Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[EX_stream_tuna]

So, I assume it's okay to put non motorsports threads in here?

Anyway, the 2013 Tour is about to get underway, starting this Saturday, though as I mentioned in another thread, I'm not sure how I'm going to watch it yet!  (let me know if you find a streaming service somewhere)  See later post, with info for watching on NBCSports.com's service.

PLEASE MARK SPOILERS WITH SPOILER TAGS so that I myself, or others who may want to watch a stage later, can do so in blissful ignorance

Some of you know I tried and later abandoned an effort to recreate a Grand Tour like the TDF in GT using PDI Racing Karts.... maybe... just maybe that idea will resurface in coming months.  That all depends on how my life is going at the time and if GT6 just makes it all pointless in one way or another.

Now, some previews of this year's Tour de France, which is it's 100th Tour.  Trivia: Does anyone know why this year is the 100th Tour, while the competitions 100 year anniversary was in 2003?  How is that possible?

========================================
http://www.letour.fr/le-tour/2013/us/animations-100th.html

The Tour of the beauties of France
The 100th Tour de France will be the Tour of the whole of France, of every kind of France, of every French people too. And while the race will not spread over the French borders, for the first time since its centenary in 2003, the event will largely extend beyond the race itself. Almost every day, an initiative, a sign of support has reached us, offering to celebrate with fondness and respect the youngest 100-year-old in the country. The course between Corsica and the Champs-Elysees will be far more than a showcase for the number one tourist destination in the world. Thanks to the images of France Televisions, it will bear witness to the love for a race which, while not a World Heritage site like the Mont St Michel or the Calanques of Piana, is still a national treasure. This Tour will be the Tour of all the beauties of France, but also the Tour of everyone involved in it. The riders of course, who will write with their sweat the 100th chapter of a long saga and will be greeted in Paris by all the Giants who showed them the way.

Local authorities as well, who host the greatest free show on the planet and will display the beauty of the Tour in an exhibition on the gates of the French Senate at the Jardin du Luxembourg. And finally spectators, who will cheer by the millions on the roadside but will also be called to ride on the course on June 15, for a Fete du Tour turning everyone into a Tour rider.

Books, stamps, coins, clothes – a whole range of souvenirs will keep memories alive and lead the Tour towards its future. The race survived all the hardships of the world and the sport. But its longevity has a simple secret: passion. And it will again be the key word between the Isle of Beauty and the most beautiful avenue in the world.

Christian Prudhomme
Director of the Tour de France

==========================================================

This year's Tour Route, also from letour.fr



Tour de france 2013Running from Saturday June 29th to Sunday July 21th 2013, the 100th Tour de France will be made up of 21 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,479 kilometres (before ratification).

These stages have the following profiles:
7 flat stages
5 hilly stages
6 mountain stages with 4 summit finishes
2 individual time trial stages
1 team time trial stage
2 rest days
10 new stage towns

Porto-Vecchio, Bastia, Ajaccio, Calvi, Cagnes-sur-Mer, Saint-Gildas-des-Bois, Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule, Givors, Chorges, Annecy-Semnoz

[Wiz]

(let me know if you find a streaming service somewhere)

http://www.wiziwig.tv/index.php?part=sports  has pretty much every sport related stream you can think of.

You may have to watch live though.  I'm not sure if any of the streams will have a "watch it later" function.

[DudeTuna]

Because of the Tour NBCSports is delaying the F1 Race.

I wish they would do away with radio communications. I think it would make the stages a hell of a lot more exciting if they did not know how far away a breakaway was. 

[EX_stream_tuna]

they tried that for some stages a few years ago, and possibly a full tour a year after that.  but it was reverted back to having team radios...

race radio is public for anyone to tap into, so general info about road conditions etc. can be made available to all, and team radios are just that.

[EX_stream_tuna]

UPDATE: So NBCSports finally got their lazy asses around to getting the Tour website up...

http://tourdefrance.nbcsports.com/

there, you can subscribe for the service to watch Live or replay stages at your choosing later, exclusive interviews and other videos...

this is how I plan to watch because for just $29.99 you get so every minute of every English=speaking broadcast done.  I don't subscribe to cable, and because this is $30 for exactly what I want and nothing more, it's perfect for me and a good deal.

[TheHotstepper]

Cycling music. It is magical. There is nothing better.

Kraftwerk - Tour De France 2003 (Etape 2)


I keep that album in my car. If you've never heard it, it's worth a listen.

[DudeTuna]

I haven't really followed the Tour much this year, but I did see some of stage 9 yesterday. Chris Froome in the yellow looks like he might make it all the way. They tried but could not break him in the climbs yesterday.

[RickS95]

I'm a fairly avid cyclist.  Since I have shitty wrists and can no longer play golf, I spend a lot of my free time riding my bike (thank God for aero bars or I wouldn't be able to do that).  I typically enjoy watching the Tour, going back to the days of Greg Lemond. 

I'm not sure I like what it's become.  I understand the need for support vehicles, but it seems to have gotten out of hand.  There are almost as many cars on the screen as bikes.  Fucking guys on bikes dodging cars left and right.  Guys clearly running in the draft of the cars.  Guys holding onto cars. 

I want them to get rid of cycling teams and do something about the support teams.  The riders should be on their own.