A different way to watch
July 9, 2009
At past Tours de France, I’ve been able to watch while enjoying a beverage at a cafe in Paris or while eating picnic food at the side of the road in the Alps.
This year I’m back in the states watching on Versus and I’ve got the laptop with me as I evaluate the ride.
How are you watching this year?
OK…let’s get back to the stage…
SPOILERS AHEAD (or below)
No excitement until about 70KM into the race. The roads became wet at that line and the rain has continued toward the finish.
One crash occurred at that rain line.
96KM from the finish – three leaders are ahead by about 2:30.
On today’s stage, the riders head deeper into Spain and this could help Alberto Contador…a Spaniard riding in front of his home country.
Only three riders have dropped out so far. Which AMAZES me. In prior tours I’ve seen the numbers drop by a dozen at this point.
Maybe having one fewer team has helped keep the crashes down. Some years the Tour starts 189 riders, but for the past couple it’s been a count of 180.
Oh – the Versus Cadillac word of the day is RPM.
While watching I can’t help but notice that Phil Liggett and others are totally pimping stage 7. They’re saying it’s the longest mountain stage of the race, that it will shake out the Tour completely.
I wonder if a local BBQ joint is doing their usual ‘come watch the Tour at Redbones’ event. I may have to give them a call.
Breakaway right now is only 2 Min with 85KM to go. There are now four riders in the front and one is David Millar who would take over the Yellow Jersey if the race ended now. He’s only a minute behind the leader.
Still watching. At 64KM to go, four riders ahead by 1:45.
58KM to go and it’s dropping fast. Gap is now down to 1:15.
Gap is now down to 1:09, but there’s a climb ahead and the commentators are saying the big teams might not want to chase for fear of burning out before tomorrow’s stage 7 in the BIG MOUNTAINS.
32KM to go, lead is down to 0:53. But the rains are heavier now and that could break apart the entire field. And the climb is right ahead of the lead group of four.
CRASH! At a roundabout. Four or five riders down. Could be Tony Martin. Michael Rodgers looks to have broken his arm and is out of the Tour. Wet roads!
Will get more info shortly. By the way, David Millar has jumped off the front of the breakaway and is 28.1KM from the finish. Gap is only 0:41.
In just a few seconds, the gap is aready up to 0:55.
Crazy!
At 25KM, the time gap is a full minute.
15.8KM David Millar is ahead by 1:08 and is the leader of the Tour de France on the road.
Will do another post about the finish and my thoughts shortly.
How are you watching or tracking the Tour?
Do you have this site – http://www.itourdefrance.com// – bookmarked on your iPhone to follow the Tour de France? You should!
