Comments on: Le Tour! The Tour de France

By: eric s

eric s — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 20:10:37 +0000

I caught a Discovery Channel Show called

Riding the Tour de France: Livin’ the Dream

last week.

The show revolves around two regular bike riders that are chosen by Discovery Channel to train for six weeks and then ride one of the hardest stages of the TdF the day before the professional riders.

It motivated me to ride more…

If you have Discovery Channel try a catch it..

By: stevetheupsguy

stevetheupsguy — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:59:54 +0000

Here in Port St. Lucie I’ve noticed a lot more bikes, and more road bikes that are commuting. We have a huge population of hispanic lawn maintenance guys that have ditched their cars and started riding. I actually just traded up from a Target special Huffy, to a Trek 1.2 for my commute. Wow, what a difference in ride. I still use the huffy though, for trips to the store or rides with my children.

By: JJW

JJW — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 23:54:13 +0000

Oddly enough, I remember buying my first road bike years ago around this time. The Tour de France is no doubt inspiring, so could this add to more sales…I can see that…I also think that more people try to make the best out of the summer weather and thus hop on a bike…though nowadays that could be motivated by fuel prices as well.

-jjw

http://www.izzitgreen.com

By: idbob

idbob — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 23:11:51 +0000

I’ve seen more bikes in general on my
commute, only one or two road bikes. As far as the tour goes, I’m a fan but the three channels i get don’t even mention the race. I read about it on the computer and in my magazines. As far as buying a new road bike… I’m guilty as hell and ride it all I can. I own steel, titanium and aluminum. And thanks to the ass who ran me down last year and his insurance company, as of last week I can add carbon fiber to the list. In the end out of all the riding, I enjoy commuting the most, it’s just simple.

By: JoelGuelph

JoelGuelph — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:44:58 +0000

Funny how you compared TdF to NASCAR. I think there may be a lot more similarities. I don’t personally enjoy NASCAR, but my father has for many years, so I have seen more than my fair share of races while growing up.
With the drafting, team tactics, technology, and the drama between certain riders and drivers, the reasons fans enjoy the sports are pretty similar. As someone from the mountain bike side of things, I was surprised to find myself interested in the TdF. Once getting past the initial thought of “how can it be interesting watching a pack of riders for 3+ hours” and getting to know the teams and riders, I really got into it.
I cannot really understand how people are interested in watching people play baseball for 3+ hours because to me, it seems incredibly boring. At least with the Tour, I can relate to the cycling side of things, I can geek out on the technology stuff, and I really only commit 3 weeks a year to it instead of how many months there are in a baseball season.
The doping aspect is the one part I have a hard time with and probably what keeps me from being a true fan of the sport and more of a TdF bandwagon jumper.

By: Jenna

Jenna — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:32:02 +0000

Noah, I am with you. Except I have a teenage son who plays in sports & I am a big fan of his. To be honest, once he gets out of school, probably go back to not wanting to watch the so called ‘hero’s’ screw up thier lives. Not much of that at his high school though.

By: matthew booth

matthew booth — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:16:20 +0000

IMHO if you look at other sports, it seems like sales of related items seem to increase during that season, especially for local sports teams.

However if you just do searches on craigslist for hobby related items, it’s full of people who have bought something thinking they would get into it only to get distracted and then sell the item.

There are a lot of “race” and “tri” bikes for sell in my location on craigs. I just get mad that people have the money to buy a 2k bike and then ride it twice then sell it when I am stuck with a crummy $300 mtb that I had to put road tires on.

The only part of any competitive bike race that I like watching are the crashes on youtube.

By: Noah

Noah — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:16:50 +0000

Maybe I’m being curmudgeonly, but I really don’t “get” TdF. Most people I work with are totally digging it, and very few are weekend cyclists. None of them commute or even run short errands by bike.

Expecting all cyclists to get excited over bike racing is like expecting all motorists to be helplessly addicted to watching NASCAR. And that’s what I usually point out when they start using TdF as a conversation starter with me.

I think my stage race disdain spawns from a general indifference towards all competitive sports, and an all-out hatred of unfair advantages. In this day and age where athletic testing is in a constant state of catching up to dopers, it’s hard to know for certain who’s really clean and who’s making their own shady luck. It goes equally towards other sports where cheating is frequently uncovered.

“I’m not into racing. I just like the wind in my hair on my way to work.”

By: jamesmallon

jamesmallon — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:23:59 +0000

My LBS had a ‘tour’ sale two years ago, and I got a 20% discount on my 2006 Lemond Croix de Fer: ‘tour’ sale, ‘tour’ winner’s name on my bike, named after a climb on the ‘tour’.

By: jim

jim — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:02:57 +0000

I’m having a hard time getting into the the tour, too:
1) It’s gorgeous weather this week. I’d much rather be riding than watching riding.
2) All of the doping fracas has blunted my interest.

Now if they had a rainy day stage whereby they had to navigate urban streets on bikes equipped with a handlebar basket and fenders while wearing the hideous but functional neoprene booties…