Le Tour

Mott the Hoople

Mott the Hoople

Sweet Jane
Interesting that the world biggest annual sporting event is happening at the same time as the world biggest quadrennial sporting event.

Can Armstrong break the Tour record to become the oldest winner?

I don't think so. I'd love to see it happen but it won't. Alberto Contador is the most complete cyclist I've seen since Greg LeMond and he's 11 years younger than Armstrong. I think Contador may eclipse Armstrong by becoming the first rider to win all 3 grand tours in the same year. He probably would have done it in 2008 had his team not been kicked out of the tour for doping the year before.
 
If only they could still do that drug injecting and blood swapping thing then Lance may still have had a chance.

Should be interesting tomorrow/today* though.

*time vortex shit and that, you know.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
Interesting that the world biggest annual sporting event is happening at the same time as the world biggest quadrennial sporting event.

Can Armstrong break the Tour record to become the oldest winner?

I don't think so. I'd love to see it happen but it won't. Alberto Contador is the most complete cyclist I've seen since Greg LeMond and he's 11 years younger than Armstrong. I think Contador may eclipse Armstrong by becoming the first rider to win all 3 grand tours in the same year. He probably would have done it in 2008 had his team not been kicked out of the tour for doping the year before.
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If Armstrong does pull this off; we can probably expect the French to riot and cause much disruption.
We'll probably have to send the Germans in, to get them all to surrender and stop their nonsense.
 
charver said:
If only they could still do that drug injecting and blood swapping thing then Lance may still have had a chance.

Should be interesting tomorrow/today* though.

*time vortex shit and that, you know.
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I hear ya. Armstrong's credibility on the doping issue is wearing thin. He's been involved with far to many people who have been busted for PED's. Then again, that's more a reflection on pro-cycling as a whole then on Armstrong. I try not to forget that even Merkx was busted for taking PED's.

Here in the US LeMond was getting beat up pretty bad by the press for having "sour grapes" about Armstrong's success. Looks like LeMond's been right all this time. Particularly after Landis finally admitted to doping.

It will be interesting to see how the WADA investigation will turn out. The same Federal investigator who busted BALCO is in charge of the investigation and Landis has made some very alarming accusation and considering what happened to Marion Jones he has all the incentive in the world to tell the truth. It will be interesting to see how this investigation works out.
 
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USFREEDOM911 said:
If Armstrong does pull this off; we can probably expect the French to riot and cause much disruption.
We'll probably have to send the Germans in, to get them all to surrender and stop their nonsense.
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Ya know that used to be a very real concern about the Tour. Eddy Merkx probably would have won 7 tours but one year he was "disinvited" by the tour because of French sentiment against his domination of the event and another year he lost when on a mountain ascent a French fan jumped out onto the road and rabbit punched him in the kidney. Amazingly Merkx went on to win that stage but had to withdraw cause he was bleeding from his kidney due to the punch.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
Ya know that used to be a very real concern about the Tour. Eddy Merkx probably would have won 7 tours but one year he was "disinvited" by the tour because of French sentiment against his domination of the event and another year he lost when on a mountain ascent a French fan jumped out onto the road and rabbit punched him in the kidney. Amazingly Merkx went on to win that stage but had to withdraw cause he was bleeding from his kidney due to the punch.
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Leave it to the French, to literally "stab" someone in the back.
 
USFREEDOM911 said:
Leave it to the French, to literally "stab" someone in the back.
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What I find interesting is the impact LeMond and Hinault had on the event. Kinda like what Bird and Magic had on the NBA. Prior to LeMond the Tour was a huge sporting event in Europe but didn't have a whole lot of publicity outside of Europe. LeMonds rivalry with Hinault was great drama and LeMonds winning the event popularised the event outside of Europe.

I think prior to LeMond the average pro racer made about $25,000 USD per year. LeMond became the first million dollar athelete in the Peloton and salaries for European racers went up considerably for some odd reason, LeMond was resented for this.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
What I find interesting is the impact LeMond and Hinault had on the event. Kinda like what Bird and Magic had on the NBA. Prior to LeMond the Tour was a huge sporting event in Europe but didn't have a whole lot of publicity outside of Europe. LeMonds rivalry with Hinault was great drama and LeMonds winning the event popularised the event outside of Europe.

I think prior to LeMond the average pro racer made about $25,000 USD per year. LeMond became the first million dollar athelete in the Peloton and salaries for European racers went up considerably for some odd reason, LeMond was resented for this.
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I don't follow bike races or who the participants are.
I just found it funny that an American won it 7 times, back to back.

The French just need to be brought down to earth, occasionally. :cof1:
 
USFREEDOM911 said:
I don't follow bike races or who the participants are.
I just found it funny that an American won it 7 times, back to back.

The French just need to be brought down to earth, occasionally. :cof1:
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Why is that funny? The French are very egalitarian about sport. No Frenchman has won the tour since Hinault in 85 and Hinault was certainly a better cyclist then Armstrong.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
Why is that funny? The French are very egalitarian about sport. No Frenchman has won the tour since Hinault in 85 and Hinault was certainly a better cyclist then Armstrong.
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About which sport? Certainly when it comes to football, I don't know if committing handballs and headbutting people counts as egalitarian...
 
You should probably google the word "egalitarian" and then come back and say something relevant.

BTW, Isn't it a rather passe redneck thing to dislike the French just because they are French? Have ever even known any French?
 
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Armstrong's shot at winning another tour is over for this year. He clipped a pedal going past a round-a-bout and did a cartwheel onto the pavement at about 20 mph right before a Cat 1 climb. He finished over 10 minutes behind the leaders after being involved in 3 crashes today. Man talk about bad luck.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
Why is that funny? The French are very egalitarian about sport. No Frenchman has won the tour since Hinault in 85 and Hinault was certainly a better cyclist then Armstrong.
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Which to me adds even more amusement.
It is my opinion and maybe the opinion of others, that the French try to appear oh-so sophisticated; but the minute something gets their panties in a knot, they get brought down to reallity, which needs to happen more often.
In my opinion.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
You should probably google the word "egalitarian" and then come back and say something relevant.

BTW, Isn't it a rather passe redneck thing to dislike the French just because they are French? Have ever even known any French?
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I couldn't really see why you used the word to begin with. You mean, they are open to outsiders coming in and playing in their sporting events, I guess...

All of the American colonists were taught to hate the French. It was a longstanding tradition long before we were a country. Were the puritans rednecks?
 
USFREEDOM911 said:
Which to me adds even more amusement.
It is my opinion and maybe the opinion of others, that the French try to appear oh-so sophisticated; but the minute something gets their panties in a knot, they get brought down to reallity, which needs to happen more often.
In my opinion.
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Ever been to New York City? I know people who go on vacation there because you can be a total asshole for a week and nobody notices or cares cause nearly everyone is an asshole there.

To paraphrase The Boss. "There are Saints and Assholes on every city block." The French are no different.
 
Threedee said:
I couldn't really see why you used the word to begin with. You mean, they are open to outsiders coming in and playing in their sporting events, I guess...

All of the American colonists were taught to hate the French. It was a longstanding tradition long before we were a country. Were the puritans rednecks?
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What? Were do you come up with this rediculous shit 3D? Did you study history under Dixie? Have you ever been to France or known a Frenchman/woman?

Anyways, yes. The French are very open minded about foriegners coming to their country and winning the worlds biggest annual sporting event. The fact that LeTour is the worlds biggest annual sporting event in the world speaks volumes about the French attitude about sport. They want to see the best atheletes in the world compete and may the best man win.

Sounds to me that you have sour grapes because no US professional sporting event has that level of international prestige. Well, the Indy 500 does and it's fading. The Superbowl is really only popular in North America so Maybe the NBA finals....and that's about it.
 
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It's hard to hate the French when we would have lost the Revolutionary war without them. Thanks for the statue too, France.
 
Damocles said:
It's hard to hate the French when we would have lost the Revolutionary war without them. Thanks for the statue too, France.
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Hey I've met some insufferable French assholes in my time but I've met many more assholes from New York City. I've also knowns some very nice French people and I have a number of colleagues I work with who are French or French Canadian and there very nice people.

I think it fucks with your average rednecks head that anyone in the world who doesn't speak English with a southern accent could possibly be as proud of their culture as they are of their trailor parks. That's their real basis for resenting the French.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
Hey I've met some insufferable French assholes in my time but I've met many more assholes from New York City. I've also knowns some very nice French people and I have a number of colleagues I work with who are French or French Canadian and there very nice people.

I think it fucks with your average rednecks head that anyone in the world who doesn't speak English with a southern accent could possibly be as proud of their culture as they are of their trailor parks. That's their real basis for resenting the French.
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Mostly the French get hacked when people ignore their contributions to our history. While it's become a habit for them to believe we're all ignorant of that history, and that is hardly fair, they are rarely wrong when they make the assumption.
 
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