The Tour - Is anyone excited?

Doobz

Dont forget the Presentation of the Teams 03-07-2008 from 17:00 until 19:00

moray_gub

iainf72 wrote:

I'm not.

I bought a guide and can't be bothered looking at it.

I realised yesterday it starts this week. Everything which has happened has worn me down and I've lost interest.

Hope it changes when it starts.

And I hope it's not a snooze fest!

Ian how would you feel if Eurosport and ITV decided not to cover the Tour this year and gave the reason as apathy from the viewing public ?

cheers
MG

2Fast4Love

I'm gonna be in France to watch the riders flash past on stages 2 & 3, and will be in Paris for the final day. Suffice to say, I'm pretty darn excited about it, having purchased 3 different guides to try & get maximum info! :oops:

claudb

Yep, I'm excited. For someone who used to be gratefull for the occasional 30 minute 'highlight' programme and to wait until next week for 'The Comic' to get some detail, the amount of coverage of Le Tour is fantastic. Why should the race not promise excitement just because it's not obvious who is going to win ??? Surely that makes it even more exciting ??? There is a different 'parcours' to recent ones which looks good and we have the best prospect of seeing fair competition than for many years. Have we all forgotten how exciting Paris-Nice was this year - it was generally agreed to be one of the best stage races ever. Of course there will be some riders under suspicion but there is more reason to be optimistic than for a long time - unless you just want to whinge about doping anyway !!! And that's only the racing, there's also all the great visual spectacle and the buzz from the mad hordes on the mountain roadsides etc.
Get switched on and enjoy it - we saw enough cheating during the Euro 2008 football, or is falling down and rolling around to try to win free kicks and penalties or to get rivals booked not cheating ??? And, anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed it for all that.

guv001

I'm looking forward to it.. regardless of all the problems its still 3 weeks of racing with the best teams (less one) battling it out. As for the winner I don't care but would love to see a French rider win it its just a shame that a team like FDJ hasn't got a chance of providing one.

juggler

yes excited - will be watching far too much tv every night as Eurosport appear to be scheduling 4 hrs or so each day.... then traveling out to France for weeks 2 and 3 and will get to see the riders flash past a few times and have to rely on l'Euipe and my rudimentary French skills to follow the race...

hammerite

I'm excited! I think tonight I'm going to go through and delete all the pap in my recordings and set the series recording for the next couple of weeks for when I'm at work.

Then I'll have to start getting ready for my hols, part of which I'll be standing on Alpe d'Huez watching some blokes on bikes ride past 8)

ms_tree

Excited? Can't wait! Trying to sort out riders for Pro Tour pundit, looking at the stages and seeing when its on TV all day and sorting out leave! It's great!
Some of you are just plain cynical!

neeb

Well, think of it this way:

Last year we watched some incredible cycling. Amazing attacks by Rasmussen and Contador and some inspired time trialing by Rasmussen (the ride of his life) and then the political characters decided the race instead of the cyclists on the road. They kicked out (Rabobank was basically forced by ASO to dump Rasmussen) the leader on the road despite the fact that he didn't fail a doping test and yes, even though he'd lied on the sheet, I've never seen a rule that states he was thus not allowed to race in the TDF. In other words, we were told everything we'd just watched was crap and didn't count. That sucks.

I agree.

I'm a relatively recent convert to cycle sport. Last year was the first time I've avidly watched the TdF. I was riveted for the first few weeks. I didn't mind when Vinokurov cheated and was disqualified, it was just part of the drama of the whole thing. He was desperate after he started to see his dream fading away, decided to cheat against any rational assessment of the risk, and duly paid the consequences. A faustian tragedy with the correct outcome. But the dropping of Rasmussen just invalidated the entire spectacle for me. Nothing that happened or became known during the tour justified his expulsion, given that he was deemed qualified to start the race in the first place.

jimmythecuckoo

Its my 21st Tour so I am pretty jaded in some ways. I will get into it when it starts though.

It has to be credible in fans minds though. If not then I might not get to 22.

Kléber

neeb wrote:

I didn't mind when Vinokurov cheated and was disqualified, it was just part of the drama of the whole thing. He was desperate after he started to see his dream fading away, decided to cheat against any rational assessment of the risk, and duly paid the consequences.

I think you're naive if you think Vinokourov decided to dope just after he got injured. As a client of Dr Ferrari, it is highly likely he made a career based on doping. Remember, for the blood doping, he would have had to have "donated" the blood weeks or months earlier, this would have then been stored until the right time. It looks totally premeditated, maybe not something born from pressure and a moment's stupidity.

neeb wrote:

the dropping of Rasmussen just invalidated the entire spectacle for me. Nothing that happened or became known during the tour justified his expulsion, given that he was deemed qualified to start the race in the first place.

He wasn't deemed qualified to start. The UCI had told Rabobank that he should not have been there, as missing so many tests means a rider has to sit out Pro Tour races. But somehow the paperwork got jumbled up. Remember, thanks to devious schemes about saying he was in Mexico when he was apparently in Italy, he was deliberately avoiding the doping controls. People who deliberately escape controls should not be racing.

neeb

You're probably right, as I say, I'm new to watching the sport. At least Vino got his come-uppance in any case.

I still think given that Rasmussen was allowed to start, he should have been allowed to finish, barring any failed tests during the tour, and that once the race had begun the consequences of any decisions made before the race should have been accepted.

Brian B

I always look forward to the Tour. Its not just the racing but the mountain routes that get me going. I have been to the Alps, Pyrenees and Provence and its great to see them on the climbs that I have done.

robmanic1

Just seen Andy Murray being interviewed on TV, ANYTHING is axciting after that!

deejay

jimmythecuckoo wrote:

Its my 21st Tour so I am pretty jaded in some ways. I will get into it when it starts though.

It has to be credible in fans minds though. If not then I might not get to 22.

I have not been looking forward to this French Tour after the "Rubbish I watched in the GIRO.

21st Tour, then you missed the guy on the Mountain Finish line, laying there and needing Oxygen. (never seen that before or since)
I didn't look forward to the 87-88 tours for similar reasons to this year but they more or less produced excitment. (Well there's a lot written about them)

But sod it.....The Carnival is about to start and no matter what the Idiotic UCI say, then the "Show Must Go On" and maybe I'm such a sourpuss because I've got to stay behind
To listen to the Idiot Harmon and watch the pictures of nodding heads from that Awfull Lead Motorbike cameraman.

I do hope there is another "Solar" this year or something exciting.

I hope the weather stays fair for those who are going and I read somewhere that the "Caravan" takes 50 mins to pass.
So have "Fun"

Highpeak will

looking forward to it but only because i'm going watching a couple of stages,alpe duez and somewhere the next day, and then havin a few days holiday at annecy. As far as the race itself I think its not the same start without a prologue, and also not too exited about who may win overall, Hopefully Cavendish has got a chance for a stage or two and maybe some new young star will emerge. Anyway its better than watching tennis!

Noodley

I am looking forward to it.

I was not too much "into" last years Tour and thought I was going to be the same this year. Then someone at work today asked me about cycling and the Tour....two hours later I had updated him about the last 4 Tours 8)

Cumulonimbus

deejay wrote:

jimmythecuckoo wrote:

Its my 21st Tour so I am pretty jaded in some ways. I will get into it when it starts though.

It has to be credible in fans minds though. If not then I might not get to 22.

21st Tour, then you missed the guy on the Mountain Finish line, laying there and needing Oxygen. (never seen that before or since)

That is probably the event that got me into cycling Seemed to appear from nowhere and a few nostalgic moments have been spent watching the video of that on youtube :oops:

Am looking forward to it as there seem to be quite a few uncertainties - am just worried that the UCI may try to smash in or that someone may be too dominant.

campagchris

Im more excited in watching the new generation and Kreuziger,Nibali and Andy Schleck in particular,also to see if Ricco has a wobbler.
Hopefully with no time bonuses it should be more interesting in the first week.

sportzchick

I never miss the Tour EVER - we stay up till 2am in the Morning in Australia...PLENTY of coffee and nibbles to keep us awake
:P
Its your way of life in Europe but to us, a TDF winner and having our own pro tour team is the Holy Grail and this year we havent been so excited in a long time!!!

First things First fingers crossed that Cadel can have a great tour(hopfully a win) - we have 10 Aussies in the TDF and I love them all to bits l but I hail from the same beautiful city as Stuart O'Grady - he is my favorite rider and a favorite son in Adelaide!

SO im all set - ready to sit down, shut up and hang on for what will be one hell of a ride

GO AUSSIES!

Uncle Chop Chop

I'm really not sure why some of your people in here bother to follow cycling at all.........if you don't find the tour and racing in-general exciting at all, then go and find another sport, instead of complaining about how boring it all is. Lawn bowls perhaps???