Tour de France 2013

I'm trying to Jess, so far this year due to some horrendous family problems, I've only been able to watch the first day in Corsica and about half of yesterday's. It means I've missed a lot of the political stuff. Today I'm spending my siesta with the tour on and catching up with Gransnet.
Lovely!

Yeah Froome!

Big followers here Jess and we've been to see it live three times in the past. Trouble is DH thinks he can go out on his bike with his pensioner chums and do the same!

He's just come back from a full day out on the bike, in scorching sun and has had to be revived with a pint of cold milk and a banana and he's just followed that up with a tin of cold rice pudding and a tin of sliced peaches. Apparently that's the sort of food pro cyclists eat!

Good on Froome - he reminds me of Paula Radcliffe in his physique- bit gangly but like Paula a superb athlete.

Well that sounds like a delightful diet! I think the pro cyclists consume all kinds of repulsive glucose gel things...
Apparently Froome born at altitude in Kenya which probably helps him to climb hills as well as he does. Extra big heart and lungs

Will be watching with interest to see stage 17 tonight,but have to admit that I am more interested in the area covered because it is the nearest I will ever get to the nearby village of PONTIS, the original birthplace of my maternal ancestors. ,

When our local lads finish playing their 5 a side football they all retire to the local pub for a few pints of Pedigree. I keep telling them it defeats the whole object. Perhaps the pub should start selling draught glucose gel and banana smoothies.

Jess, we have been dedicated followers of the Tour for many years (about twenty, I think; as we started watching it when we first got Sky - it's on Eurosport every afternoon, and I would finish at the office at lunchtime and come home and watch it!). I think Froome is being unfairly treated by some parts of the media, to be honest.

My DH is also a cycling fiend and goes out every Friday with a group of men (I think he is the youngest at 65), and they do between 30 and 40 miles.

I have just restarted this year after a break of three years - and I am so enjoying it again (although, to be fair, I didn't on Sunday evening when I misjudged coming down a path from a bridge and ended up in a patch of stinging nettles!). We went out this morning for a couple of hours (cycling up one side of the Tyne, and back down the other) and were amazed at the number of cyclists we saw: must have been in excess of 50. I think the Tour and Bradley Wiggins have definitely left a legacy.

Oh, the poor lad who fell off onto his right collar bone-twice!!

Are we all glued to the telly for the final stage?? Won't be quite the same without Bradley's acceptance speech, though . Going through parts of Paris that I was at a few weeks ago so looking forward to seeing it again.

WELL DONE ENGLAND !!!
Didn"t the Champs Elysees look pretty ??

Or even Britain??

Well done Froome, for the UK , Kenya and Africa. (england nonu ? I assume you did not mean to offend the rest of us in the UK ? And of course he couldn't have done it without support of team mate Richie from Tasmania in Australia)

He particularly mentioned wanting to be a role model for young Africans. He seems to be a very genuine and dignified young man, as well as being a phenomenal athlete. The team of course, Sky, is the UK based team and is lucky enough to have Brailsford in charge who was also the lead man in us getting all those Olympic cycling medals.
And weren't the electronic feu d'artifice on L'Arc, splendid and original.

Oops , should have said FROOME , the cricket was on my mind .

We are having a velodrome built in Derby and are hoping that it's named in honour of Dave Brailsford [who is a local lad ]. I don't really regard this as a British victory but an international one and, more importantly, a victory for drug free sport. Last year the S.O. told me that Chris Froome would win this year [and this year said the Colombian lad wouldn't be far away next year]. I agree; Paris looked amazing. How they cycled round the Arc de Triomphe without slipping on the cobbles is beyond me, though .

Jess, that sounds more like a Commonwealth win than a British one!

Wonderful finish - and didn't he do well with his speech - the French bit was a treat! Shame about the golf, but hey we can't win everything all of the time

The S.O. wouldn't watch the golf because he thinks he's a curse on Lee Westwood when he watches it but, alas, it didn't help . Chris Froome's French accent was pretty darn good. The S.O. then announced that he was going to learn French and looked a bit hurt when I sniggered .

You're right, anno !

Yes, what a finish. But I would have liked to see one final Cavendish sprint - it's so exciting when he bursts forth.

Good morning Ariadne . Yes tegan that too, although the ghosts of bloody Armstrong et all will cast long shadows. Apology acknowledged nonu. Brailsford of course said up front , at the outset, that the team would win clean victory and Wiggins was the first. This is a bit like Mo's double gold medal (still have to pinch myself that a Brit did that in a sport dominated by 2 other countries for so long) - 2 consecutive wins when no Brit(ish) competitor had ever one before?
Indeed anno and Chris went to school in Johannesburg too - started cycling on dirt roads in Kenya - but of course cycled for GB in the Olympics so we can claim him as an adopted son. Team Sky is the "uk team" but none of the teams are composed of a single nationality. (bit like club footie)
it is very much a team event as well although individuals get the glory, they rely on their teams protecting them and nursing them along at times - if someone cycles in the right place in front of you it saves 30% of your energy. Chris's team struggled with some injury e.g Geraint Thomas (guess how English he is?) struggling on with a cracked pelvis. I liked the fact that Chris dropped back at the end of the race, cutting a bit off his time, to wait for the whole team to cross the finish line together.

I've only just watched the last 5 laps and finish. Despite knowing the result it was still exciting at the end. I do admire their teamwork and France's son et lumiere display was stunning.

Sir Bradley helped Mark Cavendish at the end of last years race [even putting his own win at risk, I believe]. He not only endeared himself to the British public but the French took him to their hearts as well. Also, I wonder if that puncture didn't help [even though it was earlier on].

which puncture tegan? MC one yesterday?

Yes; but they seem to get punctures all the time and it doesn't seem to be much of a problem. Last years race was almost like something out of The Dandy in a 'Roy of the Rovers' sort of way, I thought.