Karen- The Tour

[Matthew]

Karen
I don't have cable but just got back from watching the last hour of todays stage with my neighbor who does . What a superb effort by all the riders today as they head into the mountains. Since it is the only sport I ever watch these few weeks are a big kick for me. If I can’t watch I read the results on the internet. So different from year ago when the only news of the tour was what I could read in the cycle papers like Velo News, long after the fact . Eddy Merx was king of the hill at the time. My how the sport has changed

Lots of time for it to play out. How nice to find another Fan. Also nice to see the yellow back where it belongs. Only hope Lance and his team can hold on to it.

Matthew

[moremuscle]

Hi Matthew,

Yes, I hope Lance and his team are able to hold onto the shirt but like you said there is still a lot of days to go and I am expecting to see many changes taking place in the days to come. Lance rode very well yesterday - I loved to see the determination and concentration in his face when he pulled ahead by himself toward the end - by himself meaning w/o any of his team mates by his side. The title of his book: "Every second counts" was clearly not taken out of the blue air - we saw that effort displayed in his cycling yesterday. An incredible effort to be sprinting while going uphill for so many miles! He is tryly a leader. Also interesting to notice how he doesn't take anything for granted - he knows that any man can be a threat; not just the men he knows from prior years but even and perhaps especially the new young riders that are less experienced but think they can concur the world.

I haven't followed the Tour in any of the prior years - we just had cable TV installed a couple of weeks ago and I am loving it.

Are you watching the Tour live in the morning or do you watch it at night like I do?

Love,
Karen

[mle_ii]

Hey a Tour de France fanitic here. Watch it every year, every day. Though I do FFW through the non-exciting parts a bit. :) The wonders of Tivo. LOL

Yeah, Lance looked great. It's so funny to watch their faces and Lance's always seems to be a constant determined face while the others look like they are about to explode. :)

Barring injury or accident Lance has got it yet again this year. I don't see anyone competing that close this year. Unless they are holding back.

Mike

[MaggieRedwings]

Another avid fan here and I have the the privledge of meeting Lance once in 1990. Long before everyone knew what he was to become. A Legend in his time.

My hat is off to all he has accomplished and will accomplish. I think there is no question of who the winner will be.

Love, Maggie

[moremuscle]

Hi Armstrong fans,

I don't think everything is completely set in stone yet! I see plenty of potential in many of the other riders; I think we just have to remember that the mountain climbing is one of Lance's stronger diciplines. Also bear in mind how hungry the other riders are for victory - they are very powerful competitors. No one will winn the Tour sleeping.....

I am looking forward to tonight's show.

See you later!

Love,
Karen

[Matthew]

Karen

Indeed. They still have a long way to go and anything can happen, witness todays events. No one is just going to let Lance have it.

Happy viewing.

Matthew

[moremuscle]

Matt,

Another great event

The conditioning of those folks is beyond comprehension

I loved yesterday's event - stage 10 - because Lance went out of his comfort zone and showed us what a superior rider he is; he challenged everyone and some of the guys really stepped up to the plate.
Today he was back in it full force but more as a strategic rider with a powerful support team all the way to the end. I find the strategic riding gets to be a little boring as a viewer. He is still superior though. What mountains they went through today - up, up, up and away...............

Tomorrow is another day!

Love,
Karen

P.S. Did you guys notice the size of Venekourov's quads as he sprinted over the finish line? Talk about a hard body, wow - and where is Kazakstan BTW? Near Afghanistan, right - the mountains they rode through today reminded me of the mountains in Afghanistan as I have seen them on TV. Beautiful and fierce.

[Matthew]

Karen

The climbs they did today are beyond belief. It has amazed me for all the years I have followed the tour that it can even be done. Early on in the Tour history many felt what they did today could not be done and the first riders to do it walked a good part of it. Bikes at the time had one, maybe two gears and the road they were on today was dirt and gravel.

Venekourov's quads were very impressive in his last sprint but even more amazing is Mickael Rasmussen that wears the pokadot jersey, most points for crossing the summit first, that looks like the original stick man and rides with no expression on his very pallid face. He does not look like a contender but needs to be watched.

Verrrry interestink.

Matthew

It is as much fun to watch the little towns they go thru and the Majestic landscape as it is to watch the race.

[moremuscle]

Hi Matthew,

Mikael Rasmussen weighs only 58 Kg - very very skinny upper body and his legs are not much thicker. Just goes to show that having big muscles does not necessarily mean you have more power or talent in a given sport. Mikael Rasmussen is obviously powerful enough to push the weight of his own body and his bike over the mountain tops at a very competitive speed. In the last 3-4 days since he became King of the Mountains and acquired the polka dotted jersey he has become a little bit of a serious contender - overall #2 at this point, 38 seconds behind Lance. It impresses me and I am sure all of Denmark is watching in awe as he prepares to ride again today. The population of Denmark is no greater than that of South Carolina - approx 5 million people. It's a relatively small pond to fish in.

Here are some pictures and some stats about him (in Danish from the Danish Newspaper "Politiken"):

http://www.dr.dk/Sporten/Tour_de_France ... 162113.htm

As we know the smallest thing can turn things upside down in a long grueling event like the Tour and we are yet to see what is to come in the following days. It is so exciting.

Love,
Karen

[mle_ii]

Yeah, glad to see it's getting competitve. I always hated watching sports where one person won every time. I almost gave up on watching Formula 1 racing after the last few years of the same guy winning every race that he was able to finish in (no crashes).

Awesome race yesterday, finally saw it last night. Today doesn't look as bad as the previous 2 days.

Speaking of exercise I finally got my butt out of bed this morning to work out. But I would pick interval training for the first day back. LOL Hopefully I can keep it back up.

[moremuscle]

Hi Mike and Matt,

I am up in the middle of the night - it is very long ago I have slept poorly and waking up in the middle of the night is part of sleeping poorly to me; it makes me wonder if I ate anything with a trigger in it yesterday. My gut is calm and noiseless though so perhaps it is just a sign of general anxiety which is ever present.

The TOUR; I didn't enjoy yesterday's stage much. Was it because I had cheeted and watched the end of the race live in the morning?! I don't want to do that again - takes the fun out of watching it.

The peloton was too far behind and it didn't make for an exciting show that Lance and his team didn't try any harder to catch up with the group that had broken away. That's what I call strategic riding, not much fun.

Here is to a fun Tour stage today, Friday!

Love,
Karen

[mle_ii]

Well, Fridays stage was somewhat interesting. I always like the mountain stages rather than the flat ones. Seems like more folks get hurt in the flat ones with crashes. :( It's always funny to see folks in the lead, they don't work together and in the last section of the race get engulfed by the peleton. The ending was pretty incredible though I will admit.

I hope you're feeling better Karen. I hate those sleepless nights. I think it was corn that set me off the other night.