2012 Tour de France

[slh1089]

Any watchers on VN?

[golfballs]

YouTube Link

[bamacheats]

Steroids and performance enhancing drugs should be mandatory in the Tour de France. It would make it interesting.

[Yankee_Vol]

I casually followed when Lance raced. Now I could care less

[slh1089]

Hatas gunna hate.

[Yankee_Vol]

I'd rather watch curling

[Thrasher865]

Originally Posted by Yankee_Vol

I casually followed when Lance raced. Now I could care less

So you're saying you used to care some amount, and now you care, just not as much as you used to?

I, on the other hand, couldn't care less about it

[milohimself]

I've never watched the TDF, but as I understand it this year will be watered down so guys can compete in the Olympics. There's only a week between the two, I can't imagine many, if any, guys will want to try and pull that off.

[Yankee_Vol]

Originally Posted by Thrasher865

So you're saying you used to care some amount, and now you care, just not as much as you used to?

I, on the other hand, couldn't care less about it

It's not that I ever cared, but I obviously like seeing America kick a**

[slh1089]

Originally Posted by milohimself

I've never watched the TDF, but as I understand it this year will be watered down so guys can compete in the Olympics. There's only a week between the two, I can't imagine many, if any, guys will want to try and pull that off.

Actually, all the top dogs are putting it out there so far.

[slh1089]

Crazy stuff coming out about Lance and othe US riders.

[golfballs]

Anyone know the history behind the tacks?

When I was watching coverage today, they said that sort of thing used to happen back in the 20s and it almost caused organizers to cancel the event for good

[golfballs]

Originally Posted by milohimself

I've never watched the TDF, but as I understand it this year will be watered down so guys can compete in the Olympics. There's only a week between the two, I can't imagine many, if any, guys will want to try and pull that off.

I think that's overstated. the longest cycling event in the Olympics is about the same length as a single TDF stage

[golfballs]

I'll admit, aside from the Ironman, I don't know of a more grueling sporting event. They say these guys burn ~10,000 calories everyday in a race of close to 1 month

[Vercingetorix]

Originally Posted by milohimself

I've never watched the TDF, but as I understand it this year will be watered down so guys can compete in the Olympics. There's only a week between the two, I can't imagine many, if any, guys will want to try and pull that off.

It isn't watered down at all. It's the same race. Get up in the morning, ride from Knoxville to Nashville. Do it every day for three weeks -- except half a dozen times you ride from Oak Ridge to the top of Clingman's Dome instead. The days when they're in the mountains is the about the best sports you'll watch all year.

This is a good time for American partisans to get into it because Tejay van Garderen, an American from Montana who's currently working as a domestique for Cadel Evans, is clearly one of the best young riders in the world, and he's going to be gunning for Tour wins himself in a year or two. Get on the bandwagon early.