2009 Tour de France Thread

Big Chris · 6 Jul 2009 at 11:36

Why is it that on the Tour, teams are sponsored and named by non-Cycling companies instead of bike manufacturers, and very little mention is made of the bikes they actually ride?

In mountain biking you ride for a bike factory team usually.

oddjob62 · 6 Jul 2009 at 11:36

Nice and flat again today. See if Cav can do it again.

rypt · 6 Jul 2009 at 11:45

Go Lance

leaskovski · 6 Jul 2009 at 12:03

Teifiterror said:
More likely a ploy by the team to make the other teams guess as to who the team leader is, this way makes it a bit more difficult to mark the main man. CSC did something similar last year with the schleck brothers and Sastre, with a lot of gessing in the press during the tour who was the main man untill Sastre got up Alpe d'Huez.

Would like to see Cadel "Cuddles" Evans take it this year but I would say the safe money is on Contador, especially after that impressive TT.

And well done Cav!

lol, Cuddles Evans!! haha, where did he get that name from?? After last year when he almost broke his collar bone, he almost killed a press reporter for touching him! Nowt cuddly about that!

Nice and flat again today. See if Cav can do it again.

Yep, should be another good day for the man in green!

I cant help think that he is not so arrogant this year. He is coming across as a much more matured rider in his press interviews.

#Chri5# · 6 Jul 2009 at 12:36

Big Chris said:
Why is it that on the Tour, teams are sponsored and named by non-Cycling companies instead of bike manufacturers, and very little mention is made of the bikes they actually ride?

In mountain biking you ride for a bike factory team usually.

Much bigger global TV audiencefor road cycling I would guess.

Bubo · 6 Jul 2009 at 13:29

I've set myself the challenge of watching every second of this years tour, as live on my Sky HD box in the evening. This is one of the reasons I got HD, after watching the mountain stages last year on normal sky, at the time Eurosport had just started transmiting in HD and the commentators were raving about it, it looked awesome enough as it was in standard def. Not been disappointed so far.

6thElement · 6 Jul 2009 at 17:06

The Cav train keeps on rolling :cool:

z3b3dy · 6 Jul 2009 at 17:09

6thElement said:
The Cav train keeps on rolling

What a great last 45 minutes of the stage today, some very interesting team tactics going on.

Trusty · 6 Jul 2009 at 21:23

VonClinkerhofen said:
I'm fairly sure he's ridden in the tour before, *goes off to google*

edit =

Also my twopence for what it's worth. Lance Armstrong will be helping Alberto Contador as Astana Team Leader and I think he will win the tour, not Armstrong although this will still be a fair acheivement, with Cadel Evans going close. Lance top five finish if he gets to Paris, he is 37 after all

Hmm, not sure why i thought he hadnt been in it before. Odd! :confused:

Yeh, the last 45 were great today. Its a odd route this year isnt it? Hadnt seen it til this afternoon.

z3b3dy · 6 Jul 2009 at 21:51

I think it's a cool route this year. Ventoux as the penultimate stage is going to leave it wide open till then I think. Also the team time trial tomorrow is a welcome return.

oddjob62 · 6 Jul 2009 at 22:18

z3b3dy said:
Ventoux as the penultimate stage is going to leave it wide open till then I think.

Just booked my ticket to go to see that. Hopefully will get some good pics.

z3b3dy · 6 Jul 2009 at 22:45

oddjob62 said:
Just booked my ticket to go to see that. Hopefully will get some good pics.

Very jealous, I'm going to be closer to Ventoux than Moscow that day but only as far as Zurich unfortunately.

leaskovski · 6 Jul 2009 at 23:29

Ace stage today! Another good win for cav, but I fear they (the team) may have put a bit too much effort in which might have adverse effects tomorrow in the Team Time Trial. Astana are going to be all over it tomorrow. Cant wait for the fact that the press are going to go wild as a) Armstrong gets the yellow jersy, and b) There will be more comments about who the team leader is! lol

z3b3dy · 7 Jul 2009 at 06:37

I'd love to have been a fly on the wall at the Astana team meeting last night, boy must have been fun!

Jambo · 7 Jul 2009 at 16:35

leaskovski said:
Ace stage today! Another good win for cav, but I fear they (the team) may have put a bit too much effort in which might have adverse effects tomorrow in the Team Time Trial. Astana are going to be all over it tomorrow. Cant wait for the fact that the press are going to go wild as a) Armstrong gets the yellow jersy, and b) There will be more comments about who the team leader is! lol

Brilliant! Lance a bawhair from the yellow jersey.

oddjob62 · 7 Jul 2009 at 17:56

Even though i was only watching the newsflashes on the TdF website that was very exciting.

Another flattie tomorrow. Go Columbia!!

Chabsy · 7 Jul 2009 at 20:17

Will Armstrong really want to play second fiddle to Contador.

It still makes me smile the Bradley Wiggins when interviewed on Something For The Weekend was asked if he was a mod

danoli777 · 7 Jul 2009 at 20:50

Does anyone still believe that Armstrong is not a cheat?

leaskovski · 7 Jul 2009 at 22:26

danoli777 said:
Does anyone still believe that Armstrong is not a cheat?

Thats a whole other thread please.

Dont get them started!!!

Big Chris · 8 Jul 2009 at 08:12

#Chri5# said:
Much bigger global TV audiencefor road cycling I would guess.

It's just odd that most of the teams don't make a single reference to the bikes they ride on their team kit. Since it's a bike race above all else, I'd have thought the manufacturers would rarely get a better chance to advertise and would want people to know who's riding their bikes in this great race.

Cavendish has been over the line in 1st place twice already riding a Scott, but I only know that from checking his frame on the closeups.