Any watching the Tour de France?

I certainly am, Lance Armstrong going for his record 6th tour win.

Bike racing isn't as boring as it may seem, I suggest you try and watch it

it is pretty boring, until the finish at least and then everyone goes mad and it gets all frantic!

shame that italian guy won't be there, can't remember his name but he died a few months back, that was a pity

I don't find bike racing that boring, I find tennis BORING. Anyway, I can just sit infront of the TV and watch the Tour de France and not knowing what the hell is going on four about an hour and then I come to my senses and pay attention . It's weird.

I'm a big Biking guy, but what Lance Armstrong is doing is a big sham. Sure, six titles is gonna be big, but the tour means nothing now with all the "teamwork" that goes on. Lance is basically guided and taken care of by his team so that he can win. If he woulda done it by himself against a bunch of guys who just wanna beat him then I would admire him.

Besides, he only has one nut, that has to be an advantage when sitting on the bike.

really he has one nut?????

I'm pretty sure that is correct due to his bout with testicular cancer.


I'm no expert on this, I only follow it VERY casually, but I do know a little.

I agree with FPC A LITTLE BIT, but not altogether. What I don't like about Lance is that the Tour de France is pretty much the only major race that he trains for while other contenders race in 2 or 3 major races a year with different terrains. Lance trains for the mountains and time trials. While some of the other races require a heavier emphasis on flats etc.

Regarding fpc's team criticism, I definitely disagree there. That is the nature of modern cycling. It is a team sport. All of the winners, at least in the past 10-20 years have strong supporting teams.

Yes Josh, that is the basis of modern cycling, but the Tour is not a modern event. It has been bastardized by the guys that surround Lance and then get out of the way at the end and let him win. I'm not saying that Lance sucks, by himself he would have won at least three of those five races. Hey if the United States Postal service is so fast how come my Celtic jersey is not here yet?

And yes, he only has one nut, because of testicular cancer, and yes he really is an inspiration, I've seen the footage of him in the hospital, and just thinking of him recovering from that and winning all thsoe tours is really inspiring.

Indeed, it is not as it was in the 'classic' days, but didn't folks such as Indurain & Lemond benefit from team tactics the same as Armstrong? No Mercx, there is a real legend.

Indurain is the first person that comes to mind when it comes to the Tour de France. Yes he got a push, not as much as Lance but yes he got a push. Now, the media is saying that Lance is one of the top three athletes ever, because he's won five straight Tours. Where does Miguel Indurain rank? if memory serves me correctly he won five straight also. What makes Lance so much better than Miguel? is it just because he has one nut? I dont know if Lance would like to be remembered as "the guy with one nut who won six straight Tours"

The media is doing him a huge disfavor and if he just lets it be then he's a fuckin sellout too.

This post doesnt make sense does it? sure it does.

Personally, I rate Indurain & Armstrong about the same. Mercx is in another class though.

A lot of the hype, though, is because we live in the U.S., and that is to be expected. Just like in Holland you'll be hard pressed to find someone that won't argue that Cruijff was as good as Pele.

If Lance Armstrong wasn't American, we would be hearing jack about this race......

I never really wanted Lance to win, until now, becuase he is going for the record. I always cheered on his rival Jans Ulrich, I always preferred him better, and I like the Aussie Robbie McEwen, great sprinter. And also, Lance Armstrong has a strong team in US Postal Service as well, if you look back that team has done well, not just becuase of Armstrong.....

go...Kirsipuu...go...

Lance took a fall a couple of days ago and now hes in sixth place, either nine or six minutes off the lead, I dont really remember.

Anyway, this begs a couple of questions:

1-Do you guys think that the other competitors dont want Lance to win the Tour and are maybe trying to trip him and make him keep falling off the leaderboard?

2-Is Lance done? i dont think so, this is after all a three week race and Lance's strongest in the mountain competitions.

What do you guys think?

I have been following mainly becuase of Armstrong and his run at history. Which i believe he will get even though he is 9 minutes back. Wait until the Moutian Stage( which my father's company will broadcast in HD) then Armstrong will pull ahead he is right on track he has a plan. Lance is an inspirationand i hope he wins.

2 things:

- hes got one nut. more aerodynamic. easier to ride, with less chaffing going on and obviously, lighter.

- He makes aster, trighter right turns.. lossing your left nut makes you unbalanced to the right, hence easier right turns.


Furthermore, its nice that you are proud of your fathers company, but frankly, you live in texas. How many others here do? none that i know of. so lets stop the shamless plugs for daddys company.

Lance isnt going to necessarily win it in the mountains. Ulrich is just as good and just as far back.

lance deserves to win NOT because he's a texan, but because he lost 50% of his manhood.

but i really want to see a frenchmen win if lance doesn't.

sorry they are all getting kicked out for drug violations..

Yeah Mike Parks, look it may be the excessive amount of work hours I put in today, or it may be just the "tranquilizer" I took but I love all my bros here at sp, including you, but you seriously come off as a daddy's boy. Its all gravy, but c'mon! who calls their dad "father"? I call my dad by his last name, and we have an excellent relationship. So, you know ease of on the plugging and the daddy's boy thing, and maybe just a tad of the patriotism and we'll all be good.

I call my dad "Dad" or simply adress him without a name.

hey if have just discovered this thread and i have to say that i am a big cycling fan!
i hate armstrong because he is just a damn doping guy!
every other teammember is doped too!
i am a big giuseppe "peppe" guerini and jan ullrich fan!

to the old discussion:
i dont like Merckx because he used doping too!
indurain was great and i think he was a clean guy because he was weak in the mountains!
but the driver with the most talent ever is ullrich but i have to say that he is too silly to be tdf winner again!(overweight, laziness)

Lance Armstrong is dominance in it's purest form.

lance armstrong is an as*****!

Wow Amoroso, not too "amoroso" are we?

Lance Armstrong is not doping, c'mon! the man is a kickass cyclist, sure he wins because of his team, but to accuse him of doping? maybe you win one tour on dope and they dont catch you but five going on six? impossible, he wins because he has one nut. Simple as.

And he has just taken the lead, by about a minute in a half. So, stick a fork on the tour, cause this shits done.

Exactly.

He is much lighter with one nut.

Not to mention the discomfort of riding a bike for a long time with two nuts. The way I see it he can just flip the nut to one side of the seat and perfect!

and like i said... easier right turns.

but, of you were to sit on the seat with one nut, then it would either go the the left or to the right, therefore your weight distribution on the bike would be uneven

It depends on how heavy the nut is. But what we're talking about is that when you have two nuts you sorta have to be sitting on top of them, if you only have one you can set it aside and you're set.

I'm as big a Cyclingfan as a Soccerfan.
Luckely, i wasn't able to see this year's Tour de France.
As always (excl. last year) it was as boring as a nascar,golf and cricket combined.
In the States, the only race that is known is the tour (maybe paris-roubaix also) so i wonder why they all like it so much. The only nice thing that happened was Boonen's double victory.


People say that Armstrong just does wat modern racing is all about, training for one moment in the year, and nothing else matters.
Well, they're wrond. Armstrong started this shit. And that's why other Tourfavourites had to copy him, because otherwise they wouldn't make a chance.
It's easy to proove this. Watch the time differences of the last years.
Around 2000, it was all around 10 minutes, the last few years it was 1-6 minutes.

In a recently published book (L.A. Confessions or something like that) there are some insiders who used to work with lance who confess that lance takes doping on a regular base, ever since he started his rehabilitation, even Greg Lemond is convinced about that.

Although Ullrich and Mayo are my favourite cyclists (except for all the belgian cyclists) i like one day races more than the Giro,Vuelta or Tour.

The Tour Of Flanders,Paris-Roubaix,Liege-Bastogne-Liege,Omloop het Volk or the World Championships are days that are planned a year ahead. Those days i wake up at 10 am, and stop looking at around 18.00h . These are sportingmoments that soccer can't create, maybe except if Anderlecht would win the Champions League


Today's race (HEW Cyclassic Hamburg) was also quite enjoyable,
we could well see who is ready for the Olympics.
And watch out for Van Petegem, because his helpers for Athens, Gilbert and Merckx are in the best form they have ever had.


btw, that italian that died recently was Pantani

But if you he had two he could just set one to the left side and one to the other side. I'm sure many people have done that.



Disclaimer: this post is not respensible for any testicle injuries or sides effects that occur when distributing the nuts properly.

whats with people saying that lance is into doping? he cant be! they are tested so regually that it would be impossible. 5 mins after every stage of the tour they take a blood sample. and the reason he does so well is because he invests so much time into the tour de france. remember this year he kicked ass on the L'Alpe d'Huez, thats because he spent so much time in the off season training on that mountin

Doesn't he have the luxury to just train for the Tour De France for the whole season? Or does he actively participate in other cycling events before and/or after Tour De France?

he mainly concentrates on the Tour and i think if you win it you are automatically in the next year unless you dont want to