Entries Tagged 'tour de france' ↓

Some moderately funny videos related to the Tour de France

Alan Partridge on the Tour de France

Continue reading →

I enjoyed following this years Tour. Congratulations to Carlos Sastre. There is quite a good article here at the Guardian. ‘Mr Clean leads way in race to redemption‘

This is one of the worst articles I’ve ever seen on cycling “Bored by the Tour de France: No doping, no drama - No fun in watching cyclists rely on their natural talents”

When it comes to cycling, you expect to see low standards of journalism. One thinks of Matthew Paris’ tirade against cyclists. But, this article in the Houstan Chronicle has to rank as one of the feeblest articles ever written. I wonder whether newspaper editors actually tell their journalists to write purposefully rubbish articles in the hope they may get a bit of adverse publicity?

No Doping = No Drama

The journalist says he has been watching the 2008 Tour de France and finds it completely boring, but, maybe he has been watching an old edition on DVD by mistake. This year, 2008 has been an exciting race. Several riders have remained in contention throughout the 3 week long race, the lead has changed several times. Perhaps one or two longer time trial stages and the result would have been different.

“Just let them all Take Dope”

If all riders take dope, how will that make the race more attractive? Supposing all riders take dope, the average speed of the race may increase from 40 to say 42Kmph, but, a higher average speeds doesn’t change whether the race is exciting. Most spectators wouldn’t notice the difference. It will only give an unfair advantage to those athletes whose bodies respond better to doping.

Report on Cycling Not Doping

As a cycling enthusiast, I want to see the reports about the cycling, not about doping scandals. The real drama unfolds on the slopes of Alpe d’Huez not in the testing laboratories. If people think the best thing about sport is drug busts, they would be better off watching police dramas.

Continue reading →

Many of those caught taking EPO like David Millar, Richard Virenque et al. never actually failed a drugs test. They were simply found with the EPO on them. Others like Bjanne Riis have since admitted to taking EPO, even though they never failed a drugs test But, with 3 failed EPO test in the Tour already, it seems that testing for micro use of EPO has improved.

The case of Riccardo Riccò is interesting. According the Saunier Duval website…

“In spite of his superb performance (Riccardo Ricco), it wasn´t easy for him to make his pro cycling debut because several blood tests revealed his hematocrit levels exceeded the accepted ones. Further exhaustive tests by the UCI confirmed Riccò´s hematocrit level was normally high.”

Riccardo Ricci at Saunier Duval. Maybe the ‘abnormally high Hematocrit levels weren’t so ‘natural’ after all

Also he used the same doctor / trainer as Marco Pantani. Pantani, had a hematocrit level of upto 60%, which is frankly ridiculous and suggested abuse of EPO.

I always feel that you can tell alot by the trainers that cyclists use. If you really wanted to be a new generation clean rider, you wouldn’t goto see a doctor with a history of dealing with athletes who take dope.

Continue reading →

photo from 1990 Tour with Indurain, Lemond and Delgrado before ascent of Luz Aridien

Since I no longer subscribe to Eurosport, I can’t watch the Tour on the TV. I have been looking around for the best highlight programme offered on the Internet. These are some of the places where you can watch video highlights. (If you know of any other good sources, I would be grateful if you add in the comment)

• Video highlights at Cycling news (videos quite short about 5 mins
• Cycling Fans - Has a variety of options though I couldn’t get them to work
• ITV internet - 1 hour programme only for UK citizens
• Cycling TV - Free short video highlights premium channel for those willing to pay

Live Updates and Results

• Live updates at Cycling News
• Google Street Maps of the Tour De France - check out the rout
• Le Tour Site
• Full Overall Standings at the Official Tour Site

Photo by: Steve Shellward

As mentioned, I have spent several summers glued to the Tour on tele. One of the real attractions was listening to the fascinating commentary of David Duffield. He really could talk and his passion for cycling was self evident. It was this passion that made you forgive many of his eccentricities.

I’ll never forget the time when the race was flying up Mont Ventoux and David found time to some how recite Psalm 21 as the race passed the Simpson memorial. Only David could have carried it off with such dignity and passion.

David also had a great interest in the culinary and cultural aspects of France and he would often go off on detours about these whilst the race was in progress. On some stages, for several hours, nothing would happen then at the moment someone attacked, poor old David would probably still be  talking about the local wines of the regions and how he enjoyed a very nice bottle of Beaujolais the previous evening. These are some of his classic quotes.

David Duffield Quotes

“I am sitting here with my chin on the counter, my mouth open like a great big whale scooping up plankton. I am gobsmacked!”

“Look down the valley…if you’ve got vertigo, sort of…don’t look down the valley.”

“Laurent Fignon just got bombed by a baguette!”

“As the french say, there’s nothing so long as a day without bread, and Laurent Fignon just got some but there’s nothing in it!”

If we had a yo-yo championship of the day, Riis would get the award.

Continue reading →

One of the earliest French cycle races was Paris-Rouen, first started in 1869. However, cycling was still a relatively new sport when the Tour began in 1903. In 1891, 3 Newspaper men, Richard Lesclide, Maurice Martin and Pierre Giffard started 2 important races, Paris-Brest-Paris and Paris-Bordeaux. There was a certain idealism attached to cycling. The bike offered social mobility for all social classes; it was also hope an interest in cycling could help promote the infant French cycling industry. However, their main reason was commercial - a good bike race was helpful in selling papers.

Giffard went on to establish his own cycling paper Le Velo. However, during the Dreyfus affair, Giffard wrote articles supporting Dreyfus and denouncing the industrialists who supported his imprisonment. Unfortunately, these industrialists were big sponsors of the paper, so they withdrew and gave their funding to a new paper - L’Auto-Velo. This new paper (printed on yellow sheets) was managed by Henri Desgrange. For 2 years there followed a bitter battle between the 2 newspapers, both struggled with circulations of about 25,000. Organising big races was often their best marketing plan. Of the two, Desgrange had perhaps the greatest appetite for hard work and initiative, he was also keen to defeat the rival newspaper. Continue reading →

Despite breaks for the two world wars the Tour de France has been held every year since 1903. It is not the oldest cycling race. But, it is the oldest and most prestigious stage race. All the great names of professional cycling can be found in the list of Tour de France winners. 5 Cyclists have the privilege of winning the Tour 5, or more times.

• Jaques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernaud Hinault, Miguel Indurain and Lance Armstrong (7 times)

• 1903 Maurice Garin (France)
• 1904 Henri Cornet (France)
• 1905 Louis Trousselier (France)
• 1906 Rene Pottier (France)
• 1907 Lucien Petit-Breton (France)
• 1908 Petit-Breton
• 1909 Francois Faber (Luxembourg)
• 1910 Octave Lapize (France)
• Continue reading →