The Tour, Post Discovery?

[Lifelover]

I miss them!

I'm enjoying the Tour more this year than I thought would. Stages like today are great.

I really had no clue how Columbia and Slipstream would perform, but I would have never guessed they could be this good.

However, I do miss having a clear favorite team to pull for.

Feelings towards Lance aside, the team absolutely controlled the race 8 years running.

George has a chance of being on the team that wins it 9 straight years. That will never be done again.

Even in the role as the bad guy, Astana would have been a great addition.
Contador, Gusev, Chris Fn Horner, Kloden, Leipheimer, Noval!?


How have you been enjoying the TDF post Discovery?

[bike <3'er]

As much as Lance makes me ill off the bike, in France he was Ali in the jungle, Jordan in Chi-town, The Ramones at CBGB's.

Phil Lig seems to be very subdued thus far, maybe he'll spark up during tomorrow's stage. You never know, this year could turn out to be amazing. Maybe they are clean now and maybe the dynamics of the race have changed? I miss the outspoken fact Postal/Disco gave us in France at Stage 1, "We're here to get that man, Lance, to Paris, in yellow." Too many teams are either stage-hungry or don't have their puzzle figured out.

Tomorrow will make a separation of the pack. It's not Disco that I miss and Disco was about one thing, one man: Lance. GH is a foot note, he could not even find his voice post-Lance "I'm going to win in 2006" to, "I'm the team leader for the 2006 Tour" to, "We'll see who's the one on Disco to be the leader as the stages evolve" said GH (and Jonathon).

Yes it was neat to see Lance show up for his annual ride, the big names he battled with, the rivalries and yet, in the 'Take Back the Tour' commericals, they don't show Lance. I enjoyed watching Lance in France, he was le Tour for quite some time.

[cmg]

"George has a chance of being on the team that wins it 9 straight years." It was strange to see George as part of the lead in team 3Ks from the finish for Mark Cavendish. I thought it was a hell of a pace. so far it has been interesting. Still don't think Cadel Evans is going to win it.

[regularguy412]

This is the most animated I've seen the Tour this early in the race, in years. 'MAYYYYYBE', more riders are less dependent upon PED's and therefore more of them are closer together, performance-wise. I think a lot of the animation, though, has been as a result of the changes made to the race course, itself. No first week of 'pure sprint' finishes, followed by the first 'real' time trial, which is then followed by two weeks of climber's teams fighting it out. I, personally, like the mix of uphill finishes and true sprint finishes. Yellow changed hands quite a lot, for one week. I thought that Columbia might have yellow taken from them today, but Kirchen rode a great stage, even though he only had one lieutenant with him at the end. I agree that tomorrow's stage may well become an early indication of how the final two weeks will go. I don't miss Lance. It's kinda nice to have some unpredictabilty. Ricco made a monster attack and held on to the finish. Seems the main players in the Select Group chose not to completely reel him in. As for Ricco, I wonder how many vials of blood and specimen cups he had to fill tonite.

Can't wait for tomorrow's stage.

Mike in AR:beer:

[93legendti]

I miss them!

I'm enjoying the Tour more this year than I thought would. Stages like today are great.

I really had no clue how Columbia and Slipstream would perform, but I would have never guessed they could be this good.

However, I do miss having a clear favorite team to pull for.

Feelings towards Lance aside, the team absolutely controlled the race 8 years running.

George has a chance of being on the team that wins it 9 straight years. That will never be done again.

Even in the role as the bad guy, Astana would have been a great addition.
Contador, Gusev, Chris Fn Horner, Kloden, Leipheimer, Noval!?


How have you been enjoying the TDF post Discovery?

GH was not on the winning rider's team in 2006.

[SadieKate]

I miss Chris Horner and his interviews. Fortunately, I've been able to watch him personally this week. Check out yesterday's finish at Mt Bachelor.:eek:

http://www.velonews.com/article/80087/how-chris-horner-is-spending-july

A friend of ours was working SRAM neutal support and went out to bring in Demong. Apparently, Horner refused to stop with a "No, we're good."

[Lifelover]

GH was not on the winning rider's team in 2006.



Your right. I forget about the Landis year:crap: :crap:

[paczki]

It's been great fun for Week 1. It's also great not to really know what the riders have in reserve, or even be able to guess. Menchov, Evans, and Kirchen look strong but we'll see. Watching Ricco has been like watching his hero Pantani -- pure aggression. It actually reminds me of 2006, which was great fun to watch as well.

We've enjoyed the Roll commentary in the evening more than the Liggett/Sherwin commentary this year.