Tour de France 2011

kilns

Great article in todays Indo from Roche. I love his honesty, having a go at two of the guys in the bus for not working hard enough.

And I cant believe how badly the riders are treated by the organisers

The Behemoth

I see this morning that Gadret & Du Pont are already starting to circle the drain. Complaining about beiong exhausted from the Giro etc. How on Earth AG2R have put these guys in the Tour after THAT Giro is beyond me. Recent history is showing us that both of these races are not advisable in the same year. These are supposed to be 2 of Roches biggest road allies & they are already hinting at dropping out.
My 50 Euro on Roche to finish in the Top 10 at 10/1 is not looking good.

ednwireland

The Behemoth wrote: »

I see this morning that Gadret & Du Pont are already starting to circle the drain. Complaining about beiong exhausted from the Giro etc. How on Earth AG2R have put these guys in the Tour after THAT Giro is beyond me. Recent history is showing us that both of these races are not advisable in the same year. These are supposed to be 2 of Roches biggest road allies & they are already hinting at dropping out.

+1 as i said before deignan was knackered at the tour of switzerland and said he was fine for the first half of the nationals but just couldnt keep going.
amazed at contador though guess we'll see when we hit the big mountains (or even the massif central this weekend)

TheBlaaMan

ITs incredible, though perhaps not entirely surprising, at what they expect the riders to put up with on the worlds biggest cycling event. Despite their physical efforts, they get fairly poor treatment compared to many of the hangers-on at the Tour.

Nicholas Roche

"It's been really crazy trying to get to and from hotels on this Tour. Every single night so far, we've had an hour-and-a-half to two-hours drive to our hotel. After a stage, all you want to do is get to your room and lie on the bed and relax but it seems that everybody else is given priority to the riders in the traffic. Today we had a later start than usual but as we had a two-and-a-half hour drive to the start we were still up at 7.0 anyway. Then we had to sit on the team bus and watch the Tour publicity caravan go by for 40 minutes before we were allowed move.I'm writing this on the bus. There is only one road out of the car park and it's complete chaos again. The gendarmes are giving the VIPS priority over us. We're here 45 minutes and we haven't budged an inch. The VIP cars are barging their way out while we have to sit here and wait.
Nobody thinks about the riders after the race, that we need to shower, eat, get a massage and sleep. We're just the show and when the show is over, we're nothing again."

Chris Horner

"Last night’s hotel was anything but special, with no airconditioning and not even a chance of getting some ice to make my nightly iced tea with dinner. Believe it or not, they didn't even have shades to keep the sun out of the dining room for dinner! That meant I had dinner in a hot and sweaty room, with the sun shining straight into my eyes and warm iced tea to top it all off!"

Not that I;m overly sympathetic for his Iced Tea issues, but the accommodation seems decidely sub-standard

ednwireland

TheBlaaMan wrote: »

Not that I;m overly sympathetic for his Iced Tea issues, but the accommodation seems decidely sub-standard

hmm how many people are on the tour and need accomodation for the night ?

my guess is every single hotel for miles around is booked out

remember a hotel pic that armstrong tweeted a a couple of years ago and it looked pretty rough

Worztron

Is Nicolas Roche the only Irish rider in the 2011 Tour de France?

kmart6

ednwireland wrote: »

hmm how many people are on the tour and need accomodation for the night ?

my guess is every single hotel for miles around is booked out

remember a hotel pic that armstrong tweeted a a couple of years ago and it looked pretty rough

Yeah but the riders should have priority no matter how many people need rooms!

kmart6

Worztron wrote: »

Is Nicolas Roche the only Irish rider in the 2011 Tour de France?

Yup....

Morrisseeee

The Behemoth wrote: »

I see this morning that Gadret & Du Pont are already starting to circle the drain. Complaining about beiong exhausted from the Giro etc. How on Earth AG2R have put these guys in the Tour after THAT Giro is beyond me. Recent history is showing us that both of these races are not advisable in the same year. These are supposed to be 2 of Roches biggest road allies & they are already hinting at dropping out.
My 50 Euro on Roche to finish in the Top 10 at 10/1 is not looking good.

Given that Nico is not on top form either, I reckon NOW would be a good time to abandon GC ambitions and go for a stage win.

ednwireland

kmart6 wrote: »

Yeah but the riders should have priority no matter how many people need rooms!

i always thought it was down to teams to book their own hotels

kmart6

ednwireland wrote: »

i always thought it was down to teams to book their own hotels

Maybe it is...but for an event of such stature I can imagine that the organising committee have some say in booking out all the hotels within a certain distance...then it's prob left to the teams! If the TdeF wasn't doing this it would be a huge risk on teams being shafted!

Sundy

kmart6 wrote: »

Maybe it is...but for an event of such stature I can imagine that the organising committee have some say in booking out all the hotels within a certain distance...then it's prob left to the teams! If the TdeF wasn't doing this it would be a huge risk on teams being shafted!

As far as i know the teams book their own hotels.

I suspect teams stay in cheaper hotels to cut costs. Consider how much it must cost to put up the whole team incl. mechanics, doctors etc for the tour alone. These teams have people staying in hotels all season so id say its a necessity to stay somewhere cheap.

Unregistered.

Worztron wrote: »

Is Nicolas Roche the only Irish rider in the 2011 Tour de France?

Yes.

AG2R

Rojas saying he isn't happy that he was stripped and lost the sprint points and also that Petachhi got away with punching him :L


race commissaires beginning to annoy me

ednwireland

AG2R wrote: »

Rojas saying he isn't happy that he was stripped and lost the sprint points and also that Petachhi got away with punching him :L


race commissaires beginning to annoy me

pretty poor sprint though from boonen and rojas, they had to after dq'ing cav and thor (which wasnt anything imo)

AG2R

Oh it was a poor sprint both knew they hadn't the legs to last and win but imo if they commissaires hadn't botched the Cav decision nowt would have been done.

Could see big decline in the entertainment of sprints

ednwireland

AG2R wrote: »

Oh it was a poor sprint both knew they hadn't the legs to last and win but imo if they commissaires hadn't botched the Cav decision nowt would have been done.

Could see big decline in the entertainment of sprints

true (depressing though that is)

El Director

Guys does anyone have a good streaming link for the tour?

Inquitus

El Director wrote: »

Guys does anyone have a good streaming link for the tour?

http://www.cyclingfans.com/node/2401

El Director

Excellent thanks for that - after 4 days I've given up trying to pick up the Irish, not going to happen, although Hector was good craic!

AG2R

Andre isn't happy.

yop

who is doing all the hooting there on the TNAG coverage?? Just curious

Idleater

I have tg4 on mute and have the eurosport audio player in another tab.

The only irritating thing is that one is ahead (by about 500meters for me), but considering I'm in work, I can listen away switch tabs over if there is something interesting mentioned.

I spent a bit of time trying to get the tg4 player to play in VLC or something to slow it down but will have to come back to that.

It's only a stopgap until the highlights later. It's too much effort trying to avoid the internet with all the crap people post if you check news or Facebook or anything.

Hmm, perahps I should do some work...

petethedrummer

The eurosport player is only a few quid for the month. I watch the stage on a ticker then switch on the eurosport player towards the end of the stage, during my afternoon tea and scones break.

TinyExplosions

petethedrummer wrote: »

The eurosport player is only a few quid for the month. I watch the stage on a ticker then switch on the eurosport player towards the end of the stage, during my afternoon tea and scones break.

That's exactly what I do too -the player is a great service, though I do get lots of stuttering with it from time to time, but it does the job!

sconhome

You can get the eurosport coverage through the cyclingfans.com website. Odd annoying ads every now and then but its free.

BTH

amphkingwest wrote: »

You can get the eurosport coverage through the cyclingfans.com website. Odd annoying ads every now and then but its free.

THe odd annoying ad's seem to stop after a couple of minutes for me. Un-interupted thereafter, although I'm listening rather than watching it.

Have the TG4 highlights on series link as well. Been some good racing so far with very exiting finishes.

SACH Central

From The ITV4 website:

'To complement our Tour de France coverage, we will show the brilliant HTC documentary Chasing Legends, which follows Mark Cavendish's team throughout the 2009 race (Thursday 14 July and Sunday 17 July).'

Thursday 20.00 - 22.00
Sunday 16.30 - 18.30

kilns

Positive news from Roche saying he was feeling much stronger today. Hopefully the legs are coming back and we have a real top 10 chance on our hands.

However, his team management have let him down big time by bringing a tired Gadret and Dupont with them. I wouldnt be surprised if they pulled out after the weekend

Tallon

Not sure if you seen it, but here's a live view of the riders...

http://data.srmlive.de/TDF/

kmart6

Posted 2 pages back...tut tut Tallon!

Tallon

Malari

Tallon wrote: »

It still looks like you're happy. Change your avatar if your really mean you are sad :P

Tallon

Malari wrote: »

It still looks like you're happy. Change your avatar if your really mean you are sad :P

Ok

Malari

Tallon wrote: »

Ok

That's more like it.

Now, we still love you - how about a big smile?

Tallon

Malari wrote: »

That's more like it.

Now, we still love you - how about a big smile?

ednwireland

didnt realise contador is on speedplay pedals this year

NickDrake

ednwireland wrote: »

didnt realise contador is on speedplay pedals this year

I'd say he is on a few more things as well.

petethedrummer

I don't get what you are trying to say Nick.

CheGuedara

petethedrummer wrote: »

I don't get what you are trying to say Nick.

He knows *exactly* what Contador's on and *exactly* how much.

the answer is a Specialized Tarmac SL4 and the amount of them is one at a time

Esroh

Chris Horner after crossing the line. Not a good image http://video.bicycling.com/video/Chris-Horner-Post-Stage-7-Crash

TheBlaaMan

Esroh wrote: »

Chris Horner after crossing the line. Not a good image http://video.bicycling.com/video/Chris-Horner-Post-Stage-7-Crash

Horners lack of awareness of his circumstances is fairly frightening, and this after a 25k chase of the peleton to the line. Interesting article here and it would seem to be beyond question(in terms of their own and others safety) that teams do not allow their riders to make their own decision as to whether to carry on or abandon. Once again, Garmin-Cervelo seem to be ahead of the curve on this one...

Worztron

Is Chris Horner the oldest rider in this years Tour de France? Who is the youngest rider?

Hermy

I think Jens is the oldest.

From wikipedia:

Jens Voigt
Date of birth 17 September 1971 (age 39)

Chris Horner
Date of birth 23 October 1971 (age 39)

Pherekydes

Anthony Delaplace is the youngest at 21.

ednwireland

Esroh wrote: »

Chris Horner after crossing the line. Not a good image http://video.bicycling.com/video/Chris-Horner-Post-Stage-7-Crash

interesting article about teams not doing concussion analysis
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/pro-cycling-plagued-by-head-injuries

apparently boonen was vomiting and headaches the morning after his crash still rode the stage :eek:

Raven_k42

Afternoon All

I know the best place to watch is in France !!...but are there any pubs/places in Dublin that people recommend ?. Most will have sports on TV...but wondering if anywhere known for any sort of TDF atmosphere or excitement ?.

Many thanks,
K

kenmc

Probably best going to a bike shop! Doubt there's too many pubs showing it, too niche.

happytramp

How can Amador Andrey from Movistar have -5 sprint points???

AG2R

Feel bad for Hoogerland,Stupid drivers again!