Tour so far....opinions.

Moomaloid

Bronzie wrote:

FCE2007 wrote:

Moomaloid wrote:

... Anyone see how Cunego couldn;t take the pace on the final climb to the finish yesterday?

Indeed. My 16/1 doesn't look good value now

Keep the faith - the first real climb of the Tour often throws a few surprises after racing on the flat for a week. Besides, Cunego has the knack of riding into form over 3 weeks where others are heading down the overall.

I'm missing the Team TT - such a spectacle and always livens up the overall, even though they need to keep it short otherwise they have to fiddle the figures like they did a couple of years back.

Overall though, it's been a reasonable start, gently warming up to some proper fireworks next week (I hope).

Can't say i miss the TTT, only favours the big lad teams... i do however miss the prologue to open the show. Wasn't the same with a road stage, there was no pomp... we need pomp and ceremony!

ms_tree

I've enjoyed it all week especially today. Didn't miss TTT at all.

graham56

Bland !!!!!!! But hope it picks up a bit once the mountain stages start

drenkrom

It's been great up to now. The first gallop up the hill on stage 1 was chaos itself and very gripping. Stage 3 gave us some good tactical mind games, with the peloton calling it way wrong. The TT and subsequent sprint stage delivered good watching, and the finish to Super-Besse was quite something. Today's stage was great! Splits and aggression aplenty, big names taking a beating and forced to do their own dirty work, only to pay for it later... a tactical buffet. I love it thus far.

whoever finds it bland must not be watching the same race I am.

andrewgturnbull

Hi there.

I don't get this likeable thing. I'm not looking for a date here, I just wanna watch bike racing. Like or not like is not the question.

Anquteil, Merckx, Hinault... even Armstrong. None of them were particularly likeable, but they made for great racing.

Cheers, Andy

graham56

drenkrom wrote:

It's been great up to now. The first gallop up the hill on stage 1 was chaos itself and very gripping. Stage 3 gave us some good tactical mind games, with the peloton calling it way wrong. The TT and subsequent sprint stage delivered good watching, and the finish to Super-Besse was quite something. Today's stage was great! Splits and aggression aplenty, big names taking a beating and forced to do their own dirty work, only to pay for it later... a tactical buffet. I love it thus far.

whoever finds it bland must not be watching the same race I am.

maybe i`m watching the Veulta then :?

RichN95.

How can anyone think it has been bland. Every day a different race - four yellow jersey wearers in week one.

Remember the old days:

Prologue: Armstrong wins or comes second
Stage 1: Sprint finish
Stage 2: Sprint finish
Stage 3: Sprint finish
Stage 4: Sprint finish
TTT: US Postal wins (Armstrong in yellow)
Next stage: Breakaway puts a plucky Frenchman in yellow
Two stages: Sprint finish
First mountain stage: Armstrong wins - takes yellow until Paris

The only variation was that Armstrong may take yellow in an individual rather than team TT

sportzchick

andrewgturnbull wrote:

sportzchick wrote:

Ive enjoyed it overall - the finishes have been quite exciting...... most exciting in ages!!!

Cadel is perfectly placed and riding a smart race so far - things are looking great

I do have a couple of issues - I didnt like the fact that we didnt have a prolouge and who was the smart ars* who thought having the length of the TT was a good idea!!!!!!! Hated that!

Hi there.

Cadel leads all the real contenders by a minute already (unless Kirchen can suprise me).

If the time trial had been longer then he'd just be in the lead by a bigger margin - more interesting this way!

Cheers, Andy

Its like shortening the stages of the Pyraneese to me - I do love the TT and the Mountain Stages

As for Cadel - no one will believe me cause 'Im being biased' but Ive had the pleasure of meeting him and hes a great guy - I sware on a stack of bibles!!

Like all sportsmen and women, as soon as the get on the track/road/pitch whatever they are competitve, and even sometimes pushy/arrogant - We call it 'White Line Fever' here in Oz

Bugly

Great week one, lots of strong attacks by French riders - only one positive drug test, good tactical racing with promise of an evenly balanced tour.

I think some of you are TOO critical of Evans; with the quality (or lack of) of his supporting riders it would be suicidal for Evans to go for a big stage win.

After two moderate mountains stages we have seen that Lotto are not up to giving him support. If he attacks in the mountains he may win the stage and the Yellow but not the tour. His best chance is to sit on his competition limit his losses and go all out in the TT.

After all nobody a year from now would be talking about Evans having a magnificant stage win in the mountains if it cost him the win in the GC. Somehow I think his emploeyr would prefer to have the winner of the tour on the payroll then one victory in the Alps.

YMMV

Bugly

treize vents

graham56 wrote:

Bland !!!!!!! But hope it picks up a bit once the mountain stages start

When I read something like this I am curious. Can you say more about why it in bland? Did you know all the results in advance. Were none of the finishes at all interesting? Is it more bland than previous Tours? Have you ever watched a non-bland first week of the Tour?

I have watched, in France or in the UK, tours for twenty years and it seems to me that the essence of "non-bland" is uncertainty. Not knowing what is going to happen and being slightly interested in what does happen. In this Tour we seem to have a bit more uncertainty than usual, in terms of every single jersey, and in terms of how each stage will finish. for example, today is "obviously" a sprint finish, right? I do agree that it will absolutely certainly become more exciting, for longer periods of time, more tense and "entertaining" for longer periods. but that is always the case, even for people who don't appreciate the finer subtleties of the Tour. However, I don't quite understand how the entire wee khas been bland?

Can you say any more?

sicrow

drenkrom wrote:

It's been great up to now. The first gallop up the hill on stage 1 was chaos itself and very gripping. Stage 3 gave us some good tactical mind games, with the peloton calling it way wrong. The TT and subsequent sprint stage delivered good watching, and the finish to Super-Besse was quite something. Today's stage was great! Splits and aggression aplenty, big names taking a beating and forced to do their own dirty work, only to pay for it later... a tactical buffet. I love it thus far.

whoever finds it bland must not be watching the same race I am.

Agreed Drekrom I think its been a good first week and thoroughly enjoyable - shame I've worked all week and only caught the highlights (can't get away with sky + ing 5 hours per day and stopping the wife watching Corrie ) I like the way the format has changed this year, it's set the race up well from the start without all the usual prologue, TTT messing around

SteveR_100Milers

It's been a great first week, plenty of drama, some unexpected results, some fantastic riding, maybe we have seen the beginning of a new generation of some really good riders - Kirchen, Cav the obvous ones, but S Chavanel seems to have got off his a*se and trained this year for a change! The pre-tournament showdown of Valverde v Evans looks like it could be more that just that, its shaping up nicely to be a classic.

RichN95.

There was quite an interesting take on this by William Fotheringham in the Guardian. He was pointing out that while, like all Tour bosses, Pruedhomme is a journalist, he comes from television rather than newspapers, and as such has a better handle on what will produce a better experience for the viewer.

Kléber

The first week has been worthy of a one week stage race alone. Bunch sprints, a TT, a summit finish, a mountain stage, a breakaway plus two uphill sprints, it's been an exciting week in its own right.

cougie

Its been a good tour so far I'd say. The break getting caught in the last 30km ? The hills ? A TT ?

What more could you expect ? Merckx and Hinault coming back for one more go ?

biondino

Apparently Fotheringham has abandoned the tour! Isn't that like John Motson giving up the FA Cup Final at half time? Any story behind that?