July 2009
28 posts
Lance is back, and the Tour de France bigwigs are...
Well, they should be. And they are.
Lance Armstrong’s profile in the Tour de France was long one of antagonism between the Texan and pretty much anyone who was French and cared.
Tour officials openly questioned whether he could have accomplished what he did legally. French authorities repeatedly brought him under scrutiny, and more than one investigation promised to find Armstrong guilty...
A pair of links this early afternoon
That is correct, we bring you reading pleasure for lunch. Top amongst the news, the Tour, clean through Paris, has finally been dealt its first doping casualty.
Mikel Astarloza, the Spaniard who and won the race’s 16th stage, was provisionally suspended after his “A” sample tested positive. Should his “B” sample also test positive, the Euskaltel man will be...
Checking back in
Purple Bar Tape has been traveling hither, thither and yon these last weeks, and was thus sadly deficient in the duty of bringing you the (un)witty commentary to which you’ve become so accustomed.
But it’s 1:30 in the a.m., and what can we say, we’re back.
Before we begin, this is awesome. And now, back to our regularly-scheduled programming.
It seems someone around here...
Fast Company link: Bike sharing, could it work? →
VeloNews: Wiggins says he's focused on just the... →
Lance vs. Conty, part MLCXXII
Oh boy.
First, Alberto Contador basically press-slapped Lance Armstrong, saying at a press conference in Madrid today: “My relationship with Lance is non-existent. Even if he is a great champion, I have never had admiration for him and I never will.”
Well, I sincerely hope he wasn’t holding back. Lance certainly did not, responding with his own thoughts.
(via Twitter:...
Hooch is crazy... →
Yes, I did just compare Alberto Contador to a character in Scrubs. Given his behavior of late, I think I let him off quite nicely.
More on this later, as well as the beginning of our Tour rundown.
Contador takes Tour, British guy wins stage →
Mark Cavendish blew everyone — and I mean everyone — off his wheel to win the final stage of the 2009 Tour de France. I know, I’m shocked too.
But seriously, great Tour. More links, pics and thoughts to come.
When there are no words
I haven’t touched on this yet, and for awhile, I wasn’t really sure why. A blog about cycling not talking about such a tragedy, it just doesn’t make sense.
But the truth is, what is there to say? Death is tragic enough, certainly. When it happens at a sporting event, it’s just as sobering, and it’s just as tragic.
Whether it be the Tour de France, or Hillsborough in...
A little bit of beauty in an unchanged world
So Mont Ventoux failed.
Mont Ventoux, that feller of champions, the Giant itself, failed spectacularly on a day when it was expected to provide a time-stopping, jaw-dropping, Kirk Gibson-esque moment to define this year’s Tour. Instead of providing for us a moment upon which stories were made, it maintained status quo.
And try as I might to resist, I enjoyed every moment.
In reality,...
Contador to Garmin? →
I’m sorry, but this explodes the No-Way-O-Meter for any number of reasons.
Contador's attack says things about the man, his...
Alberto Contador’s final kick today inside the last 3K surely cemented his place atop the podium in Paris this year. But it also spoke volumes about what kind of teammate Contador is, at least within his current team.
Andrew Hood talked about it in his lastest VeloNews contribution, and needless to say, juicy quotage abounded.
Let’s set the scene: Contador, accompanied by the...
Eat like a pro...good luck →
A friend of PBT directed me to this. Enjoy.
So that's that then, eh?
Well, we’ve been waiting for this for awhile, haven’t we?
All questions answered, all riddles solved.
It’s Contador.
The spindly Spaniard crushed the field at the end of today’s stage, riding away from everyone — including teammate and everybody’s All-American Lance Armstrong — to take a comfortable lead in the Tour de France and put on the yellow for...
One less among them
By now, let’s be honest, we’ve all heard that Levi Leipheimer is out of this year’s Tour, a tough break for the Californian (no pun intended). Moreover, we’ve heard that this hurts Lance’s chances at a record eighth Tour championship, with his right-hand man on the hurt wagon.
But does it go deeper than that?
When you looked at Astana’s roster coming into this...
Earpiece ban overturned →
Proof that you, too, can get whatever you want — all you have to do is whine enough.
Disagreeing with Gregg Doyel
He might not be your cup of coffee, but Lance Armstrong is undeniably good for one thing every time he rides a Tour: an explosion of American media punditry on a sport no one cared about two weeks ago or will care about by the end of July. Most columns and op/ed pieces tend to revolve around Lance the man, and his victories or faults. But once in awhile, somebody somewhere puts an opinion to paper...
One for the time being
In the definitive, winner-takes-all, no-holds-barred, no-retreat-no-surrender, I’m-running-out-of-compound-modifiers Stage 7 climb into Barcelona today, an epic showdown between Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador finally played out. And at the end, it was clear who was better, as they were standing atop the podium.
Rinaldo Nocentini.
The Italian — whose most recent claim to fame...
Report: Tour of Missouri in trouble →
This is seriously bad, folks. The Tour of Georgia is already gone, and if America loses Missouri, then we’ve pretty much hatcheted our list internationally-renown/sponsored/intriguing races down to the Tour of California.
Does cycling qualify for a bailout?
Hushovd takes the stage →
And I apologize for not posting sooner. PBT had to work our real-people job today, and it was fun. But alas, no Versus to be had there.
Good for Thor, and as friend of PBT, Curtis, put it via Twitter, “I’m glad it rains on the pros too.”
VeloNews: Evans says he feels good →
Sorry bro, but this is wishful dreaming at your current juncture.
Not wishful thinking, but wishful drinking. I mean dreaming. But drinking works too.
Stage 5 leaves us feeling good for Voeckler
It’s been an intriguing Tour thus far, and none of us here at PBT expect to be anything resembling disappointed or even unsurprised when the thing is done.
But even once in awhile, we as a viewing audience are allowed to tear ourselves away from the conspiracy theories, the controversy and the downright “weirdness” (Lance’s word, not mine) surrounding the Tour, and just...
Good link: Reilly's take on mellow almost-yellow... →
VeloNews report: Lance actually apologizes →
OK, OK, maybe the sturdy Texan doesn’t deserve that kind of sarcasm, but let’s face it, Lance has never really been one for sugary diplomacy. Case in point, this entire affair began when he pretty much told Carlos Sastre and Christian Vande Velde their best-ever Tour results were little more than a joke last year.
But something’s changed in Armstrong this year, if only ever so...
Tour Stage 4: Winners, losers and SRAM-shifting...
It appears well and truly on, as Lance Armstrong came up needle-eye short of slipping into his first yellow jersey since Michael Jackson’s last concert (too soon?).
Armstrong and the boys in baby blue absolutely flattened the field during today’s long-awaited team time trial, which was a chance for some — Liquigas, Garmin-Slipstream — to lay down a marker, and a sad break...
Cancellara wins Prologue, now let's get going
Fabian Cancellara, the Swiss time trialist who pops up just about every year right around now, shocked no one and won the Prologue in Monaco. It was a hillier affair than perhaps anyone is all that used to, but that didn’t knock many big names from the leaderboard, which is as follows (courtesy of VeloNews):
2. Alberto Contador Astana in 19:50
3. Bradley Wiggins Garmin - Slipstream...
Disqus, Tour come to Purple Bar Tape
Frankie Andreu is currently interviewing Lance 30 minutes ago in a screen cutaway as your man Armstrong muscles through the Tour prologue. But that’s not the exciting part — Purple Bar Tape now has Disqus comments!! Please, put down the lamp and contain your excitement.
Anyway, yea, Disqus is pretty user-friendly stuff, and it’s great for new faces like us. So comment away, and...
A bad moon riding?
Pun intended.
For those of you who do not know — and there should be maybe one of you — tomorrow beginneth 2009’s contribution to the long and storied history of the Tour de France. And storylines abound.
Lance is back, Valverde is out, Boonen got in at the last possible moment, the opening round team time trial is supposed to be full of surprises, Astana is stacked and Alberto...