Any cyclist folloiwing the Giro d'Italia? (1 Viewer)

[Steve Berger]

One report indicated that it was a spectator's camera, hidden behind the hand.

On ESPN's "The Sports Reporters", one of the panelists declared that Lance must have been dirty too or he never could have won. The reporter never even considered the possibility that some of the accused riders might be innocent. At this point I think they are using a "guilt by association" standard rather than hard evidence. Time will tell (maybe).

OLN is not an option for me, being a second tier digital channel on my cable system. I won't go that route unless it is part of an alacart cable plan. I use VeloNews and Eurosport online.

 

[Jay H]

Seeing Hincapie in Yellow is strange... Wonder how long that will last, (the hills are alive with the sounds of not-Hincapie! ).

Poor Thor, saw the amt of blood from his accident. Funny enough, I got 2 of those green hand things from the french version of the OTB... They can be sharp at 35mph!!!

jay

 

[Michael Harris]

I think for Hincapie any day in Yellow is a good day. And I, for one am happy to see him wear it. He deserves his moment in the spotlight after being Lance's faithful lieutenant for all these years. Can he win the whole thing? I doubt it but I won 't be surprised if a Yank takes it this year though.

 

[Jay H]

No way George is going win overall, doesn't matter if Ulrich and Basso are out... George has never been able to show he is capable winning the 3-week tour and with his body (6'3" 185lbs") he's not really capable of doing the climbs with most of the smaller cyclists out there. He's a good cyclist to do well in many aspects but to win the whole thing? I don't see that ever happening. Why would Postal Service go after Salvadelli if they thought Hincapie could succeed Armstrong?

Jay

 

[Jay H]

This was posted on Velonew's live coverage for today's stage..



Oh now, what's the TDF without those silly big green PMU hands flying around!

I get a lot of comments from co-workers with my PMU hand in my cubicle here at work.

Jay

 

[Michael Harris]

I always hated those Green Hands. After spending all sorts of good money to get to France, finding a good spot on the course, I always seem to get my view blocked by those damn things. Good riddance.

 

[Nathan_F]

Not a cylcist per se, but I'm following the tour with enthusiasm. It's been very interesting so far this year: the drama of Thor (prologue win, out of clip on sprint, lose yellow, get cut by a foam finger, get yellow back, lose yellow again, get penalized for a bad sprint), McEwen's sprint dominance, Disco boys
doing well and using VERY interesting tactics, Boonen in yellow but sprinting horribly... and the real interesting stuff (TTs and mountains) are days away!

 

[Jay H]

Those hands/fingers aren't foam like the ones you'd find at say football games, but rather cardboard and about 1mm thick.

Having not seen the sprints or really any of the stages (no OLN), McEwen is sometimes a dirty sprinter, but being so small he has an uncanny ability of squeezing in between other sprinters to go for the line. Without Petacchi this year, he's got an advantage in the sprints where it isn't a really long and straight sprint where a more powerful person like Boonan could have an advantage if healthy.

Jay

 

[Nathan_F]

The sprints have been pretty interesting. McEwen has indeed come out of nowhere.. he cut off Thor clearly outside of his line in his 1st win. Thor got a penalty yesterday for it, when even the rider/team cut off didn't complain. Find a friend with OLN.. I went without last year for the first time since the tour has been on OLN. The web updates didn't satisfy. I gotta watch those sprint finals!

 

[Lew Crippen]

I also have to follow on the web, as I no longer have OLN.

 

[Lew Crippen]

I don’t know who is still following the Tour, but we have a real race with Floyd Landis just 8 seconds ahead of the (current) pride of France, Cyril Dessel. Landis went in front in the Pyrenees With the Alps and a next-to-the-last day time trial still ahead, the race is wide open.

 

[Steve Berger]

I tend to drift through the first week or so. The only thing the flat stages do is crash out competitors, generally on roads unsuited for 175+ riders (narrow and poor repair).

There doesn't seem to be the team effort needed to catapult a "leader" into contention; only a bunch of individuals. The better teams seem to have no leaders, and the better riders have no strong team support.

Eurosport.com has live audio on their website with Sean Kelly and others doing live comentary.

 

[Michael Harris]

I've been following it daily. Just haven't had anything to post. Looks like Landis is the big story, so far, of the Tour. Since this may be his last due to his hip problem, I hope he goes out on top.

Looks like Team Discovery has imploded. Without a clear successor to Lance, I have no clue what they are doing. At least Popovich brought them some pride in the Bastille Day stage win. I was thinking that Discovery could redeem themselves in the team time trial, their strongest event in the past Tours, but I just noticed on the TDF site that there won't be one. The TTT has always been my favorite event to watch.

 

[Michael Harris]

GO FLOYD! He took the Yellow on Tuesday. Lost it yesterday in what appeared to be a total collapse and lost over 8 minutes and fell to 11th place. Today he is in 3rd place, only 30 seconds behind, and he won the stage! This year's Tour is great! Can't wait for Saturday's time trial.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Floyd Landis is on the course. The two ahead of him to follow in the next few minutes. We should know soon if Landis can take back the yellow.

 

[Michael Harris]

Well now we know, Floyd Landis takes this year's Tour with a 57" lead. What a great race and the finish of the last stage was exciting. Let us hope that Floyd's hip replacement surgery goes well and allows him to race again.

Bravo Floyd.

 

[Jay H]

Congrats to Floyd, I didn't think he had it in him and his team was suspect. He needed a once-in-a-lifetime type ride to win, I thought at the start of the TdF and I didn't think he could do it, but I was wrong and am very happy for him and for us cyclists who have gotten a pretty exciting race this year, the 'favorites' notwithstanding.

I missed pretty much all the tour while I was out climbing mountains out west for 2 weeks (just got back on the 22nd) but I followed it via the silly 20 second blurbs on the news and one day I actually was able to see most of a stage on OLN while in a hotel between mountains....

Of course nobody in America has heard of Floyd other than cyclists so I didn't even hear about it on the news last night...

Jay

 

[Michael Harris]

Noooooooooooo! Landis pops positive for excessive testosterone. Suspended by Phonak pending analysis of the "B" sample. If confirmed, this is not good. I'm not a happy camper.

Here is the report from Velonews: http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/10591.0.html

 

[Micheal]

I read about that here http://www.tsn.ca/oln/news_story.asp?id=172496
Doesn't look good....

 

[Holadem]

Assuming he is guilty, how in the world to these people think they can get away with stuff like this?

Are the tests random or is everyone tested systemetically? Do cheaters bet on getting lucky and not being picked? Even so, his stunning comeback was bound to raise some eyebrows, so really, what is the logic behind doing something that will (not might) get you in trouble?

I really don't get it.

--
H