Category: Tour de France

Posts about the Tour de France.

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TDF 2006 Stage 2 — July 3, 2006

I'm watching OLN's coverage of the 2006 Tour de France this evening.  I'm sure everyone has heard the outcome already.  I found a link with results, etc… on it.  Fairly good read:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.bicycles.racing/browse_thread/thread/be981dccd25568f2

Today at work, I tried to follow the Tour live (at www.letour.fr).  It went ok, but I didn't check it very often so I missed some things.  If you can check it ever 10-15 min, it makes a fairly unique way to stay up with the race.  They have a neat graphic that shows you the current position of the riders, what is left, and what left.

Tomorrow, I plan to get up and go out on a bike ride.  I should be back before the 11am finish of the race.  I should have some more to post.

Oh, if you haven't seen it yet, make sure you watch the last 5-10 min of the race.  There was a big wreck inside the 3 km mark.

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Are Your Legs Up To It?

If you have Google Earth, you can view the 2006 TDF cource via a Google Earth Route.

There are tougher days than this, I think; however, take a look at this climb. The quote from Dirty Harry comes to mind:

"You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk?"

Well, what do you think? (For a larger view, click the image).

2006 TDF L Alpe dHuez climb

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Interesting Bit from the 2006 TDF Race Manual

I was reading the 2006 Tour de France race manual and came across this interesting bit:

Supplies at feeding stations are handed out by the staff accompanying the teams. This distribution takes place only in areas clearly marked with offi cial banners and signs, except in cases where other provisions have been clearly indicated beforehand.  Stations will be set up on only one side of the roadway, the rules specifying on the right side only.

Cyndi had asked me about this earlier and I didn't know the answer.  I guess now I do…..  You only get a bag of goodies if you are on the right side of the road.

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2006 TDF Stage 1

I just got done watching Stage 1 of the 2006 TDF.  Here are the top 5 riders overall (the GC competition for the yellow jersey):

Pos. N° Name Surname Team Nat. Gaps
1 003 HINCAPIE George DSC USA  
2 118 HUSHOVD Thor C.A NOR 00' 02"
3 018 ZABRISKIE David CSC USA 00' 06"
4 044 LANG Sebastian GST GER 00' 06"
5 091 VALVERDE Alejandro CEI ESP 00' 06"

The only surprise was Hushovd's wreck at the end of the stage.  It looked bad on the video, but I don't know exactly what happened.

Expect more tomorrow evening after I watch the tape when I get home from work.

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TDF — Stage 1

We had church this morning so I taped OLN's coverage of the 2006 TDF stage 1.  We have visitation at 3 so it will this evening before I get to post much about today's TDF stage.

For more information about today's stage, here is the offical TDF page about stage 1.

Here is a graphic showing the profile of the stage:

2006 TDF Stage 1

What you will notice is 1 cat 4 climb.  Bob Roll (on OLN) just said that was probably a highway overpass!  These guys are hillarious!

Oh, I just heard that Floyd Landers (the guy who showed up late yesterday) showed up late because of a tire flat.  Since it was a time trial, they don't use quick releases.  It took a special wrench and 1 min to change.  Because of that, he lost about 8 sec.

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Tour de France

Last year around tour time, I got interested in watching. I’m watching again this year. I know there is some strategy involved (think chess on bikes) but I don’t get it. In any other sport, you want to get in the lead and stay there. If you aren’t you get worried. But in today’s section, Lance was way way back from the stage winner. Was he worried? He didn’t act like it. In fact, you could say he was glad to get rid of the yellow jersey for a while. I don’t get it. Anyone have any insignts?

[Update 2013-01-18 06:58:05] Lance has admitted to doping.