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lance-watch 2009
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| Lance Watch, Google style |
| posted by: spacehippie |
15:25 7.14.10 |
I haven't tried any of these methods of keeping up with the race, but they sound pretty nifty:
http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2010/07/2010_tour_de_france_in_google_earth.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+GoogleEarthBlog+(Google+Earth+Blog)&utm_content=Google+Reader
http://phandroid.com/2010/07/02/google-my-tracks-will-provide-real-time-tour-de-france-data/ |
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| grand jury.... |
| posted by: publius |
09:29 7.14.10 |
things getting interesting...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/jul/14/lance-armstrong-subpoenas-doping-inquiry
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| ugh... |
| posted by: publius |
12:34 7.7.10 |
not sure what happened there...
anyway...
i'm trying, but i'm having a hard time finding my motivation....
more details may follow as and if events warrant and the spirit moves me |
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| ugh... |
| posted by: publius |
12:33 7.7.10 |
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| ugh... |
| posted by: publius |
12:33 7.7.10 |
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| ahem |
| posted by: horsebeater |
12:11 7.7.10 |
| publius? |
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| or maybe not.... |
| posted by: publius |
13:08 8.11.09 |
| http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/aug/11/michael-schumacher-formula-one-ferrari-injuries |
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| all the old guys... |
| posted by: publius |
14:22 7.29.09 |
are coming back...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/jul/29/michael-schumacher-felipe-massa-ferrari |
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| perhaps we should change the title of this thread... |
| posted by: publius |
11:31 7.19.09 |
to contador watch '09...
the day was fairly ho-hum until the riders reached the climb up to the finish, at which point alberto contador dropped the hammer and rode away with the stage. he's now in the yellow jersey, 1'37" ahead of armstrong.
realistically, armstrong is no longer riding for the win here. he's riding for a podium spot. contrador would have to self-destruct in the next few days to give armstrong an in, because contador has established himself as the team leader, and armstrong is now one of his domestiques.
watching contador ride away from everyone going up to verbier was a lot like watching armstrong a few years ago. he just has a gear that no one else has...and even if armstrong still did have that gear, you don't chase your own teammate on a break....
when you consider how critical time trials have always been to armstrong's wins, and then you take into account that contador beat armstrong by 22" in the first time trial, there really is no opening for armstrong...and contador doesn't look, nor does he have the history, of a guy is going to self-destruct.... |
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| a really interesting look... |
| posted by: publius |
19:59 7.18.09 |
into why george hincapie isn't in yellow, tour tactics and strategy, and cycling cattiness...
http://tour-de-france.velonews.com/article/95404/ |
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| it's too bad.... |
| posted by: publius |
12:13 7.18.09 |
hincapie couldn't snag the yellow jersey today...he missed by 5 seconds and now sits 2nd overall, just ahead of contador and lance. he's not an overall threat, so the peloton let him go with today's break, and he almost got the maillot jaune for what, i believe, would have been the first time.
in any case the day, as expected, was pretty much boring transition stuff. tomorrow's stage, however, should finally inject some excitement back into this tour... |
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| DVR and the Tour |
| posted by: horsebeater |
09:22 7.18.09 |
Has there EVER been a better television program to watch using TIVO than the Tour?
I commonly tape the morning (live) show and buzz through 3.5-4 hours in .... well, however long I want. I've done it in 45 minutes; I've done it in 2.5 hours. It just depends on how much time I have.
And if you are fast forwarding and see a break, you commonly can't tell who it is (as you are on fast forward), so you can rewind and not ruin the surprise (unlike football, where you see the score change in the corner or the player/crowd celebrations).
I'm already developing patterns (get my grounding with phil leggett for 10 minutes then fast forward to the first real mountain if there is one ... fast forward the feed zones / descents, etc.) |
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| getting there.... |
| posted by: publius |
13:53 7.17.09 |
today was another relatively boring day in crappy weather, but at least we're back in the mountains.
If you’re planning on following the rest of the tour, the following three stages are the ones which (I think) are most likely to decide the final outcome:
Stage 15: Sunday 7.19
Stage 18: Thursday 7.23
Stage 20: Sunday 7.25
Stages 15 and 20 feature mountaintop finishes where guys like Armstrong and Contador who are strong climbers can make a move that others can’t match. Stage 20 atop Mt. Ventoux is the next to last stage, with stage 21 being the largely ceremonial ride to Paris. Whoever is winning after stage 20 is your winner.
Stage 18 is a time trial where you ride by yourself against the clock. A good time trial can make a huge difference in the standings.
Other stages in between those could present opportunities for climbers, but if I had three stages to watch, those three would be them.
Essentially to have any shot of winning the tour, you need to be able to climb and time trial well, and there just aren’t that many guys out there who can do both.
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| yeah, i was a bit surprised... |
| posted by: publius |
13:28 7.13.09 |
but make no mistake, this will get interesting...it just won't happen until right near the end when they hit the alps.
today is a rest day, and the next few days after that are pretty boring... |
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| pyrenees were boring... |
| posted by: horsebeater |
12:19 7.13.09 |
| ... 90 minutes of trying to guess whether the peleton will reel in a breakaway from riders that don't matter.... if that's the tour is giving me this year, i may go back to ignoring it. |
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| check that last post.,, |
| posted by: publius |
14:15 7.11.09 |
| armstrong is 2 seconds behind contador, not 21. and he remains there after today's relatively uneventful penultimate day in the pyrénées... |
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| intriguing |
| posted by: publius |
14:02 7.10.09 |
well, contador asserted himself today in the first real mountain stage and took second place from armstrong who is now third. contador started the day 19 second behind armstrong and is now 21 seconds ahead of him. the next couple of days in the pyrennes should clear up the picture a bit, and could prove to be decisive...
we shall see... |
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| agree with publius |
| posted by: horsebeater |
11:09 7.9.09 |
and perhaps a larger driving factor for me enjoying following lance is that (maybe I've watched too many die hard movies) those europeans are all just sooo unappealing.
the tiny 120 lb spaniards. the straight-out-of-central-casting-emotionless-machine-like germans (read: ulrich). blech.
i root for lance by default.
(although I certainly flirted with vinokourov until he flew off the mountain that one time). |
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| i don't disagree with all that much in that article,,, |
| posted by: publius |
15:28 7.8.09 |
i think lance is probably something of a bastard in person. but just like it's ridiculous to judge the works of an author, musician or whatsoever by their character foibles, it's silly to do it with athletes as well (someone please start scouring tentfort for examples where i have violated this rule). what the guy has done, and at least for the moment continues to do, is truly incredible, and viewed within the context of "sport with a cancer-survivor chaser", it's hard body of work with which to take exception.
does that mean i would vote for him in an election? no, and i almost surely wouldn't.
does it mean i don't think he shares a lot of character traits with palin and other uber-narcissists? no, because he does.
but beethoven was a pretty nasty bastard as well, and nobody goes around saying that the string quartets are shite because of it (yes, i just compared lance to beethoven, and yes, i know enough about both to feel comfortable doing so).
in short, you can respect the achievement and the talent and want to see those traits expressed in the world without having to like the person.
and that's all i have to say about that. |
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| i've never really liked lance ... |
| posted by: squisshy |
14:31 7.8.09 |
and therefore, thought this article was pretty funny. i was waiting for someone else to do so, but figured i might as well throw it up, although i know you're all big fans and presumably will point out the many exaggerations and/or flaws contained therein ...
http://www.slate.com/id/2222407/
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| i'm right there with you... |
| posted by: publius |
14:17 7.8.09 |
is the sport "clean" now? who knows...is baseball? you can argue that one forever...as i always have, i retain an "innocent until proven guilty" stance towards lance, which i think is justifiable...
in any case...lance is certainly taking his chances to dig at contador...you can just tell these two are going to end up in a vicious battle (either on or off the course) pretty soon...
armstrong's comments after today's flat, less than intriguing day which saw all of the favorites finish safely in the peloton....
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Armstrong finished in the main pack and retained second place overall, 19 seconds ahead of his rival and Astana teammate Alberto Contador. Former Tour runner-up Andreas Kloeden is fourth, 23 seconds back, and Levi Leipheimer of the United States is fifth, 31 seconds behind.
"It was an interesting day, because everyone anticipated the wind and knew that part of France is very windy, and they knew what happened two days ago, so everyone was more switched on," Armstrong said, referring to the breakaway that allowed him to overtake Contador in the standings on Monday. "I just stayed out of trouble and the guys looked good."
With defending champion Carlos Sastre 2:44 back, two-time runner-up Cadel Evans lagging 2:59 behind and Denis Menchov 3:52 back, the Tour could come down to Armstrong and Contador.
"I told Alberto that today was going to be complicated, so maybe he sees that I know what is going on in the Tour de France," Armstrong said.
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http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/tdf2009/news/story?id=4313360
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| i am so love-hate about the tour right now |
| posted by: horsebeater |
10:39 7.8.09 |
I've spent 2-3 hours watching the lovely VS network (it took me 15 minutes to find the channel).
Do we think it is mostly clean now?
I want the answer to be yes, not so much because I am overly concerned about PEDs, but because I haven't bothered to take the time to figure out how much I care about PEDs, and I don't want to bother with that shit. |
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| wacky stuff |
| posted by: publius |
11:51 7.7.09 |
so team astana finished such that lance and the previous race leader, fabian cancellara, are on the same time. so lance is tied for the lead, but cancellara keeps the yellow jersey...strange stuff.
that makes the team astana decision about who is going to ride as the leader a bit murkier...the quotes coming out of the team and those in the cycling world in the next few hours should be interesting...
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/cycling/livematch/281262.html
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| editor! |
| posted by: publius |
22:00 7.6.09 |
| lance is now in 3rd, not 4th, as this intrepid reporter previously...errr...reported... |
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| ok.... |
| posted by: publius |
21:37 7.6.09 |
so it's time for the tour de farce again. and though i claimed to have lost interest and hadn't followed it all that closely in recent years, what with the never-ending stream of ever more ridiculous doping scandals, lance's return certainly does make this race a bit more intriguing. i for one didn't, and for the most part still don't, think he has much of a chance to win. but then you get today's third stage, when a relatively innocuous flat stage turns into a chance for armstrong to jump from 10th to 4th in the general classification and, more importantly, get ahead of the "leader" of his team, alberto contador by 19 seconds.
this may all prove to be nothing more than an early race cycling soap opera which has no effect on the final outcome. but if, in the team time trial tomorrow, team astana can do well enough to take the yellow jersey, it will go to armstrong and not contador. and when you hit the climbing stages in a few days and have to start mapping out team strategy, it's going to be tough at that point to tell the 7 times champion who happens to be wearing the yellow jersey that he has to be a domestique for contador....
it could get interesting...then again, there could be a drug raid tonight and half the teams could get thrown out...or armstrong could simpy show his age in the mountains and not be the "coffee grinder" of old...
not sure how it's going to play out, but i'm at somewhat interested for the first time in a few years...
http://velonews.com/article/94577/ |
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