Final thoughts about 2006 TDF.

limerickman said:

Schleck winning at Alp D'Huez.
Cunego's ITT performance.

These two were my favorite, outside of Landis' ride to Morzine. I would also add Sastre's rides in the mountains and Gontchar's ITT wins.

And outside of the racing, Landis' press conference after the disaster on Stage 16. That showed class.

🙂 Landis' captivating ride to Morzine: The biggest single day on a bike since I started paying attention.
🙂 Periero grabbing that 29 min gift and defending it all the way to the podium
🙁 attack of the green hand!
🙁 the breaking of Julichs' hand
:eek: post wreck photos of Erik Dekker
🙂 Shleck's surge on L'Alpe
🙂 Rasmussen's giant solo venture to La Toussuire
🙂 Dessel jumps from relative obscurity to the top 10

Plenty of good blood-stirring fun, on balance

The Cauberg and Kessler in Valkenberg
McEwen's sprint on stage 4
David Millar making his return
Cyril Dessel
Pereiro's determination
Alpe d'Huez
Floyd to Morzine
Cunego TT
Champs Elysees mayhem

The first half of the tour was some of the most boring but the last part was some of the most exiting, especially the three days in the Alps. Landis proved to be the right winner of the TdF, a great champion.. Questions like what if´s,, Basso and Ullrich were here,, should be ignored. Landis made the tour one of the most memorable in recent history and in the end he deserved the win.

Rasmussen's spectacular win at La Troussaire was pretty amazing. The best way to secure the polka dot..

Cunego's ITT was some of the most surprising in the tour. This is a guy that normally hates ITT's

Schleck's win at Alp D'Huez. I see Schleck as a major tour contender in the near future.

Mcewen's three stages. The best sprinter right now.

Hushovd opens the TdF by winning the prologue and closes the TdF by winning at Champs Elysee.

Ekimov's farewell on Champs Elysee, his 15th tour..

[font=Verdana]Oh, and then there is Black Friday and operation Puerto and the nagging irritating doubt that everyone is doped. [/font]

It was a tour of extreme highs and extreme lows as liken to life. That is why I believe we identify with it so well.
I do not however think we will have final thoughts on this years tour until we have closure on the fate of those that were not allowed to paticipate.
The tour to me has absolute magic in it as every stage has it's own life and personality, and I always feel an emptiness as I think back to these individuals and their struggles after the finish.
The dynamics of each day can not be captued anywhere else, and I am in pure condfidence that I shall wait and watch in anticipation each July until I am just a footnote on a gravestone.

One that hasn't been mentioned yet, Merckx pacing his leader, a broken Landis up La Troussaire. That was a sad yet powerful image for me.

L

Lots of great moments, but I cannot help but think that this Tour is an example of what we as fans have been robbed of the last decade and a half. The riders had ups and downs. They showed weaknesses. This is in stark contrast to the last Tours where winners never faltered, and the race seemed to be a contest of who could dope themselves to the highest power to weight and power to drag ratios, and all the riders who did not measure up left their fates to the last few kilometers of the critical stages.

I got my wish and watched Landis win, but I liked watching riders like Dessel, Pereiro, and Fuente, who found unexpected glory and fought to keep it. The same goes for Cunego, who seemed to come alive in the last week. I am also a sucker for a Virenque-like exploit in the mountains, and both Rasmussen and Landis accomplished that with style.

On the upside

The fact that there wasn´t a great leader and a great team give us the show we want. Everyone Could Win ( except George Hincapie🙂 ).
At the end the guy that Give us the best demonstration of strenght Won!

The great battle of best youg rider.

On the downside.

Discovery and Iban Mayo

In no particular importance

1 The remarkably international nature of the successes fromThe Americas, Europe, Eurasia, Oceania. Cycling's showpiece is now a world event.

2 The propriety adn courage of T-mobile in telling ullrich to leave.

3 Dessel. Superb performance from a Journeyman.

4 Landis. Pure class on and off the bike.

5 Ras. The Kind of the Mountains always deserves a mention.

6 Hushovd mugging Robbie on the Champs.

How strange it was to see a tour without Jan Ullrich at some point or another. So strange that during one of the early stages I stepped away from the TV to finish shaving and when I returned I saw the classical Jan Ullrich, T-mob jersey unzipped, huffing an puffing up an accent ???? What ? (I said to myself) Jan Ullrich? It took me a second or two to realize it was a commercial and not the 2006 TdF.

[font=Times New Roman]I will never forget the image of the camera panning over to the Prolog start gate and no one was up to the line. I think it was Al Trautwig who said - - “WHERE’S FLOYD ?!?!” [/font]

[font=Times New Roman]Five fingers, four fingers, three fingers, two fingers….. “WHERE’S FLOYD ?!”[/font]

[font=Times New Roman]lw[/font]

WHO DARES WINS!
Pereiro dared to go in breakaway, worked like hell and finished second.
Landis dared to try suicidal attack and won.
Dessel too, Cunego also... The list is endless.

The Tour is all about that - courage, self - confidence.

I understand the sentiment, but... in any race there are lots of failed breakaways, so it's not just the winners who gave it a go, there are lots of "losers" also. I guess I have a lot of feeling for those guys and don't want them to be overlooked. 🙂

But you do have to either dare or be a machine (LA) to win, and of course have luck.

Major kudos to those you list.

Andrija said:

WHO DARES WINS!
Pereiro dared to go in breakaway, worked like hell and finished second.
Landis dared to try suicidal attack and won.
Dessel too, Cunego also... The list is endless.

The Tour is all about that - courage, self - confidence.

One final thought : TV viewership for the 2006 TDF was down significantly.

43% down in Germany.
52% down in USA
And 23% down in France.

In addition, roadside numbers were also down according to the Guardians Bill Fotheringham.

It is not known if this drop in support is due to Puerto or the World Cup.

limerickman said:

In addition, roadside numbers were also down according to the Guardians Bill Fotheringham.

I heard that they scheduled the biggest days for weekdays to actually reduce the size of the crowds on the mountain roads.

DiabloScott said:

I heard that they scheduled the biggest days for weekdays to actually reduce the size of the crowds on the mountain roads.

Fotheringham made the point that Pla de Beret stage was significantly down.
He also pointed out the ITT (on Saturday) didn't have as big attendance as usual.

Maybe they did schedule weekdays for bigger crowds..

DiabloScott said:

I heard that they scheduled the biggest days for weekdays to actually reduce the size of the crowds on the mountain roads.

Heard the same.

limerickman said:

One final thought : TV viewership for the 2006 TDF was down significantly.

43% down in Germany.
52% down in USA
And 23% down in France.

In addition, roadside numbers were also down according to the Guardians Bill Fotheringham.

It is not known if this drop in support is due to Puerto or the World Cup.

Where do you get those figures limerickman?

I suspect puerto had some small influence, the world Cup soccer none at all and the exceptionally good weather in france and generally in western europe a lot to do with it.

tiogar said:

Where do you get those figures limerickman?

I suspect puerto had some small influence, the world Cup soccer none at all and the exceptionally good weather in france and generally in western europe a lot to do with it.

I think in Germany the lack of participation by and negative publicity concerning Jan Ullrich must have had a huge effect. Much is being made of the fact in the German media today that while the T-Mobile reception in Bonn with Ullrich attracted 10,000 people without Ullrich the crowd was in the hundreds.