Tour De France Blog

Archive for the ‘tour de france’ Category

It must disrupt normal life in France and it finishes in Paris every year. So what are the economic benefits to France and beyond?

Greatly…but not as important as the 2012 Olympics, of which the 30 year debt will be paid by the ‘victorious’ inhabitants of the UK – who laughed at Paris for failing to grab the main prize of hosting it…before the cold light of day arrived. Très drôle.

Tom got busted for cocaine in an out-of-competition drug test. it has no cycling penalty (because he wasn’t competing at the time), but tour de france organizer ASO is saying he’s a poor role model, and thus cannot race in the 2008 tour. Good call or not?

Interesting question. I don’t condone drug use. That being said, I have concerns about ones civil liberties. Out of comp, illicit drub use that doesn’t benefit the cyclist in a race… The question of how far can organizations, government and companies go in controlling a person’s private life is a serious question.

Apart from France, which other countries has the tour visited? Has the tour ever been to the island of Corsica too?
Spydr, you obviously know nothing, because this year it has already been through Monaco, Spain, Andorra and now Switzerland and it will head through Italy later
I did mean, since it began. For the record there is also a Tour of Missouri in USA too

do you mnean this year or since the race started in 1903

in 1998 it started in Ireland, 2006 in London. It started in West Berlin in 1987 but visit to east germany was abandoned. it has visited the bordering countries and also the netherlands in recent years

David Harmon on Eurosport yesterday was saying it first visited a foreign land in 1906 when it visited Alsace-Lorraine which was a political move

some might say "you wrong" at this, as alsace-lorraine is part of France. it became a region of France after world war one. it had became german teritory after the franco-prussia war of 1871 but France reclaimed it as reparations for world war I

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Ubu, that will never ever happen. there has been talk of creating a three week race in the US as being Tour of America but the plans have not yet came to fruition and probably won’t. there is the tour of california and until last year, there was a tour de georgia. there’s also the vuelta a chihuahua in mexico-us region and tour de beauce bell in canada

there’s plenty of regional and national races around and the thing to do would be to build those up with local support into something big.

it’s not like the olympics where it’s the only cycling event, there are plenty of cycling events. the giro di italia and vuelta a espana are comparable to the tour de france while there are other excellent races but the races themselves represent their own regions

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i’ve checked wikipedia and it say['s it's never visited corsica
to quote:
"By the cartography of France that it helped make known, the Tour acted as a teacher in showing a map printed with the contours of the country - which was rare at least until the Great War - and as avant-gardiste in very quickly popularising the notion of France as more or less hexagonal, a France amputated from 1903 not only of its "lost provinces" [19]but also of possessions overseas and of Corsica, (which the race has) never visited in a century nor figured on maps of the race. "

i don’t recall it visited in recent years

the giro di italia has visited Sardinia though

Finished 2nd at Vuelta 2006 blew a good lead, fell apart at tour de france 2007 was good at start he always seems to lose his form in the last week. Does anyone think he has a chance in 2008 or 2009?

Floyd Landis WON – not a Spaniard – one day’s worth of testosterone does not make you go that fast on a breakaway.

Even the majority decision in the arbitration found that the testing lab made errors and that the samples would not have been retested had the lab followed their standard protocol. All subsequent "positives" are the fruit of the poisoned tree – and were probably spiked by some jealous French lab tech.

I’ve heard that Lance Armstrong is making a come back with the Astana team next year. If he goes in for the tour de france I think he can win it again, as there are no really strong all rounders at the moment. What does anyone else think?

Personally I think the odds are against it. At almost 38 he is getting old to be the top rider in the tour. Riders his age can win one-day events, but the Tour is something quite different. Furthermore, it’s a team event and there has to be question whether he will have teammates willing and able to adequately support him. He has already stretched his career to more wins than anyone else, so another has to be considered a long shot. That said, if anyone can he can.

I hear Lance is coming out of retirement and will cycle in the Tour de France. Do you think ARod will cycle also?

Rumor has it they’ve cycled a lot together but the tour de france will not be part of his offseason workout.

Does anybody else think that this year’s Giro d’Italia was just a prologue to a huge future tour de france competition? Both Alberto Contador and Riccardo Ricco have similar riding styles, and both have asserted themselves as strong young riders.

As a side question, will Benatti and Cavendish and their battle in the Giro be a precursor to a sprinters rivalry as well?

Unfortunately Ricco tested positive for EPO and was thrown out of the Tour today (7/17/08)

In my opinion there was no way he was going to rival Contador anyway. Condator has become an excellent time trialist to go along with his superior climbing skills. Ricco only had the climbing… and now I guess we know why.

What a shame…

To answer your other question, Cav and Benatti are definitely the real deal. Sort of like the old Zabel, McEwen, O’Grady rivalry. Though those three are still racing, more and more of the sprints seem to be going to the younger guys. I guess the changing of the guard as far as sprinters is concerned is starting to happen.

How fast do pro cyclists go in tour de france? What is the fastest speeds they reach?

Riders frequently go more than 60mph on downhill sections.

Flat sections see riders travelling more than 40mph in explosive bursts

The pro riders can avg more than 35mph on the flats for long periods.

If you have a road bike you should know that the pro’s easiest gear is harder than you hardest gear . That is a reason that those fellows can go so fast.

Does anyone know about working on the tour de france? Is is possible to get a job doing something on the Tour, even if its unpaid?

Contact ASO via letour.fr and find out.

i just started getting interested in cycling watching the tour de france, its a great sport to watch, the only problem is i am extremely confused. i thought it was an individual sport and they are on teams, how can you be on a team and how do they help each-other out. how do you win? whats with the diferent color jerseys? whats with the peloton and chase 1 2 etc i really want to know wats going on it seems very complicated?

the tour is a multi stage race. I believe there’s about 20 or so stages that take place all throughout france and nearby euro countries. this year they started the race, a time trial, in the city of monaco. a time trail is a race against the clock. usually it’s an individual time trial (ITT or TT) where they start every rider every a few minutes before the next one. this year’s tour has a team time trial (TTT) where each team, all 9 or 10 riders go as one, every 7 minutes, I think.

each team has their own uniform design. but the tour has certain colored jerseys representing a different category: the overall time leader of the tour always wear a solid yellow jersey. when the term GC is used, it stands for General Classification, overall leader. there is a green jersey that represents the rider that have the most sprints points. during the course of a stage, there are certain sections where you can "win" sprint points by being the first to cross a sprint line. the rider that accumulates the most sprint points at the end of each stage gets to wear the solid green jersey for the beggining of the following stage(s). there is a red polka dots jersey that represents the "king of the mountain", the rider that accumulates the most points during climbing sections of each stage.

there is a lot to explain in the team concept. yes, it is an individual sport, but without a good team, no one rider can win by themselves.

you will have to watch the tour and try to listen to the commentators. just watch and listen to the commentators of the tours throughout the years and you’ll begin to pick up on things..it’s way too complicated to explain any further….