Ditto. I really need to ride more. I would like to see my heart rate drop to 60 BPM.
i’ve never been much of an armstrong fan
i’m one of the weird ones who actually liked indurain and was really happy when he equalled the 5 victories
this year, armstrong has really impressed me by dropping his team a couple of times and fighting it out on his own
and winning
he should ride into history this year
if anyone is to deny him, i hope it’ll be ullrich
He will have to do something tomorow then. Otherwise it’ll take an accident or a miracle to take close to 6 minutes from Armstrong.
and nobody wants it to be an accident
least of all ulrich, i’m sure
Good suggestion. However, as in most American sports bars, cycling isn’t considered a sport so, unless there’s absolutely nothing else on, they won’t switch it over to the Tour. If it doesn’t involve a ball, a team and lots of beer sponsors, I don’t think most americans consider it a ‘real’ sport. Pisses me off. I remember the year that Greg Lemond made the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine as ‘Athlete of the Year.’ There was a huge uproar from ‘sports fans’ who thought this was rediculous. They thought it should have been some steroid pumping football player (US football, not soccer) or a basketball player. Most americans just don’t get cycling although this year with Lance going for a record 6th, there does seem to be more interest. I love listening to sports on BBC. They’ll report cycling, soccer, tennis (another favorite of mine) and even cricket (which I don’t understand). Yes America! There are other sports out there worth following! OK, I’ll stop my rampage now. I check for Tour updates daily on the internet. GO LANCE!!
In Europe lot’s of journalists make fun of the minor knowledge average Americana have of cycling (and/or it’s history) while they are visiting in great amounts France to see Lance. But go ahead, buy an american newspaper, and compare the sport pages with a Belgian, Italian or Dutch newspaper. Or in deed TV coverage: in Europe those who don’t like it have to try hard NOT to see it. Those sad European journalists for sure don’t realize…
same for me: no wobble at all! just straight ahead
(moreover he is a fellow Pyrenean)
when entering a wobbling pattern on my uni I just project
an image of Indurain into my brain!
bear
here’s a question for the more cycling-aware among u
(i consider myself but a keen, amateur enjoyer of the sport)
i know it’s an irritatingly vague, wishy-washy kind of stupidly speculative hypothetical question but i’m curious anyway
there is no doubt that people like armstrong, indurain, merckx (i just include him cause i can spell it 
- kidding, he’s a legend) are unbelievable cyclists and incredible athletes and i dont want to create the impression that i’m doubting that by asking my question
would they have been able to dominate the Tour in the way they
have without the back-up of the powerfull teams they’d gathered around themselves?
to phrase it another way, armstrong’s 6 tour victories, what percentage armstrong, what percentage team?
Just watched lance win the stage today… Landers Deserves as much credit as lance… it was a great stage.
Well I do NOT think Armstrong would NOT win without his team right now. In time-trail and out in the mountains it’s you on your own. So on the flat land it’s really usefull.
But hey, when Ulrich won, his team was not that superious either.
Same for last year when he became second.
Or what about this ridicoulous Belgium ADR team in 1990(?) when Greg LeMond won with the legendary 8 seconds on Laurant Fignon?
Indurains riding was boring, and Indurains interviews were boring.
But I liked the interviews. No big mouth blablabla. And that makes Miguel a very (if not the most) respectable rider
(but I like enfant terrible Laurent Fignon as well!).
Bicycle races like the Tour de France are done as teams because of the tremendous advantage for the riders to be organized as a team instead of 200 individual riders battling it out. The racing would certainly be different if everyone was riding as an individual competitor.
The big advantage for teamwork is drafting. At the speeds the professional riders ride at, drafting makes a big big difference. Drafting allows all members of the team to have an easier effort for the race. Drafting is especially beneficial for the head member of the team because they will rarely have to take the lead position directly in the wind, they’ll almost always be in the draft of another team member. The stages are 100 to 150 miles each day. Riding that distance each day at race speed without drafting would destroy the riders.
Teamwork allows a rider who has a mechanical during a stage to get back into the peloton. If a supporting rider in the US Postal Team had a mechanical then several other team members (but not Lance) would go back to draft and help them get back into the peloton. If Lance had a mechanical then the entire team would drop back and help Lance get back to the peloton.
Teamwork allows Lance to get water and food during the stage. If Lance went back to personally get his own water from the team car then someone would certainly make an attack while Lance was making his way to the back of the peloton. That’s why one rider from the team is delegated the responsibility to go back and get water for the entire team. It’s a lot of work for that guy to go back to the team car, load up on water bottles, and then make his way back to the front of the peloton where the rest of the team is.
Team members help Lance keep pace while going up the climbs. Lance will usually be behind a teammate. Yes, professional racers like Lance go fast enough up a climb to get an advantage from drafting.
Teams with a sprinter will form a train in the last couple of kilometers of a stage in an attempt to pace their sprinter up to speed and allow their sprinter to draft until the very last moment when they’ll break out and make a mad dash for the finish line. The sprinters get up to 40 mph or even 45 mph during a sprint. That is damn fast. The only way they can get up to that speed is by drafting behind other teammates.
There’s lots of other team tactics that go on during the race. It’s very much a team sport. When Lance was younger he may have been able to still win the Tour if he was on a weaker team, but it would have been very very hard work. It really helps to have a strong team. Jan Ulrich had a difficult tour one year when his team was not up to par. If he had a better team that year maybe he could have won. Lance still won because he is the strongest overall rider on his team and in the race. The team only gets you so far. The rest is up to the rider. Just look how Lance excels in the time trials. No team help there.
The Olympic racing will be different. No big organized teams there. The racing will be more individual. It will be interesting seeing the different racing that will happen in the Olympics compared to something like the Tour de France or the Giro.
there is honour still in this world
