2012 Tour De France --Post Your Comments Here!

[burgdawg]

Yes, yes---it is that time again for 3 weeks of all out bicycling effort.

In USA, cable channel #36, the Versus Channel has excellent coverage with Phil Ligget, Tom Roll and many others.

Great helicopter footage of the French countryside.

Or just www.versus.com

Others care to post their fave sources of race footage and updaters?

[burgdawg]

Correction: Phil Ligget, Bob Roll and Paul Sherwen are the announcers.

Prologue is Saturday June 30th Liege to Liege.

[MJCM]

In USA, cable channel #36, the Versus Channel ....

The only (Free) channel in Thailand I think that transmits the live coverage is Euro Sport.

[catwho]

In USA, cable channel #36, the Versus Channel ....

The only (Free) channel in Thailand I think that transmits the live coverage is Euro Sport.

in pattaya its euro normaly the channel after oz network.

cadel will have to ride away from wiggins in the mountains, he is too strong in the time trials,cadel seems confident,wiggins is climbing well,but the tour is a different story,anything can happen in the tour,so stay safe cadel and kick ass....cat

[apetley]

Yep, I'll be watching all the stages live on Eurosport via ASTRO. Singha already chilling in the fridge in anticipation.

Wiggins in yellow and Cav for the green.

Sent from my GT-I9003 using Thaivisa Connect App

[edwinchester]

Can anyone confirm Truevisions is carrying LeTour live this year?

Friend just told me he heard they are showing an Indonesian channel, Sundance?, which is carrying it live.

Be a first if they do after the disappointments of recent years but my friend was short on details and I have been unable to find anything in the online schedule.

Sent from my GT-I9003 using Thaivisa Connect App

[aarn]

As an aussie, I gotta say go you good thing Cadel!

But might be overshadowed by developments in the Lance Armstrong saga? AA

[Dap]

Not a bad Tour interactive guide at guardian.co.uk

[downtown]

like a lot of pundits, i fear wiggins has peaked too early season. still doubt whether he can can hack it over a 3 week tour - only takes one bad day in the mountains to ruin it all

[burgdawg]

2 July

Fabian Cancellara(Swiss Team Radio Shack-Nissan)is really showing some tough stuff! Nice prologue, set a blistering pace.

Then today's heartbreak: he was leading out, being forced as a domestique to the finish Line where Sagan

whipped around and beat him to the Stage Win.

But that is racing...Cancellara really came off bigger than Sagan(SlovakiaTeam Liquigas/Cannondale).

Funny how that works....

19 Stages remain!

[burgdawg]

2012 Race Schedule

Tour de France schedule

Prologue: Liege to Liege - Highlights

Stage 1: Liege to Seraing - Highlights

Stage 2: Vise to Tournai (July 2)

Stage 3: Orchies to Boulogne-sur-Mer (July 3)

Stage 4: Abbeville to Rouen (July 4)

Stage 5: Rouen to Saint-Quentin (July 5)

Stage 6: Epernay to Metz (July 6)

Stage 7: Tomblaine to La Planche des Belles Filles (July 7)

Stage 8: Belfort to Porrentruy (July 8)

Stage 9: Arc-et-Senans to Besancon (July 9)

Stage 10: Macon to Bellegarde-sur-Valserine (July 11)

Stage 11: Albertville to La Toussuire - Les Sybelles (July 12)

Stage 12: Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Annonay Davezieux (July 13)

Stage 13: Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux to Le Cap d'Agde (July 14)

Stage 14: Limoux to Foix (July 15)

Stage 15: Samatan to Pau (July 16)

Stage 16: Pau to Bagneres-de-Luchon (July 18)

Stage 17: Bagneres-de-Luchon to Peyragudes (July 19)

Stage 18: Blagnac to Brive-la-Gaillarde (July 20)

Stage 19: Bonneval to Chartres (July 21)

Stage 20: Rambouillet to Paris Champs-Elysees (July 22)

[flying]

Love the tour & have been following it closely for 20+ years

I must say I have been more than happy in recent years with the Euro sport feed here

[downtown]

eurosport is great but not the same since the great david duffield left the commentary. another great win for our ManXman today - green jersey no. 2 on the way

[burgdawg]

Stage 2: Vise to Tournai

Good flat course today, high speed, a sprinter's race.

All the Stages are flat for a spell.

It all came down to Mark Cavendish(Isle of Man Team Sky)...the Manx Missile edging out Matt Greipel of Germany(Team Orica GreenEdge), less than half a wheel distance.

Gut-ripping photo finish. If you can cue up some video footage of this finish, you will NOT be disappointed.

Cavendish and Greipel are ex-teammates from last year's now-defunct HTC Team.

They bring out the best in one another, though both are too stubborn to admit it.

Cavendish instinctly chose the "right wheel" while still thick in a pack of wanna-bes to get the psychological edge to lead him to the finish line.

Have we not seen this at nearly all the Tour de France Stages? Like yesterday, watch Fabian Cancellara do all the work, leading Sagan

and Hagen Boasson(fine Norwegian rider) right to the finish line. The other two riders were not about to give Fabian a breather and 20 seconds to regroup his energy

so that he could snare the stage win. Sagan trumped Fabian. Heart-wrenching, though this is what makes the Tour de France so special.

Hair-raising finishes.

Same awesome deal today...Greipel did all the heavy lifting and knew Cavendish was on his rear wheel. You've gotta hand it to Cav, the guy is awesome.

Quite a pure sprinter.

Fabian Cancellara remains in the gold. Its suits him well. Kinda cool watching Fabian chat up Eddy Merckx, Bernand Hinnault and all the other top Tour bigs.

He wears the yellow well, is this his year?

The mountains beckon all, like a dream. Or nightmare?

[apetley]

eurosport is great but not the same since the great david duffield left the commentary. another great win for our ManXman today - green jersey no. 2 on the way

Yes great win especially as Greipel is in top form. You could see he was really pissed to be beaten:-)

Did you see the interview with Cav after the stage? He made it very obvious all the effort is for Wiggins and yellow this year and that he is virtually on his own in the sprints.

Sent from my GT-I9003 using Thaivisa Connect App

[T_Dog]

Burgdawg, glad you started this thread, but last year's race will be hard to beat. Commenting here so I can stay tuned as no television coverage for me this year and a coal powered internet connection. I'm counting on you guys!

[burgdawg]

Stage 3: Orchies to Boulogne-sur-Mer (July 3)

197 km...five small climbs and an uphill finish line

Peter Sagan(Slovakia Team Liquigas/Cannondale) wins Stage 3, many crashes today!

Sagan is really just beginning to show his prowess as he sprinted away from the pack 300m from the finish line.

Edvald Boasson Hagen of Norway finished 2nd, 1 second behind with the bulk of the pack.

Fabian Cancellara (Swiss Team RadioShack/Nissan ) retains the yellow jersey. He is 7 seconds ahead of fave Bradley Wiggins (BritainTeam SKY) and

Sylvan Chavanel (France Team Omega Pharma/Quick Step). Cadel Evans (Australia Team BMC) moved up from 8th to 7th place, 17 seconds behind the yellow jersey of Cancellara.

Kudos to Slyvan Chavanel as he was ahead of the pack as the uphill hit all. Chavanel was maybe 300m ahead of the peloton when he ran outta gas.

His legs screamed, all locked up as he drifted back into the main peloton--then a CRASH! with less than 500m to the finish line! (Chavanel not involved in crash).

Bradley Wiggins was not involved in this 4th crash of the day near the finish....Wiggins was delayed, but given the same time as the main pack.

The crashes were due to narrow roads and twitchiness. Rampant nervousness throughout the pack as people sprinted even harder to get ahead of danger.

One guy over-reacts. You know the rest. The oddity is that

of the 3 crashes that took place during the main part of the race, many of the same riders were involved in all 3 crashes!

The pack finished one second behind Sagan, so no big moves in the standings. It

is still a wide-open Tour de France and the Holy Grail is in the potential grasp of many accomplished riders.

Ivan Basso is still in the Tour!

Crash Carnage

Egads. Belgium's Phillipe Gilbert (Team BMC) lost 7:46 to Sagan after being hit from behind in one of the crashes.

Gilbert started today's Stage in 7th place, now in 104th due to crash.

Four crashes in all due to nervousness.No bonehead spectactors trying to impersonate a crash barrier.

Mid-Point Sprint Drama:

The usual suspects were doing their pack dance as the mid-race bonus points loomed.

Rider Van Hummel did an abrupt maneuver in front of Mark Cavendish, with Sagan diving in front of Cavendish, on Van Hummel's wheel.

Two riders sliced Cavendish's line-of-sight. Van Hummel's rear wheel did the abrupt move, most likely soiling Cavendish's shorts. If you do not have

vid coverage, there was a 3rd force at play besides Van Hummel rear wheel throwing Cavendish off his game, allowing Sagan to slip through:

the paint lines on the pavement were foreboding. Added to the confusion.

Intentional or stupidity on Van Hummel's part?

Probably both.....

This manuever juiced Cavendish's already-stoked adrenalin even moreso as he shot by the entire pack as if he was on a Ducati!

No contest as The Manx Missle won the bonus points. In fact, he had time to sit up in his saddle and hector

Van Hummel for his errant stunt.

I believe this issue will be handled mano y mano behind closed doors and not in the press. One could envision thus:

All the sprint lads know each other and will call a meet. Each will have a chance to tell their side of tale Ran-like.

Just like the Seven Blind Indian Men all grabbing ahold of a chang/elephant, all the sprinters will have a brain-dead

take on their focused world. One can imagine that in a sprint such as in any Tour de France, or weekend ride, you develop tunnel vision to excel.

Rules and protocol will be reviewed, issue dropped.

None of these greyhounds can afford a get-off, a crash.

The deal to keep in mind with Cavendish from the Isle of Man is thus: with Team Sky strategy centered around Bradly Wiggins to shepherd him and keep

him safe at all costs, Cavendish is a true FreeLancer of the First Order. You can see him make and break deals with former teamates and buds as points loom,

on the fly.

Ya gotta love it, even the Tour has FreeLance Action!

[downtown]

yes Cav is pretty much on his own this year and will particularly miss the loss of lead out man Mark Renshaw - so if he does win more stages this year it will shut the doubters up

[apetley]

Awesome finish by Sagan and still time to celebrate over the line!

Not sure myself about the haranging of Moviestar after the crashes. It is racing after all and if the opportunity arises it's there to be taken advantage of.

Sent from my GT-I9003 using Thaivisa Connect App

[GuestHouse]

I'm looking forward to seeing how Cavendish performs in the mountains, his claim that he lost 4Kgs to be able to cope with the hills in rhe Olympic title race is hardly credible.

To take over from Wiggins he'll have to make time on the first mountain stage and then we'd have a personal battle in the Sky team - just the stuff to get the headlines and up Sky ratings.

The game is not one of individusl maverics, it is closely managed by the Teams - So watch Cavendish on the first mountain - it might get very interesting.

[GuestHouse]

yes Cav is pretty much on his own this year and will particularly miss the loss of lead out man Mark Renshaw - so if he does win more stages this year it will shut the doubters up

Count me out of the doubters.

[burgdawg]

came across this cool article highlighting Peter Sagan's "Tourminator" Cannondale bike with

special paint job....

great photos:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/video-pro-bike-peter-sagans-cannondale-supersix-evo-hi-mod

[flying]

To take over from Wiggins he'll have to make time on the first mountain stage and then we'd have a personal battle in the Sky team - just the stuff to get the headlines and up Sky ratings.

The best example of that I ever saw was in the 1987 Giro

When Stephen Roche took the pink jersey off his Carrera team mate Roberto Visentini

Of course made twice worse due to the fact it was the giro & Visentini was Italian

The joke was after that all Roche could have for breakfast was pancakes because they could slip them under his

locked bedroom door

But Roche did back it up & attained the triple crown that year

Giro

Tour De France

World Championship

His son Nicholas is racing this tour

Edited July 4, 2012 by flying

[apetley]

I'm looking forward to seeing how Cavendish performs in the mountains, his claim that he lost 4Kgs to be able to cope with the hills in rhe Olympic title race is hardly credible.

To take over from Wiggins he'll have to make time on the first mountain stage and then we'd have a personal battle in the Sky team - just the stuff to get the headlines and up Sky ratings.

The game is not one of individusl maverics, it is closely managed by the Teams - So watch Cavendish on the first mountain - it might get very interesting.

The only reason Cav wants to get over the mountains is so as not to get timed out on the stage and so eliminated in the green jersey competition.

No way is he a rival to anyone in the overall.

Sent from my GT-I9003 using Thaivisa Connect App

[GuestHouse]

^ We'll know the answer to that in the coming weeks.

[apetley]

^ We'll know the answer to that in the coming weeks.

If Cavendish is in the first 50 at the finish I'll be gobsmacked.

Sent from my GT-I9003 using Thaivisa Connect App

[apetley]

Shame about the pile up a couple of k's from the finish yesterday that took out Cav and a few other names. Greipel looked super strong though and would have been difficult to beat.

Sent from my GT-I9003 using Thaivisa Connect App

[soi41]

Can someone please explain Team Sky's thinking about not having a led out train for Cavendish. I understand very well that Wiggins is their GC contender, but why stay midpack to "protect" him, doesn't make any sense to me. With such a strong team IMO they should be in front of the bunch in every sprint, with Wiggins being a part of the led out train. We see other teams with serious GCcontenders, where the "stars" of those teams ofcourse are working for their sprinters. Team Sky's tactics almost came back to bite then in the backside yesterday, with the big crash on the run in, they were lucky it happened with 2.7 kms to the goal, 3-400 meters further out and many of their riders would have lost out big time.

[mackayae]

Yesterday, 194 riders came in first. Similar as the previous day. I guess these are unofficial rest days. The poor commentators were struggling to find something to talk about.

Edited July 6, 2012 by mackayae

[burgdawg]

Stage 4: Abbeville to Rouen (July 4)

Stage 5: Rouen to Saint-Quentin (July 5)

Andre Greipel (Lotto) wins both of these crash-marred stages. Great guts, though Greipel lacks the charm and personability of Mark Cavendish.

Amazing lead out by team mate Henderson.

American Tyler "Crash" Farrar tried to occupy a space already taken by matter not his own.

Farrar goes over the bars spectacularly, knocking Greipel hard and off-balance.

Greipel plants his left foot down hard into Farrar's back to remain upright and in so doing knocks

Peter Sagan off HIS bike! Greipel stays upright and proceeds to win the stage!

Pure carnage...at speed, with little protection.

Greipel recovered and with Henderson's assistance, won his 2nd Stage entering San Quentin.

I read about Farrar having a temper tantrum/meltdown. Who wouldn't be? He is perlexed as he is covered with road rash, scars and

probably a bit shaken by all.

Fabian Cancellara is still the leader in yellow.

He now has the dubious distinction of wearing the yellow the longest time without actually winning a tour.

Hmmm?

My own take is because there is no patron like Contador or another, it is wide-open field and it is every cyclist for himself.

This is leading to "..I can win this thing" which means taking chances. You get a whole group-think of high speed riders thinking this way

and it doesn't take much...touched wheels, a skid, anything.

Now everyone is sutiably spooked, which has a chain-reaction effect.

Not much of a race per se.

I think everyone is longing for the mountains to settle this thing.....

Soi 41--Team Sky heard your complaint of not giving Cavendish any help and they responded in Stage 5 somewhat.