10 Things To Love About The 2008 Tour de France

After reading this great blog about the 2008 Tour de France, I've decided that I should write my own ten things to love about it. So here goes:

1. Daniel Friebe's blog. Not only was it the inspiration for this blog post, it was very entertaining to follow throughout the Tour. Without it I wouldn't have started calling Kim Kirchen "Grim Kim" and I probably wouldn't have been tuned into the Cadel Evans meltdowns. The blog wasn't all about humor either. It had interesting coverage of the doping drama of the race, and cool interviews from people within the sport.

2. Super Besse. OK, so Riccardo Ricco might have won here, and he might be a doper, but still. Super Besse introduced us to the drama of the Tour. It showed us that the race was going to be exciting. Oh, and Stefan Schumacher fell, going uphill, and lost the yellow jersey. I really hate that guy.

3. Saunier Duval. I don't know what the ASO was thinking when they said the Tour would be doping free. Secretly I'm glad it wasn't one of my favorite teams that took the hit. Saunier got nailed when Ricco tested positive after winning two stages. I read this and laughed. Of course he's a doper. No one with that sort of attitude, and bite up a mountain, could be clean. So props to Saunier Duval for lasting only half the Tour.

4. The crazy attacks. I love watching Thomas Voeckler race. I think he thinks it's funny to attack the peloton, all the time. Like when he crested one of the Pyrenees in the top few places, partly to steal some mountains points, and partly to wave some guys on to motivate them to go it alone. Of course everyone ignored him, and fell back into the slipstreams of their teammates. Sylvain Chavanel was another one who would go for anything. He even tried one on the Champs Elysees, although in his defense, he did win a stage on a break this year. Props.

5. The epic crashes. Ok, they might have hurt the riders, but they definitely made the race more exciting to watch. Check out these goodies from: John-Lee Augustyn, Oscar Pereiro and, Sven Krauss.

6. Christian Vande Velde. Team USA wasn't supposed to have a GC guy this year, at all. Our biggest hope was a top 30 from George Hincapie, but good ole' Christian really saved the day, and probably extended the Versus coverage contract another year. He may have faded a bit in the Alps, but to have an American racing so well really pumped up American viewership. One of my friends actually knew who he was. I was shocked.

7. Spain. Yellow jersey for three years now, first green jersey ever, several stage wins, and the biggest doping drama of the Tour. Team Spain really managed to ride in style this year, getting guys all over the press for a wide variety of reasons. Ultimately it was exciting to see Team Spain take another big sporting victory, after having won the Euro Cup in June. Olympics anyone?

8. The greatest meltdowns ever. Between Cadel Evans pretty much LOSING HIS MIND by the end of the Tour, and Carlos Barredo LOSING HIS SHIT at the end of Stage 18, the Tour de France had plenty of divas. My favorite was Cadel, probably because he has a really high pitched voice, and it looks seriously nuts when he is trying to swat guys away. I'm pretty sure he lost like half of his brain cells when he crashed in the Pyrenees, subsequently causing a deterioration in his mental stability. Or not.

9. Team CSC. Christian Vande Velde said that CSC was going to have war plan, and he was pretty much right on that one. I can just imagine Bjarne Riis sitting around his hotel room moving plastic cyclists over maps trying to determine the plan for each stage. With a helmet on. Of course. But seriously, Team CSC knew what they wanted from the start, and they did an incredible ride to get it. As Jens Voigt said in the Versus interviews: "A team has to be one leader, and eight guys willing to die for yellow." That is exactly what they had, and it was incredible.

10. L'Alpe d'Huez. Incredible. The 21 most famous switchbacks in the world were the stage for the etapa reina, the queen stage. It was epic, it was amazing, it was everything that a cycling fan wanted it to be. And what Carlos Sastre and Team CSC wanted it to be. The tactics were incredible, the rides were raw and real, and seriously, the stage blew my mind. I wanted to yell, but I was breathless due to the excitement. It will be a stage that will forever be immortalized by my grand collection of Tour de France tapes. And one I will watch over and over, to analyze the tactics of Bjarne Riis.



Now that the Tour is over I'm at a loss of things to do. I can naturally wake up at 6:30 in the morning, due to waking up to see the mountains everyday for the last week or two. I'll probably pull from the archives for the next few days, until I fall back into real life. I do have some things to look forward too... the Olympics start on the 8th of August, and I'll be in Paris during Paris-Tours and some other, more minor races. The battle plan of what I want to go to will be crafted soon, and when I know, you will be the first to know...

Maison de Provinces de France

So I got an e-mail with my dorm assignment for Paris. I won't know the exact room until I get there, which is a bit bizarre and kind of annoying, but I got the building assignment. Let me just say, I am so glad that I got the building I got. Not even kidding. I'm going to be living in the Maison de Provinces de France. Its supposed to be a French dorm, meaning mostly French students from the outlying provinces of the country (hence the name), but I think there will be a handful of Americans in it too. It should be pretty nice, I get a private bathroom, a fridge, and someone's supposed to come around weekly to change my sheets. If I were in the American house I don't think I would have had any of that. This is all making me super amped!

Check it out:

Maison de Provinces de France

Wally B

I swear, if another kid shits in the Middleton Pool I'm gonna lose it. I can not stand walking 20+ minutes to the pool only to have to turn around and go straight back. It's even worse when your boss is a moron and decides to try and wait it out, only to have to sit in the 90 degree heat for an hour, and then walk back to camp.

Can you tell I had a bad day today?

Four Down, Six To Go

We've got four weeks of camp done already. It seems like summer just started, and in a way it has because I'll be around until the 25th of September, which is still more than two long months away. Things have been slow going for me. Partly because of this unexplainable disease I have, which is probably mono, but no doctor has told me that it is anything. It might also be the plague of the kids, something one gets after being in a loud, kid-infested camp all day everyday. All I want to do on the weekends is sleep and be somewhere quiet. Of course my social life has taken a bit of a dive because I just can't get motivated to do anything when I'm home. Although the promise of Trivia Night at Quaker Steak and Lube could remedy this in the short-term. It's been unbelievably humid the past few weeks, and I can't take it anymore. So I lay around the basement of my house waiting for the next day I have to go to camp and get paid to sit around screaming kids who feel it is ok to dump a waterbottle full of water on their counselor. Just for the record I let them do it because it has been so freaking hot.

Anyways, we've got four down, six to go. And then I live the life of an unemployed, bored member of society for a month before heading to Europe. The excitement of that long month of September will only be amplified by the fact that all of my friends will return to school, and I will just have to sit and wait. And wait.

There have been no terribly eventful camp stories to tell as of late. I had more fun this week than any other so far because I was more relaxed and had mostly good kids. I even got up from sitting/lying on the benches to play a few times. I've already told myself I must relish next week when I will only have six campers, and the opportunity to go canoeing three days, and to the county fair another day.

Of course I have the Tour de France, part of the reason for my low motivation. It has not failed to impress so far this summer. Of course the first doping positive was announced today. A surprise to me, as I thought there would be one sooner in the race. I don't believe this "clean race" bullshit. The riders of the old generation, the Lance Armstrong Era, are in desperation mode. Either retire now, or use to stay with the younger guys, and face the wrath of the UCI/ASO when you get caught.

It used to be so much easier.

Fourth of July Fireworks, In My Body

Ok the title of the blog sounds kind of weird. But its sort of fitting. I guess?

The short story is that I spent a large portion of my Fourth in Urgent Care getting tested like you wouldn't believe for every disease under the sun. The good news is so far everything is negative.

The long story is this: I went for a bike ride yesterday morning with my stepdad. We were planning on going to Mt. Horeb, maybe 25 miles, and back. We were going to stop in Mt. Horeb for lunch and a short recoup before going home. Problem was, I totally bonked at Cross Plains, only 10 miles into the 50 mile day. I had absolutely no energy whatsoever, which was weird because I had just eaten a big breakfast and slept for 10 hours the night before. It was a recurring theme. This summer I've been a lot weaker than normal. So my mom came out and got me in CP and drove me to the Urgent Care. I then went through three blood tests, a urine test, a heart scan, and about six nurses and doctors up in my business. And so far everything is negative. Although I am waiting to hear back about mono, which would actually make a lot of sense.

But yeah, fireworks on the ride yesterday, when I pretty much broke down. Seriously I was delirious I was so tired. I'm ok now... just bedridden until Monday morning when I have to figure out if I want to go to camp or not... otherwise I've got a doctor's note to get out of two days!

So yeah, it was a great Fourth. I slept all afternoon and then hobbled around to watch fireworks in the evening before passing out again.

I did manage to wake up at 7:30 this morning for the Tour though. Anything for the Tour.

Maybe I have Tour fever?

Fantasy Tour Team

Addendum:

Here is the roster to my fantasy Tour team, forgot to add that earlier.

Alejandro Valverde
Denis Menchov
Mauricio Soler
Iouri Trofimov
Mark Cavendish
Fabian Cancellara
Gert Steegmans
Nicolas Portal
Haimar Zubeldia

It took me four days, but I think it turned out pretty good. I guess we'll just have to wait and see...

Tour De France 2008

I am so ready for the Tour de France to start. I mean seriously, the UEFA Euro Cup ended a week ago, I have absolutely no good TV right now (well that's a lie, but still), I need something to consume my life with.

Ahhh, perfect. The Tour starts tomorrow. 23 Days of total life consumption. Gotta love it.

I'm a big fan of cycling, and the Tour is the highlight of my summer, and has been since 2001. This will be my eighth Tour. And the first that I don't get to watch live. And by that I mean, I have to watch my TiVo'ed live coverage at 4:30 when I get home from camp. It's a travesty.

I really hope this Tour isn't like the last two. Meaning, if a rider gets thrown out for doping, you better believe that I'm not going to ever watch another Tour again. Ok, that's a lie too. But seriously, I'm so sick of the Tour being marred with doping drama, and getting a bad rap. Because the Tour is the most incredible single sporting event EVER. There is nothing that is more incredible than the Tour de France, in terms of a single sporting event. Yeah the Olympics or the World Cup are cool... but they are a little different than the Tour.

The Tour is 21 stages of competition. The only cuts are done by the elements, and the minds and bodies of the athletes. You've got to be the most stable, yet craziest person in the world to race the Tour. It consumes these athletes like you wouldn't believe. They have to have the exact perfect weight or they won't be able to finish. A cold and they are done. It takes the perfect specimen of the human race to win one of these things.

I love it.

I love waking up at 6 am on a Sunday morning to watch the race go through the mountains. I love the constant commentary of Phil Ligget and Paul Sherwen. I love watching the primetime coverage in the evenings when I've already seen the morning live coverage. I love correcting Bob Roll and Al Trautwig during the primetime coverage when they get the name of a rider or location wrong. I love yelling at the TV before anyone is awake. I love complaining about the riders I hate when they do well, and boasting when my favorites win. I love the dumb look on everyones face when I tell them that I like to watch the Tour de France, and then proceed to not shut up about it for at least an hour. I love that I am the only person I know that I can talk to about this sport at the level that I love and understand it. I love walking into bike shops and asking what race they are showing on their TV in the winter, and then when I proceed to detail what happens throughout the race, who wins, who crashes, who tried hard, who didn't try hard enough, only to have the staff at the bike shop look at me with the sort of admiration I have when I look at Phil Ligget and Paul Sherwen.

I love the month of July like you wouldn't believe.

I love the Tour de France.

I love that it starts in less than 12 hours.

Decisions Decisions

I'm dead serious when I write this... I have spent the better part of the last four days trying to put together a fantasy Tour de France team. It is driving me absolutely nuts. And the thing is, I won't stop working on it until I am perfectly content with the team I've put together. This may be never. Or the deadline for the entries (Saturday). We'll see which comes first.

And I had to cancel my awesome day trip I planned because of severe weather possibilities. Probably a good choice because it got pretty nasty, but still. Now we'll never get to go.

I don't like having to make decisions in summertime.