The Swamp

Okay so I know professional cycling racing in the United States is not so professional, but this weekend was the Air Force Association Cycling Classic. They do a race on Saturday in Clarendon and Sunday in Crystal City (both in Arlington, VA). Anyway, crazy incident (which really seems just like bad course design)

ouch

Le Tour starts tomorrow. With no big Americans and Le Doping Hangover, it just is not going to be a big big deal. But they start without the normal prologue time trial. Stage 1 will be a spinters ride on Corsica (which has never hosted the Tour before).

Starts in a few. Who do ya got? It's hard to go against Froome, in my opinion. He looked like he could have beaten Wiggo last year on more than one occasion. I like Van Garderen as well, but it is tough to win when you're not team leader (see Froome).

What a first stage! A team bus was stuck under the finish banner with about 15 minutes left, then a massive crash took out about 20 riders, including many of the favorites for the day. It's a glorious mess of a beginning to the TdF.

Are there any Americans even riding this year, or did they all get suspended when they rolled over on Lance?

Van Garderen is American, and he's got an American teammate. Sagan's team has an American. Garmin Sharp has three.

Marcel Kittel, today's winner holds the Yellow, White and Green jerseys after Stage One.

About 5k out from the end, a little terrier came about 5 feet away from getting smoked by the peloton. The breakaway group near the end lost all of its form just before the finish, and the one man left held off the peloton by a second or so. Jan Bakelants from Radio Shack is your new leader, by one second.

Today's team time trial was fascinating, and Orica Greenedge winning, if even a second or so, shows a lot. I think the best part of the days telecast was the recap of the bus issue from a few stages before. All of the "fucks" in the audio were bleeped and captioned as "fruit!".

I have been into this Tour. Great aerial shots by NBCSports (or whatever Euro feed they use).

And chedda, who are the Barves you speak of in your signature?

Braves, and yes, the NBC coverage of this is fantastic. Their coverage is infinitely better than BeInSport's coverage of the Giro d'Italia. (To be fair, the Giro was infinitely better than BeIn's coverage of the USMNT away qualifier in Jamaica). Paul Sherwen and Phil Liggett are as good as it gets.

Geraint Thomas of Sky is racing with a fractured pelvis. Cyclists just know how to suffer.

Is he still in the Tour today? Sky made a lot of accommodations for him yesterday in the team time trials. It looked like he might withdraw after yesterday's stage.

govmentchedda wrote:Is he still in the Tour today? Sky made a lot of accommodations for him yesterday in the team time trials. It looked like he might withdraw after yesterday's stage.

He finished today. The announcers said he should get better as it goes on, but I find that hard to believe. He also had a flat back tire at one point so the dude is just cursed it seems.

So, the only black guy in the tour is named Reza? #teamwutang

The "Impi" song that Orica Greenedge played for the yellow jersey wearing South African Darell Impey is catchy as hell. That team seems to be the most fun, but then again Australians owned teams usually are.

After a dominating day by Sky and Froome yesterday, Movistar has bossed the second day in the Pyrenees. On the fifth of five climbs, Froome hung tough alone amongst the Spaniards. Fantastic individual climbs on each of the climbs by relative no names, but quality wins out with two riders, Dan Martin of Garmin Sharp and Jacob Fulsank of Astana finishing neck and neck one and two, with all but one of the top 11 finishing in the chase peloton only 18 seconds behind them. Fantastic day for Froome.

The Tour of Utah started today.

If you are not bored silly by watching bikes roll down a road, the replay/highlights of today's stage will be worth watching just for the Southern Utah scenery. Starting from Brian Head Ski Resort, finishing at Cedar City.

Steve of phpBB wrote:The Tour of Utah started today.

If you are not bored silly by watching bikes roll down a road, the replay/highlights of today's stage will be worth watching just for the Southern Utah scenery. Starting from Brian Head Ski Resort, finishing at Cedar City.

That's pretty country. Do they get down by Zion/St. George at all?

brian wrote:

Steve of phpBB wrote:The Tour of Utah started today.

If you are not bored silly by watching bikes roll down a road, the replay/highlights of today's stage will be worth watching just for the Southern Utah scenery. Starting from Brian Head Ski Resort, finishing at Cedar City.

That's pretty country. Do they get down by Zion/St. George at all?

Not really. You can see part of Zion N.P. from one of the roads they were riding on yesterday, but that's about it. They also go through Cedar Breaks National Monument, which is very scenic.

Today's stage went right by Bryce N.P., and then along the scenic highway from there to near Capitol Reef. That part is one of my favorite drives.

There will be three stages in Salt Lake City and Park City this week, but I am going out of town and will miss them. Last year I caught the start of one stage and the finish of another, and it was pretty cool.

So 41-year old American and former Lance Lt. Chris Horner wins the Vuelta (last of the Grand Tours). Pretty impressive considering he had some serious knee problems a few months ago and is generally past prime of a pro cyclists. So I guess he is either doping or nobody was doping and it leveled the field.

Oh and he does not have a team for next year.

One of the great characters of professional cycling, Dave Zabriskie, retires. 13 year pro, who went Vegan during his career, lots of Time Trial Success, and love of superhero comics.
http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/10/ ... eer_305119" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

wlu_lax6 wrote:One of the great characters of professional cycling, Dave Zabriskie, retires. 13 year pro, who went Vegan during his career, lots of Time Trial Success, and love of superhero comics.
http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/10/ ... eer_305119" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That makes me really sad. It makes me even sadder that he was stripped of his yellow jersey from 2005.

I can't remember the timing, but did he lose his stage win in the Vuelta also? That was an amazing, all-day solo ride.

Steve of phpBB wrote:

wlu_lax6 wrote:One of the great characters of professional cycling, Dave Zabriskie, retires. 13 year pro, who went Vegan during his career, lots of Time Trial Success, and love of superhero comics.
http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/10/ ... eer_305119" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That makes me really sad. It makes me even sadder that he was stripped of his yellow jersey from 2005.

I can't remember the timing, but did he lose his stage win in the Vuelta also? That was an amazing, all-day solo ride.

Voided all results from May 13th 2003->2005 including the 2004 Vuelta stage and the 2005 Tour Stage win (stage 1 how he got the Yellow)

This is a claim lance bribed a racer to let him win.
http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/12/ ... ace_311116" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

wlu_lax6 wrote:This is a claim lance bribed a racer to let him win.
http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/12/ ... ace_311116" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Where did Lance get $100K in cash in 1993?

If you like watching cyclists eat it, today is your day.

2 days in a row that favorite, and returning champion, Chris Froome has gone down. If he keeps this up, he won't have any racing kits without holes left.

Also, Marcel Kittel won 2 stages in a row, and 3 out of 4, yet he stands nearly 20 minutes behind the overall leader, Vincenzo Nibali.

After a while, all of the different competitions within the Tour could start to feel like an "everyone gets a trophy" youth soccer league, but I think it's a necessary evil to have so many different things on the line so that there are so many story lines to follow throughout le Tour.

Last summer, I said that the TdF was my favorite sport to watch on TV (scenery, competition, story lines, etc.). My stance may have changed a bit, after being reminded this summer about how great the World Cup can be, but le Tour is still fantastic.

Froome is out. This is insane! Like the course is winning 7-1 insane.

And Froome is out. Abandoned the tour after another fall.

Like the cobblestones weren't enough, the rain is making this stage brutal.

Saw about an hour before the cobbles and it was pretty bad. Rain was tough on the peleton. Really is enjoyable to watch particularly since its live in the AM.

http://www.businessinsider.com/tour-de- ... one-2014-7" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thick fog on the Tour today. Hard to see anything. Somebody from SAXO Timkoff looks like he's done for the Tour. Can't tell who.

Holy shit, it's Contador. This race is wide open, unless you're a favorite, then you're fucked.

An very good career for Hushovd. If you have watched the Tour you know the name.
http://velonews.competitor.com/2014/09/ ... day_346375" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Lots of this generation of riders are hanging them up. Cadel Evans also said he would hang them up after the Tour of Australia (first race of next year).

This could have turned out very bad
http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-fran ... sts-2015-4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Here's a better view:




You can understand it from the perspective of the first guys--they were probably better off going through than causing a pileup/crash on the tracks. But the dudes who stopped and then snuck past the policeman?

if you have the NBC sports mobile app and some time to kill this morning, the last stage of the Dauphine is on in a few. Been a pretty great race to this point, and today they climb this (holy shit!)




Apparently it's not that long and it's a cat-2, and it will be used in the Tour as well.

Nigel Powers wrote:There's only two things I hate in this world. People who are intolerant of other people's cultures and the Dutch

http://www.bicycling.com/racing/2015-to ... -de-france" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;