Le Tour

[Kitch]

If people are going to start whinging about commentators all over again
then don't
its worse than commentators getting stuff wrong.

Now
pay attention.

as per the original post its on ITV2 as it was last year.

and just like last year its old C4 team of Imlach, Ligget, Sherwen and Boardman - excellent.

Now shut up about commentators and talk about the Tour

[the duncan]

it is going to be awesome, for those stuck at work the radio is really good, listened to it all on that last year, ITV2 is the channel to have, says only highlights on normal ITV on a monday night at 11.30pm !!! rubbish!

hope my flatmate buys sky soon!!

[pyrat]

yeah live eurosport commentary is amazin. stephen roche who has a poor grasp of english and the other guy who speaks for hours on end about the local towns as the tour passes them.

there is something so invigorating about watching the tour. no tour is the same there are so many twists and turns and as you yawn there is always a carnage crash to mix things up!

[pyrat]

last year there was live commentary on the webshite to listen to when ur at work. I hope the same is true nowadays.

[Guest]

I reckon there are six riders who will be pushing Armstrong all the way to Paris this year

Ullrich,Kloeden, Vinokourov - All Telecom (they've spent a fortune trying to get the right team together this year to beat Armstrong)

Floyd Landis and Ivan Basso

And my outside bet; Santiago Botero (beat Armstrong in the time trial at Dauphine Libre) and has learnt to climb again!

Hopefully I'll be there to see them in The Pyrenees 16th/17th July

[Ed]

got to back the hometown boy - Ullrich all the way.

I could never get the radio feed working well, probably always too many people connecting. hopefully they'll have it sorted better this year.

[Wattok]

Its a fight between Ullrich & Armstrong i reckon. Ullrich and T-Mobile seem to be the only other team that is strong enough to mount a serious bid to beat Armstrong.

The Discovery team are just work so well together and seemingly gets the team balance perfectly right to get Armstrong through.

According to reports there seems to be a bit of unrest amongst the T-Mobile team though see here

[krocks]

I really hope fellas like Vinokourov, Botero, Valverde, Basso, Mayo and Beloki go out with the attitude 'if i attack, i can win this' because its not the hardest tour route, and one good day could make all the difference. It could be tight, as there's only 3 monutain-top finishes,
no long time trial just before the mountains, and some interesting undulating stages like 8, 12 and 18, which perfectly suit surprise ambush tactics by somebody like Valverde. Armstrong is the man to beat, but T-Mobile are bloody strong with Ullrich, Vinokourov, Sevilla and Klöden - if they can manage to act like a team and attack when its smart.
Anyway, i plan to be in the pyrenees for the last big mountain stage up to Pla d'Adet.
Its being shown live over here in Ireland this year by TG4, the irish language station, so if you think eurosport commentary will be hard to follow ...

[Ant W]

I'm really looking forward to stage 11 over the Col du Galibier, could be a critical one.

We were in the Pyrenees last year for the La Mongie stage and the atmosphere was amazing - thousands of Basques in Euskaltel orange.

[rob f]

where can i find the route?

[fish]

Lots of could be's out there this year, might have helped Basso that he was stuffed for part of the Giro. Would loved to be surprised by a Mayo, Heras, Menchov, Botero doing really really well - would just like someone other than Lance to blow away an early mountain stage and then the pressure will be on. But guess that Ullrich and Basso will be shadowing Lance most of the time, and hoping to get him on a bad day -too few people seem able to really attack. Don't think Valverde will be strong enough for multiple really tough mountain stages - hope Mancebo from Iles Baleares goes well.
And watch out for someone from discovery getting away early - maybe popovych or savoldelli - but then that's just para-phrasing what Lance has already said!!
I just want some good stages - particularly if I'm going to be up through the night to watch them!

Hamilton, pah .. disappointed me hugely when it now appears that he is/was a cheat - thought he was a champion riding with a broken collar-bone.
And with no Brits, will be interesting to see how the Aussies go

[Ant W]

where can i find the route?

BBC site

TdF site - stage details

TdF site - stage profiles

[samsonite]

i have just seen that lancey boy is doing a daily podcast live from the tour every evening -

"lance in france, off the bike and on the mic"

despite the stomach churning tagline, it looks pretty interesting.

http://www.sirius.com/servlet/ContentSe ... lash=flash

if you dont know what the hell a podcast is, try googling it. its basically an mp3 of people talking or whatever, that you subscribe to in a program like itunes, and it automatically downloads new episodes as they are available. you can subscribe to get the podcast downloaded to u automatically every night with the new version of itunes (among others)

[Jaimie]

Armstrong, Armstrong, Armstrong, Armstrong!!!
Without a doubt Armstrong will win although this will be his toughest tour yet I reckon.


....and I am going to be there to watch it!!! -a whole 16 days of unadulterated LIVE tour action. Sorry to gloat...

[Jene]

oooh, hope armstrong wins... he's just been quoted saying this will b his last race..ever!