2013 Tour De France Thread

[f1fan12]

Has anyone on here watched it? I must say, knowing absolutely nothing about competitive, endurance cycling. I give these riders mass respect for the endurance that they have. Cycling for the length as they do on a daily basis is quite remarkable. Plus the mountains they climb are gorgeous and grueling. And the peloton that they run in, is like Talladega to the tenth power. If your interested, NBC Sports network is broadcasting it through Sunday? (Not Sure).

[Chives2112]

Le Tour de Cheat?

[navycook75]

Le Tour de Cheat?

Roid de France?

[Alpineopossum]

Everything bike racing comes up I have to tell this story. On my street there's an annual block party, and they used to have a bike race as part of the festivities. In the later years, myself and a neighbor named Jack were the fastest guys on the street but to be "inclusive" we had to let in anyone with a bike (and I believe one year some trikes were let in). You would have us going at 20 something mph when we were really going for it and coming up on some four year old going 5. That kid would often block and the result was disaster. That never happened to me, but its probably why they haven't had that race in a few years.

So that was the brief but illustrious (sarcasm) bicycle career of yours truly. I did win that race a number of times, and in middle school that made a big splash.

[PYLrulz]

Whoever wins will more than likely have their win stripped from them in the end.

Cycling is still in the Olympics, yet Wrestling has to fight for a place in it?!? Pitiful!

[HawkAussie]

Tour de Drug is what I see of it

[Mystrsyko]

I've watched a few of the stages. Boring to watch, but pretty fucking incredible what those guys can put themselves through. I think I heard during the second stage that one guy fell almost 2 minutes behind the leaders so he could pick up a bunch of water bottles from the team car and then charged back up through the field to give them to his teammates. You know, not like the Tour de France was hard enough already or anything.

And watching some of the guys make a charge at the leaders 6 or more miles from the finish while going up a mountain...I'd be lucky to do six miles  

[Milan655]

Disagree with the stupid posts above-"Tour de Drug"...sure sure.

Today is a 173km run up the Alps, reaching a peak of 1850m in Alpes d'Huez.

[crl]

Disagree with the stupid posts above-"Tour de Drug"...sure sure.

Today is a 173km run up the Alps, reaching a peak of 1850m in Alpes d'Huez.

Well, you know, when cycling's had the major drug issue that they've had for the last decade or so, people will make jokes.

[RealRacingRoots]

Disagree with the stupid posts above-"Tour de Drug"...sure sure.

Today is a 173km run up the Alps, reaching a peak of 1850m in Alpes d'Huez.

The scary part is that they did a part of the Highest Climb to the top of Aples d'Huez TWICE before the finish. They earned the rest after the stage today.

[crl]

Seems that strange penalties aren't just for auto racing:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/23363147

[PYLrulz]

Disagree with the stupid posts above-"Tour de Drug"...sure sure.

Today is a 173km run up the Alps, reaching a peak of 1850m in Alpes d'Huez.

Sorry. Cycling, and the Tour de France deserve the jokes. Maybe when it doesn't seem like every other winner gets busted, then maybe the jokes can die down a little

[Mystrsyko]

Sorry.  Cycling, and the Tour de France deserve the jokes.  Maybe when it doesn't seem like every other winner gets busted, then maybe the jokes can die down a little

I feel the same way about baseball. At least cyclists do more than stand around in a field waiting for something exciting to come their way

[PYLrulz]

Sorry.  Cycling, and the Tour de France deserve the jokes.  Maybe when it doesn't seem like every other winner gets busted, then maybe the jokes can die down a little

I feel the same way about baseball. At least cyclists do more than stand around in a field waiting for something exciting to come their way

Even baseball hasn't had near as many guys getting busted... yet

[Milan655]

I understand that it was very embarrassing with Contador and Armstrong in the past, but it would be unfair to mark the event and the sport as irrelevant. The riders complete over 3000km across 20 days, without any breaks in-between stages, it's an incredible effort.

[Metro 6r4]

Did anybody else hear about the woman who got in trouble for moving all of the Lance Armstrong books into the fiction side in the library she worked for?

[crl]

I understand that it was very embarrassing with Contador and Armstrong in the past, but it would be unfair to mark the event and the sport as irrelevant. The riders complete over 3000km across 20 days, without any breaks in-between stages, it's an incredible effort.

Don't forget Landis. Hell, Tyler Hamilton losing the 2004 Olympic Gold from the time trial.

[Pyrozooka0]

I sort of think this should be in Racing Rumor.

[navycook75]

I sort of think this should be in Racing Rumor.

[Sparkz47]

I sort of think this should be in Racing Rumor.

Well, it IS racing. And I've never really seen anything that makes the section exclusive to motor racing.

[flyingturns89]

I sort of think this should be in Racing Rumor.

Well, it IS racing. And I've never really seen anything that makes the section exclusive to motor racing.

Other than the description of the section, which reads,

Talk anything involving racing, be it NASCAR, IndyCar, F1, ARCA, Le Mans, your local short track, or any other form of motorsport. You are free to have your opinions and are encouraged to express them, but be ready to defend them!

Anyways, I really can't take the Tour de France seriously anymore since the Lance Armstrong scandal, due to the fact that if they awarded his wins to the next eligible cyclist, one of his wins would go to I believe 23rd place because all the others ahead have had drug scandals.

[f1fan12]

I sort of think this should be in Racing Rumor.

Well, it IS racing. And I've never really seen anything that makes the section exclusive to motor racing.

Other than the description of the section, which reads,

Talk anything involving racing, be it NASCAR, IndyCar, F1, ARCA, Le Mans, your local short track, or any other form of motorsport. You are free to have your opinions and are encouraged to express them, but be ready to defend them!

Anyways, I really can't take the Tour de France seriously anymore since the Lance Armstrong scandal, due to the fact that if they awarded his wins to the next eligible cyclist, one of his wins  would go to I believe 23rd place because all the others ahead have had drug scandals.

Why, because one bad apple ruins the whole sport? That would be like saying, I can't take NASCAR seriously because of the Jeremy Mayfield scandal. I feel that the Tour De France did a good job with all the cheaters...

[flyingturns89]

I sort of think this should be in Racing Rumor.

Well, it IS racing. And I've never really seen anything that makes the section exclusive to motor racing.

Other than the description of the section, which reads,

Talk anything involving racing, be it NASCAR, IndyCar, F1, ARCA, Le Mans, your local short track, or any other form of motorsport. You are free to have your opinions and are encouraged to express them, but be ready to defend them!

Anyways, I really can't take the Tour de France seriously anymore since the Lance Armstrong scandal, due to the fact that if they awarded his wins to the next eligible cyclist, one of his wins  would go to I believe 23rd place because all the others ahead have had drug scandals.

Why, because one bad apple ruins the whole sport? That would be like saying, I can't take NASCAR seriously because of the Jeremy Mayfield scandal. I feel that the Tour De France did a good job with all the cheaters...

But it's hard to take it serious knowing that there's a possibility that a guy that doesn't even finish in the top 20 will be the highest legitimate finisher 10 years from now.

[Milan655]

So what about the Men's 100M Athletics then? Sure, Bolt wasn't involved, but 3 other major runners were. Does this make it pointless as well?

[Mystrsyko]

Doping in cycling is a joke compared to baseball. Those guys get paid on average more than any other athlete in the country to take illegal drugs to help them stand in a field all day waiting for something to happen.

But cycling is the one who's reputation is ruined.  

'Murica

[Sparkz47]

Doping in cycling is a joke compared to baseball. Those guys get paid on average more than any other athlete in the country to take illegal drugs to help them stand in a field all day waiting for something to happen.

But cycling is the one who's reputation is ruined.  

'Murica

Because insulting another sport is obviously the correct way to deal with your own sports problems.

And yes, there are problems, but the sport of cycling is not irredeemable. The ASO (I assume they're the ones in charge of dealing with this stuff) REALLY needs to start cracking down on substance abuse much more than they have been. All I've seen so far is them revoking past awards. How about preventing FUTURE complications with an issue that has been so heavily damaging the sport?

[Milan655]

Doping in cycling is a joke compared to baseball. Those guys get paid on average more than any other athlete in the country to take illegal drugs to help them stand in a field all day waiting for something to happen.

But cycling is the one who's reputation is ruined.  

'Murica

Because insulting another sport is obviously the correct way to deal with your own sports problems.

And yes, there are problems, but the sport of cycling is not irredeemable. The ASO (I assume they're the ones in charge of dealing with this stuff) REALLY needs to start cracking down on substance abuse much more than they have been. All I've seen so far is them revoking past awards. How about preventing FUTURE complications with an issue that has been so heavily damaging the sport?

Losing a Tour de France victory is pretty horrible for a rider. It's like losing the F1 World Championship, a kick between the legs is comparable to heaven.

[Mystrsyko]

Doping in cycling is a joke compared to baseball. Those guys get paid on average more than any other athlete in the country to take illegal drugs to help them stand in a field all day waiting for something to happen.

But cycling is the one who's reputation is ruined.  

'Murica

Because insulting another sport is obviously the correct way to deal with your own sports problems.

And yes, there are problems, but the sport of cycling is not irredeemable. The ASO (I assume they're the ones in charge of dealing with this stuff) REALLY needs to start cracking down on substance abuse much more than they have been. All I've seen so far is them revoking past awards. How about preventing FUTURE complications with an issue that has been so heavily damaging the sport?

I'm just trying to keep things in perspective

I do agree that the solution will be found in preventing future drug issues, but with the pace of modern technology, whatever they do wont be enough. As soon as you ban one thing, they'll switch to another, and as soon as you start testing for one thing, they'll move to another. Baseball is struggling with the same thing. Pro wrestling is struggling with the same thing. The Olympics are struggling with the same thing. Ultimately, it comes down to cost versus reward, and the cost of massive drug testing campaigns greatly outweighs the rewards for "being clean", in a business sense at least.

Imagine if every current MLB player was suddenly banned from the sport for drug use and every team had to rebuild from scratch with no name guys from the minor leagues. In addition to the cost of the anti-drug campaign, you'd have the monetary losses from losing all the headliners and superstars. (Obviously a ridiculous example, but it's to illustrate a point) Unfortunately, stopping doping altogether is not only very difficult, but bad for business. And if any sport is able to wipe it out completely, it will be many years until the "clean" generation replaces the old one.


Back on topic, I wish the Tour de France had smaller team sizes so that more individual effort would be required to win

[Sponsored content]