This tour is pretty good so far. And now, since I can't discuss these things with my family, here are some comments I have.
1. I love watching breakaways succeed. Watching guys who may never have a chance to win a stage again and may have only dreamed of the moment, it's incredible to watch. They are always some of the happiest stage winners. Thomas Voekler was certainly happy today. After he won the stage and was waiting to hug his teammates as he stood with his hand in their air, it was hard to keep from feeling glad for him. He was so incredibly happy on the podium, it made me smile. He definately deserved the win. And he won it in a very sweet breakaway fashion. Going in a breakaway at the beginning of the stage, the peloton so close with 15km to go, and then winning it solo, enough time for a fabulous victory salute as the peloton rides hard in the background.
2. Fabian Cancellara is amazing. I like him not just because he is awesome in time trials, but because he does what you wouldn't expect. He sprinted to a stage victory while wearing the yellow jersey one year in the Tour. In the Beijing Olympics (which I stayed up till 5 a.m. to watch but it was worth it) he won the bronze in the road race when everyone thought he would get his medal the next day by winning gold in the time trial. And then he won the Tour of Switzerland. Now, in this year's Tour, he basically does all the work in the team time trial. Everytime they showed Saxo Bank on Versus, it seemed like Fabian Cancellara was in the front. He basically dragged the team to the finish. Then, on today's stage, he's riding at the front of the peloton. He's pulling the peloton along when he's wearing yellow. That was pretty awesome. But Fabian Cancellara does not do the expected and that is why he is a beast. Plus, it's so much fun to listen to his interviews and watch him pull on yellow.
3. Ben Stiller should not have been giving out the yellow jersey. It was hilarious watching him give it to Fabian Cancellara. I could almost see him thinking "where's Lance? This is not Lance". I doubt Fabian Cancellara knew or cared who he was. He did care about that jersey though.
4. Lance wanted that yellow. Like he could time the .22 seconds to stay out of it. And really, Lance taking yellow would make another great chapter in his story. But as the 5th man over the line, it's all his fault. I have to say that I did want him to take the jersey until I watched Fabian Cancellara's reaction to keeping it. Then I realized that Lance can share.
5. It's a great Tour for the conspiracy theorists.
6. Much as I dislike Garmin they did a nice job in the TTT. Riding with only 5 for most of the way and only having 4 pulling would have been hard. Them getting second made me laugh though. Not a fan of them at all. I did like the Christian Vande Velde interview though. When the guy asked him if dropping half the team was the plan, he responded very well. VdV is a bit too American though for me to like him.
7. I love Cav. Seeing him in green is awesome. I like how he talks trash but then backs up his side. And he's always making sure his teammates get the credit. He seems to really enjoy it though, he's always having fun. He acts like a kid, which is not a bad thing.
8. The voices of the Tour for me will always be Phil and Paul. The people of BF are always complaining about them but I could (and do, in July) listen to them for hours. Where else can you hear someone say "around about"? Or say "completely and utterly" about 5 times in 2 minutes. When Phil was talking about Lance "dancing on the pedals" in stage 4, it reminded me even more that this is the Tour de France. And then after the TTT, when they were commenting on Fabian Cancellara's performance, Paul started saying "but Phil, remember what you always say about riding wearing the yellow jersey".....and I could recite "it makes you ride like two men". They say the weirdest things but I love listening to them because you can tell they love the race.
9. I love Lance and all, but really. The little jersey on the screen for him at Versus, along with the important jerseys? Little overboard.
10. This tour is incredibly exciting.
1. I love watching breakaways succeed. Watching guys who may never have a chance to win a stage again and may have only dreamed of the moment, it's incredible to watch. They are always some of the happiest stage winners. Thomas Voekler was certainly happy today. After he won the stage and was waiting to hug his teammates as he stood with his hand in their air, it was hard to keep from feeling glad for him. He was so incredibly happy on the podium, it made me smile. He definately deserved the win. And he won it in a very sweet breakaway fashion. Going in a breakaway at the beginning of the stage, the peloton so close with 15km to go, and then winning it solo, enough time for a fabulous victory salute as the peloton rides hard in the background.
2. Fabian Cancellara is amazing. I like him not just because he is awesome in time trials, but because he does what you wouldn't expect. He sprinted to a stage victory while wearing the yellow jersey one year in the Tour. In the Beijing Olympics (which I stayed up till 5 a.m. to watch but it was worth it) he won the bronze in the road race when everyone thought he would get his medal the next day by winning gold in the time trial. And then he won the Tour of Switzerland. Now, in this year's Tour, he basically does all the work in the team time trial. Everytime they showed Saxo Bank on Versus, it seemed like Fabian Cancellara was in the front. He basically dragged the team to the finish. Then, on today's stage, he's riding at the front of the peloton. He's pulling the peloton along when he's wearing yellow. That was pretty awesome. But Fabian Cancellara does not do the expected and that is why he is a beast. Plus, it's so much fun to listen to his interviews and watch him pull on yellow.
3. Ben Stiller should not have been giving out the yellow jersey. It was hilarious watching him give it to Fabian Cancellara. I could almost see him thinking "where's Lance? This is not Lance". I doubt Fabian Cancellara knew or cared who he was. He did care about that jersey though.
4. Lance wanted that yellow. Like he could time the .22 seconds to stay out of it. And really, Lance taking yellow would make another great chapter in his story. But as the 5th man over the line, it's all his fault. I have to say that I did want him to take the jersey until I watched Fabian Cancellara's reaction to keeping it. Then I realized that Lance can share.
5. It's a great Tour for the conspiracy theorists.
6. Much as I dislike Garmin they did a nice job in the TTT. Riding with only 5 for most of the way and only having 4 pulling would have been hard. Them getting second made me laugh though. Not a fan of them at all. I did like the Christian Vande Velde interview though. When the guy asked him if dropping half the team was the plan, he responded very well. VdV is a bit too American though for me to like him.
7. I love Cav. Seeing him in green is awesome. I like how he talks trash but then backs up his side. And he's always making sure his teammates get the credit. He seems to really enjoy it though, he's always having fun. He acts like a kid, which is not a bad thing.
8. The voices of the Tour for me will always be Phil and Paul. The people of BF are always complaining about them but I could (and do, in July) listen to them for hours. Where else can you hear someone say "around about"? Or say "completely and utterly" about 5 times in 2 minutes. When Phil was talking about Lance "dancing on the pedals" in stage 4, it reminded me even more that this is the Tour de France. And then after the TTT, when they were commenting on Fabian Cancellara's performance, Paul started saying "but Phil, remember what you always say about riding wearing the yellow jersey".....and I could recite "it makes you ride like two men". They say the weirdest things but I love listening to them because you can tell they love the race.
9. I love Lance and all, but really. The little jersey on the screen for him at Versus, along with the important jerseys? Little overboard.
10. This tour is incredibly exciting.
1 comment:
I agree with everything here! I've been watching the Versus coverage as well and my only complaint is that it is SO heavily Lance pro. A video from Cyclocosm made me laugh about the necessary 1000 commercials about Lance. They really need to give it a break.
But this tour is amazing, and Fabu is incredible! I loved his pre race interview where he was saying since it was so technical he wouldn't be able to just hammer, but that this was probably a good thing because he was worried about dropping his teammates in the flats.
Bring on the mountains!
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