Fencing.Net - Your Guide to Fencing & Fencing Equipment

esskreemr · 07-23-2005, 01:12 PM

Wooohooo! Go U.S.! The 20th stage of the Tour de France is finished. The 21st and final stage is mostly just ceremonial and shouldn't result in any standings changing hands. This year was a great year for American cyclists in the Tour with 3 in the top 10 and 5 in the top 20. This is an outstanding show in a sport where American champions are few and far between. Congratulations to Lance Armstrong who has, barring a devastating event, wrapped up his 7th consecutive Tour de France an historic event in both the number of wins AND the fact that they are sequential victories.

Standings after 20th stage:

Pos. No. Name Nat. Team Time Gap
1 001 ARMSTRONG, Lance USA DSC 82:34:05.000 00:00:00.000
2 021 BASSO, Ivan ITA CSC 82:38:45.000 00:04:40.000
3 011 ULLRICH, Jan GER TMO 82:40:26.000 00:06:21.000
4 031 MANCEBO, Francisco ESP IBA 82:44:04.000 00:09:59.000
5 164 LEIPHEIMER, Levi USA GST 82:45:30.000 00:11:25.000
6 019 VINOKOUROV, Alexandre KAZ TMO 82:45:32.000 00:11:27.000
7 057 RASMUSSEN, Mickael DEN RAB 82:45:38.000 00:11:33.000
8 044 EVANS, Cadel AUS DVL 82:46:00.000 00:11:55.000
9 066 LANDIS, Floyd USA PHO 82:46:49.000 00:12:44.000
10 068 PEREIRO SIO, Oscar ESP PHO 82:50:09.000 00:16:04.000
11 101 MOREAU, Christophe FRA C.A 82:50:31.000 00:16:26.000
12 007 POPOVYCH, Yaroslav UKR DSC 82:53:07.000 00:19:02.000
13 151 MAZZOLENI, Eddy ITA LAM 82:55:11.000 00:21:06.000
14 004 HINCAPIE, George USA DSC 82:57:45.000 00:23:40.000
15 199 ZUBELDIA, Haimar ESP EUS 82:57:48.000 00:23:43.000
16 096 JAKSCHE, Jorg GER LSW 82:58:12.000 00:24:07.000
17 023 JULICH, Bobby USA CSC 82:58:13.000 00:24:08.000
18 017 SEVILLA, Oscar ESP TMO 83:01:50.000 00:27:45.000
19 108 KASHECHKIN, Andrey KAZ C.A 83:02:09.000 00:28:04.000
20 012 GUERINI, Giuseppe ITA TMO 83:07:07.000 00:33:02.000

Purple Fencer · 07-23-2005, 02:34 PM

Wait....you mean there were OTHER riders in there? I kinda thought it was Lance and a bunch of amateur Frenchmen!!

At least, that's what it seemed like...

Way to go out on top, Lance!!

sabreur · 07-23-2005, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Purple Fencer

Wait....you mean there were OTHER riders in there? I kinda thought it was Lance and a bunch of amateur Frenchmen!!

At least, that's what it seemed like...

Way to go out on top, Lance!!

Sam,

Basso, who will end up second is Italian. Jan Ullrich, who will take third after a great timetrial today, is German. Mancebo is Spanish, Vinokourov is Ukrainian, Rasmussen, who was third until he completely blew up in the time trial, is Danish.

The Tour is very much an international show, and a very professional one. Lance Armstrong is a 100-year athlete--we will not see his like again in cycling for many years. But it doesn't mean that the other folks aren't very professional. Basso, in particular, worked very hard against Armstrong, and basically only lost time to him on the time trials--not in the mountain stages, where Armstrong often demolishes his opponents.

However, I have to say that it looked a bit to me like everyone was resigned to Lance winning this year--they made all the correct moves, and he made all the correct counter-moves, but the really gutsy riding was done by the lower-ranked riders who led some pretty remarkable break-aways.

MR

esskreemr · 07-23-2005, 11:28 PM

Sabreur,

I think his post was a tongue-in-cheek reaction to the "Tour de Lance" mentality that is dominating the media coverage here. It's definitely a double-edged sword. Pre-Lance coverage consisted of waiting until the TdF finished and then reading a cycling magazine with the results. Then we got a 1/2 a week on ESPN. Then OLN came along and gave us the entire TdF! Then they upped it by showing some of the Classics and other tours! Too bad I don't have OLN, still...

The question is what happens once Lance retires, are we back to 1/2 a week? I hope not...

Oh yeah, the other side of the sword was apparently having to listen to the announcers gush over Lance and his g/f Cheryl Crow.

Shut up, turn down the volume, and stop your complaining!!!

sabreur · 07-24-2005, 12:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by esskreemr

Sabreur,

I think his post was a tongue-in-cheek reaction to the "Tour de Lance" mentality that is dominating the media coverage here. It's definitely a double-edged sword. Pre-Lance coverage consisted of waiting until the TdF finished and then reading a cycling magazine with the results. Then we got a 1/2 a week on ESPN. Then OLN came along and gave us the entire TdF! Then they upped it by showing some of the Classics and other tours! Too bad I don't have OLN, still...

The question is what happens once Lance retires, are we back to 1/2 a week? I hope not...

Oh yeah, the other side of the sword was apparently having to listen to the announcers gush over Lance and his g/f Cheryl Crow.

Shut up, turn down the volume, and stop your complaining!!!

Oh.... (slinks back into my cave, muttering about the need for an irony icon.)

mollusk · 07-24-2005, 05:57 PM

I was a road cyclist for a long time before I was a fencer. Way back in the day it was nearly impossible to get ANY news about the tour in the US, even when Boyer was riding. If it was a really slow news day and they needed some filler you might get some agate type about a stage or the latest standings in the GC. Pretty much like coverage of fencing in the US today.

Back in 1986, when Greg Lemond won for the first time, there was no same-day coverage at all in Gainesville, Florida. Back then there was about a 30 minute weekly recap of the "week in the tour" on ABC on Sunday afternoons and ABC was going to have the finish live. Our local ABC affiliate decided not to show that, but rather show some weekly local production about something or other. We found another ABC affiliate that was covering "Le Tour" and that station was carried by the cable company that services Cedar Key, an off the beaten path fishing village that is a really nice place to go for peace and quiet. We arranged with a very old hotel (The Island Hotel) for us to watch on their TV if first had breakfast (VERY NICE) at their hotel. MY wife and I went out their with some very dear cycling friends and had a wonderful time.

In 1990 I happened to be in France during "Le Tour" and got to see much of it on TV and the last day live. The TV coverage was very much like the OLN coverage, except in French. I still have some of the junk thrown by the tour cars and tried to get in position to get a tossed water bottle (no luck,

). Somewhere I have a few copies of Velonews from that year's tour.

In 1999 the Web coverage of the tour was getting pretty good and during critical stages I would have a window open on my computer and I was wearing out the "refresh" button.

Now I look at the tour beforehand and make sure that I have nothing scheduled during the critical moments so I can watch it live.

I certainly hope that the kind of coverage that OLN gives will continue even after Lance's retirement. There are enough strong American riders that they may be able to generate enough viewer interest.