Some random recollections from the second week of the Tour de France:

• Disappointing that so many prominent Australians went out on the first Alpine stage: Michael Rogers and Stewart O'Grady both crashed seriously and sprinter Robbie McEwan finished too far behind the stage winner and was disqualified.
• Watching the Astana team of Alexander Vinikourov trying to blow the main group apart on the flat stage 12, taking advantage of a reasonably stiff cross wind, was great. All the team tactics and somewhat expected conclusions where the mountain stages are ridden one way and the flat stages mostly as a group with a bunch spring can lead to boring television. So seeing a group of extremely fit cyclists trying to ride each other into the ground on good, flat roads was great.
• The individual time trial in stage 13 wasn't as boring to watch as it could have been. Particularly memorable moment, though, was watching Vinikourov go down the main hill in the middle at an astonishingly slow speed. It was raining lightly and the road was slippery, so he was taking extra care not to fall off (something other riders did not always achieve). Despite this cautious approach, he won the stage by a huge amount. His confidence in his ability to ride fast on the safe portions and thus being able to slow down on the really dangerous bit was impressive.
• Michael Rasmussen is still a very good climber. Good to watch. The television commentators are trying to play up the fact that Australian Cadel Evans is in third place and can ride a better time trial on the second last day. But if he's minutes and minutes behind super-Rasmussen as a result of the latter being able to climb every mountain at a great rate, it's not going to help much.
• I was on a plane from Sydney to the US for stage 15, but it looks like Vinikourov is still trying to catch up the time lost from crashes in the first week. He and his team and looking very good (see the comment about stage 12, above).

Topics: sport/cycling/Tour de France

[#]

Another three weeks of late night television watching. It's Tour de France time again!

I can't remember when I first started to regularly follow this race, the only real cycling event I follow with any real awareness. Certainly back in the early- and mid-80's, I was aware of Phil Anderson's name, the first non-European (and Australian) to wear the yellow jersey and who finished in the top 10 overall six times in a row. At that time, television coverage in Australia was exceedingly minimal. Half an hour a day showing highlights from the previous day's riding. It was often hard to completely avoid hearing the overnight results, so there wasn't even a lot of suspense.

Over the years, the local SBS television station has increased its coverage. The highlights show was shown at 6:30 p.m., instead of only at 11:30 or midnight. Then we were shown the final stage in its entirety. Of all the stages to show: there's essentially zero suspense in who's going to win by that point, most years. Now we're living in fan heaven. Every stage shown in full, live. The only thing they haven't managed to arrange is to move France a bit closer to Australia. So the coverage starts at 10:30 at night and the finish is 1:30 to 2 in the morning.

Not going to be able to watch every stage in full, I'm afraid. At least, not if I want to also participate in daylight society as well.

As has been pointed out in numerous writings, the event is somewhat scarred by the last couple of years' worth of doping revelations and exclusions. Blog-buddy Dave's writing gives the fan's point of view quite elegantly; I agree with his sentiments. The commentary during the event for the larger number of rookies and absence of many former names is almost surreal at times. Yes, I'm sure it is a sign of the strength of the younger riders and the growth of the sport. However, do you think it might also be because so many of the more experienced riders have either had their team or been individually excluded for using artificial stimulants? Those gaps have to be filled somehow. Apparently the television and "official" website commentators are dealing with the image problems by politely not talking about them.

Still lots to watch from an Australian perspective this year (if I'm only going to watch one event a year and know hardly anybody, it will be the Australians that I'll follow, since at least I've heard of them before they were stars). Can Robbie McEwen win the sprinter's title again? Can Cadel Evans or Michael Rogers compete for the overall prize? Can Phil Liggett come up with some new ways to say "I think they're going to catch him" and similar, or will I feel like throwing the remote at the television after the first week again?

Topics: sport/cycling/Tour de France

[#]