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La Tour
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Kinda bought me by surprise, really enjoying it. Last two days have really delivered.

sometimes
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Re: La Tour [mustangchef] [ In reply to ]
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I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you are bringing up La Tour here because Trump is in Paris.

If not, and you really want to talk about cycling, you must be new around here...
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Re: La Tour [Sanuk] [ In reply to ]
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It's better than talking about Nascar
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Re: La Tour [Bumble Bee] [ In reply to ]
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It's better than talking about Nascar

I agree but, does anyone actually talk about Nascar?

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Re: La Tour [mustangchef] [ In reply to ]
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mustangchef wrote:
Kinda bought me by surprise, really enjoying it. Last two days have really delivered.

Yes, it's been good despite NBC's awful coverage. Liggett and Sherwin need to be put out to pasture. I don't know how the Eurosport guys can talk for hours, while frick and frack have relatively little air time to cover yet repeat themselves continuously often enough with nonsense.
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Re: La Tour [Sanuk] [ In reply to ]
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Sanuk wrote:
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you are bringing up La Tour here because Trump is in Paris.

If not, and you really want to talk about cycling, you must be new around here...

The chateaus around Perigeux were freaking amazing. (is that better?)

I never heard of Aru before this tour. I am quickly becoming a fan. Nice to see someone taking risks and trying to win instead of trying to not lose by too much.

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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Re: La Tour [mustangchef] [ In reply to ]
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Not to nitpick, but it is actually Le Tour. Latour is one of the rixers though.
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Re: La Tour [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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Aru is great, but had become a little anonymous. I follow cycling closely and he wasn't on my radar for more than a top 10 this year, but he's shown grit.

I'm still torn about the overall route this year. I don't see that final day TT having the same sort of suspense that the Giro's did, simply because the mountains in this tour haven't been as stacked, the mountaintop finishes aren't really selective overall, and the remaining mountain stages have those long downhill or straight run finishes, so all Froome has to do is stay within 30-45 seconds and he'll easily take back yellow in the TT from anyone else who's in the top 5. It's his. I know ASO wanted to design a course that would be more open this year with the limited TT miles, but to really make it challenging for Froome they could have done some long, semi-hard mountains in the first week and then a string of 3 mountain stages back to back in the second half, with one being long and punishing to soften the legs, the middle being a short stage like today with multiple brutal climbs stacked up, and then a third day with a summit on something like du Huez or Galibier. That would be enough to soften Sky, punch them hard, and then deliver a blow to those left standing.

The 2nd -- 5th battle is exciting this year, though!
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Re: La Tour [mustangchef] [ In reply to ]
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I stopped watching the day after Sagan was booted out and Cav was injured. The two guys I most liked to watch on the entire roster.

Greg

If you are a Canuck that engages in gratuitous bashing of the US, you are probably on my Iggy List. So, save your self a bunch of typing a response unless you also feel the need to gratuitously bash me. If so, have fun.
"Don't underestimate Joe's ability to f___ things up" - Barack Obama, 2020
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Re: La Tour [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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I never heard of Aru before this tour. I am quickly becoming a fan. Nice to see someone taking risks and trying to win instead of trying to not lose by too much.

I had lost interest in the Tour but watched this year and agree, it is very good. I had no idea who Aru was either but do like his style. I lost interest during the Lance domination, each stage became predictable. There were a few good mountain stages but that was it.

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Re: La Tour [Sanuk] [ In reply to ]
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Aru has been one of the big up and coming GC guys for a few years now, but has been a bit overshadowed by Quintana who I think is the same age. He won the Vuelta a few years ago and has finished on the podium at the Giro at least twice. This tour is certainly a big step up for him though.
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Re: La Tour [llewis] [ In reply to ]
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llewis wrote:
Not to nitpick, but it is actually Le Tour.
Beat me to it.

If you're a somewhat casual fan, you might have missed the "scandalous" rulings by the race commissaries. Kicking Sagan out while ignoring similar dangerous sprinting and a punch thrown by French sprinters. Yesterday a Kiwi and a Colombian rider were penalized 20 seconds each for an illegal water bottle hand up while a French rider received no penalty for the same offense. (Since overturned.)

Time for some Freedom Fries!

"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.
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Re: La Tour [gregtryin] [ In reply to ]
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gregtryin wrote:
I stopped watching the day after Sagan was booted out and Cav was injured. The two guys I most liked to watch on the entire roster.

Greg

Same here.
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Re: La Tour [MidwestRoadie] [ In reply to ]
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I'm liking this years route myself. So often there is this a big build up to the big summit finishes, but they end up being fairly boring the whole time. So far this year, the mountain stages have been exciting with aggressive racing throughout. Stage 9 was the best mountain stage we've seen in years, and today was great as well. Yesterday maybe not so much, but the finish was exciting.

I think ASO designed the route this year with an eye towards tactical racing. It is tough to create a course that is challenging to Froome since he has the strongest team, is as good a climber as anyone (maybe not this year), and the best TTer among the GC guys. I think the best the course designers can do is create a lot of situations where Sky could find themselves caught out by tactics.
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Re: La Tour [Alvin Tostig] [ In reply to ]
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Certainly terrible rulings both with Sagan and yesterday, but the people making those decisions are not French.
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Re: La Tour [Watown] [ In reply to ]
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Watown wrote:
Certainly terrible rulings both with Sagan and yesterday, but the people making those decisions are not French.

That's what I thought. They are UCI officials not from the ASO. I suppose some might be French but not all of them?
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Re: La Tour [Alvin Tostig] [ In reply to ]
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Alvin Tostig wrote:
If you're a somewhat casual fan, you might have missed the "scandalous" rulings by the race commissaries. Kicking Sagan out while ignoring similar dangerous sprinting and a punch thrown by French sprinters. Yesterday a Kiwi and a Colombian rider were penalized 20 seconds each for an illegal water bottle hand up while a French rider received no penalty for the same offense. (Since overturned.)

The water bottle decision was a really bad one - I'm glad they found a way to reverse it. I didn't see Uran's feed, but Bennett and Bardet both grabbed a bottle for a real quick squirt and then tossed it; there was no material impact on the race whatsoever.
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Re: La Tour [ThisIsIt] [ In reply to ]
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ThisIsIt wrote:
Watown wrote:
Certainly terrible rulings both with Sagan and yesterday, but the people making those decisions are not French.


That's what I thought. They are UCI officials not from the ASO. I suppose some might be French but not all of them?

I'm not sure, but the head of the race jury, Phillip Mariens is definitely not French.
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Re: La Tour [llewis] [ In reply to ]
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llewis wrote:
Not to nitpick, but it is actually Le Tour. Latour is one of the rixers though.

And one hell of a fine wine!

"The right to party is a battle we have fought, but we'll surrender and go Amish... NOT!" -Wayne Campbell
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Re: La Tour [Watown] [ In reply to ]
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Watown wrote:
ThisIsIt wrote:
Watown wrote:
Certainly terrible rulings both with Sagan and yesterday, but the people making those decisions are not French.


That's what I thought. They are UCI officials not from the ASO. I suppose some might be French but not all of them?


I'm not sure, but the head of the race jury, Phillip Mariens is definitely not French.

Philippe Marien is Belgian.
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Re: La Tour [Watown] [ In reply to ]
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Watown wrote:
ThisIsIt wrote:
Watown wrote:
Certainly terrible rulings both with Sagan and yesterday, but the people making those decisions are not French.


That's what I thought. They are UCI officials not from the ASO. I suppose some might be French but not all of them?

I'm not sure, but the head of the race jury, Phillip Mariens is definitely not French.
Yeah but......,,,,

You need to follow the conspiracy theories. Mariens is from Belgium and part of the UCI. However, the ASO is the real power (i.e. cash cow) in cycling. If a French rider (Demare, Bouhanni, or Bardet) commits an offense in le Tour de FRANCE, it's ignored or given a slap on wrist by the commissaries. It's all the fault of the French I tell you!

No more French wine! We'll show 'em!

"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.
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Re: La Tour [Alvin Tostig] [ In reply to ]
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Alvin Tostig wrote:
Watown wrote:
ThisIsIt wrote:
Watown wrote:
Certainly terrible rulings both with Sagan and yesterday, but the people making those decisions are not French.


That's what I thought. They are UCI officials not from the ASO. I suppose some might be French but not all of them?


I'm not sure, but the head of the race jury, Phillip Mariens is definitely not French.

Yeah but......,,,,

You need to follow the conspiracy theories. Mariens is from Belgium and part of the UCI. However, the ASO is the real power (i.e. cash cow) in cycling. If a French rider (Demare, Bouhanni, or Bardet) commits an offense in le Tour de FRANCE, it's ignored or given a slap on wrist by the commissaries. It's all the fault of the French I tell you!

No more French wine! We'll show 'em!

Yeah, I don't know. I'm not sure how expelling the absolute biggest star in cycling is in the interest of ASO. I guess not penalizing Bardet yesterday could play in to that, but not Sagan.
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Re: La Tour [Watown] [ In reply to ]
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Watown wrote:
Alvin Tostig wrote:
Yeah but......,,,,

You need to follow the conspiracy theories. Mariens is from Belgium and part of the UCI. However, the ASO is the real power (i.e. cash cow) in cycling. If a French rider (Demare, Bouhanni, or Bardet) commits an offense in le Tour de FRANCE, it's ignored or given a slap on wrist by the commissaries. It's all the fault of the French I tell you!

No more French wine! We'll show 'em!

Yeah, I don't know. I'm not sure how expelling the absolute biggest star in cycling is in the interest of ASO. I guess not penalizing Bardet yesterday could play in to that, but not Sagan.
If I've got the conspiracy theory regarding Sagan correct, ASO didn't want Sagan winning another Green Jersey (don't ask me why). They've changed the scoring system the last couple of years, making the rules less favorable for a rider like Sagan, but he kept winning anyway. Plus, with Sagan out of the race, a French rider, Demare, was more likely to win the Green Jersey (until Demare missed a time cut).

It's a shame. Now Kittel's got the Green Jersey competition already sewn up. It would have been fun to have seen Sagan battle it out with Kittel.

"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.
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Re: La Tour [Watown] [ In reply to ]
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Certainly terrible rulings both with Sagan and yesterday, but the people making those decisions are not French.

But the race is in France, a lot of the sponsors are French companies and most of the fans lining the streets are French...

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Re: La Tour [llewis] [ In reply to ]
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llewis wrote:
Not to nitpick, but it is actually Le Tour. Latour is one of the rixers though.
the language is so sexist

sometimes
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Re: La Tour [ThisIsIt] [ In reply to ]
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Consider yourselves lucky, in Canada we have the Australian commentators who are way worse. They pump up any ozzie rider constantly before returning to the "Big Sky conspiracy" conversation which bores me to death. Any time anything interesting comes into view it's fairly obvious they are just reading from wikipedia. The wife and i started a drinking game where we took a shot every time they mentioned Michael Mathews...we had to give up before alcohol poisoning set in.

Bring back Phil and Paul...please.

..........................................................................

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Re: La Tour [mustangchef] [ In reply to ]
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is there anyplace to watch the past stages via an archive or something?
i've been traveling a ton the fist half of the month and have seen next to nothing. i wouldn't mind going back and watching a few stages.
thanks.

ΜΟΛΩΝ-ΛΑΒΕ
we're doomed
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Re: La Tour [Madduck] [ In reply to ]
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Madduck wrote:
is there anyplace to watch the past stages via an archive or something?
i've been traveling a ton the fist half of the month and have seen next to nothing. i wouldn't mind going back and watching a few stages.
thanks.

Try YouTube, the Classics and cyclocross races are put on there pretty much same day.
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Re: La Tour [ThisIsIt] [ In reply to ]
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On other forums, I've seen some complaints about the camera angles. NBC doesn't have control over that, so I'm not bothered with it. I can even handle Phil and Paul, as annoying as they are (and even Jens can be annoying in the commentator role).

What is infuriating me is the amount of commercials. NBC has always been awful for this during the TdF, but this year is without precedent in how awful it is. I've timed it out on some stages and found that there will be 4 minutes of actual coverage followed by 5-6 of commercials; 6 minutes of coverage followed by 6 of commercials, some of that "coverage" being cutting to the booth to watch the commentators rather than just hearing them over top of the coverage. I think next year is time for me to look for alternative options like a VPN with a Euro feed or a paid streaming service.
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Re: La Tour [MidwestRoadie] [ In reply to ]
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MidwestRoadie wrote:
On other forums, I've seen some complaints about the camera angles. NBC doesn't have control over that, so I'm not bothered with it. I can even handle Phil and Paul, as annoying as they are (and even Jens can be annoying in the commentator role).

What is infuriating me is the amount of commercials. NBC has always been awful for this during the TdF, but this year is without precedent in how awful it is. I've timed it out on some stages and found that there will be 4 minutes of actual coverage followed by 5-6 of commercials; 6 minutes of coverage followed by 6 of commercials, some of that "coverage" being cutting to the booth to watch the commentators rather than just hearing them over top of the coverage. I think next year is time for me to look for alternative options like a VPN with a Euro feed or a paid streaming service.

I DVR it so I can fast forward through the commercials. I swear sometimes they do a commercial break, come back for less than 30 seconds and go to another commercial.
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Re: La Tour [ThisIsIt] [ In reply to ]
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ThisIsIt wrote:
MidwestRoadie wrote:
On other forums, I've seen some complaints about the camera angles. NBC doesn't have control over that, so I'm not bothered with it. I can even handle Phil and Paul, as annoying as they are (and even Jens can be annoying in the commentator role).

What is infuriating me is the amount of commercials. NBC has always been awful for this during the TdF, but this year is without precedent in how awful it is. I've timed it out on some stages and found that there will be 4 minutes of actual coverage followed by 5-6 of commercials; 6 minutes of coverage followed by 6 of commercials, some of that "coverage" being cutting to the booth to watch the commentators rather than just hearing them over top of the coverage. I think next year is time for me to look for alternative options like a VPN with a Euro feed or a paid streaming service.


I DVR it so I can fast forward through the commercials. I swear sometimes they do a commercial break, come back for less than 30 seconds and go to another commercial.

Sounds like NFL coverage.

Touchdown. Commercial. Extra Point. Commercial. Kickoff. Commercial.

And I am not even exaggerating.

How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?
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Re: La Tour [BLeP] [ In reply to ]
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Kids bought me NBC sports Gold subscription for fathers day. Stream it on the Roku, COMMERCIAL FREE!!!!. It is fantastic. Robbie McEwen and another bloke do the commentating. Very enjoyable experience.

Guess your family doesn't love you ;)
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Re: La Tour [ThisIsIt] [ In reply to ]
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I do the same. Sometimes it feels like I can't put the remote down to take a drink because even if I do it when coverage first starts it's back to another commercial by the time my hand is off the remote. The last hour commercial-free is nice, though. I believe there's an app that streams commercial free and streams additional races, so I'm going to look into the cost of that for next year, especially if it includes the big spring classics.



quote ThisIsIt]I DVR it so I can fast forward through the commercials. I swear sometimes they do a commercial break, come back for less than 30 seconds and go to another commercial.[/quote]
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Re: La Tour [bikerdude] [ In reply to ]
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you missed all of the spring classics if they bought it for you that late...

Pactimo brand ambassador, ask me about promo codes
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Re: La Tour [MidwestRoadie] [ In reply to ]
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MidwestRoadie wrote:
What is infuriating me is the amount of commercials. NBC has always been awful for this during the TdF, but this year is without precedent in how awful it is.
I hear you, but it doesn't bother me very much. They do cover the end of the stages "commercial free" and they seem to show most of the significant action that takes place during the first hours of the stage. I'm sure I'm like a lot of people in that I have it on as background noise during the slow bits. I'll look up if something happens in the race or when Paul is pointing out a cool chateau.

"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.
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Re: La Tour [Alvin Tostig] [ In reply to ]
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Alvin Tostig wrote:
It's a shame. Now Kittel's got the Green Jersey competition already sewn up. It would have been fun to have seen Sagan battle it out with Kittel.

Not so fast there......

Good stage today and boy, did the Alpes look gorgeous! I so need to get back there. Tomorrow should be fun. And it's nice to see TN guy Nate Brown in his first Tour.

clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com
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Re: La Tour [ironclm] [ In reply to ]
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ironclm wrote:
Alvin Tostig wrote:
It's a shame. Now Kittel's got the Green Jersey competition already sewn up. It would have been fun to have seen Sagan battle it out with Kittel.

Not so fast there.
Oops.

At least now Greipel might have a chance on Sunday.

"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.
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Re: La Tour [Alvin Tostig] [ In reply to ]
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anyone see the leaf legs one of the riders posted today ..nasty

sometimes
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Re: La Tour [ThisIsIt] [ In reply to ]
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ThisIsIt wrote:
Liggett and Sherwin need to be put out to pasture.

Yes! Let's bring back Al Trautwig and Kirsten Gum!
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Re: La Tour [mustangchef] [ In reply to ]
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mustangchef wrote:
anyone see the leaf legs one of the riders posted today ..nasty

Leaf legs?
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Re: La Tour [racin_rusty] [ In reply to ]
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racin_rusty wrote:
mustangchef wrote:
anyone see the leaf legs one of the riders posted today ..nasty


Leaf legs?

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Re: La Tour [eb] [ In reply to ]
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ha ha, thanks for that. I'm only guessing, but veins popping out on the riders legs, only asking for confirmation. Too lazy to google.
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Re: La Tour [racin_rusty] [ In reply to ]
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racin_rusty wrote:
ha ha, thanks for that. I'm only guessing, but veins popping out on the riders legs, only asking for confirmation. Too lazy to google.

http://www.bbc.com/...orld-europe-40653943
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Re: La Tour [Alvin Tostig] [ In reply to ]
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Alvin Tostig wrote:
MidwestRoadie wrote:
What is infuriating me is the amount of commercials. NBC has always been awful for this during the TdF, but this year is without precedent in how awful it is.
I hear you, but it doesn't bother me very much. They do cover the end of the stages "commercial free" and they seem to show most of the significant action that takes place during the first hours of the stage. I'm sure I'm like a lot of people in that I have it on as background noise during the slow bits. I'll look up if something happens in the race or when Paul is pointing out a cool chateau.

It seems like they tend to clump a bunch of commercial breaks together so they are able to do longer extended coverage later in the stage. They have to get X number of ads per hour, so you might get the 15 mins of ads, but then you might get longer stretches of coverage later.

Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)
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Re: La Tour [russ] [ In reply to ]
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russ wrote:
Consider yourselves lucky, in Canada we have the Australian commentators who are way worse. They pump up any ozzie rider constantly before returning to the "Big Sky conspiracy" conversation which bores me to death. Any time anything interesting comes into view it's fairly obvious they are just reading from wikipedia. The wife and i started a drinking game where we took a shot every time they mentioned Michael Mathews...we had to give up before alcohol poisoning set in.

Bring back Phil and Paul...please.


Not sure where you live, but that could get you quite drunk before 10 in the morning.
Last edited by: racin_rusty: Jul 20, 17 3:02
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Re: La Tour [MTBSully] [ In reply to ]
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Truth be told, they started the tradition last year so I was able to watch starting last year. It was so great I asked for it again this year. The spring classics, Tour down under, Tour de Suisse etc are all there makes for great viewing.
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