I was never a real follower of the Tour de France until I came to Holland. But it is such a big sport over her it is hard to miss. The Dutch, German and Belgian channels all show it live (on their equivalent of BBC1) every day till the end. So it is easy to follow and I have got into it over the years.
This year I have found it avid viewing. The races are tighter and there seems to be no obvious outright favourite anymore. It is a wide open race. Much shown by the win on stage 5 yesterday by Mark Cavendish. An English rider no less. He told his team manager to lob a cool 1,000 Euros on him before he started the stage. It has been 5 years since an Englishman won a stage (David Millar -Time Trial). And before that you can look back 33 years to Hoban in 1975.
David Millar the only other Brit in the Tour is standing at 5th overall only 47' secs behind the yellow jersey man Kim Kirchen. The mountains are about to come, and everything can change in the Alps, but could we be seeing a possible Englishman in the yellow jersey?. I doubt it.
One thing I really enjoy is the Tour de France website (http://www.letour.com/) which is one of the best ever sporting event websites I have ever come across. It is very current, well-designed and although a bit over complicated, you can quickly get bang up to date if you weren't able to watch a particular stage. No need to Sky+. Just a 2min video and you see what happened.
This year I have found it avid viewing. The races are tighter and there seems to be no obvious outright favourite anymore. It is a wide open race. Much shown by the win on stage 5 yesterday by Mark Cavendish. An English rider no less. He told his team manager to lob a cool 1,000 Euros on him before he started the stage. It has been 5 years since an Englishman won a stage (David Millar -Time Trial). And before that you can look back 33 years to Hoban in 1975.
David Millar the only other Brit in the Tour is standing at 5th overall only 47' secs behind the yellow jersey man Kim Kirchen. The mountains are about to come, and everything can change in the Alps, but could we be seeing a possible Englishman in the yellow jersey?. I doubt it.
One thing I really enjoy is the Tour de France website (http://www.letour.com/) which is one of the best ever sporting event websites I have ever come across. It is very current, well-designed and although a bit over complicated, you can quickly get bang up to date if you weren't able to watch a particular stage. No need to Sky+. Just a 2min video and you see what happened.
2 comments:
Mark Cavendish - a World Class British sportsman being totally ignored by the media at home. Four stage wins - phenomenal!
they are foaming at the mouth about him over here.
Every 'mass sprint' they are only putting money on him' . for a 22-year old quite an achievement. Surely a doping test soon?
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