Tour de France 2014

the race for the podium has actually been really good!

peraud is a great story I think, I read about him when he turned PRO after switching from MTBs and his struggles with getting comfortable riding in a bunch, playing a team role, etc. you'd assume he wouldn't have too many grand tours left, though he's pretty lightly-raced for a 37-y.o. due to the late switch.

good to see nibali win. no great love for Astana or Vino, but European cycling isn't the same without Italian cycling. great to see Peraud & young Pinot up there as well.

reasonable/decent Tour. kinda amusing 'everything' was decided in that Paris-Roubaix stage. (Contador wouldn't have crashed if Nibali hadn't put 2 minutes 'behind him')

it was good to see so many helpers get their chance to shine because their team's top rider was gone/crap.

Yeah, definitely. Interesting to see Richie Porte crash and burn too - I wonder how much use he'd have been to Froome.

I missed nearly all of the final week because I'm on holiday (ironically in France), but I managed to catch Nibali's stage win in the Pyrenees the other day (I started watching maybe two minutes before he caught and zoomed straight past Nieve). I'm pleased for him (assuming he's clean, which I'd say is probably but not definitely the case). Also pleased for the French. And also pleased that Sky managed absolutely fuck all. And relieved that unrepentant cheat Valverde dropped off the podium.

i do hope it's not the red sox winning the world series, but i do enjoy seeing deserved (afaict) french success at tdf.

Kind of bummed about La Course, not the race itself which was everything a women's race can be, attack attack attack right from the gun. Not that we got to see it. Despite it being on at a convenient time for Oz, it started too early and ended up being a minor side show. Not having a combined podium at the end diminished the race. La course should have been scheduled to finish just before the Men hit the champs so we didn't have to watch the parade from Evry.

How the last shot of the coverage should have looked

http://i62.tinypic.com/33zfh3q.jpg

Really thou, Lacourse should have started back in Harrogate or Continued on from the Giro Rosa, see stage 9 here

http://prowomenscycling.com/2014/07/14/video-stage-9-giro-rosa-2014/

All the other highlights are on that blog

As for the tour, great race, Nibali is a well deserved winner. I think he could have taken it over Contador. as for Froome, he may have had it in him to get to the podium but I Sky would have imploded all the same so I'm not sure if he'd have made it beyond third. Anyway, you win the race you get to race. Nibali didn't put a foot wrong all race, he was very canny and took time whenever he could, I'm not sure Contador could have made back enough after the Roubaix stage, it would have been close though.

Super stoked for what Pinot does next, I hope being the great French hope isn't too much for him. Being heated by Peraud was probably a good thing in that regard.

Also, second hand lolworthy moment. Greg Lemond asking Vino is he would ever support a women's team, only thing that would have made it more priceless would have been Astana BePink rolling into shot behind him.

Need to catchup on Greg LeMond's Eurosport work, it has apparently been highly amusing, a bit too ADD for TV. (Probably how I would be)

what i saw of lemondtv was just terrible. i'm actually quite sympathetic to him, but, man.

re nibali- love the way the guy races, great winner. thought any shit he got about last year's vuelta and worlds was bullshit. but then, i totally loved the way vino raced, and now they are linked. *shrug emoticon*

oh man not gonna lie I checked out after early on cuz I thought it was gonna be boring w/o real contention for the yellow

are there good stages to watch in retrospect?

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/gallery/2014/jul/27/tour-de-france-2014-cycling-pictures#/?picture=443148015&index=0

i like this gallery

baden cooke rumor-mongering that froome started the race with the busted wrist from the dauphine crash! lordy.

gbx how many stages did u see before checking out - should check:

- s2 (mini northern classic)
- s5 (cobbles)
- s10 (belles filles finish)
- s14 (rafa majka winking @ camera)
- s15 (can the break stay away??)
- s18 (hautacam finish)

Is there a Way TdF 2015 thread? Can't find one...

Haven't seen one

i made one Tour De France 2015

Cool, thanks!