Running Mania

The 2014 TdF is starting next Saturday, and not even a peep of it ...

Anyhoo, the telecast schedule can be found here on SportsNet: http://www.sportsnet.ca/cycling/tour-de-france-2014-broadcast-schedule/

I'm still hung-over from the Tour de Suisse and Dauphine! Lots of good racing already this year, and on TV no less ... wonderful.

No Ryder at the Tour.

jono

Apparently, Contador may be the favorite this year, now that a few of last year's top rider(s) may not be participating this year, for whatever reason ... ??

eta: Hope he does not and have not eaten any Cows from Spain, over the past 3-6 months ... Ha !!!

jonovision_man wrote:I'm still hung-over from the Tour de Suisse and Dauphine! Lots of good racing already this year, and on TV no less ... wonderful.

I've been watching some of the coverage. Strangely I find it very intriguing at times. I think Phil Liggitt (if that is the name of the play-by-play bloque) could make a Little Debbie-eating contest seem like a critical event for mankind.

jonovision_man wrote:No Ryder at the Tour.

While there is no Canadian within 15 minutes of thelead, I am hoping this dude can save the world:

http://www.letour.com/le-tour/2014/us/r ... -jack.html

Double Bellybuster wrote:

jonovision_man wrote:I'm still hung-over from the Tour de Suisse and Dauphine! Lots of good racing already this year, and on TV no less ... wonderful.

I've been watching some of the coverage. Strangely I find it very intriguing at times. I think Phil Liggitt (if that is the name of the play-by-play bloque) could make a Little Debbie-eating contest seem like a critical event for mankind.

The thing that bugs me about the coverage I've seen so far (first two stages - haven't watched yesterday's yet) is that they launch right into the stage coverage without doing any kind of intro or recap of the previous day's events. Unless that's all SportsNet is carrying and we're missing the first 30 minutes of the official broadcast.

Defending champ Chris Froome just abandoned his tour. No camera captured the crash but looks to be a fractured arm from a wet road wipeout.

What a fiercely entertaining stage... I usually skip through stuff on PVR but I couldn't today, it was amazing end to end. With the rain and multiple crashes early on to the cobbles at the end - WOW.

Huge impact on the GC. Froome is out, and everything else is turned on its head. Just awesome!

What looked poised to be a "ho hum" Tour is now blown wiiiiiide open.

Sky has me LOL'ing. They left Wiggins off the Tour squad, now Froome is out - oooops! No backup plan! I guess they'll tap Porte, but I don't think he's overall GC material yet. Although they have ways of turning non-GC material into GC material, if you knows what I means...

jono

Double Bellybuster wrote:Defending champ Chris Froome just abandoned his tour. No camera captured the crash but looks to be a fractured arm from a wet road wipeout.

From what I saw last night, he fractured his wrist (scaphoid?) on Tuesday and was riding with a cast of some sort yesterday. He fell again on yesterday's stage (more than once, I think) but I missed the part where he abandoned.

jonovision_man wrote:What a fiercely entertaining stage... I usually skip through stuff on PVR but I couldn't today, it was amazing end to end.

I am enjoying watching the Tour. As I watch primarily team sports, which are 1 to 3 games a week, it is great to watch something that progresses more quickly than I can keep up with.

Double Bellybuster wrote:

jonovision_man wrote:What a fiercely entertaining stage... I usually skip through stuff on PVR but I couldn't today, it was amazing end to end.

I am enjoying watching the Tour. As I watch primarily team sports, which are 1 to 3 games a week, it is great to watch something that progresses more quickly than I can keep up with.

Lol yes it's a compact three week overdose!

My rule of thumb: if it ends with a climb it's top priority! Those are the days most likely to produce GC fireworks. The cobbles were a nice early treat though.

jono

Saturday looks good

They're going through Luchon again this year (where I rode last year), but this time it will be the finish of Stage 16. I've done the Cat 3 Col des Ares and Cat 2 Col de Portet d'Aspet. And then on Stage 17 they'll do the Cat 1 Col du Portillon, which I also did. I only did the Col de Peyresourde in the van.

jonovision_man wrote:...The cobbles were a nice early treat though.

Agreed. As an avid cyclocrosser, you'll be happy to know this stage made me a Lars Boom fan. Love his name most of all but also how he pulled away from the yellow jersey late with his face covered in mud.

Double Bellybuster wrote:

jonovision_man wrote:...The cobbles were a nice early treat though.

Agreed. As an avid cyclocrosser, you'll be happy to know this stage made me a Lars Boom fan. Love his name most of all but also how he pulled away from the yellow jersey late with his face covered in mud.

Nice!



jono

Good stage today! 4k to go... should be a chaotic finish.......

Lots going on in today's stage. If you are PVRing, be sure to watch the 99K to go through 94K to go, there is something there not to fast-forward through.

Contador OUT! Wow I'm actually disappointed (despite not caring much for the guy), wanted to see what he could do.

Wild tour.

jono

Double Bellybuster wrote:Lots going on in today's stage. If you are PVRing, be sure to watch the 99K to go through 94K to go, there is something there not to fast-forward through.

Thanks for the tip! And I'm going to stay off social media until after I've had a chance to watch the stage so that it's not spoiled.

La wrote:

Double Bellybuster wrote:Lots going on in today's stage. If you are PVRing, be sure to watch the 99K to go through 94K to go, there is something there not to fast-forward through.

Thanks for the tip! And I'm going to stay off social media until after I've had a chance to watch the stage so that it's not spoiled.

Be sure also to watch at 24.5K to go - before 24K comes explanation of an unidentified flying object that we did not know impacted the stage earlier on.

Double Bellybuster wrote:

La wrote:

Double Bellybuster wrote:Lots going on in today's stage. If you are PVRing, be sure to watch the 99K to go through 94K to go, there is something there not to fast-forward through.

Thanks for the tip! And I'm going to stay off social media until after I've had a chance to watch the stage so that it's not spoiled.

Be sure also to watch at 24.5K to go - before 24K comes explanation of an unidentified flying object that we did not know impacted the stage earlier on.

A UFO! COOL!

Double Bellybuster wrote:

La wrote:

Double Bellybuster wrote:Lots going on in today's stage. If you are PVRing, be sure to watch the 99K to go through 94K to go, there is something there not to fast-forward through.

Thanks for the tip! And I'm going to stay off social media until after I've had a chance to watch the stage so that it's not spoiled.

Be sure also to watch at 24.5K to go - before 24K comes explanation of an unidentified flying object that we did not know impacted the stage earlier on.

I like that Contador got back on his bike with a fractured tibia, but soccer players stay on the ground when someone breathes in their general direction. Nice contrast.

jono

It was quite the exciting stage! Does Contador really have a fractured leg? I missed the part where they gave the reason for him abandoning (other than he had a knee injury that required surgery). Also, they seemed to dispel the earlier belief that he'd been hit by a bike that fell off a team car and that he actually just fell after hitting something on the road.

ETA: I guess he does! http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/contado ... ance-crash

La wrote:It was quite the exciting stage! Does Contador really have a fractured leg? I missed the part where they gave the reason for him abandoning (other than he had a knee injury that required surgery). Also, they seemed to dispel the earlier belief that he'd been hit by a bike that fell off a team car and that he actually just fell after hitting something on the road.

ETA: I guess he does! http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/contado ... ance-crash

By the end of the telecast the reason was thought to be either a pothole or road debris I believe.

Double Bellybuster wrote:By the end of the telecast the reason was thought to be either a pothole or road debris I believe.

Or.... MURRRRRRRRDERRRRRR???

The broadcast was comically bad actually, not only were their guesses way off, they kept saying it was an uphill section! LOL clearly not. Then they said there was a 100m skid. Then it became 70m. It was probably 8 feet.

jono