the race

the winter thing was his murray walker moment

well I'm impressed with the interest you guys are showing in Le Tour De France! 

the wind noise is totally unnecessary though, fuck it's annoying!

My wife used to say the same thing about me.

 

Thats cause SBS rocks the shit & all good sports should be there crosses fingers for F1

Awesome effort on Cadel for pulling off a 2nd in what has to be one of if not the hardest sporting event in the world 

What a jew. Can't believe I even bothered watching him. Epic fail.


 

2 consolation wins in a row. Geez that's either gonna shatter your confidence completely or make you more determined next year. Spewing but. Hope it's the latter...

OK I know it's over but being into photography I stumbled upon this set of awesome photos from the Tour.


Thought some of you might be interested in them as well!

And some more... http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/07/2008_tour_de_france_conclusion.html