Tour de France 2005

“warm up time on OLNTV. Bob Roll is nutty as ever.”

“but a USA youngster is in the lead.”

“1 Zabriske (USA)
2 Armstrong (USA)”

“Thanks for the heads up. I think I am catching the rerun now.”

“The replay was exciting even though I knew who won. Watching Armstrong pass Jan Ullrich was awesome.

USA USA

the french.....LOL”

“Go Lance Go!

7”

“bummer, we have no OLN here...keep me posted with any good info please.”

“No OLN? Burn your television!!!

Do you get the Speed channel?”

“I don't get OLN or Speed at home, but i was at a friends this afternoon and got to see Lance ride, it was FUN to watch him pass Ulrich!!! If his foot hadn't come off the pedal when he first started he might have finished just ahead of the Z boy.”

“I will check about "speed", do they show it?”

“Yes we do bacpac. Will check the listings; thanks a bunch!”

“Nascar until 1am Bacpac, you tease.”

“I suppose that prick Armstrong will be there... again. Without his wife and 3 kids... again. Don't get me wrong, to survive and beat cancer is killer, and all the coverage he's getting is nice, but his REAL FAMILY probably ain't too thrilled about this "hero" taking off and pumping some hottie rockstar (I just wouldn't do anything like that.... probably).”

“Reckon' it's done deal. Ain't no Speed or OLN in northern Italy, dangit.”

“I here the kids are there this year. Wifey is no longer in the picture. By all accounts the breakup was very amicable. I don't like it, but then if I didn't associate with divored people, there would be a lot of people out of my life.”

“OLN also has online coverage.


http://www.olntv.com/tdf/

"In the race for Yellow, Americans celebrated Independence Day by holding on to the lead with Dave Zabriskie from San Francisco, while defending Tour champion Lance Armstrong kept his two-second deficit and second place."
last edited: 7/04/05 11:27:16 PM”

“I can't wait to watch this tonight!”

“it will be a good one even knowing how it turns out”

“Better coverage can be found on letour.com or velonews.com. Watch it live in am. Then you don't have to listen to Al Trautwig's inane comments. LA should have it locked up unless he has a bad day in the mountains, which is unfortunate. It would hve been nice to see him contend in more one day classics and WC. BTW, Merckx is the greatest ever.”

“dang! - thats a bike ride!”

“I was at the finish at Mulhouse (stage 9)...next year, I am going up into the mountains to watch...too little excitement at the end of a mountain stage...all we saw were blurs.”

“Back in YELLOW!!!”

“He done good. Blew away Ulrich again. You gotto feel sorry fore Jan. Minus Lance and he'd be going for what, his six or seventh tour win?
But Armstrong looks just a class above everyone else in the mountains.”

“Wonder how much of the Tour appeal will be lost in the US after Lance retires?
Did you follow it before Lance. I knew some about it due to Greg Lemond and Miguel Indurain but I didn't follow it like I due now”

“so armstrongs back in the lead?”

“I've watched it for a long time Ewker. It may loose some of its appeal here when Lance retires, but it will always be big in mainland Europe. Though cycling is getting more and more popular here, so you may see a Lance legacy.
last edited: 7/12/05 12:46:20 PM”

“whats the exaggeration on the elevation profile?”

“RE: future US interest.

I think it will depend on part on whether there is a US contender and whether OLN provides the same coverage. Local bike shops must be doing pretty good with their ads given the number that are running here. It's all about the money. Road cycling is very popular here.

RE: elevation exageration. Huh? That image link is from velonews.

Here is today's

http://images.velonews.com/images/news/8481.11894.f.jpg

Have no idea about the scale. Even if it is distorted, check the distance and grades on the mountain climbs~!”

“LA is a great bike rider but he focuses on just the TdF and his team is paid to help him win same. No other team has such a expenditure of energy on just one goal. Americans know one race, Le Tour. In Europe there are so many races;the 3 grand tours, the one day classics, the worlds, the smaller stage races. It would have been nice to see LA put as much effort into other races, though he has won one worlds and one or 2 classic's (Fleche-Wallone and Amstel Gold?)

As far as gradients go, the longest steepest climbs in the SE are Carvers Gap, Beech Mt, Valle Crusis, Iron Mt, Mountain Lake and one or two others near Shennandoah.
Mt Washington in NH is steep. Don't know about the west. The climb up from Valle Crusis (outside Boone NC) is 6.4 kilos and averages about 7% if memory serves me right. This is the steepest climb that I can think of. The steep ones in the Alps and Pyrenees are 10-12 miles and average 6-8%. Thats steep.”

“A couple of my fave rides from the old days when I lived on the SF peninsula were Old La Honda Rd. and Tunitas Creek Rd. OLH rises about 1,300 feet in 3.3 miles, which calcs out to about 7.5%. TC is a total of about 9 miles with a 2,000 feet gain, which is a little over 4% average, although the main climb is about 5 miles at about 6¼%. Of course, to get to Tunitas Creek Rd., I'd have about a 15 mile ride to the beginning of OLH, then OLH itself, then ride down the 15 miles to the ocean (an awesome ride!), then up Hwy 1 a few miles.”