I can't remember a more mind-numbingly boring Tour de France. Will it really get better in the Alps? If it doesn't then I think it will be the most disappointing Tour.
I can't remember a more mind-numbingly boring Tour de France. Will it really get better in the Alps? If it doesn't then I think it will be the most disappointing Tour.
It should get better Sunday. But that won't save it from being the most boring Tour ever. Something that is majority boring for the first two weeks cannot be saved by a great last six days.
I think the closest the Tour got to excitement was when the peloton split in Stage 3. Even the climb to Arcalis wasn't that exciting--Contador's move was ALMOST exciting, but Evans / Sastre / Schleck's decision not to give an honest chase was disappointing.
The climbs have been way too far away from the finish for them to really matter. Still, the Alps should be exciting; I can't see the entire peloton riding together on every ascent there. Hopefully one of the contenders will crack, and someone who has been a little back (Schleck, Evans) will move up top.
I'm starting to feel like if you've seen five Tours de France, you've seen 'em all. At least ones with Lance in them. Lance and/or his team take a big lead in a time trial, then just sit and do nothing about breakaways unless some contender goes, and then they immediately pull that back after 30 seconds, so we're all back in one pack. Booooorinng! The one that Floyd Landis "won" had more variety, like Oscar Pereirro (sp?) being 30 minutes down and then making up 29:50 of it on a long breakaway (and winning the Tour once Landis was found to be drugged) and last year when everyone thought it might be a Schleck victory, suddenly Sastre busts it open on the last big climb. Those were great. But whenever Lance is involved it is just dreadful. I suppose there must be at least one exciting day in it to decide between Lance and Contador... but when? Probably not for a while.
Andorra was nice to see
I try to get in to it, but it's just too much strategy, not enough sport, not enough athleticism.
I also hate how everyone assumes that the standings cannot possibly change on a flat stage, which begs the question: WHATS THE FREAKING POINT OF THE FLAT STAGES?
Seems to me it'd be a lot more exciting if the riders couldn't wear earpieces. That way they'd have to keep a real eye on what was happening, who was breaking away, etc., rather than having the team manager relaying all the information they need.
Then again, I think soccer and hockey would be a lot more exciting without the off sides call.
The tour is a number of races within a race. Whilst a flat stage might not affect the GC it is a race in itself that someone will win and also affects the Green Jersey competition.Also there is always the chance of a suprise on a flat stage such as when the peleton split last week and LA made time on the other contendors.The reason this race has not been as exciting as it could this year is down to the parcours: minimal hard mountain stages with uphill finishes and the return of the pointless TTT.
David Brent wrote:
I try to get in to it, but it's just too much strategy, not enough sport, not enough athleticism.
I also hate how everyone assumes that the standings cannot possibly change on a flat stage, which begs the question: WHATS THE FREAKING POINT OF THE FLAT STAGES?
They banned team radios in today's stage as an experiment. The teams and riders weren't happy and deliberately made the stage as boring as possible. I agree that banning radios would be a good idea but the teams aren't going to allow it to happen.
Good idea wrote:
Seems to me it'd be a lot more exciting if the riders couldn't wear earpieces. That way they'd have to keep a real eye on what was happening, who was breaking away, etc., rather than having the team manager relaying all the information they need.
Then again, I think soccer and hockey would be a lot more exciting without the off sides call.
No Way wrote:
I can't remember a more mind-numbingly boring Tour de France. Will it really get better in the Alps? If it doesn't then I think it will be the most disappointing Tour.
Bike riding can be watched outside my front door. Who cares.
Bry Ann Wayke wrote:
No Way wrote:I can't remember a more mind-numbingly boring Tour de France. Will it really get better in the Alps? If it doesn't then I think it will be the most disappointing Tour.
Bike riding can be watched outside my front door. Who cares.
So can jogging, but you would watch track on TV?
I think the TDF this year has some of the more intriguing storylines in quite some time, but you need to be invested in the sport and understand them to really appreciate it. As far as on-road action, I thought it started out well. The prologue was exciting, then we had 2 great performances by Cav/Columbia, including a breakaway lead by the whole team. Then the TTT which is always a treat. There have been a few snoozers of late, but Arcalis was an intriguing stage and the finish in Barcalona with Millar trying to hold off the field was great drama too.
If you really love bike racing, this has been a good tour. If you only follow GC and the big moves... yeah, you're probably disappointed. But there are big names that are minutes down, and will have to do something soon. Look for some big moves by the Schlecks, Evans and Sastre, and fairly soon.
it needs to be judged in it's entirety, let's wait until the Alps to judge this TDF. I agree with some of the posts above, there has been much intrigue and some good racing, it's just been lacking the attacks from the superstars. I think we'll so those starting this w/end! Sastre/Evans/Schlecks won't go down w/o a fight.
There will be fireworks soon enough. It sucked to have had 3 days in the mountains and nothing really happened though.
They need to do away with radios as people have mentioned. They definitely make the racing a little bit safer but overall it takes so much away from the sport in my opinion. I wonder if these two radio free stages are going to lead to more of them in the future?
Drugs made for some epic mountain stages. Guys can't attack repeatedly like they used to without the dope. This really is the first tour I've ever watched that it almost seems believable that the riders may actually be clean. Great to see but superman doesn't exist in this sport without dope.
Nope. Next year will be all radio, all the time. Today's stage is proof of that; they're riding, but no one is really pushing any too hard, so as to send a message.
The riders are always slacking off in protest about some pussy thing. At the Giro they thought the route was too scary and now they cant even race properly without radios ffs.
You f***ing idiots. Doing away with the radios will not make stages more exciting It will only make the peloton less likely to let breakaways get any significant gap at all. They still have the chalkboards and hand signals and spotters, etc.
Those Pyrenees stages were oddly designed. The Tourmalet was useless.
If the Astana guys will just start infighting like they want to, then we'll see some racing. It could be LeMond/Hinault esque.
They banned team radios in today's stage as an experiment. The teams and riders weren't happy and deliberately made the stage as boring as possible.
Jens Voigt quipped this: "What will they say next - two days without helmets, just to make it more interesting? Or two days without cables in our brakes?"
I kind of hoped he'd slip up and add, "... or race without drugs? ... Oh what a giveaway! Edit out that last bit."
cycling is about the most boringest thing that there is
Part of it is the Tour's fault: they did not use the Pyrenees well by having mountaintop finishes. There's next-to-no strategy involved when you have a long descent and a flat drag into town for the finish.
The second issue is Astana's strength. They can just pimp-slap anyone anytime they want to, so none of the other teams really can do anything to break the race open. I have never seen another team that was this good, not even the best USPS/Discovery teams or the best Telekom teams.