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#1
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Does anyone know when this year's Tour starts?
I've keep checking Versus but everytime I look it's the Cat 4 Kansas
State Championships. Just a bunch of really flat boring scenery and guys riding under 20mph. Did they condense the TdF into just a few days and are using all of this Cat4 footage from Kansas to fill the void until the race starts? |
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#2
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Does anyone know when this year's Tour starts?
On Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:32:30 -0700 (PDT), Bug
wrote: I've keep checking Versus but everytime I look it's the Cat 4 Kansas State Championships. Just a bunch of really flat boring scenery and guys riding under 20mph. Did they condense the TdF into just a few days and are using all of this Cat4 footage from Kansas to fill the void until the race starts? The sunflowers gave it away, didn't they? Curtis L. Russell Odenton, MD (USA) Just someone on two wheels... |
#3
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Does anyone know when this year's Tour starts?
On Jul 15, 12:32 pm, Bug wrote:
I've keep checking Versus but everytime I look it's the Cat 4 Kansas State Championships. Just a bunch of really flat boring scenery and guys riding under 20mph. Did they condense the TdF into just a few days and are using all of this Cat4 footage from Kansas to fill the void until the race starts? The "Tour" was canceled in 2006, after the organizer was ****ed over the 8th consecutive win by US riders. Now there is a memorial event of the same name but diverse rules. Riders must now agree to abide by retroactive blood chemistry parameters. Any arbitrary declaration can now remove you from the race and the UCI "league". Sadly, the IOC is also collaborating. In 2007, when a rider won on a US team, that rider was precluded from starting in 2008. The 2008 "winner" is a top climber and a "nice guy". Winning a stage during the reign of Armstrong with a baby's (fake nipple toy) was the ideal image as far as ASO deemed. Therefore for the first time since 2005, the defending rider was actually allowed in the race. They would have DQ'ed Armstrong long ago if they were not in fear of his lawyers. Their plans required them to wait for LA to retire so that no other rider would ever gain that much power. Him returning is a nightmare for them. If he wins...it will have destroyed all of their gains…meaning they destroyed the sport while gaining nothing. Now is the time for Armstrong, Hamilton and Landis to initiate a new league, not a new team in the “same old **** league”. Due to US riders’ hard work, cycling has grown during the same 10 years (just about to the day) of idiotic blame-games rather than effective leadership after the disaster known as the "Festina Affair". Blood chemistry manipulation has been difficult to regulate. When policing caught riders who passed the proactive doping tests, rather than "doing the right thing(s)”, poor leadership failed to explain why. Instead they kept changing the rules till the number of defamed riders seemed to roughly equal the perceived number of dopers. We can't catch them all, and nobody expects to. However, a top US rider caught is equal to 10 or more no-name losers who are in fact the riders breaking the rules. (I mean to disrespect to the low performers, but it is THOSE who are most likely cheating. Some doping does yield marginal improvements but for the most part, it is the placebo effect that has riders thinking "wow, I'm 15% stronger"). Therefore it was deemed wise to attack each of the top US riders, especially if the real sin of threatening to result in another LA style dominance. I was never a huge fan of LA…but it was poignant the way he responded with and after his cancer. Only an idiot would fail to see how surviving cancer in the peak of your sporting career would fail to help you when the sport puts s premium on aerobic strength and endurance. I admit I recall the day I read the press release in late 1996, there was a sting in my left eye, but the room had some dust, so… whatever that means. While I was thrilled to follow his comeback story, my heart at that time was behind Zulle. I believed that his behavior above all others would be the ideal role model to learn the only legitimate lesson of the Festina debacle. He proved that top riders do not gain anything by doping. Only riders with a deficit gain anything. It’s your legs that turn the pedals. While it is true that virtually all athletes gain from more oxygen, the top riders are able to deliver this oxygen…enough to win even against “cheaters”. I am sorry that few believe this. I would never defend LA if there was even a chance he was doping. He is not, he was not. The coincidence of riders using drugs developed for cancer treatment, well it was just too good to pass up for most of you fools. Armstrong would have to be attacked by all of you losers. They attacked and he fought back off- the-bike as he did on it. He fought to win, and he frightened the “leadership” of ASO and the UCI as much or possibly more than his brothers on the road were put off their game. Anyhow, I don't care much about defending cheaters, but my point is that the attitudes of the press and the fans is what led to the pressure on the UCI, ASO and others to fail under pressure, and looked for improved perceptions, since they believed they could not do any better than they had when things went bad for them. If you look at the evidence, it is possible that the leadership are causing far more problems than the few dopers. What I “love” is that when an idiot is caught, his testimony that “all the others” are doping is believed by you IDIOTS! Dude was busted and the only thing you believe is the thing you want to believe (his justification for lying and cheating in the first place). Good job, you empowered the people that destroyed this sport. Any of you who piled on doping threads are just as guilty as the nominal leaders who failed. You represent the pulse of the fans. Marketing people believe those who speak up represent roughly the cross section of all the others who do not. In many cases, this is valid and all they have to go by. However, cycling is unique in many ways, and one way is that its hard-core fans see themselves as “Walter Mitty” (that is British for “Wannabe”) racers. Therefore they DO NOT represent the silent fans in this way. They instead represent the idiots who use doping as a pretext to act violated. They use the problems to convince their office-cube neighbors that they too would be racing up and down the Loire Valley if they were not so full of integrity that kept them from “doping like ALL the others”. What fantastic lies and fantastic liars all of you are. Each Post-Armstrong "Tour" has been de facto proof of their blatant efforts to treat cycling like "Big Time Wrestling" is managed. The ultimate irony is that it was this "sport" in the US that led these Euro-fascists to believe they could control the sport in this way, without repercussions. They were correct that the public is stupid enough, but they are not smart enough to deceive...me (and…any others that "get it"?). |
#4
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Does anyone know when this year's Tour starts?
Bug wrote:
I've keep checking Versus but everytime I look it's the Cat 4 Kansas State Championships. Just a bunch of really flat boring scenery and guys riding under 20mph. Did they condense the TdF into just a few days and are using all of this Cat4 footage from Kansas to fill the void until the race starts? I shouldn't be responding to a douchebag troll, but WTF. I think that this year's Giro course spoiled us. The mixture of course profiles and the early race mountains made for a very exciting race from the early stages all the way through the end. FWIW, I wish that could be the format for the future. |
#5
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Does anyone know when this year's Tour starts?
On Jul 15, 2:48*pm, z wrote:
Bug wrote: I've keep checking Versus but everytime I look it's the Cat 4 Kansas State Championships. Just a bunch of really flat boring scenery and guys riding under 20mph. Did they condense the TdF into just a few days and are using all of this Cat4 footage from Kansas to fill the void until the race starts? I shouldn't be responding to a douchebag troll, but WTF. I think that this year's Giro course spoiled us. The mixture of course profiles and the early race mountains made for a very exciting race from the early stages all the way through the end. FWIW, I wish that could be the format for the future. I'd like to see some real innovation in the structure of the stages. Why not have double days, with contrasting events (e.g. 80 km morning short RR with climb finish, followed by 35 km flat ITT in the afternoon)? Looks to me like the traditional Tour flat 200 km stage is more about marketing and the economy of all the little towns on the route than it is about racing. Maybe that's a reality that simply can't change, but in a 3-week race, there have to be a couple of days that could break the mold. Brad Anders |
#6
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Does anyone know when this year's Tour starts?
On Jul 15, 3:08*pm, "Paul B. Anders" wrote:
On Jul 15, 2:48*pm, z wrote: Bug wrote: I've keep checking Versus but everytime I look it's the Cat 4 Kansas State Championships. Just a bunch of really flat boring scenery and guys riding under 20mph. Did they condense the TdF into just a few days and are using all of this Cat4 footage from Kansas to fill the void until the race starts? I shouldn't be responding to a douchebag troll, but WTF. I think that this year's Giro course spoiled us. The mixture of course profiles and the early race mountains made for a very exciting race from the early stages all the way through the end. FWIW, I wish that could be the format for the future. I'd like to see some real innovation in the structure of the stages. Why not have double days, with contrasting events (e.g. 80 km morning short RR with climb finish, followed by 35 km flat ITT in the afternoon)? Looks to me like the traditional Tour flat 200 km stage is more about marketing and the economy of all the little towns on the route than it is about racing. Maybe that's a reality that simply can't change, but in a 3-week race, there have to be a couple of days that could break the mold. Dumbass - It'd be very entertaining if one of the stages was a triathlon. thanks, Kurgan. presented by Gringioni. |
#7
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Does anyone know when this year's Tour starts?
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#8
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Does anyone know when this year's Tour starts?
KG wrote:
It'd be very entertaining if one of the stages was a triathlon. Followed by a hot dog eating contest. -- Bill Asher |
#9
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Does anyone know when this year's Tour starts?
"Jim Feeley" wrote in message
... Geez, I hope so. The sprints have been fun to watch, but I gotta agree that the Giro was much more exciting that what we've seen so far in the TdF. The idea is to change the Tour around from year to year so that you can't take for granted what sort of talent you need to win stages and the Tour. This year it gave heavy advantage to ITT's and the final climb to Mt. Ventoux probably because they were trying to put Contador at a disadvantage and because they never thought that Armstrong would come back. Day to day stages are interesting for the Green Jersey but this is going to be a pretty amazing Tour after we get to the end. Give the Tour management credit for knowing what the heck they're doing (now that they've got a general manager who has more than a basic clue.) |
#10
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Does anyone know when this year's Tour starts?
Tom Kunich wrote:
Give the Tour management credit for knowing what the heck they're doing (now that they've got a general manager who has more than a basic clue.) Precisely. This is why nearly everyone loves all the alpine stages this year that end in a descent followed by 30 km of flat. -- Bill Asher |
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