2003 Tour de France coverage begins Saturday (1 Viewer)

[Lew Crippen]

Outdoor Life Network will begin live coverage of the Tour de France prologue, Saturday morning at 1030 CDT. Live coverage of the stages will begin at 0800 CDT every day with a replay beginning 15 1300 CDT and 1700 CDT.

All this will be preceded by 14 hours of 2002 replays on the 4th, beginning at 0700 CDT, which is immediately followed by a 2003 preview show.

Go Lance!

 

[Jay H]

Yes Lew, anxiously waiting July 16th where I leave to France to go cheer on Lance and the Posties and Tyler Hamilton of CSC..

Been catching OLN's 'Road to the Tour' too on Monday and Thursday nights at 7PM and 7:30PM. Very interesting refreshers of the history of the tour and the notable winners. Nothing that most cycling diehards don't already know but very interesting, especially the one about the history of the bikes from 1903 to today.

Jay

Allez Tyler!

 

[Mario Bartel]

Go here to see a live webcam of the stage they've built in front of Paris City Hall where the teams of riders will be introduced. And if you log in during the late night/early morning hours, Paris time, you might catch the crews testing the light show!

 

[Lew Crippen]

Thanks for the link Mario. I was not aware of its existence.


Sounds like a great trip Jay. I’m envious.

I’m watching the ‘Road’ as well. Nothing new, as you observe, but I did enjoy the refresher on the Lemond/Hinult fall out last night.

 

[Jay H]

Lew, it's not just me on the trip, I'm meeting Mario in Paris on the 17th of July. We'll both be there rooting on the Posties and other fellow North Americans in the tour.

BTW, Lew, I have PVR'ed all the 'Road to the Tours' for a friend here at work, if you want a copy, I'd be happy to tape it and send one to you... Same with you Mario, I know you guys in Canada get screwed with the OLN programming, but if you want a copy of it, let me know. Both of the ones last night are repeats and I have them on PVR...

I'm going to print out OLN's schedule and set my PVR shortly to record the live stages. I'll probably just buy the DVD of the tour when it comes out though anyway but it would be cool to PVR the whole race and then offload it to VHS when possible..

Jay

 

[Lew Crippen]

Jay, thanks for the offer, but I’ve managed to catch all the ‘Road’ series, either live on via tape.

I had some Australian friends who went a couple of years ago and, as a part of their package, were able to ride a couple of the stages before the tour. Of course they were there to cheer on Robbie and Stuart as well. Are you and Mario going to do anything like that? Or will you only be able to watch?

Personally I’d like to see if O’Grady could finally win the green this year. Last time around he did not quite have enough at the end.

 

[Jay H]

Yes, Mario and I are signed on with BikeStyle Tours, an Aussie company too. for the Pyranees to Paris 2 week tour. We miss the first bunch of stages and the Alpes but get to see the final weekend in Paris and hopefully another victory by an American.

There is also a Centennial event this year too where 10k cyclist ride the Champs Elyssee the day before the final stage to celebrate the centennial. Hopefully Mario and I get our invites sometime soon!!! If there is any invitation to get.

As far as the points jersey, Zabel is showing some weakness as Grady shown last year but you know who is real hot now is Petacchi of Fassa Bartolo team. He dominated the Giro but got DNFed on one of the mountain stages during the last week of the Giro. But if he still has that fire, he will probably give Zabel and O'Grady a run for their moneys.

Too bad Cadel Evans, cipo, or Pantani aren't in this tour. Evans is a young up and comer, and Cipo and Pantani are just two characters in modern cycling, with Cipo even having the World Cup jersey.

Jay

 

[Mario Bartel]

Or will you only be able to watch?

Like Jay says, we're travelling with Bikestyle Tours, and our itinerary includes rides almost every morning, usually on the same roads the racers will be on that afternoon (at least until the gendarmes boot us off ). That means we'll get the chance to test our legs, and our mettle, against some of the Tour's renowned climbs like the Col d'Aspin, Luz Ardiden, the Hautacam, and, perhaps most frighteningly, Col de Tourmalet.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Not a caution Mario, because I’d like to be right there with you. But a friend of mine told me that the scariest time of his life was descending the Col de Tourmalet in the rain.

 

[DwightK]

Not Fair!:b

What an awesome vacation. Will you 2 be bringing your own bikes? rentals? triples?

I fully intend on a similar vaction in the future. Note to self, work on climbing.

I will be TIVO'ing the tour of course. OLN is going to show 3 hours a night in addition to the live and live repeat earlier in the day. Amazing coverage. Not enough TIVO space. Oh well.

Lance, Tyler, Levi on the podium??? Naa, but would be cool.

 

[Mario Bartel]

Will you 2 be bringing your own bikes? rentals? triples?

Own bike, a 12 year-old Italian steel frame that I upgraded to a triple this Spring, in anticipation (or dread) of some of those climbs.

We had a pretty easy Winter, so I was able to stay on my mountain bike through the dark months, interspersed with sessions on the trainer. Kicked the road riding into gear in April, dropped 20 pounds, and a couple of weeks ago I was able to do a 13 km, 7.5% climb to a local ski hill without too much trouble.

 

[Mario Bartel]

Here's something to look forward, coming soon to an IMAX theater near you:

An ambitious project is in the works, a collaboration between IMAX film makers and Team CSC. For the first time, the Tour will be captured on 70mm IMAX cameras as a film crew follows Tyler Hamilton and the CSC team throughout the three-week race. The 40-minute film is to capture not only the excitement of the race and the scenery throughout France, but also portray the relationship between team director Bjarne Riis and his riders, as well as explore the role of the human mind in a sporting event as grueling as the Tour de France.

Filmmakers will use four camera crews during the Tour, as well as one full-sized IMAX camera mounted on a motorcycle, with the camera remotely controlled by an operator in a helicopter. The film is expected to run in countries worldwide.

 

[oscar_merkx]

are you even going to discuss the race itself

today's report http://www.letour.fr/2003/us/index.html

a good day for Aussies as they hold Yellow & Green

 

[Mario Bartel]

And a real bad day for at least two Americans. That had to be one of the most frightening finishes I've seen in the Tour in a long time.

 

[Jay H]

Did anybody catch the Herminator in the prologue? He was the guest cyclist who led out the others.. Sheesh, that guy is huge (especially when compared to pro cyclists anyway)!

Hamilton continues! But we will have to see if he finishes Stage 2. Still amazing that he even started today, hearing of his injuries from the fall. That is guts that is determination!

Allez Tyler!!!


Jay

 

[Mario Bartel]

Caspar is riding with a neck brace! That's gotta be tough.

 

[Lew Crippen]

I don’t remember a worst first day finish.

So tough for so many. :frowning:

 

[Mario Bartel]

When o when is CBS gonna gets its head out of its butt when it comes to the TdeF? Here we are, on a pivotal day, the Alpe d'Huez, and we are forced to endure a lame recap show that is telling us everything we already know; I mean, c'mon, the Prologue was eight days ago! This kind of coverage might have been fine 20 years ago, before specialty cable channels and live internet coverage; today, it's just frustrating.

What really irks me, though, is CBS is allowed to walk over the great live coverage by OLN (Kirsten Gum notwithstanding, although she has become less annoying as the week has progressed). Why can't they co-exist; allow OLN to continue its live coverage on the Sunday morning for the hard-core bike racing fans, and then CBS can swoop in in the afternoon with its recap of the week for the couch potato shut-ins? Aaarrrggh.

Ironically, OLN Canada used to carry the live coverage on Sunday mornings, but that glorious quirk in tv scheduling seems to have ended this year

Here we are, 35 minutes into CBS hour-long distillation of the Tour's first week, and we'll be lucky to get ten minutes from today's climax on Alpe d'Huez. That's just wrong...

Oh well, three more days and it will be all Tour, all the time

 

[Jay H]

Actually didn't even realize CBS had the coverage for today, I was already set for watching the US OLN rebroadcast at 9pm (8:30 prerace show)

I did hear a mention today about Paul Tracy (Cart or whatever open wheel racing) is a big friend of Lance and that he has started cycling as a training tool for his racing.

Gotta run... Futurama is on soon!

I'm bring my 5 year old Lemond Zurich with a triple on it and a set of Dave Thomas (not the Wendy's guy) Speeddream wheels which are a little lighter than Mavic Ksyriums and a helluva lot cheaper. It's got even the WC rainbow on it...

Jay

 

[oscar_merkx]

I would have thought that the big news that Lance Armstrong is wearing the yellow jersey was cause for celebrations