Tour de France 2012

[sunny-dave]

Enough with all this football nonsense ... the real summer event starts next week :

http://www.letour.fr/...E/us/le_parcours.html

Addictive TV (even if the mesmeric David Duffield has hung up his commentators cycle clips) - who else is watching ?

Can Bradley win it, can Cav repeat his points win, can Sky support two team leaders ?

[AB Editor]

I did this stage earlier in the year:

http://www.letour.fr/.../etape_par_etape.html

(More or less... mostly less)

[sunny-dave]

A long one - good effort - especially with the red pointy hat !!

I'm thinking of doing some of the mountain stages next year ...

... but on the motorbike :+)

[Khandro]

I have followed the tour since the days of Coppi, Robic and Bartalli etc., but it gets to be more and more of a circus. With a few exceptions, the usual scenario is one or two no-hoper's get away early in the stage the bunch pull them back in the last minutes. The real racing is in the mountains usually on the last climb of the day. This year's Giro d' Italia was quite good with several hill top finishes. I think the Spanish Vuelta is best of all, with plenty of real attacking taking place all day.

[Frank97]

Can't wait, been looking forward to it all year!

C'mon Bradley!

And Cav of course.

[Frank97]

Must admit I'd quite like to see Andy Schleck win it though, if I'm honest!

[AB Editor]

"... but on the motorbike :+) "

Wise!

[Frank97]

I see my information is totally out of date then, Schleck is out, only just discovered that!

[snags]

No Alpe d'Huez this year :-/

[sunny-dave]

All starts today - loads of HD live coverage on ITV4 as well as Eurosport. With judicious channel hopping it is usually possible to eliminate advert breaks entirely.

Come On Bradley :+)

[Frank97]

Here we go! :-)