This year's tour starts soon and I can't help but be extremely excited to see how Lance will do. I hope he gets some really good competition (from Ulrich, Tylor Hamilton, etc) which will push everyone to do better. I'm so happy OLN has as much coverage as it does because CBS' sucks. Unfortunately CBS still gets the tour on Sundays and it's really hard to have to wait to see the riders in Paris on the last day. I'm especially looking forward to seeing how the riders do on the individual time trial up Alpe de Huez--the first time in tour history it's been used as an individual time trial. It should be an exciting tour!

Along with rooting (in vain, most likely) for Ullrich or Hamilton to win, I'll be counting gratuitous Sheryl Crow references and camera shots. If the Tour wasn't on so damned early in the morning, it could be a drinking game.

Thanks for starting this thread. I watched yesterday and just spent a couple of hours watching this morning's stage, and need to vent.

OLN's coverage is very frustrating.

The camera work is excellent, but I'd like the panoramic shots even better if OLN didn't constantly throw those %#&! graphics at the bottom of the screen every 4 seconds.

Phil Liggot is often indecipherable. I'm not that much of a technophile, or all that familiar with the names of most of the riders, so I often don't have clue of what he's talking about. Since the stages take so long, why can't they spend a little time, SLOW DOWN, and explain some of the scoring rules, or a more in-depth look of the equipment, the course, etc.

Heck, I may never get to Europe, so a little travelogue here and there wouldn't hurt, either.

I hate to use this as a comparison, but ABC seems to balance things pretty well in its coverage of the Indy 500; after an hour or so, a casual racing fan will have something of a basic understanding of the race. Not so with OLN's TDF coverage. I don't need maudlin "up close and personal" pieces. I'd just like a little more information, please.

And one more thing. Sheryl, maybe when you hit Paris you can find a nice stylist and take care of that bleached-out hair, huh?

The first gratuitous Sheryl Crow interview was today. I demand equal time for the SO's of Ullrich, Hamilton, Heras, Mayo, etc.

Helloooooooooo, Tour de France Network. If ever you needed proof that OLN has nothing else to air, ever, the coverage so far is it. I know of at least 4 airings of stage 2 that'll be on today (the live coverage, the one on now, and 2 more later on today), plus the Roadside Tour thing, to the point where, from 5 PM to well past midnight (central), there are only 90 minutes of non-Tour stuff. 30 of those are taken by an infomercial after the broadcast day has concluded.

I agree mtvcdm, they show the Tour quite often but what's even worse is that in the past, I have found myself watching the stages two or even three times a day. They're kind of addictive at times, especially if there's nothing else on TV.

As bad as OLN might get with the Sheryl Crow references, it is far better than any of the networks would do. I think what really helps the balance of the coverage is that the feed the network gets of the bike race comes from abroad. It saves them from pandering to the audience by showing Lance all the time even if he's just stuck in the peleton.

They sometimes have brief *internet travel provider sponsor-named* travelogue segments during the pre-race show about some of the locations. The pre-race show is on 1/2 hour before the race coverage (except, I think, for the afternoon showing), so at least 3 times daily. I can't remember from last year if they ever showed those during the race coverage or not.

I agree about the addictiveness, Irlandesa - with TiVo, I find myself replaying segments (sometimes more than once) to catch what various riders are doing, or if I look away and miss a roadside "attraction", like the inflatable titanic and the bicycle version of the Cadillac Ranch during stage 1. Phil and Paul are pretty good about mentioning those things, so I know to look up and hit replay.

[rant]I just wish Bob Roll would take a basic French pronunciation class already - Al Trautwig seems to manage most of it pretty well. Bob did apologize yesterday, and he did those commercials last year parodying himself butchering "Tour DAY France", but I think if I ever saw him in person I would find it difficult to resist strangling him. And he spouted a rather lengthy description in Flemish yesterday, so he is not limited to English.[/rant]

As much as I am grateful that OLN has as much coverage of TDF as it does, I am irked no end by their incessant logos/promos. I was thoroughly annoyed by the huge logo on the bottom left of my screen today counting down the kms/miles to the finish. At times it obscured the view of what the riders were doing. Tres annoying! I love Phil and Paul but I do agree they could give more background. I guess when you've been commentating for TDF for 50+ years combined, it's hard to remember that many of the viewers are new to the sport and would like some background.

Bob Roll's "day" pronounciation was mildly amusing the first, umm, hundred times I heard it. Now it's just retarded and makes me discredit anything he has to say about the race. And the Flemish he spouted, I just bet that was gibberish, too!

I'm very pleased with the addition of Al Trautwig as the host, instead of the insipid Kristen Gum. I really dislike the stupid Gunners and Kristen's Roadside Tour thing. I thought that would be the "travelogue" I've been longing for all these years (I've watched all of Lance's victories and some of the snippets on CBS over the years) but it's just stupid and I won't be watching it at all. Plus I disliked that it gave away the results of the race--before it was seen in primetime!

I'm already planning my "sick" days at work so I can catch some action during the week live. The Alp d'Huez stage will definitely be one sick day :)

I love this time of the year! Between TDF and TAR, July is awesome!

Gratuitous Sheryl Crow appearance #2.

You can't blame OLN for all of the graphics. The feed comes from a central film crew, which shares it with everyone -- otherwise every network would have its own motorcycle camermen on the course. Some of that feed comes complete with KM/Miles to finish, etc. That's also why on the live show, you'll hear the commentaters complaining about the scenic shot of the castle, when they want to show the podium ceremony. They have no control over those camera choices.

Also, if you think the near 24/7 showings on OLN is bad, you should be in England during Wimbledon.

I watched the prime time coverage last night because my cable box got turned off, leading to a black screen for the morning viewing - do they usually switch commentators in prime time? Bob Roll and Al Trautwig were talking three-quarters of the time, and I prefer Phil Ligget and Paul Sherwin. Something about the accents and the excitement - they say things that *make no sense* and I still find them charming.

I think they're trying for a different "tone" to the live v. prime time broadcasts, hence the Bobke and Trautwig pairing during the evening. Many of the letters over on the VeloNews web site concern Trautwig, compared to Phil and Paul.

And should anyone think Bob Roll is over the top now, you should have seen his columns for VeloNews back in the '90s, when he was still racing part time.

It just hit me: if Lance wins, is Bush going to attempt to congratulate him for winning the "Tour de Freedom"? Or will he chide him for 'hating America' because he wore the yellow jersey instead of the red/white/blue of U.S. Postal?

Also, Sheryl Crow! Drink!

ETA that I know the Running of the Bulls (or as the comic Pearls Before Swine called it, the Trampling of the Idiots) is also on OLN. I just heard that they've already completed the first run. So I go to olntv.com to check when I can catch the broadcast... and I find this. And then I find that they're not being broadcast, at least not for the next 2 weeks. Damn PETA. And/or damn cyclysm. (Yea. So it might not be the nicest thing to have bullfights. But the Running of the Bulls is the best way you can think of to give some measure of equality to the situation. It's called revenge. Those bulls are dead by the end of the day, so they are entitled to stomp on as many dumbasses as possible. It's like saying 'Bulls, you'll be dead in a few hours. To attempt to make it up to you, here are thousands of drunken idiots, and all they're allowed to do to stop you is whap you with a rolled-up newspaper. Go get 'em.')

Yay for Stuart O'Grady!

How much coverage do you guys get in other countries? In Australia get a half hour highlight package a night and 4 live stages (stages 8, 14, 16, 20). We have Phil and Paul's commentary, which is great and its hosted by this guy Mike Tomalaris who I've always liked until this year... unless an Australian wins the stage then its been a bad day for the Australians etc etc..

On the upside there's no Sheryl Crow

In the USA, OLN gives us basically "all day" saturation coverage. They do a live morning show with Phil and Paul which is then repeated several times during the day. Then we get a primetime "expanded coverage" broadcast with Al and Bob and some of Phil and Paul's commentary from the live show. This is why we call OLN "the Tour de France network" at this time of the year. But, I love it and tend to watch the repeat shows if I'm at home.

I think we should drink every time someone crashes. I'm just very surprised by the number of crashes this year--I don't remember seeing so many, so often, in previous years. At least no one has crashed out yet (like poor Levi in Stage 1 last year and Joseba later on) but this worries me for the favorites. As much as I like Tyler and hope he does well, I really want Lance to win his 6th. I have been predicting (to mr. nola44) that 1-2-3 will be Lance-Jan-Tyler, so we'll see!

Except for the Sheryl sightings this has been a great tour so far.

Bob Roll frightens the begeezus out of me.

I just read some of the posts on the OLN TDF board. The poor guys who are getting bitch slapped for snarking on the Tour coverage should come here where they'd be loved and appreciated.

Has anyone else heard that Levi Leipheimer is out of the tour again? What happened? I've watched OLN's coverage but don't recall anyone saying anything about him being gone. If he is out, I'd just have to say this is not the race for Levi--man, two years in a row out 'cause of a crash makes for one unlucky dude.

I really don't like the primetime edition of OLN's coverage. I'm way over Bob Roll. He and Al just don't have Phil and Paul's smoothness in their commentary. It's almost painfull to listen to Al & Bob. They're ok on the pre-race show but then they need to let the real professionals do their job!

I haven't heard anything about Leipheimer being out - I remember seeing Stage 6 results that had him finishing. Cippolini and Petacchi (and I probably butchered the spelling) both withdrew today, with much anguish on the part of Liggett and Sherwin. They're already calling this Tour "the year of the crash".

What do y'all think about the travel segments with Kirsten Gum? If it gets her out of the broadcast booth, I'm all for it. I will say that Trautwig does a much better job of appearing knowledgeable about the sport than she ever did. I remember him doing the cycling segments in Atlanta in '96, ah the days of yore.

From ESPN.com's Tour Tracker:
*The correct spellings are Cipollini and Petacchi. You got one right and did pretty good on the others.
*Leipheimer is indeed in the race, 26th overall (+10:43). (He's also 41st in the points competition if one were to care.)
*No retirements came out of Stage 6 as of yet- but stay tuned, Robbie McEwen (upset stomach, gash on his leg from the crash) might not start Stage 7. Thus further reducing the damaged sprinters field. Polka-dot jersey, anyone?

And I think I'm officially sick of the round-the-clock coverage. OLN, at least TRY to look like you have other things to do. Even NBC shows other stuff during the Olympics.

I don't get OLN on my cable provider (sob), but I went to my mom's house today to watch it. I just love me some Phil Liggett. It's not the Tour without him. I was watching the "Roadside Tour" version, which my mom hates. And It's definitely annoying to watch the "Cutter Crew" (is that from Breaking Away?) But, on the other hand, I felt like the RT version gave you a little better view of the craziness that precedes the Tour into town than you get on the regular Stage broadcast. They showed the crazy floats and people in costumes and stuff. Which is always enjoyable.

What time is the Sunday broadcast on CBS?

I'll take the over the top excesses of OLN. Beats the alternative, which I seem to remember that we were supposed to feel grateful for a half hour recap on ESPN every night for many a year.

Um, Phil? Were you paying any attention to yourself today? I'll quote as close as I can what he said about Erik Dekker of Holland, who had fallen way back of the peloton:

"And here comes Erik Dekker to the line, coming up on 14 minutes behind, but he's had a wonderful ride and he deserves whatever he gets..."

"Whatever he gets" turned out to be falling 30:40 behind the yellow jersey, 170th overall (or more directly, 7th from last place among riders still alive).

Thanks, ya'll, for clearing me up about Levi. I should know better than to read stuff late at night and try to make sense of it.



dzdz--2pm central time per TiVo.

Dude. Today's finish was... dude. I was actually standing on my chair at the end. And to see those two guys in the breakaway get caught within 20 yards of the finish... I just felt really really bad for those two. And it seems like Phil agreed: that was one of the most dramatic finishes HE'D ever seen.

In other news, it's mountain time tomorrow. We can wave goodbye to most of the remaining sprinters and hear Phil and Paul say how tragic it is to Come This Far Only To Abandon Here, Only Approximately as Far From Paris as Minneapolis Is From Atlanta.

Same here. I was jumping out of my chair. I loved - LOVED, I tell you - the shot from the front where you saw just the two leaders, then suddenly the whole pack comes flying around the corner. I shrieked. How sad for them to be caught just feet from the finish line.

So - first time in this thread. Only 2 pages? Am I to infer that cycling fans have better things to do than hang around online? Or that they mostly just aren't cool enough to find this site?

I heart Phil and Paul.

Hi bsur, There are a lot of folks on the forum at velonews so it must mean they are not cool enough to find this site ;)

This has been a fabulous tour so far. I loved yesterday's finish and did not feel too terribly sad for the two leaders because they farted around trying to get position on each other while the peloton was bearing down on them--always a mistake.

Today, though, Virenque was awesome. I was pretty much invoking all of the deities on his behalf so that he would not be caught. He really deserved the stage win--200km on the front of this tough day--wow! But, how can he be French when he was born in Morocco (Casablanca) and now lives in Switzerland?

Is anyone watching OLN primetime? Am I missing anything that is not covered in the morning broadcast? I TiVO the am stuff so I can ff through all the commercials. Plus, I hate Al so much that I can't bear to listen to his commentary (especialy since Phil and Paul are the BEST!).

I'm with you Nola, except I TiVo the 2:30 p.m. showing, then fast forward through sections. I caught the "Cutters" version once -- wasted use of satellite time, as far as I'm concerned -- and can barely make it through any of the Trautwig stuff. I've gotta have my Paul and Phil.

Is anyone going to the theater viewing tomorrow morning? The Tyler Hamilton Foundation is holding viewings of the live OLN coverage at movie theaters all across the country. Mr. Orshee and I are going (we're in Minneapolis).

On a related note - coverage begins at 6:30 CST tomorrow, two hours earlier than usual (though at least one day's coverage began at 7:30 CST). Does that mean we'll get coverage of the entire stage? I sure hope so.

Orshee, I live in Louisiana and unfortunately there will be no showing here--dammit.

I think it will be a great stage, but we probably won't get the whole thing because it will last like 6 hours, and should be fun to see on the big screen.

The start is a 5 EDT, so we won't see the whole thing. Depending on how fast they are going we'll see it from the Co de la Core on, which disappoints me. Because if there's no early break, the peloton will stop at the Stele Fabio Casartelli for a moment of prayer. And I hate to miss that.

I thought about going to the theater here but that's awfully early for me. I'll stay here in my jammies and scare the cats with my yelling at the screen.

Today i "had a repairman in" and "had to wait for him to leave" so I couldn't go in until noon. Heee. What a great stage. But it was beyond me why Phil and Paul were panicking on the descent. Johan is too smart and the team was all together so I just calmly watched and waited for the good stuff. And they delivered.

Whoever the guy is who's been doing local color stuff the past few days (I didn't notice him earlier, but I was on the road and didn't see full broadcasts 'til Tuesday) is pretty good. Not being a goofball, just seeing cool things and bringing them to us in a fairly straightforward pleasant way.

I need an excuse for L'Alpe d'Huez on Wednesday. I can't possibly go to the office until it's over.

I feel a bit weird about all the OLN guys wearing the "LiveStrong" bands. But I think it's wonderful that most of the guys in the peloton are wearing them.

Wow! I think OLN cancelled the "Roadside Tour." (On Thursday, I believe.)

I kind of liked the adventures of Kirsten Gum and Hans Rey. Even the Cutters, annoying they may be, were growing on me.

Well, I'll miss their slice of French life.

BoDiva, about the LiveStrong bands: Did you know OLN is one of the USPS team sponsors? Check out the upper right chest of the jersey.

We definitely can't expect unbiased coverage from them. I wonder why they don't have a standard disclaimer about being a sponsor.

I hope Kirsten Gum gets back on the pre-show or the regular coverage. I miss her. Never did see "Roadside Tour" because of work, but it sounded pretty annoying.

Al Trautwig gave a disclaimer last night about both the LiveStrong bands and being a team sponsor.

I really wanted to go to a theater to watch the stage live today, but none were showing in my area. It's such a bummer that it was the Tyler Hamilton Foundation presenting it, and Tyler abandoned.

Well, it looks like it will be the Lance show from this point on -- we even got our obligatory Sheryl Crow camera shot today after a few blessed days without her (Drink!). Obviously it was only a matter of time -- the dude is so relentless he's scary. I always hope for a real contender anyway. Too bad Tyler has abandoned; it's doubly sad since he just found out yesterday his dog died. *snif*

I have to say, though, I love Thomas Voeckler. I want to marry him and have his little French babies. That kid has heart. I'm thrilled he gets to keep the yellow one more day.

RIP, Tugboat. He gave an interview yestderday that said his dog was like his child, for both him and his wife. Whatever the reasons, you know he doesn't take abandoning lightly, what with riding an entire Tour with a broken collarbone and all.

BoDiva, you and me both.


Wordy McWord Diane.
The way he just keeps coming back. It's amazing. I'm home visiting my parents this weekend. When he passed the finishline my mom turned her head and said to me: "I think I'm going to cry now." Oh mom ...

Basso rocks my socks off. When CSC bought him Bjarne Riis said that he would win the Tour at some point. Everybody laughed at him - now not so much. I hope he still has a little something something left in his legs - or just enought to make something less than the Lance show.

Maybe it's a monthly hormonal thing, but I actually got teary when 1) they showed Tyler waving to all the directeur cars before abandoning and 2) Mayo being coaxed back onto his bike by fans and getting pushes from his teammates and other riders. The drama that is Le Tour!!

I'm disappointed with Jan's performance even though I knew from his results this spring that he just didn't seem on the ball. But, with Jan you can't count him out, so I thought he'd pull it together in time. I love Lance and it would be wonderful to have him win 6, but there's a part of me that would like to see Jan win the tour again before he retires and to beat Lance to do it. If Lance retires and Jan wins it just wouldn't be the same.

ETA...I heart Voeckler too. I got misty eyed again when he was pushing hard to come in under 5 minutes on the stage and retain the maillot jaune. Wow! Forget about a suitcase of courage, this kid has a cargo container of courage. heh.

What a day at TdF! So sorry to see Tyler go, and something flew into my eyes right at the same time as he was so graciously exiting--what a classy, nice guy /snif/. Wasn't as sad about Iban Mayo because his problems to me seemed more like "giving up" knowing he can't win it all. I was glad that the Basque fans got to see him finish the stage, though, because they came out in droves to cheer him on.

When I first heard that Jan had lost 5 kilos in June to get into shape for the tour, I thought "that can't be good" but I still hoped he could pull it together. I have loved to see the motivation and fight both he and Lance get out of competing against each other. Unfortunately he's gone down (although maybe not out) in what my husband described as "it looks like he's pulling a trailor". Cracked me up at the same time it made me really sad.

This tour has been really interesting so far, and it is turning into a kind of a changing of the guard. The "older" guys seem to be turning things over to the Voecklers, Bassos, Boonens, Huvshods, etc. I think Lance will continue to win but his competition won't be the ones we are so familiar with.

On Wednesday, I will be having "horrible cramps" and will just have to stay home! No way I will miss watching the time trial up L'Alpe D'Huez live.

The thing about Jan is that he doesn't seem to change his style, year after year he stays with the same technique -- using his massive powerful legs to pull the big gears. It works great in the time trials, but in the mountains he doesn't have the acceleration to stay with Lance when he breaks away. It frustrates me as a viewer and fan, I can't help but feel that if he could stay away from the pastries during the winter, and at the same time get super-serious about training like Lance and Postal, he would be a serious threat. His face today in the last few kilos said it all.

Basso is a real up-and-comer, I'm so proud of him. Paul and Phil said today that Postal had tried to recruit him, not surprising. I hope he gets nice and rested before L'alpe D'huez and kicks ass.

The press has been way into showing Lance's lady, even when it was Kik, since he started winning. So certainly they won't shy away from Crowe, who is equally adept and experienced at handling press as Kik was (Kristen was a PR person, so she used the opportunities to expand the brand when she was around). Besides, no matter her reasons for being with Lance (and I have no reason to suppose it isn't genuine like and lust), someone in her position sure isn't going to avoid the pub.

And OLN interviewed Haven Hamilton last year after she came up with Tug to pick Tyler up after he broke his collarbone and ended up leaving Tug with Tyler for the tour. So maybe it's only the wives/girlfriends of U.S. riders they care about. Not shocking.

Haven brought Tug to Limoges for Tyler to say goodbye, then Tug was euthanized.

It's a good thing no one has to depend on Phil and Paul's powers of prediction for anything important. He'll be out of the yellow. No he'll keep it. No he'll lose it. Blah blah blah maillot jeune cakes.

Then maybe I'm just cynical, because although wives and girlfriends of American winners are typically shown at the winner's circle, I don't remember any, Kik or Greg LeMond's wife included, being featured on interviews as much as SC is. She's a celebrity, and celebrity hangers-on are pretty rare in professional cycling so it's not surprising, but it still irritates me. To make matters worse, Al Trautwig was reaching John Tesh levels of inanity in his questions to her.

It probably wouldn't bug me as much as it does if I hadn't just finished reading Lance's book right when the Tour started. So much for fairy tale endings. So I'm a little bitter on Kik's behalf now, warranted or not. ;)

Lance is very unusual in having his wife/girlfriend on the tour. Most of the women do not follow. Face it, the guys are in hotels with their roomies. The entire three weeks are very regimented. And the mealtimes are times of bonding for the teams. If you've seen some of the features where Frankie goes into the hotel and talks to the teams and adjunct personnel (soigneurs, chefs d'equip, mechanics) you've seen how almost monastic it is. And these guys don't exactly have amour on their minds after 6 hours in the saddle.

So there aren't that many significant others around even if the press were interested. (Do you ever remember seeing other winners' spouses at the presentation on the Champs Elysees? I don't.) Kristen was there because she felt the brand needed the pub. Love or not, she was all about the PR for the family corporation, and she worked it very very well. And after there were kids, Lance wanted to see them during the three weeks (mostly that was at the trailer/bus before the start each day they were there). They wouldn't be there the whole three weeks.

And Crow wasn't there from team time trial until today. I'm less annoyed by her presence, since she is in a relationship with Lance, than by famewhore Robin Williams, who's Julys are now devoted to sniffing Lance's jock. The hairy little troll skeeves me. And at least in her little (and they aren't ever very extensive) interviews, Sheryl puts together full sentences in a language we all understand that mean something, no matter how placidly inane. Williams thinks he's very very funny when he's really very very pathetic. (And yes, I love his stage show.) Neither has anything to add, but somehow I can understand and accept Crow, I'd want to be there, too. But I'm hoping Williams is filming in Vanuatu and can't make his way to the Alps this year.

From a while ago:

Every etappe is live on TV. Everyday. I usually listen to the commentators as a sort of background music. Some people in the Netherlands just go crazy and a lot of websites offer virtual Tours. I had Hamilton in my team, as well as Mayo (who is thinking of giving up, Dutch media report, same goes for Julich).

Leipheimer can do very well this year. The Alps are coming up which means that he should be able to enter the top 10.

As I recall from Lance's first book he said something to the effect that wives and girlfriends don't belong at the tour. I don't have the exact quote at hand, but that's the gist of it. So, maybe he's mellowed over the years to have Sheryl around so much.

I don't know how often Kik was at the stages, just from some things she said, it sounded like she watched on TV and was often at home in Spain during most stages of the tours. But, I'm not her personal assistant, so how would I know. heh. I can imagine that hauling 3 little children, including twins in diapers, to these stages would be a helluva lot more difficult than a single woman who as luck would have it is used to the chaos that surrounds being a celebrity and living on the road.

On a side note, anyone else a see a resemblance between Kik and Sheryl? Maybe it's just me, but in some photos they look like they could almost be related.

Let's just say we get a lot.
Here in Denmark the two state-owned networks share coverage.
TV2 starts around 2 o'clock (or earlier if they're in the mountains) and continues till around 6/6.30 then at 9.30 DR1 (TV1) takes over.
Plus there's so much on the Internet I don't even know where to start. All the major newpapers have their own sections with the Tour. They have vitual teams, fora/forums, articles, analyses, and god knows what. The same goes for the TV networks. Come to think about it - TV2 probably has a live mediastream on their homepage.

Btw, has anybody seen the German devil? Maybe I've just missed him. But so far I haven't seen him.

I saw the devil briefly during one of the mountain stages, his pitchfork says "101", I presume for the 101st year of the tour.

Julich sprained his wrist in a fall we didn't see yesterday, either because it happened before OLN went live or the cameras missed it (why would anyone be paying particular attention to a domestique who used to be a leader). With the rest day tomorrow, let's hope he can ride in support of Basso for the rest of the week. A podium for CSC would be excellent.

If I recall correctly Kristen was there quite a bit before Luke was born. And with Luke she'd be there for the Prologue, the Pyrenees (close to home, whether Nice or later Girona) and the final TT and Paris. Once the girls were born, it was less, for obvious reasons. Let's face it, Luke was a wonderfully telegenic little tyke and he obviously adored daddy. So it's hard not to focus on that for prerace if you're US TV broadcasting to a mix of racing nuts like me and racing naifs like most early viewers.

Since Crow rode l'Alpe d'Huez (in about three hours, for which I give her much credit because I don't think I could crawl to the top, let alone cycle), I assume she'd be around for the TT. And of course she wouldn't miss the final TT and Paris. But she wasn't there from the team TT until yesterday. She apparently finds it refreshing for "all the fuss" to be about someone else (although I'm sure that's all relative).

I'm just so grateful OLN shows hours of live coverage. The 1/2 hour on ESPN each night just didn't do it. And CBS's highlights are even worse now than they were back then. Covering a whole week in one hour is nonsense. And no more John Tesh! The one thing I do wish OLN could have from CBS? Picture quality.

I'm with you there - small doses of KG are plenty and the topics are better for her, plus I like her better than the woman who was doing them last year. Al does have an air of professionalism and also has good chemistry with Bobke.

And I agree with thisI like him better than Kirsten as well. I think his name is Paul Hochman.

I see less of a resemblance between these two than that of Kik to Lance's mom Linda.

I TiVo the OLN live coverage and really enjoy Phil and Paul. The pre-race show is enough of Al and Bob, but Al is highly preferable to Kirsten. I've barely been on the boards here because I'm so enthralled with the nice long stages the past few days. I tried to watch one episode of the Roadside Tour, but found it rather annoying, plus a bit too much KG.

Add me to the Voeckler fan club - what an awesome effort, every time you think he's out, he just keeps bouncing back. Vive Voeckler!

[ot]Hi BoDiva - I hope to hang out with you at TARCon, whenever it is![/ot]

lofty ideas, I've been thinking of you since TAR started up again. And I'll be at TARCon with one difference. I'm determined not to be shy!!!!

And you're right, Kik resembled Linda quite a bit. Kik is much more a girly girl though. Sheryl and Linda, more down to earth types (which basically means we've seen both without makeup).

I think little Voekler (and Phil, it's VEKler, not VOYkler) will be out of yellow on Tuesday. That last climb is a killer and Lance has to keep Basso at bay.

I haven't watched any of the Roadside Tour but I've liked the Lance Chronicles, especially the morning coffee grounds portion.