Please help - struggling to care about the Tour

Eurostar

I used to be OBSESSED with it, but Ullrich and Landis killed off nearly all my interest, and Beltran and this Barloworld knob are hammering huge nails into the coffin. I could be watching it live now but I'd rather work. Even when Cav wins a sprint I can barely manage a flicker of interest.

The boredom factor of Kirchen and Cadel doesn't help. During interviews with Cadel I have to turn the sound down. And when he made his miraculous recovery from his injuries and attacked uphill while still bleeding, I thought, "got to be doping."

I don't know what to do. I JUST DON'T CARE about the Tour any more. I really miss how much I loved it in years gone by. If only I could time travel back to the Hinault/Lemond ding-dong.

Has anybody else managed to dig themselves out of this hole of apathy? How did you do it?

Maybe we can persuade the bookies to give odds on who else is going to fail a test? Honestly, I think that's more diverting than the stage results.

bipedal

A bit rough on Cadel - he nearly got dropped earlier in the day... his "attacks" were pretty hopeless... he lost over a minute to Schleck

Hardly an all conquering day in the saddle

robmanic1

Euro, you just have to believe things are improving (difficult, I admit), I'll keep watching, it's still a tremendous spectacle and the scenery is amazing!
And remember, it's just a few bad-apples spoiling it for the rest blah blah blah

Eurostar

It would help if I could identify some exciting riders who I'm 99.9% sure are clean. Any ideas? I'm not sure about Cav because his speed margin seems too good to be true, and he's progressed so much in the last year. And his confidence could conceal an arrogance about doping - many dopers in the past have been very cocky.

To put it another way, are there any teams whose testing regimes give you absolute confidence that none of their riders could get away with it? Even Vaughters doesn't give straight answers to straight questions, does he?

robmanic1

I guess if you suspect they're all "at it" (why wouldn't you?), at least the playing field is level.

Eurostar

Even if they are "all at it", it's no consolation - it seems that just by watching it we're encouraging this grisly spectacle in which they abuse their health and die young while the bent doctors make squillions.

And besides, I'm sure there are some clean ones in the peloton who we never hear about, but by rights ought to be big names in the top ten. That's what really gets me - the talented guys whose careers come to nothing just because they're honest.

woodford2barbican

Robmanic1 wrote:

I Woah! That's English for 'stop a horse!'

Surely "woah!" is horseglish for stop?

robmanic1

woodford2barbican wrote:

Robmanic1 wrote:

I Woah! That's English for 'stop a horse!'

Surely "woah!" is horseglish for stop?

I'd agree, not my words, the words of Alan Partridge.

Moomaloid

I'm sorry but if you're that down it then stop watching it and watch the cricket, or maybe some show jumping.... jeez!!

Why does everyone get on Cadel's back. So he's not the most charismatic rider, but give the guy a f***ing break. he's spent his whole career striving to get that blasted golden fleece and i for one was made up watching him choke back the tears the other night. It must've been extra sweet for him after getting stick from the media and everyone on boards like this.

Yes the sport needs characters, but i believe we are going through a transition period, rinsing out the nastyness and soon a new generation of characters will come through. We have the likes of Ricco and Cav shouting their views already and more will come.

Yes we are all down hearted about the drug problems, but if we don't get behind the sport its got no chance! I love the tour... as a kid it was pretty much the only cycling you got to see, so it holds a special place. I've enjoyed this edition so far.

andy_wrx

I actually started to like Cadel after his show of emotion, choking back the tears and so on. Obviously the Yellow *really means something* to him.

robmanic1

He is a weirpig though

biondino

I think I love Cadel for the way he clutches the lion. Seriously. I R a big sap.

Arkibal

Moomaloid wrote:

I'm sorry but if you're that down it then stop watching it and watch the cricket, or maybe some show jumping.... jeez!!

Why does everyone get on Cadel's back. So he's not the most charismatic rider, but give the guy a f***ing break. he's spent his whole career striving to get that blasted golden fleece and i for one was made up watching him choke back the tears the other night. It must've been extra sweet for him after getting stick from the media and everyone on boards like this.

Yes the sport needs characters, but i believe we are going through a transition period, rinsing out the nastyness and soon a new generation of characters will come through. We have the likes of Ricco and Cav shouting their views already and more will come.

Yes we are all down hearted about the drug problems, but if we don't get behind the sport its got no chance! I love the tour... as a kid it was pretty much the only cycling you got to see, so it holds a special place. I've enjoyed this edition so far.

Does Silence Lotto have an internal anti-doping program?

ms_tree

I can't see how you can't be positive about it (bad choice of words) but since last year I personally feel it's getting much better. Would we see Vandevelde up there if things were as they used to be?
If you don't like it go and watch football!!

claudb

I'm pretty fed up with comments like this to the extent I really wonder about the motive for them. The race has been good so far, is very close on all categories, and a couple of pretty insignificant riders have been caught doping by the use of the new approach of Targeted Testing. I think this is all good news now and, especially, for the future !!

Eurostar

I don't have a sinister motive for my post. It's just that I really miss having Tour fever and want to catch it again. The enthusiastic comments from you guys in this thread and others are actually starting to help, so thank you everyone. I'll stick with it and try to become a Cadel admirer. Just watched the clip of the reporter prodding his injured shoulder and was pretty disgusted. I'll give Cadel a lot more support from now on. He's taken so much stick over the years, and having some idiot do that to him while he's being interviewed on live TV wearing his first yellow jersey is a really low blow. I hope Prudhomme finds out who did it and takes away their accreditation.

drenkrom

Everyone has something to find in the Tour this year, even if you're an Evans-basher. On stage 10, when Evans was alone at driving the chase after Schleck, and he turned around and gesticulated to the mass of wheel-suckers behind him, for instance. That was pretty funny! But if anything, Evans has taken away most of the arguments against him this year. He's been working on the front when he needs to, he showed aggressiveness in the first week when the stuff hit the fan... my respect for him has grown immensely since the beginning of the month.

As far as doping goes, we get one old-school geezer on the border of insignificance and one almost-made-it-big-but-not-quite rider, hardly surprises in both cases. Nothing to affect the actual racing in any way. And if we all know there are dopers in cycling, I'd much rather have a Tour where some of them get caught than a "clean Tour" with nothing but negative tests.

The Tour brings a huge sideshow with it, but is supposed to be about the racing, and the racing has been great up to now. Forget the crap, watch the racing.

iainf72

I thought the Tour was pretty lame until Ricco and Super Besse. And the mountains have been rather good. There have been shocks with Valverde and Cunego's dire performances, good performance from VDV (under the radar, but he's bound to try something) - Add to that Cadel's team not being very good and it could amount to an interesting next week.

On the doping front - It is what it is. There will probably be more. Try to recapture that innocence when you thought Ullrich was clean. Or be like me and think "what's he on" but enjoy the performance anyway.

steviedonut

Why does everyone get on Cadel's back. So he's not the most charismatic rider, but give the guy a f***ing break. he's spent his whole career striving to get that blasted golden fleece and i for one was made up watching him choke back the tears the other night. It must've been extra sweet for him after getting stick from the media and everyone on boards like this.




i too was delighted for Evans the other night and i think the comments about him on the original post in this thread were bang out of order

wasp707

The top 5 riders seperated by less than a minute after the Pyrenees should make for an exciting contest in the Alps. There may be more riders caught doping during the Tour but at least so far they're small fish. I honestly think the message is starting to get through.

thamacdaddy

Enjoyed it immensely this year.

I totally disagree that you think Cav is on it. Really enjoyed seeing the cav wins and the CSC team effort the other day was amazing to watch.

I agree that the people who have been caught seem to have been done so in a targetted net closing in type anti doping approach and we will only know in hindsight whether this is that different or more effective than anything before.

Its been enjoyable so far and I am sure the rest of it has some great rides and suprises in store.

Then its onto the olympics to see the brit cycling team put in some stunning performances I hope, and maybe a little perv on vicky p :twisted:

cougie

Well its all very well turning the clock back to the Hinault days, but top riders were doping then.

Cadel may not be very exciting, but I've heard journalists talk about him as riding clean - and I can believe that. Look at Pantani and how fantastic his attacks were - Cadel doesnt do that does he ?

I think Columbia and Garmin are riding clean - there may be a few rotten apples in the barrel, but I dont think Cav is one - he'd survive the hills better if he was !

ricadus

cougie wrote:

Cadel may not be very exciting, but I've heard journalists talk about him as riding clean - and I can believe that. Look at Pantani and how fantastic his attacks were - Cadel doesnt do that does he ?

Well he certainly drilled Garzelli in the Coppi & Bartali race this year with a sustained climbing attack -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCbQCpgDtpU -- so I am hoping he is bottling up enough post-race interview rage to do similar on Alpe d'Huez at some point.