That's pretty funny. My biggest complaint about the OLN commentary (and it's not a big complaint, mind you) is that it is so incredibly pro-postal. They might as well call it the Posties Channel. I get the feeling that Phil is trying to bring an alternative view, but that he is really as pro-Lance as the rest of them.

I agree w/ Pooks. Phil seems very pro-Lance (and definitely pro-Postal). In fact the only small complaint I have is that Phil and Paul seem so biased towards riders from English speaking countries(US, Britain, Australia - how much praise have they heaped on Michael Rogers?)

I don't begrudge them their preferences, I just think commentators should be a little more neutral when on air. I figure OLN has told them to focus a little more on the English-speaking riders as that is who their primary audience is.

It doesn't really bother me that much, though. It's hard to find something to complain about with Tour coverage so good.

On the other end of the spectrum, has anyone caught CBS' Sunday Coverage? Yuck.

I just arrived in Europe yesterday and watched the Tour on Eurosport. I couldn't believe how awful the commentary was compared to OLN. Liggett and Sherwen are awesome. I tried to watch the TV and listen to OLN on the web, but my connection isn't so great and the audio kept cutting out. So, I was forced to listen to long, long, long, long-winded stories about how some members of the Eurosport team experienced a car breakdown and didn't get to their hotel until 2 am.

Pooks

You're probably talking about David Duffield. The man is legendary for his meaningless monologues and random comments. He's so lousy he is something of an object of affection in his home country.

I hate to jump on bandwagons, but like most everyone else, I disagree. Phil has been unwavering in his support of Lance. At almost every turn, Phil has said things like, "He's still going to win this tour, but..." when everybody else could see it slipping away. And frankly, this has not been his best year. Lance has even said so himself. (Yesterday was a HUGE relief for me. He's BA-ack!)

He has said things like, "Oh, he's really digging deep now. He can see the Tour slipping through his fingers.." and such, but he says that of everyone.

Frankly, if it weren't for Phil, and the way he makes everything seem exciting, watching bicycle racing would be only slightly more interesting than watching baseball.

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You may be right. I didn't pick up on any of the names. I thought the two main guys were pretty bad though. There were a couple of folks on the team who seemed pretty good. These were the people who gave the special reports and side commentary. It was nice too, the American woman actually seemed to know something about cycling!!

Actually the guy commentating with Duffield is an unknown Irish cyclist called Sean Kelly and Christine, the lady in question, is married to another unknown cyclist called Phil Anderson..........

well of course it's the posties channel. although there are some great riders in the tour and jaun is making this one a nail biter what other team is there? once is not the tour juggernaut we all think it will be, millaer and his crew can't stop fighting with in there own ranks and biaunchi (god that spelling hurt) is not as well shaped as postal. they are the team so they will get the most coverage.

lamb said there was a talking head on eurosport ... "The man is legendary for his meaningless monologues and random comments." it sounds like my long lost brother.

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customerjon @gmail.com is where information happens.

Well there you have it. Like I said, I couldn't take the commentary so I didn't pay attention to a word. Or a name for that matter.

I disagree. Duffers is far more interesting than Liggett et al. Especially when he starts talking about a nice cheese he had in 1983, or tricycle racing!!! He also comes up with some really good quotes. Example (much abridged version follows) in one of the spring classics, he was talking about EPO, and how it thickens the blood, such that when you go to sleep at night the blood will thicken more, and basically turns to strawberry jam. in the middle of the night you have a heart attack, and in the morning, you wake up dead!

Seriously, I find the commentary only supplemental to actually watching the race. It can be a lot of fun to decipher Sean Kelly's mumbling.

J.

Be warned, Mister Duffield, has an army of fans waiting to strike down unbelievers...

http://www.addiscombe.org/...lection/Duffield.htm

By the way, did anyone get a transcript of yesterday's gem along the lines of "...well, here's the lovely Christine, and fortunately she's not wearing too many clothes so i can still see her body..."? Priceless.

I quite disagree with this...
the Postal team this year has been far less efficient than in past years...not sure what is happening with Heras but I am yet to see him pulling Lance towards the end of the day. Rubiera did a good job and they are probably happy to have hired Beltran when team coast went down.

Euskatel has been very very strong (ask Lance).
CSC with both Tyler and Sastre has been pulling some good stuff.
and btw that's why these two teams are leading the USPS...quite a good margin...

Thanks for the link. That site's damn funny. This part captured my day yesterday perfectly...

How many times have we shouted at the screen when David is hunting out obscure facts from the 1950s:

"Dave , the break! "
"Dave , look , Pantani has blown!"
"Dave, fer chrisakes tell us what is going on."

Only for David to tell us that "Aah , something is going on here...." which we guessed might have been the case already.

His "isms" were quite entertaining...

http://www.addiscombe.org/...ion/duffieldisms.htm

Oh well, I guess I like my commentators to be into the race. To each his own...

I assume you're joking "unknown Irish cyclist called Sean Kelly"!

Sean Kelly was one of the most aggressive and successful cyclists ever, with 22 classics wins amongst 152 career wins.

7 Paris-Nices in a row, 4 green jerseys in Tour and 4 in Vuelta, overall in Vuelta. The list is unbelievable.

There was life before Lance you know, and there are other races.

According to cyclingnews.com, Heras has been ill. I was hoping to see Heras dragging Lance up the mountains this year like he did last year, but that hasn't happened. Here is a report that was posted on cyclingnews.com yesterday:

US Postal's climbing ace Roberto Heras has been handicapped by bronchitis, suffering enough that he was dropped on the Col du Portillon Sunday and was unable to force the pace for yellow jersey Lance Armstrong as he did so brilliantly in 2002. Even at the beginning of Monday's stage 15, Heras was seen at the back of the peloton, taking up some domestique duties and fetching bottles from the team car.

As directeur sportif Johan Bruyneel noted, "from this point on we're down one climber."

who is in the lead? who has won the last 4? as lance wins so does the team. a team can be a very strong team and ride well but if none of there people are winning what is the point? usps is the best team in the tour because lance is the best rider in the tour. don't go all american baseball on me and put * on everything. 4 straight victories. one hell of a team.

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customerjon @gmail.com is where information happens.

yes Andrewmc was joking...being a pohm, he knows Sean Kelly :-))

sorry if you don't know the rules CJ...

Lance is in the lead, CSC leads the team and Euskatel is second.

both these teams had stages wins this year, and go tell ANY person who knows cycling well that this year USPS is the best team and that all the others are inexistant, you'll have a solid laugh (at you...)
btw, USPS has NEVER won the team classif.

I certainly said things that were far off during our "war talks" because you seem to have some insider knowledge, but as far as cycling is concern...go ahead, shoot... :-)

last thing...Lance has not won that one yet...

I may be hanging myself out to dry, but I think the USPS team is lacking since the TTT. They started out strong, but have not given the support LA needed at times. Ullrich was able to negate the team on several occasions by isolating Lance. Lance has riden alone far to often, and LUCKED into team support on a couple of occasions. Beltran has however saved the day / tour. He could have easily been supporting the big man on Bianchi.

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The Cuban Comet
(Comets are unbelievably slow over Cuba)

"that all the others are inexistant, you'll have a solid laugh (at you...)"

when did i say the other teams are 'inexistant'? i'm not smart enough to use the word 'inexistant' in a sentence.

i do know the rules? 've been following cycling since 1984. i was in a large group of cyclist who threw food at my dad's t.v. screen in 1989 when 5 seconds of lemonds final time trial was blacked out. i know cycling.

who is in yellow? who has a good chance in winning? who won the last four years?

yes usps is not leading the points. yes other teams are winning more stanges. who is winning though?

like i said as go the leader goes the team. lance is winning so should we ignore his whole team because csc is leading the team ranking? lance is on the brink of doing the incredible. the simple fact he is an american going for a 5th win is honestly unbelievable. usps is playing a large role in that. they desirve all the coverage they are getting.

feel free to 'explain' more to me at anytime. i have some questions about theta wave artifacts in rem when using sandman if you can help.

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customerjon @gmail.com is where information happens.

sorry if I paraphrased you...

"[...] what other teams are there" (your initial post)...
if you are asking, either your eyes just pick blue and nothing else, or you ignore they are here...

no USPS this year is not the best team. in other years, you would argue (rightfully so I believe) that the only reason they were not 1st, was because they were doing a lot of work for Lance.
This year is VERY different. The team is not as strong and I think that's the reason Lance had to play a lot of tactics in this tour, because the team was not able to protect his jersey.
Except Ruberia in the Alps and Beltran in the Pyrenees, USPS has been significantly weaker than in past years.
Lance is not 100% this year (and leading anyway) but the fact that USPS is not as strong this year is a key factor for Lance not leading by more minutes.

btw, I never said they had too much coverage...

now go ahead, explain me why the USPS are the best, Lance is the greatest of all times blah blah blah...

'now go ahead, explain me why the USPS are the best, Lance is the greatest of all times blah blah blah...'

now now now francois. you know from the talk of war way back when i love you dearly. you and andrew are still my favorites but dude i never claimed usps and lance are the greatest in history. i am a millar man myself.

earlier in this thread the coverage of usps was brought up. i was making the point, badly, that usps is getting a ton of coverage because thier man was not only wearing yellow but looking history square in the face. usps and lance are the same thing. if lance wins so does his team. i am not talking team classification! i am talking about the whole freakin' fajita. the glory, the braging rights, the sponorship deals go with the yellow jersey.

csc is super ultra incredible. it's gotta be the bikes. and if the tour was based on team rankning then usps would not be a story, but the tour is about yellow not points.


back to lance for a second. i 'raced' him as a teenager. i caught some of his ego and bitterness a few times. the 17 year old in me won't let it drop. i'm just a big baby.

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customerjon @gmail.com is where information happens.

You're all correct.

USPS is not as strong as in year's past, I think that's fair to say. But they are the team that offers the strongest support to its team leader. Yes, Ullrich has isolated Lance a few times, but not after being isolated himself three climbs earlier. Very often this Tour, Lance is the only team leader with domestiques left, the only other team that is as impressive is Euskatel (except they don't have domestiques, they just have three team leaders).

Bianchi's support is quite pathetic, despite buying Felix Garcia Casas. Once had only Jaksche to support Beloki, Vino has half a Guerini.

That said, a team with great domestiques never wins the team ranking. The domestiques go until they blow, then loose ten minutes on the last climb. That hurts the team ranking. For the team ranking you need three solid climbers, and less important but handy are a few good time trialers and some breakaway guy. That's why CSC is leading, Tyler, Carlos and Peter are top-20 in all the climbing stages, they have enough good time trialers and Piil was in a big breakaway.

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Gerard Vroomen
3T.bike
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