David Ayers Posted July 22, 2013 Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 Well, there was no TdF thread this year! To get the ball rolling a little after the fact, here is the attack on doping from Antoine Vayeur in Le Monde. Wish it didn't make sense... Le 100e Tour de France devait être celui d'une nouvelle ère, entendait-on avant son départ, comme celui de 1999 avait été annoncé comme le "Tour du renouveau", un an après l'affaire Festina. On sait ce qu'il est en advenu : il a amorcé le début du septennat de Lance Armstrong. Chris Froome, qui vient deremporter son premier a dit qu'il en gagnerait bien encore six. La légalisation des dopages "doux", comme les corticoïdes et la caféine (tu fus, Juan, faut-il le rappeler, le représentant de la Colombie à l'Organisation internationale du café), n'a pas endigué la violence des performances. Alors que Lance, en 1999, était resté sciemment dans le "vert", sous le seuil de la suspicion de 410 watts-étalons (406) de moyenne pour les quatre "radars" que nous avions posés alors (Sestrières, Alpe d'Huez, Piau Engaly et Soulor), avec un peloton ébranlé par l'affaire Festina, deux coureurs l'ont dépassé en 2013 : Christopher Froome (413), cher Pat, et Nairo Quintana (411), cher Juan, dans un peloton énervé par l'affaire "Armstrong" rest here: http://www.lemonde.fr/sport/article/2013/07/21/tour-de-france-juan-pat-aidez-nous-a-comprendre-l-exceptionnel_3450751_3242.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownie Posted July 23, 2013 Report Share Posted July 23, 2013 Must say I enjoyed watching the Tour once more! My main interests are the superb sceneries (Corsica was glorious, the stages through the Pyrénées and the Alps were breathtaking). The race itself was not bad at all. Chris Froome who really should have won in 2012 dominated the Tour this time and was confronted with minor opposition. Read the Le Monde article earlier. Interesting, not well written, it left me perplexed even if I tend to give Froome benefice of the doubt. He is not a rider à la Armstrong. Not a Godfather-type cheater. He is well respected (not feared) by the other Tour participants in the pack. He already said he intends to be back next year. He will be welcome, so will be worthy opponents! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Posted July 23, 2013 Report Share Posted July 23, 2013 I found it to be rather enjoyable this year and loved the splash Nairo Quintana made. The day he won the 20th Stage was also Independence Day so it was a double celebration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Ayers Posted July 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 23, 2013 Vayeur is ex-Festina, so has an axe to grind. I don't know where he gets his watt-age figures from. But I would quite like to know the answer to what he says. Great spectacle though and occasionally some drama... a little kid runs out and - phew! The yellow jersey just misses him.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted July 23, 2013 Report Share Posted July 23, 2013 I don't follow cycling, so I didn't have a horse (or rider) in that race, but I don't give anyone in any sport the benefit of the doubt anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed S Posted July 23, 2013 Report Share Posted July 23, 2013 I enjoyed the Tour this year as well. Like Brownie - I love the scenery. I too loved Corsica - and the bus issue at the finish line of the 2nd stage (I think) provided some drama. I'm fine with Froome winning and I believe he is clean. There were some great revelations (for me) on this Tour - Bakelants, Mollema, Kwiatkowski to be specific. Richie Porte was impressive. Not yet a fan of Quintana. As an American I was really pulling for van Garderen on the Alpe d'Huez stage, but I was really impressed by Riblon's tenacity and spirit. That was a great win. I thought the rides of Quntana and Rodriguez on the penultimate stage were marvelous and great examples of how competitive the tour is even after the yellow is decided. I'm no fan of Contador so I had no issue with his being displaced from his podium spot. Chavanel and Voigt were just workhorses at various points and provided great viewing as they worked so hard in the tour. Along those lines, I was a little disappointed in Voeckler's performance as he is usually one of those combative guys. Watching the US broadcast, I almost thought that Voigt's first name was "41 year old" - but I guess that's a story angle that they felt compelled to work. I love rooting for the underdog teams like Euskatel Euskadi, Sojasun, FDJ, even Europcar. At the same time - I'm not such a big fan of Astana and Katusha. As for the US riders, van Garderen was pretty much a disappointment - the Alpe d'Huez and the penultimate stage notwithstanding. I was impressed with Talansky. It was somewhat sad to see that Cadel has lost it. Marcel Kittel impressed greatly. I'm a fan of Cavendish and it's sort of ironic to say that with only 2 stage wins his tour was a bit of a disappointment. I was glad to see Schleck perform as well as he did. I'm a fan of his and hope he can take the next step and return to form. I like Sagan, but I thought that with only one stage win, his green jersey did not mean as much to me had he won as many as , say Marcel Kittel All in all - I thought it was a nice tour to watch. For the scenery, the race itself - and the races within the race. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Posted July 24, 2013 Report Share Posted July 24, 2013 I was a little surprised that Sagan won only one stage. Thought there would be a lot more. He was basically out of the money in Paris. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soulstation1 Posted July 24, 2013 Report Share Posted July 24, 2013 Won't know the true winner for 5-10 years... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T.D. Posted July 24, 2013 Report Share Posted July 24, 2013 Or more... A big list of dopers from the infamous 1998 TDF was just published: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/french-senate-releases-positive-epo-cases-from-1998-tour-de-france Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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