The only attraction to this sport is Lance surviving cancer. Before he was there, nobody cared, and after next year, once again... no one will care.
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The only attraction to this sport is Lance surviving cancer. Before he was there, nobody cared, and after next year, once again... no one will care.
Re: Can Lance get a 7th straight Tour win?
Sports Illustrated solved a major mystery for me in this week's issue.
The most popular question kids have of West Monroe's own astronaut, Jim Halsell: "How do you go to the bathroom up there?"
SI Columnist Rick Reilly reports this week that when the leader of the pack is ready to urinate, they all pull over to the side of the road and . . . urinate.
Talk about pit stops and strategy!
tm
Louisiana Tech University
Flagship of the University of Louisiana System
Lance won today's time trial and leads by over 4 minutes going into the last stage. Barring any unforeseen disaster, he will win his 7th Tour de France, or should I say Tour de Lance!
When you say "no one" you mean the sport won't get the headlines it gets now. I'd say that will be true...here in the US. But, around the world, next year is setting up to be very interesting as Lance will not win the 2006 Tour. It's wide open!Originally Posted by DocMarvin362
But, even here in the States, cycling popularity has already been ratcheted up a notch, never to return to pre-Lance levels. I have always been a fan of the endurance sports, including cycling. Only now we are able to watch the event since OLN gives daily coverage.
The NHL was on strike and honestly didn't care. I did not watch even a minute of the NBA this year. I did follow it last year as I was hoping Malone would get his ring. I don't watch Major League baseball anymore. I might catch bits and pieces of the playoffs...or, maybe not. The NFL is so-so, at best. And even what I previously cast as the best sport, college football, has gotten stale (although I do plan to watch it this fall). Of course, all of this is just me. Obviously, others have different views of the matter.
As for Lance, I am more concerned by the company he is keeping...John Kerry???, come on! To use a military analogy, I hope Lance doesn't win the war, only to lose the peace.
As an athlete, he is superb. His yearly training regimen of 20,000+ miles and the meticulous preparation he puts in has made him the best in his sport. No one can take that away from him.
As an inspiration to those fighting the dread disease, well, if he motivates just one person to fight and beat cancer, then hats off to him for that!
Go Lance!
Re: Can Lance get a 7th straight Tour win?
You're right about that, dawg80! Lance has been an inspiration to cancer victims of all ages for a number of years now. Good guy, and he'll be better when he gets his political views straightened out!!!
TD
~~
Since everyone wants to politicize everything and casterate anyone who isn't republican backed, Here ya go.
John Kerry sees a budding politician in Lance ArmstrongBy JOHN LEICESTER, Associated Press Writer
July 23, 2005
SAINT-ETIENNE, France (AP) -- Sen. John Kerry thinks Lance Armstrong would make a terrific politician -- but fears he'd be running for the other party.
Watching Armstrong during his warmup for Saturday's time trial, the Democrat from Massachusetts listed the Texan's winning qualities.
``What's made him so special at the Tour de France, and as an athlete, is the level of focus, discipline, intelligence, strategic ability, and obviously, his endurance -- his ability to just take it on and go,'' Kerry said.
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Those qualities would serve Armstrong well in politics, Kerry said. But Armstrong is also friendly with fellow Texan George W. Bush.
``I think he'd be awesome, he'd be a force. I just hope it's for the right party,'' said Kerry, an avid cyclist and longtime fan of the Tour de France.
Kerry said he had tapes of last year's Tour delivered during his presidential campaign last year.
Armstrong, who plans to retire after this year's Tour, is expected to seal a historic seventh straight victory Sunday. He has not ruled out a career in politics after he quits.
Like Armstrong admirers around the world, Kerry wears the yellow rubber ``Live Strong'' wristband produced by the cyclist's cancer-fighting organization.
``He's a terrific person with an unbelievable personal story, and he understands the seriousness of a number of different choices,'' Kerry said of Armstrong's comeback from cancer.
``It's one of the great sporting accomplishments of all time,'' he said. ``The sheer willpower is stunning.''
MORE SUSPENSE: Of course they respect Lance Armstrong's amazing record, but organizers say next year's Tour de France will be more exciting without him.
``The suspense will be far higher, there will no longer be a huge favorite -- the boss who rules the Tour de France will be gone,'' assistant race director Christian Prudhomme said Saturday.
Armstrong is retiring Sunday -- he hopes with a seventh, and last, Tour victory. He was again dominant this year -- erasing doubts that he lacked the legs and the will, at 33, to keep winning. The Texan crushed rivals in the opening day's time trial on July 2 and then built on his lead in the mountains.
``You cannot say the Tour was overwhelmed with suspense,'' Prudhomme said. But he insisted the race remained as popular as ever.
``Were there fewer people lining the roads? No. Were there fewer people watching television? No.''
Tour director Jean-Marie Leblanc added: ``I did not get bored, despite the domination of Lance Armstrong.''
RECORD SPEED: This year's Tour de France is expected to go down in the record books as the fastest ever.
Going into Saturday's penultimate stage, the average speed over the three weeks was 41.69 kilometers (25.91 miles) per hour. That compares to the record 40.94 kph (25.44 mph) set in 2003, when Lance Armstrong won his fifth consecutive Tour.
The fast speeds this year have again raised questions about whether doping may be a factor, despite the daily anti-drug controls. Race organizers noted Saturday that tail winds followed the riders for much of the Tour, contributing to the high speeds.
``The average will without doubt be beaten,'' said race director Jean-Marie Leblanc. ``This year, there were favorable winds nearly all the time.''
``The physical preparation of the athletes is improving, the training, the medical care, the bikes, the state of the roads,'' he added. ``Now, is doping an additional factor? We don't know. The controls, I hope, are as effective as possible.''
BLOOD TESTS: Eighteen leading riders at the Tour de France were given blood tests on Saturday before the final time trial -- and all passed, cycling's governing body said. It did not give the names of the riders tested, but said they came from Lance Armstrong's Discovery Channel squad, Team CSC, Rabobank, Gerolsteiner, Iles Balears, Credit Agricole, Phonak and T-Mobile. Associated Press Writer Samuel Petrequin contributed to this report
ok, rephrasing... sorry for making it sound rude. And all this is my opinion, feel free to have you own and disagree.
Speaking from the casual fans perspective, the general public here in America won't care who wins, who competes.. (unless they wreck). Even this year, when SportsCenter starts talking about it, that just means that it's time for me to walk away and grab another beer. Glad to see that he's going to win again.. but seriously.. did anyone have a doubt?
I see cycling kinda like golf.... it SUCKS on TV.. it's not that great in person.. but playing/riding is a BLAST! I personally can't stand sports/events where one person is the star, and nobody else matters. I will be proud of Armstrong, but i won't care next year, I won't care this afternoon when they announce how much he won by. If someone comes out saying that Lance was their inspiration for fighting their cancer, i'm cheer up and down. But that's all.
I LOVE football (NFL and Tech). It's the only sport to where you can't focus on one player and the rest of the teams doesn't matter. Easiest to watch, hardest to master.
The NBA sucks.. except for Shaq, Duncan, Garnett, and a few others. I don't care about the regular season.. it's about 15 - 20 games too long. The playoffs are slightly more interesting, but they take 2 months.. so i'm tired of it by the conference finals.
Baseball is still my love, but the regular season (once again) is way too long. i'd love to see it become like 125 game season, and then add 4 teams to the wildcard spots, that way (in theory) 2 teams from each division would have a chance. Plus the Sox and Yanks are way to publicized. Love to watch it in person, love to have it on in the background while i play my computer games and chat on bbb.
NASCAR sucks the worse. Just a dumb reason to watch TV... unless you have lots of wrecks. I hate the concept of individual winners, but then they have 17 cars on the track that all have the same owner, so that makes them a "team". Plus the stoopid pansies always yelling at each other into the cameras.... just overgrown Soap opera stars with cars.
Hockey..... still undecided on this one. I LOVE watching the Mudbugs, but it's mostly because of the crowd, the harrassing of the players, and the cheers. I have no clue what in the world is going on there, and it's really hard to follow the puck.
Any other sports i can give my opinion on?
I find myself in total agreement with the above. I am cheering for Lance to win his swan song of course.
I suspect he keeps the company he does so that he doesn't lose the piece, er um peace. Anybody know Sheryl Crow's political affiliations.
So, it went to from non-existent in American's minds to a following of maybe a few thousand (j/K). Seriously though, endurance sports are uninteresting for a few reasons: 1) for the most part, they are unclimactic, 2) most individuals cant just pick up and do it. Anybody can go shoot hoops or toss the football and compete, not many people go and get their mountain bikes out the shed and feel like competing. If I ride a bike, it is to relax not go 120 miles up and down mountains or 12 miles for that matter. Cycling, long-distance running, and sports like that are just too hard and uninteresting.
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