Tour de France - Prologue

If you have been reading this blog for awhile, you may recall an earlier series of posts around Le Tour. Last year I didn't watch, and this year I had planned to, then heard about Lance Armstrong returning, then got really busy and promptly practically forgot most of that until right as the Tour was starting. So I turn on my DVR today to watch the broadcast of the start of the race. Don't mock me (or go ahead, I don't care anymore) but even watching the beginning of the broadcast with the voice over laying out the scene got me super pumped. And finding out that Lance Armstrong is back again after a huge layoff (by finding out I mean seeing him actually there, ready to start, as just because he announced he would however many months ago wouldn't mean he would, any number of injuries or whatever could've changed that) adds some more intrigue. It was cool to also see a lot of familiar names (I only cycling event I watch is Le Tour and even then it's a recent thing although I did watch DVD's of many of the late 90's/earlier 2000's races). I didn't mean to watch the whole stage in one sitting, but I did, although I managed not to watch the next broadcast right afterwards. P.S. DVR's rock!

DVD Delight

You would never know it from this blog, but I'm a hockey fan. Today I found myself pommerdoodling (see http://interchangeableparts.wordpress.com/ for a definition of this word - or just go there because IPB fucking rocks) over an interview with Trevor Linden. A little background...I once really dug Trevor Linden. Not that I really stopped, but you know how these things go. But this interview was so awesome. First of all, he's very well-spoken. Second of all, he made jokes about Le Tour, doping, cycling, and spandex (apparently Trevor rode in the Alps and did some mountain bike race in Europe in the off-season). Awesome. I think I was going to list some more reasons, but whatever.

Moving away from hockey...and back to Tour related business....today when I got to work I found that the two DVD sets (1999 and 2000 Tours) that I'd ordered had arrived. I've only just started disc 1 of the first set, but felt compelled to write about the little I've seen so far. It begins with that dude (what is his name, that commentator - ah! Phil Liggett - no idea on the spelling, sorry dude - I think Paul Sherwen - same caveat - is also featured) talking about Lance Armstrong (spelled that right, woohoo!) being on top of the world and then it crumbling as he finds out he has cancer in an advanced stage, tumours as big as golf balls in his lungs, and is told by his docs that he has a 20-50% chance to live. Phil goes on to say that actually his doctors didn't think he would live. Then there's a short interview with Lance and then the intro to the prologue starts. It shows some scenery, crowds, etc. and the credits are coming up over top. What made me chortle is that they show a little girl in a stroller in this intro, and she is totally picking her nose. It could be that it's late, I'm tired, I haven't eaten enough...but that just cracked me up. Hello???? Editors???? Proof 'watchers'???

P.S. For those of you who saw the title and thought something along the lines of, "sweet! finally the porn stuff is starting" - ha ha, fooled you again, suckers! (Just kidding...you know...)

Vive Le Tour! Part 1

So I read some of Lance Armstrong's books and he made the Tour de France sound pretty exciting (even though his books don't even focus much on that). So last year (?) (& 2 years ago?) I watched some and was a bit disappointed that it didn't come across quite the same as Lance's descriptions. But there was something there that seemed to have potential so I had thought I'd have to tune in the next year and *really* follow it. So when I saw the ad for the upcoming Tour, I made a note and have been PVRing the broadcasts. There are moments I find rather dull, but I've also kind of fallen for it. Here's a few reasons why...


1. The beauty of the peloton. Especially the aerial shots. Rainbow of colours.


2. How difficult a sporting event it is. I think this year it's about 2,200 miles, including riding over MOUNTAINS.


3. The multinational aspects. For example, teams consists of riders from various countries rather than other sports where particular countries compete against one another. Today I learned that the prizes are in euros (due to the European Union) but the fines are in Swiss Francs (because the governing body is in Switzerland which apparently uses it's own currency still). I just find that funny/cool/interesting. (You know, this post was a lot funnier/cooler/more interesting in my head).


4. The speed involved. On bikes going 40+k/25+mph. Wow. It makes me think of when you watch world class marthoners. They are holding a pace that is the equivalent to my sprint pace, but over 26.2 miles! WTF!?! That's messed up.


Well that's the prologue complete. Look for more stages to follow... (that's some TdF humour)