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Absolutely!! Floyd made an amazing comeback today. After 3 days in the Alps the race is closer than ever. Brilliant!!! The time trial will be fantastic. The last 3 guys out each with a legitimate chance to ride into Paris in yellow.
Definitely - I've been watching the evening re-broadcasts, sounds like yet another amazing ride to watch tonight. Was rough watching watching Floyd bonk yesterday.
Hey Rob, I saw the question mark on the thread title (!?!). The steroid era is over (not only in baseball but in most sports) but we're still experiencing aftershocks from the big one. With Ulrich, Basso and Mayo out of it, it is hard to follow the Tour with the same interest as the last 7 years. Landis comeback this morning was spectacular but I can't help but thinking that if the dabacle in Spain wouldn't have happend, Floyd Landis probably never would have worn the mayo jaune, nor won todays stage, and much less finish on the podium this sunday. I would say that this is the worst tour ever. However, I'm really rooting for Landis because he is american and I think its important for american cycling that one of ours win or at least do well. -Peter
I'm not an expert, but I think Floyd could have matched Mayo and Ulrich. Mayo was spent from the Giro and Ulrich I'm convinced was way overrated. He is way over his tour winning prime and too flakey to pull it all together for 3 weeks. Floyd has been dominate this year in 3 separate mini-tours and the one he blew up in closest to now is the one you don't want to do good in. Just look at Levi. Peaked too soon. Now here is a great argument why the Tour is so exciting this year everyone isn't on drugs! We have humans out there and not super humans than can go the entire tour without a bad day.
Hopefully we'll find out if you are right in next years tour. I'm hoping that all contenders will be riding. As far as this years tour being clean.............can we really be sure? -Peter
I think almost every rider was doing steroids and EPO up until the past year or two. They then thought they could beat it through blood transfusions. I think at that level almost any rider would drug if they could. Difference is now they're keeping samples and although they might not be able to catch today, chance with better testing they will catch them years to come and take everything away. That is a huge deterrent. Greg Lemond may have been the last Tour winner to be clean.
With Lance retired and the cheaters unmasked and out it is like a GP amongst the cars that get knocked out after the first qualifying session. I never missed it in the past 5 years or so, but have not watched 1 minute this year. Watching lance's mastery against all comers was much more entertaining than a scramble amongst backmarkers.
Please. This comment is about as far off base as anyone can get. So you think that it was Lance against all the cheaters and he beat them all? And you think that this Tour is a bunch of second class riders? Someone on Fchat has some beach front property in Arizona to sell you...
Take that France! http://sports.yahoo.com/sc/news;_ylt=AniU.7B9GUJKWfQ84gMoZlU5nYcB?slug=ap-tourdefrance&prov=ap&type=lgns
Great event this time - I watched it every day - sometimes even very early in the morning (didn't do that when Lance was riding). I really enjoyed the come back that Floyd did - I truly believe in what he and others said - Don't ever give up - the best truism ever. I hope his hip replacement goes well and he's back on his projected sked of the California ride in the spring. He certainly did an exceptional job riding with the hip problem. From his interview today it sounds like he wants to stay with the Phonak (name change for next year) team. Anyone else notice that during the presentations this morning he had his ball cap on the "proper" way! It's like his trademark is the backwards cap. Great tour - hope next year's is just as good. Carol
My comment was right on the mark. Many of this years favorites were DQ'ed right? So as far as the few top performers who are favored to win before the start and what are riding now, yes they are second class. Compered to me any you, of course not. I think it was Lance against everyone, cheaters or not, and he beat them all badly with a stick. Unless you are implying Lance was a cheater. Watching coverage of the Open yesterday a respected guest was asked to compare Tigers win and ability to other athletes. The guy picked two names from all of sports, Secratariat and Lance! I bike every other day and I could give a rats a$$ about the tour now and that was my main point. I'm not alone on this; From the Herald Tribune "During the first 16 days of the 23-day tour sweeping through windswept lavender fields and winding mountain roads, average live television viewing for each stage of the event was down in the United States, Germany and the host nation itself. The steepest decline was in the United States, with average viewing down by 52 percent in the home country of the retired Armstrong, a Texan who triumphed in the race seven straight times, but also achieved mythic status with his victory over cancer. In Germany, which lost its hometown star Jan Ullrich at the outset of the race because of a doping scandal in Spain, viewing plunged by 43 percent, with about 1.5 million people watching each stage compared with 2.7 million last year, according to Initiative Futures http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/07/21/business/tour.php Keep your property, read a little more
I believe Floyd was the overall favorite from the beginning IMHO. Maybe Europeans didn't watch his wins at Tour of California and Tour of Georgia. He did win a good Tour in Europe and the one right before the race he blew up in is the one that if you do good in (Levi), then that means you are peaking too early. Jan showed some good form, but might have been peaking early too and plus he is a head case that I doubt could have pulled it together for 3 weeks. Mayo was spent after Tour of Italy. Can't win both anymore. I think anyone in the know was aware Floyd was top of the heap even with the dopers. Also not in the know if you think Lance is 100% clean or most of the peleton for that matter. It has been like NASCAR for many years, only cheating if you get caught. Now that they're saving samples you'll see many busted several years after their win. That won't happen to Lance, so I think he'll be in the clear and there are just several dozen people associated with Lance offering hearsay evidence only. I'm not knocking Lance, I think he was great, but he played the game how it was being played and anyone that thinks differently is ignorant. I agree, very little people were into this year's Tour, but it was their loss. No one was into Lance's first win or two until the cancer story grabbed people's hearts and he neared and broke the 5 time record. This is a loss for everyone that didn't get into this year, as this may have been the greatest Tour ever and Stage 17 may be the greatest stage ever. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=caple/landis/060721&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos1
FWIW, I am a former pro. I have 3 top tens at World Championships, am a former National Champion, etc. I raced for two European teams including one that does the Tour every year. Etc. Basically, I am not a casual looker-on. Floyd was the favourite from the beginning. Had the others been in the race, it would have worked out more in his favour. Two of the guys on the podium would have finished there no matter who was in the race. To blindly say that Lance beat all the cheaters with a stick while clean is a little naive. Lance is a great athlete and did not win races simply because of any drugs he may have taken. However, let's just say that Lance REALLY REALLY wanted to win. And his coach and trainer was already convicted of sporting fraud of supplying his riders with drugs. He was just smart enough not to keep detailed records to be picked up in a sting. Again, not taking anything away from Lance - he did not win because of any drugs he took - simply stating some important and relevant information. And, unfortunately, the fair-weather fans were going to abandon watching a great sporting event with Lance gone. They were Lance fair-weather fans, not cycling fans. The actual cycling fans know that this was pretty much the best Tour in modern times, even better than '98.
I've been following the tour for 20 years and this was one of the most exciting ever. I went to the TDF in '02 and got to ride many of the stages and this was even better than having been there.
Guess I qualify as an actual cycling fan - I was glad to see Lance out of the TDF scene and we do watch the other cycling events on OLN. Floyd did the absolute best recovery and had the best ride in the TDF and Thor Hushovd I believe is the first man to win stage 1 and state 20. Kloden coming into third for T Mobile speaks volumes to me about his ability with Ulrich out of the game. Had Ulrich been in the race, I doubt that Kloden would have been on the podium ?? I think that Oscar Pereiro is definitely a contender for next year. Unfortunately there can be just one winner of the TDF. Floyd seems like a very likeable guy on the up and up and definitely had the determination/drive to win this world class cycling event. I hope we see him back next year too. Carol
I confess to being a Lance fair weather fan. I don't watch sports much outside of F1, some football, and occasional golf. But I always looked forward to seeing "the expected", which was Lance coming thru under great pressure from many attacks to carry the day. Seeing his consistent mastery in the mountains year after year was amazing. The pressure of the expectation alone was incredible and would make others crumble. Not to mention staying so injury free. Well I'm sure he did everything to win, but using the banned and tested for substances was quite a gamble. I do remember him being pulled aside a number of times for special testing plus the french disliked him and would love to nail him. Perhaps he cheated perhaps not, but he still was head and shoulders above the nearest competition including those we know for sure are cheaters. As a casual cycling fan he sure made a lot of hot humid summer days something to remember. I claim no inside knowledge of the cycling world so I'll defer to you guys on who is second rate or not. I still don't want any of you guys' arizona property. Edit: I was aware of Lance when he won some race or did well in penssylvania before his illness and watched the Tour de trump peloton go thru my city many years ago.
you have no idea of the lunacy of your statement and certainly have no idea who sherpa 23 is! keep talking...there are some of us on this site that love ferraris but spend a lot more time on a bicycle and have raced a mile or two. careful...you may get clowned!
and btw, there was never any doubt as to lance winning in his last few efforts as there has never been a more powerful team to drive the pelaton or chase breaks in history.
I stated facts about viewership and my feelings about the race this year. I have already responded. Its basically this. I'm a fan of lance like millions of other people, he's gone from the scene, and so am i and millions of others from viewing the TDF. How can facts and personal feelings be "lunacy". Even if sherpa's last name is lemond, he is no lance. Do you want a medal for your bike riding, if so, get your butt over to france. Otherwise I care nothing about your opinion or your foolish post. EDIT: I thought about this thread for a second and all i can think of is when I said "compared to me and you" and sherpa took this as a slight. I have been here for 3 years and do not know who sherpa is NOR DO I CARE. If you took a phrase like that as a personal afront because I am supposed to know who you are, well thats silly and you should remove the chip from your shoulder. I said i watched the tdf and i do understand team tatics and sacrificial lambs and not racing in the tour of italy, spain, katmandu yadda yadda yadda. So what, Lance is the one with the big lead and the shiny medals, not to mention the fat paychecks. It sounds like some here have a bone to pick with Mr. Armstrong. To me a fan, he is the best athelte alive, and many others agree, including people who give out awards. And he is better than lemond and every other cyclist i can think of. Please direct any other gripes towards austin.
No worries. I didn't take it personally or as a slight. All I meant was that if you know the sport, you would know that it was a great TdF and that the guys who finished at the top are the real deal. To be honest, I was less slighted by any indirect statement that I may be a total fred on a bike than your statement that the guys in the race are a bunch of "backmarkers." These guys are the best guys. Please don't think of them as second rate. Not only does it diminish their accomplishments but it also encourages the kind of behaviour that have made cycling such a drug-ridden sport. And again, I didn't take anything as a slight other than the fact that you called Floyd and the rest of the guys second class riders. They're not. And Pete, thanks for remembering the good old days!!
Latest Cycling News for July 27, 2006 Edited by Jeff Jones, with assistance from Susan Westemeyer Phonak confirms Landis positive Floyd Landis (Phonak) Photo ©: Sirotti The Phonak team has confirmed the speculation that Floyd Landis returned a positive A sample after his win in stage 17 of the Tour de France. "The Phonak Cycling Team was notified yesterday by the UCI about an unusual level of Testosterone/Epitestosterone ratio in the test made on Floyd Landis after stage 17 of the Tour de France," said the team in a statement. "The team management and the rider were both totally surprised of this physiological result. "The rider will ask in the upcoming days for the counter analysis to prove either that this result is coming from a natural process or that this is resulting from a mistake in the confirmation. In application of the Pro Tour Ethical Code, the rider will not race anymore until this problem is totally clear. "If the result of the B sample analysis confirms the result of the A sample, the rider will be dismissed and will then pass the corresponding endocrinological examinations." The World Anti-Doping Agency has lowered the limit for the maximum T/E level from 6:1 to 4:1. Some athletes have naturally high levels, and can prove this through a series of tests.
