how good is the tour De France?

[paul edwards]

Hi all
     l got home last night and watched some of the tour. They had a inside look at one of the big teams and all the work that goes on behind the scenes, the vehicles, buses, all brilliantly looking graphics and signage the hole set up was just great. In this particular team -2 buses, and about 8 cars.
     Watching the tv presentation is like a European History lesson, absolutely beautiful country side and buildings, a real pleasure to watch, l find my self wishing to drive some of the fantastic roads and taking in the local culture and atmosphere. Gabriel Gatteau's cooking segment had my mouth watering, gee he does a great job.
     l met Gabriel Gatteau in a Melbourne car park years ago, l was changing the graphics and signs on the light boxes at the entrance, we had to stop some traffic from time to time. Gabriel was the only person who stopped and didn't complain about waiting a short time, out of 40 or 50 cars and he was the only one. I said G'day and thanks for waiting he actually took a interest in what was going on, a top bloke in my book.
    l look forward to watching more of the tour especially the mountain sections, and the big down hill runs, they don't hold back in the speed department
    Cheers Paul

[Sheldon McIntosh]

The Tour de France is awesome.  The coverage here is superb.  I've been watching the Tour for over 20 years, back in the day we had to get videotapes sent over from the UK to be able to watch it, so getting 3 hours of it live and in HD is so fantastic.

And yes they fly down the mountains, up to 90km/h, protected by a thin layer of lycra.  Not to mention getting up to 65-70km/h in the sprints on a flat road.

Back in NZ I drove one of the official cars for one of the big bike tours over there.  It was the car that goes in front of the pack and contains the judges.  One of the stages went over a mountain range (the Rimutakas for any Kiwis - and I've attached a pic from Google maps) which is very twisty and tight (it's a bit like the Black Spur here - the road that all the motorbikes go to in the weekend).  The road was closed off, and when we got to the top, the officials said to me, "right, drive down the hill as fast as you can, otherwise they'll catch us".  Man that was fun, official permission to go as fast as I could on a closed road which I knew very well.  Shame it was only a japanese econobox, but still, good fun.  The cyclists didn't catch us, but they weren't far behind either.

[wankski]

wow... speechless.... this is a very different site to ausalfa... in a good way.


vive le tour!

[John Toomath]

Sheldon,  knowing the Rimutakas well myself, you must have been brave for that 10 mins  .  It would have taken some adjusting to to go around the blind rights on the wrong side of the road. If you didn't get a quick gap at the start it would have been hard to keep the no fear cyclists out of your mirrors. I'd imagine it must drop 6-700m in that distance. For those interested here are a couple of photos of the road we are talking about.

http://www.virtualoceania.net/newzealand/photos/wallpaper/800x600/nz1347.jpg
http://www.virtualoceania.net/newzealand/photos/wallpaper/800x600/nz1353.jpg

The Tour de France helicopter coverage is superb.  Bring on the mountains.

[Sheldon McIntosh]

Thanks John, great pictures!  I think I once looked over the side when I was a passenger, then never did again, it's a long way down alright, especially up the top there.

[Frank Musco]

Anyone got a spare chain?

Could not believe when Andy Schleck lost the lead because his chain fell off, and Alberto Contador took off!

Either way, a great race.

[alfagtv100 (Biggus)]

A new baby in the house means I get to enjoy the coverage of the Tour to its conclusion every night.
Last night's stage brought back fond memories for me.  For those of you who do not know me well, I spent 3 years as a professional cyclist in the late 90s.  My career was cut short due to a chronic knee injury, following an accident during my only year of participation in the Tour – 1998.  Riding for team Casino-AG2R Prévoyance, the opportunity to participate in the largest annual sporting event in the world was amazing.
You may recall this was the year the late Marco Pantani won the event after his domination in the mountains between Grenoble – Les Deux Alpes.  You may also recall the 1998 tour became known as the 'Tour De Dopage', but I won't comment any further on that.

Those of you who do know me will know I am talking absolute bullshit.

However, having spent some time living in France, I can tell you that culturally, they don't hold a candle to our proud, noble country.
For proof, you only need to view the following link.  Game over.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nQdS88O66w

Cheers,

Marco.

[UNICO]

Classic footage, I'm still in tears. I need to go on youtube more often. Congratulations on the arrival of your new baby. We were also blessed with our third chird only a couple of months ago. Aahh yeahh. I had the world cup to watch in the middle of the night as well.

Ed

[Gary Pearce]

Sheldon, talk to me sometime and I'll tell you about the Stelvio. Dodging cyclists everywhere and 6 Alfa Mitos trying to go flat out bumper to bumper and making our wives car sick in the process. It was as good as P.I.