Le Tour 2013

[Baz]

Starts on Saturday.....

Tour de France 2013

Will be interesting to see Tejay van Garderen once again supporting Cadel and Great Britain's Chris Froome, who finished 2nd last year behind Bradley Wiggins.

Wiggins withdrew this year because of illness - so Froome has free reign to compete for the win.

Contador is back too.

Looking forward to it!

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This TV schedule is subject to change and all times are considered ET. All events are same day delay or next day delay except for Amgen Tour de France and USA Pro Cycling Challenge. Catch the enhanced primetime showing of every Tour de France stage every night on NBCSN at 8 p.m.

Saturday, June 29
Tour de France, Stage 1: Porto-Vecchio to Bastia, 7:30 a.m., NBCSN (LIVE)

Sunday, June 30
Tour de France, Stage 2: Bastia to Ajaccio, 7:30 a.m., NBCSN (LIVE)
Tour de France, Stage 2: Bastia to Ajaccio, 12:30 p.m., NBC (Re-air)

Monday, July 1
Tour de France, Stage 3: Ajaccio to Calvi, 6:30 a.m., NBCSN (LIVE)

Tuesday, July 2
Tour de France, Stage 4: Nice to Nice, 9 a.m., NBCSN (LIVE)

Rest of schedule here:

2013 Tour de France broadcast schedule - Cycling- NBC Sports

[gatotom]

saw headline today with Lance making a statement that no one could win without drugs

Ahhhh, I know I am stupid but if nobody used drugs, it would be a fair race, right???

[Rich76_911s]

Originally Posted by gatotom

saw headline today with Lance making a statement that no one could win without drugs

Ahhhh, I know I am stupid but if nobody used drugs, it would be a fair race, right???

The quote was in reference to the time period he was racing in not todays race.

Le Monde (newspaper that interviewed him) reported that he was responding to the question: "When you raced, was it possible to perform without doping?"

In reference to todays race he said, "Today? I have no idea. I'm hopeful it's possible."

[jyl]

Sloppy headline writers.

I think the current Grand Tour winners are not doping with EPO or other drugs. The testing is intense - see Richie Porte's blog, he's been rousted in the early morning and tested repeatedly in the past weeks. Their performances are not at the level of the doping '90s, in terms of FTP watts. The consequences of doping are huge - riders are being instantly terminated, their careers ended. Team managements know they will lose sponsors and very likely go under if their lead riders are caught.

The doping catches this season have been second-rate riders desperate for a ride, and mostly from, I'm sorry to say, Southern European teams.

Blood doping - I'm not sure how airtight the testing is. But I think the hematocrit limits mean there is a limit to how much help you can get from that.

[jyl]

Stage 1 should be great. Every sprinter wants the once in a career chance to wear the TdF yellow jersey. Every GC contender wants to stay up front and out of trouble. They can't all be up front. Cage fight.

[VillaRicaGA911]

I raced for years road and track, friend of mine was on US team for summer Olympics in Australia don't kid yourself on the big pro Euro teams they are all on a "program" that's why they all have team doctors. I have raced with and against 2 guys that are currently on big pro Euro teams and they have won stages at TDF, Giro, Vuelta. To see them get dropped near the tops of the big climbs by riders that have almost to a man all been caught doping tells me all I need to know. Will you win the TDF just because you dope, no but the difference in performance and most importantly recovery from one day to the next between two top riders? Well just look at Lance....

[Baz]

Phil Liggett....Paul Sherwin.....they are the best in the business!

Can't wait!

[Baz]

No prologue this year. Stage 1 is underway on the island of Corsica.

Just has a segment on Peter Sagan which was pretty cool....and Jens Voigt (Radio Shack/Leopard), who at 41 is the oldest rider in this year's event.

[Laneco]

There are a whole bunch of people here in southern Oregon who are cheering for Peter Sagan.

Alex Shephard is 11 years old and went from being a 100% full-throttle ride-the-bike-everywhere kid to 4 brain surgeries. He was diagnosed with Anaplastic astrocytoma grade 3. I don't really know what that means, but what they took out of this kid's head was about the size of small banana. https://www.facebook.com/229teamalex?fref=ts

Alex is a fan of Peter Sagan, and it turns out, that Peter is a fan of Alex. After Sagan won the final stage of the Tour of California, he signed and sent his jersey to Alex. Followed it up with a phone call. A genuine class act to take the time from his schedule to reach out to Alex, and help cheer him.

Obviously Sagan can count on this crazy redhead cheering for him too! ALLEZ!

angela

[Baz]

Good to know, Angela.....thanks for the cool backstory.

Are you watching right now?

A tour bus is stuck under the finish line banner and the riders are only 8 miles out!

NEVER A DULL MOMENT!

[Baz]

A crash just happened as well in back of the peloton.

6 miles to go and the bus is still firmly stuck. They have about 13 minutes left.

Now they are saying they are going to make the 3 KM mark the finish.

Crazy!

[Baz]

Well I won't divulge the result of today's stage in case there are those who have not watched yet. Hope for more discussion later tonight.

All I can say for now is - that ending was very interesting, to say the least!

[Joe Bob]

Lance spewing....

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:9433505

[ZLP]

What a **** show! This was going to be Cav's day....

[Baz]

Originally Posted by ZLP

What a **** show! This was going to be Cav's day....

The Manx Missile!

But what about Sagan?

[look 171]

I hope that little buy is well.

I hate P. Sagan. Punk kid but how many of the hot young riders are.

[Baz]

FYI: This is the 100th year of the event - the centennial!

This year's tour also includes some MAMMOTH climbs!

I'm pulling for Chris Fromme and T.J. to finish on the podium.

3 weeks of pain!!!

[ZLP]

Originally Posted by Baz

The Manx Missile!

But what about Sagan?

I'm a Sagan fan but he is not a sprinter like a Cav or Greipel. I think today greatly increased Sagan's chance of the green jersey since Cav didn't get the overall.

[Baz]

What a crazy start to this year's Tour!

That's what they get for not starting with a Prologue!

What my friend said.....took 200 Frenchmen with 200 cell phones to finally get that bus moved! All in good humour.

Tomorrow a 97 mile stage with several Cat 3 climbs...not a sprinter's stage that's for sure.

Hope Tony Martin is OK and can return. Nasty crashes today.

[Baz]

Well today's finish put a smile on my face.....wonderful!