Tour de France 2004, you say?

Oh - you might want to get the mods to add the word 'spoiler' to the thread title!

UK TV coverage for the non-digital is limited to fifty minutes at 1am on ITV1. How wonderful, eh?

GO JAN!

Zebedee: tricky Dicky is still way ahead in the KOTM, but could easily envisage Lance ending up with that shirt before too long.

Did you notice the commentator made a point of saying that Basso did genuinely (really, truly, honestly) beat Armstrong today? The pronunciation is just as bad as ever - has nobody ever told him that maillot jorn is very wrong? And when did the KOTM become the Climbers Jersey? How unromantic and matter-of-fact.

I'm going to buy a box next week - I'm watching it at my folks' house at the moment and am bound to get withdrawal symptoms when I get home - but I figure it'll come in useful for the Olympics as well.

Lance: Shit, I've got no room in my garage, better give it to the kid.

i've now had to go from being able to watch every stage live on french tv to not having a tv at all, though, and next week i won't even have internet or radio access and will have to follow it via the newspapers. which sucks. is it possible to watch live over here? do eurosport show it?

Anyway, no way was that stage a gift to Basso.

I couldn't believe how flat Hamilton looked. He apparently knew he was going OTB early as he was being nursed from the very bottom of Tourmalet. Hell, he was nearly off over the d'Aspin, and given the weather I was SURE he was going to crash in the chase.

Heras was so far OTB I can't even assess what was happening. WTF?

Leipheimer was his usual steady self.

Rasmussen should have waited to attack til tomorrow, I was saying this yesterday, when he announced his intention to try a long break. Stupid. Too many fresh legs (though not on the favorites apparently), and too much pent-up anxiety. He'll get another shot though.

Basso looked great. Really relaxed and comfortable, much smoother than Armstrong even. Sastre looked great. How does Riis (the boringest guy ever) get such results?

I don't think I've ever seen a favorite look as taxed as Ullrich without a full on knock going on. Goggle eyed and matted hair. He looked nearly worse than Voeckler. So now we know why Kloeden didn't sit up for Zabel, he was announcing his leadership...

I'm not a big Armstrong 'fan', but Postal was scary, they had the bunch shredding from a long way out over both climbs. How many times can they do that? Whew, Azevedo, lethal. Can CSC, which looks as good on paper, put them under pressure? Good stage.

Wish I could see some drama occuring in the days ahead, but short of a crash or a bug or something, it looks like it's in the bag already for Lance. Basso is a threat, but without any other challengers that close to him, surely USPS only really need to cover attacks from that one source. Unless Sastre and the other CSC boys hit him too I guess. Almost everyone else looks too demoralized to even try anything.

Oh, and Bob Roll is a tosser.

ullrich and kloden could mount something but lance has azevedo and rubiera who are also running on high morale. it's almost not fair. plus, armstrong hisself is rocking! he's so much stronger than last year. he couldn't drop basso, but basso couldn't drop him either. the alpe d'huez TT is where it goes down i bet. i've actually ridden up that motherfucker myself and holy shit!

He GAVE AWAY his team's strategy and there was still nothing anyone could do about it.

After last year, I thought that Lance's glory days were over but now it appears that last year was the abbheration.

Notwithstanding Armstrong's superior conditioning this year, I had thought the contender field was stacked with Ullrich, Hamilton, Heras, Mayo, Basso/Sastre, maybe even a motivated post-Giro Simoni. Who'd have thought that freakin' MOREAU would look better than any of them excepting Basso by stage 14? I'd have put even money on Rinero vs. Moreau.

I am preparing to be bored through the Alps, but since I'm usally wrongo, perhaps something exciting will happen. I have no faith in that tool Godefroot's group to deliver anything interesting, other than slams at Pevenage. I think Kloeden is at a major disadvantage with that crew. Memo to Ullrich--drop Rudy. Drop Walter. Don't ever wear fuschia, as a general fashion rule. Sign with Barney before it's too late.

Yes, the winners of this year's Dauphine (Mayo, dominating), this year's Romandy (Hamilton), this year's Tour de Swiss (Ullrich), Basque Country this year AND the Vuelta last year (Heras), 3rd GC in this year's Giro plus stage winner (Simoni), all so pedestrian. Not to squabble over trivialities like the best stage race palmares of the year. There's a reason they were the conventional wisdom, and while one must dismiss the likelihood of all of them contending--NONE OF THEM CONTENDING? You are correct of course that they may be longish in the tooth, but they are not overrated, neither generally nor as prospective GC hopes at the outset of TdF 2004. IMO.

hunter, i totally restricted my context to the TdF as i am wont to do. and i think mayo def. looked great going in as dauphine is so close to TdF, but the that notion simoni this year, or really even heras, could have challenged for the maillot jeune is too farfetched even if it looks reasonable on paper.
this is because IMHO there is the special and great matter of Spirit to the TdF, of unleashing that inner 'beast.' basso and voeckler are finding an inner beast that i don't think they would in the other big stage races of this season. there's a poetic quality there that is appropriate since it's a french event. i could go on and on about the tour's mythical qualities and for that reason tend to separate it from the results of the giro and vuelta and the other big stage races besides. i mean look at petacchi.
lance himself remarked on vino not being in the TOur this year. he seems to hold him in esp. high regard. and beloki is a tragic case so far. he could have been and might be someday one of the greats but who knows. and i have a weird thing with tyler where i want to think he's gonna be up there, but he just didn't make enough of a mark as great as he had done prior to last year's TdF, it seems like that may be all there is for him. and probably ullrich, but he gets his form as the Tour ends and he def. has got that 'beast' somewhere in there.

Well, it's hard for me to argue about which rider is "feelin' it" the most (Voeckler, duh), or whose got the biggest inner beast (Armstrong seems to have a reservoir full of angry vengeful beasts). I know you miss Beloki, but I think he raced last year like a desperate man, rather than a beast. Perhaps that's because he kept announcing that he was, in fact, desperate, and that if he didn't beat LA that time he was done with the TdF. He did seem to be feeling it though. (I was very moved by Beloki and Saiz post-crash, truly. I think of Saiz as the Bill Cowher of cycling--a total player's coach, much beloved by them, loyal, emotional, but uh...not a winner for all the marbles.)

I'm sure there's a lot of very inspired, beast-infused guys who go straight out the back, too.

Anyway, my limited experience is that the inspiration, even presumably at the TdF, must rest atop the preparation. Given their respective backgrounds, each of the cw faves had at least respectable prep for TdF. Yeah, you can do the "Gibo can't peak for both the Giro and TdF," or the "Mayo was overcooked," or the "Ullrich lost too much weight too late," or the "Saiz has his head up his butt as usual which is bound to confuse Heras," but for all of them to appear pretty much "done" before the Alps surprised me. I never gave Leipheimer a chance though, figuring that he could finish Top 10 for the next 3 years and never come close to podium.

i know what you mean, but by "beast" i'm more referring to going off the back like armstrong does sometimes, because he catches a flat or a kids' bag or something, and he COMES BACK. or voeckler now. ullrich can drop off and come back too. the beasts come back. sean kelly with his ear hanging off, or hinault in that famous pic. i don't believe you can truly have it and blow up and die out there. i really don't. it's like the pinnacle of human physical effort this fuckin race, IMO.

Another win for Virenque tomorrow? The err, King of the Mountains must have been saving his legs today, four minutes or so down on Armstrong I think. Or maybe Rasmussen might get away and stay away for once - a finish in the valley will suit him, he descends like a maniac.

you mean stairs?

naw, you haven't had to get off your bike for a while. although the ramp down into BK is pretty hairy.

bianchi track bike

THE MAN HAS ONE NUT PEOPLE, he is naturally aerodynamic

Ooooh, Italian and a fixer! Mmmm! I'm always amazed when I see guys on fixed gear bikes in heavy traffic. Sir, yer a braver lad than I.

Anyone know what is that on Lance's back?

Looks like a radio to me though.