The problem with the TdF, as far as the casual spectator like me is concerned, is that 90% of the stages are won by people with Dutch or Scandinavian names I've never heard of, with the well-known GC contenders just content to roll along in the pack, keeping each other in their sights. There are only ever about two stages in the whole race where you actually see them doing anything other than sitting in the middle of the pack. It’s a bit like Tiger Woods not showing up until the last nine on the Sunday of a major, or Lewis Hamilton only racing the last lap of a Grand Prix.
Also, there are too many stages for the sprinters and not enough for the climbers and baroudeurs. I'm fed up of seeing courageous breakaways that always end up getting reeled in by the peloton and a sprinter winning - even though we all know that a sprinter is not going to win the tour.
Give me tiddleywinks or croquet any day...
Tour de France - biggest yawn ever !
posted on 13/7/11
To coin an old phrase - it's a marathon not a sprint. Where's the point in one of the favourites going all out on an early stage only to risk not being able to perform in their preferred stages. By the end of tomorrow hopefully things will be clearer. Andy Shleck will close the gap in the Pyrenees. Contador needs to improve vastly but he seems to be struggling.
I'm thoroughly enjoying the battle so far!
posted on 13/7/11
What a load of provocative rubbish you spout Frangymons...
To the casual observer like yourself maybe, but it would be the same if any casual observer chanced in on the early rounds of something REALLY tediously dull like a Badminton tournament for example...
You know the big names are gonna be there at the end when it really matters, but without them wasting too much effort along the way until they need to (like in Tennis for example).
And 90% Dutch or Scandinavian unknowns?
What, like Farrar - Evans - Cavendish - Sanchez or Greipel? You're only showing how casual you are.
And there are only two or three stages that can reveal who is overall the strongest each year, like there are only two or three really big tournaments each year where all the best players try their best to win it, in a REALLY dull and pointless pastime like golf, for example.
It's nothing like the ignorant Woods or Hamilton analogies you gave - the Tour riders are there throughout the entire event and have to complete the entire course.
It's more like Woods or Hamilton making their big efforts to win the tournaments or races that earn the most points or money and really matter most in the season, and not wasting effort to win the lesser rounds.
The Tour is like an entire season of most sports, but packed into three weeks.
Complaining about too many sprint stages when the race hasn't even reached the Pyrenees and the Alps yet is silly.
And complaining that the breakaways mostly get caught, is ignoring the skill of the riders who catch them, but sometimes miscalculate to make a breakaway day like when Voeckler took yellow all the sweeter to savour.
But Voeckler isn't going to win the tour either, and most breakaways are doomed to failure before they start, but they still try it anyway.
Suggest you don't bother watching until tomorrows stage which should keep the casuals like you happy.
And I'd far rather have tiddleywinks or croquet than golf, anyday...
Golf - truly the biggest yawn ever !
posted on 14/7/11
Nice to see some TRUE PASSION there, SG12.
Provocative perhaps, but in order to be considered "great", a sport has to be accessible and understandable to more than just the aficionado.
I'm sorry but I maintain that the favourites spend the first half of the TdF being pulled along by the Peloton and their team-mates.
I grant you that today's stage finally saw some excitement and sorted the men from the boys.
If only the TdF was ALL in the mountains, then it would really be exciting. But I guess then you couldn't call it the Tour de France.
Tour des Alpes and Pyrenees would make more exciting watching.
Nothing against the sprinters (well actually, lots), but they don't belong in the same race as the climbers and "baroudeurs".
Someone like Cavendish may have a brilliant turn of speed, I'm not denying that, but without his team he'd be nothing at all.
Another thing - I just can't get excited about a three-week competition where everyone knows very well that only about 10 out of 150 riders have any chance of winning it - and with lots of help from their team-mates.
In golf's Open Championship, they literally all have a shout and it onlly takes four days.
Another thing - they're on their own out there. No armadas of support cars or "domestiques" to do all the hard work for the Superstars to just come along in the last 200 metres (last three holes) to win it.
I reckon the TdF should take a leaf out of golf's book and have a halfway "cut", eliminating exactly 50% of the field.
Imagine Contador, Evans and the Schlecks having to face the second load of mountains without most of their drones.
Now that would make the race interesting and the arrival in Champs Elysées would be less of the procession it usually is.
Anyway, back to Royal St George's...
posted on 14/7/11
@ frangymons, you are missing the point when you describe Cavendish as nothing without his team, or Contador et al without their drones... the Tour de France is a TEAM event and Mark Cavendish gets his stage wins because their team is the best lead-out train in modern cycling, something he has said after each and every stage win he has ever had. How crass to just insist that the competitors undertake the race independently, a notion that only emphasizes your naivety towards the sport.
The Tour de France is one of the greatest sporting events on the calendar, and is set up to allow riders from ALL disciplines to enjoy their moment of glory, be it a stage win, a sprint win or just to be there every day in the breakaway, hoping that today will be the day you get away. Johnny Hoogerland is just such a rider, in all the breakaways on this his first Tour, and until today's finish holder of the polka dot jersey.
You need to see the race through different eyes, for in there lies a treasure trove of tactics, skill, endurance, teamwork, technology, passion, pride, strength and spirit beyond any other sporting on the planet. Either that, or it's simply not for you.
PS Loving the golf, but whenever there's a clash, there can be only one Tour!
posted on 15/7/11
Indeed Bluecamp - very well said.
Frangymons, you're indeed (deliberately) completely missing the key point that pro-cycling is a team sport, like football, cricket, etc.
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"If only the TdF was ALL in the mountains, then it would really be exciting. But I guess then you couldn't call it the Tour de France."
No, it would be very one-dimensional and dull, and also NOT the Tour de France.
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"Tour des Alpes and Pyrenees would make more exciting watching."
No, it would just be very one-dimensional and dull.
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"Nothing against the sprinters (well actually, lots), but they don't belong in the same race as the climbers and "baroudeurs".
Utter rubbish. It would be very one-dimensional if only climbers were allowed to enter, and the daily time limit ensures people who have poor mountain climbing abilities ARE eliminated.
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"Someone like Cavendish may have a brilliant turn of speed, I'm not denying that, but without his team he'd be nothing at all."
Utter rubbish. Two time madison world champion, and commonwealth games scratch race champion. With his team, Cav is just even more awesome at winning TdF sprint stages, and is the best at it the world has ever seen...
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Another thing - I just can't get excited about a three-week competition where everyone knows very well that only about 10 out of 150 riders have any chance of winning it - and with lots of help from their team-mates.
Er, like the FA cup, Football league, or pretty much any other team sport really...
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In golf's Open Championship, they literally all have a shout and it onlly takes four days.
But four days(!) of that tedium while whittling down to the usual bunch, is four too long...
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Another thing - they're on their own out there. No armadas of support cars or "domestiques" to do all the hard work for the Superstars to just come along in the last 200 metres (last three holes) to win it.
Er, apart from a caddy to move their clubs for them, in case they tire themselves out with all the physical exertion of ambling slowly around a lawn.
And as stated before, all the team ride every kilometer of the race up and down mountains - they don't just show up for the last 200m
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I reckon the TdF should take a leaf out of golf's book and have a halfway "cut", eliminating exactly 50% of the field.
Maybe football should do this - cancel all fixtures after Christmas for teams in the bottom half of the table, and erase the results of all of their matches...
The daily time limit ensures people who are not good enough are eliminated.
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Imagine Contador, Evans and the Schlecks having to face the second load of mountains without most of their drones.
It happens naturally every race - fewer teammates left to ride the second load of mountains with anyway
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Now that would make the race interesting and the arrival in Champs Elysées would be less of the procession it usually is.
It's only an agreed procession for the overall winner, but the final Paris stage win is probably the most fiercely contested stage of all by the surviving riders...
Sorry that this is all beyond you, but the TdF has many races within the race, all going on continually within & throughout every stage:
Stage winner
Overall winner
Points winner
Climber winner
Young rider winner
Team winner
and more...
Its what makes the TdF so much more interesting than an individual whacking a ball around a lawn where no-one else even needs to be there.
Yes it might be easy for the masses to grasp - repeatedly hit the ball into the holes in as few arm movements as possible, but that's all there is to it.
And that's why by comparison, the TdF is probably the greatest sporting event in the world
But you knew that anyway...
posted on 16/7/11
@ the OP
Fully understand cycling might not be your cup of tea.
But please do not compare one of the toughest sport disciples on earth with the game golf is. Obviously I know all too well playing top drawer golf does require buckets full of - a certain - talent, but the same can easily be said for throwing a banana over the roof of your house.
posted on 16/7/11
TDF- I love it.
posted on 23/7/11
This is a great occasion for all those who push themselves hundreds of miles every week through-out Australia..... well done Cadel you have done yourself and your country proud....