11 more days until the SuperBowl (of cycling)

Agreed, unless it's not. I say this partly in jest because everyone complained about Lance's team controlling the front and no real attacks or excitement. Then everyone complains when Alberto attacks the peloton singlehandedly with no virtually no team support and says it's too boring and predictable.

Sprint stages are boring until the final k. TT stages are boring.



I just like seeing bike racing on TV.

 

Totally agreed! Its become a July ritual for me: Kids are out of school so nobody to drive in the morning. Wake up, make coffee, turn on VS watch TdF, get ready for work during commercials, finish off the stage and then drive into work. Only broken on rest days and tt stages for good early morning summer mountain bike rides. OK also for sprinting stages when you really only need to watch the last 15 minutes (in which case its wake up, gear up, ride MTB, return, shower, watch last 15 minutes of TdF and then go to work. God Bless cycling!

 

That sounds nice! For us it's usually watch an anti-climactic 30 minutes during breakfast, get spoiled by the time I get to work by cycling news sites on Twitter or Facebook, have it on the background in the evening as we make dinner, etc. and then either skip to the final few k, or watch it the next day


ALSO! Totally forgot about Basso!! Wildcard because he didn't race Suisse or Dauphine.

 

I too am looking forward to this year's Tour De France.

I recommend reading the following article for some neat insight and perspective about bike racing: http://walrusmagazine.com/print/2011.07-sports-the-pain-principle/

 

Phillipe Gilbert and Sylvain Chavanel will be the guys to watch in the non-flat, non-HC days. As someone mentioned earlier, it would be great to see Jens take one -- but he's going to be ripping his insides out on climbs for Schleck.

 

I don't watch the World Series, NBA Championship nor the Superbowl...but I do like the TDF. I DVR it and hope that I don't hear or read any results each day before I watch that days racing. I will be routing for the USA riders...not a Contador fan.

Dean

 

I enjoy watching the sprint stages,Hoping The Big R doesnt waste their efforts on a couple of over the hill dopers like Levi and Chris.

 

Cavendish will wear yellow.

 

Homer is good people - old doper or not. Hope to see his old smiling ass win a climbing stage! Wow that didn't turn out right...

 

Ill rule out Cavendish until hes with Team SKY. Top 3 guys is Levi Leipheimer, Chris Horner , and Bradly Wiggins. Alberto Contador dont deserve to win this year.

 

I would be nice to see him in Yellow for a day or two.He may not win the Green jersey but he will win more stages than any other sprinter.

 

I think it'll be really interesting this year. Cavendish seems to be struggling to put together stage wins and while I honestly don't know figures, I think he's won maybe half as much as last year and previous years by this time? He seems to be fairly motivated for Green, but can he go for enough intermediate sprint points on all stages to get enough points?

Might wind up being Thor's if Garmin lets him go for it (and as we saw a few years ago - he will take a flyer for points on a mountain stage!). Could be interesting.

 

Thor is a bit like Eric Zabel never the best pure sprinter but won plenty of green jerseys because he was a better all around rider.

 

semi related - does anyone know how to get the overall climbing info for each stage?? Something like "stage 12, Cugnaux >Luz-Ardiden, 211 km long, 4000m climb' (yes it is a beast )

Real easy to find everything but that.....I can take a rough guess looking at the elevation profile but just surprised it is not listed along with the other stats??

update, just answered my own question, check this out: http://www.mapmyride.com/tdf/stages/ has ascent info for each stage!

 

Cav may get the green if he doesn't miss the time cutoff on stages like the aforementioned 12. They changed how points are awarded this year -- emphasizing the finish instead of mid-stage sprints. Also, they are allocating down to 15th place, and the gap between the winner and the rest of the places is much larger. So if Cav gets four, including his third in a row on the Champs, he may get his green jersey. That being said, a lot of finishes have a slight uphill this year, like the Giro, so it may be Thor's year again.

 

5 more days and Channel 7 (ABC) will televise it!

 

To quote Jose... GUAT????

It's on Versus every day.

 

Yeah, but to have a major network pick it up for opening day is great for cycling! I think it shows the popularity of cycling is still growing strong.

 

I know it's MTB, but the high school league is also TAKING OFF, and it's really exciting to see. I don't particularly know how to make more girls/women race, but to see it picked up in HS and have some support is awesome.

 

here is a 'cheat sheet' of all the stages in miles and feet for the metrically challenged (myself included ) also totals and per day avg's.