Tour de France 2014

[Astro_Bot]

A reminder to sports fans that the 2014 TDF starts tonight (Saturday) on SBS at 8:30 with coverage of Stage 1.

Kiss goodbye to sleep for the next three weeks. It's a hard life, but someone has to do it.

There's also Formula 1, Wimbledon and World Cup soccer this weekend. Now, I just need a decent excuse as to why I won't be able to get anything else done around the house .....

[GrahamL]

Really,,, didn't that year go quick !

Love watching it for a while before bed ,, France is an is a stunningly pretty part of the world.

[omegacrux (David)]

I enjoy watching some of the stages , those blokes are machines.
The length of the stages and the average speed is incredible !

David

[traveller (Bo)]

Another reason to stay up late and suffer the following morning!

[scagman (John)]

The only problem is what to watch

You got F1 on tonight and tomorrow night
Wimbledon finals both nights
And the TDF.
Might need to clear some room on the PVR

They might need to change the name thou with both the 1st two stages being held in England this year.

Cheers.

[ianB (Ian)]

I'm really looking forward to the event, i have downloaded a couple tour de france apps, they give good info and have maps etc.
I will have to tape the start tonight but hope to watch the other races live, if possible.
I will need to tape the F1 race as well as my wife wants to watch some america rubbish show.

[ianB (Ian)]

P.S its a shame that Quintana is not in the tour this year.

[traveller (Bo)]

Originally Posted by ianB

P.S its a shame that Quintana is not in the tour this year.

And no Evans

[ianB (Ian)]

No disrespect but Evans i believe is past his prime, he has done amazing things including winning the Tour, but there are so many young riders of quality now coming up as the Giro tour showed.
Maybe Evens will retire but still be a part of the sport via management / coach etc.

[Redshift13 (Rohan)]

Love watching this, for the spectacular scenery moreso than the actual cycling. First 3 stages in England, then into France on Tuesday night.

[ianB (Ian)]

Dont expect a great deal of spectacular scenery in northern England :-)

[Redshift13 (Rohan)]

Originally Posted by ianB

Dont expect a great deal of spectacular scenery in northern England :-)

Indeed - maybe some sheep grazing in the dales and a couple of grumpy old Yorkshiremen supping a pint of ale by the side of the road as the peleton races past...
Regardless, I'm looking forward to it kicking off tonight.

[geoffw89 (Geoff)]

Expect a fantastic finish by the sprinters if they can bring it together tonight. Cav or even Mark Renshaw might be in for a win. Glad to see my old mate and riding buddy Matty Hayman from ACT finally getting his chance, at 36. We'd often be at lights waiting for the change and he'd pop a mono and hop his bike backwards until he could sit on my bars and then ride off on his back wheel when they changed. Awesome bike skills. Cadel may be past it but he could start to concentrate on other events. I remember training with him when he first swapped over to Road from MTB, I'd be out riding with him and Neil Stephens and Stevo's brothers while Cadel soaked up all the knowledge he could on dealing with media to representing sponsors in the pro road sector. I'll be hanging my hopes on Gerrans and Porte for a great showing for the Aussies this year. Very classy riders but there are a number of others who have every chance to shine.

[Hans Tucker (Hans)]

I was a huge fan of the tours (Tour of Italy, Tour of Spain, Tour de France) in the past but then the drug scandal happened and all my favourite riders were coming up positive...or dead because of drugs. Jan Ulrich, Marco Pantani, Richard Virenque. With the TDF I wasn't a fan of the flat stages or the sprint finish but loved when the race hit the pyrenees. Use to love watching the battle between Tony Rominger and Miguel Indurain and the new young gun Jan Ulrich whom was riding for Team Telecom. Don't get me started on the frustration with Bjarne Riis

I think I would be hard pressed to name any of the current riders

I still like watching the Paris-Roubaix though.

[geoffw89 (Geoff)]

Hans, I knocked back a couple of offers to race in Europe on development teams. It's likely I would have ended up in the middle of drug dramas, despite my personal views because if you wanted to be part of the team you either didn't see what was going on or your were involved directly. I took an offer to study Mech Eng in the Army instead. I am disappointed about the drug taking, but I am pragmatic enough to understand that it was all a pretty level playing field because all the contenders were on their own programs. Clean riders at that level were the exception. Even Neil Stephens was injected with EPO without his knowledge and contrary to the records he kept. He immediately retired and returned home to work for AIS in disgust. It is still one of the finest sports to watch, whatever the type of riding, Road, MTB, downhill, psychocross (cyclocross ) you name it, and especially the Grand Tours. I could be bitter but even during my 10 years disabled I was still a cyclist at heart. And sprinters rule! Forget those fancied underfed showponies battling at slow speed up the mountain passes.

[Steffen]

I grew up with the Course de la Paix, an annual amateur race that went Warsaw-Berlin-Prague, and I was a great fan. It was a true amateur, non-commercial, no-ads affair, much like the Olympic Games up until the 1980s.

These days the cycling industry is a cutting edge test lab for performance enhancing drugs, and I have nothing but contempt for it.

Cheers
Steffen.

[glend (Glen)]

Love the SBS coverage of Le Tour and the tracker. Watch it every year, drugs or clean its a great event and the scenery is fantastic particularly the helicopter shots of the chateus and churchs, even the cows are great.

[geoffw89 (Geoff)]

They put on a great show. Regardless of the doping, the work and the training still have to be done with precision and science to get to that level. I remember getting my first HR monitor from my coach Shayne Bannan. I trained less, and improved by a ridiculous margin that I would have thought impossible. And to top it off I always felt fresher and my sprint was faster. I used to ride behind road trains for many miles at 80kmh in the NT to get used to moving that fast. Lose the draft and it was soon gone though.

How good were the roads they were on last night? Little rolling hills and dips and turns with drystone walls each side, I could hammer along those until I passed out from sheer pleasure.

[geoffw89 (Geoff)]

Steffen, that was the Peace Race right? Lots of great amateurs won that to go on to be top Pro riders.

[MattT]

Two TDF's stick in my mind. 1989 when Greg Lemond won and 1987 when Steven Roche won just about on his own. Sadly the 1987 TDF wasn't all natural ability Doping has been going on for a long time.
As long as this tour isn't a repeat of last years really boring race, I'll be watching…shades of LA's domination.
Matt