Pity the poor French...

in 511067 20060702 235416 'Brian Phillips said:

Lance retires, Ullrich and Basso and Vino are out, and they still won't be
able to win their own damn race... not even a foreign rider on a French team
will win it!

Pity the poor bugger who feels obliged to trot out this Francophobic rubbish.

"Bob Martin" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

in 511067 20060702 235416 "Brian Phillips"

Quoted message said:

Lance retires, Ullrich and Basso and Vino are out, and they still won't be
able to win their own damn race... not even a foreign rider on a French
team
will win it!

Pity the poor bugger who feels obliged to trot out this Francophobic
rubbish.

It was ASO who decided NOT to allow substitutions on teams thereby
automatically eliminating Vinokourov. I can see no reason for this "no
substitutions" rule other than to attempt to eliminate foreign riders and
boost the French percentage of particupation.

Not that it will do any good in the long run. Can anyone think of a
Frenchman with a chance other than from sheer luck to win even a stage?

And this has NOTHING to do with drugs and EVERYTHING to do with the fact
that the French simply do not bicycle anymore. Totaly aside from my own
experiences there I can cite a man who toured around France for 6 months. In
a town near the Mediterranean he said that while riding through a town he
saw another cyclist and that they were both so surprised they stopped in the
middle of the street and just stared at each other in shock at seeing
another cyclist in France.

When you have all of the kids going out for football and no one going out
for cycling you simply don't have enough of a talent base to find the
insipient Lance Brasforts.

Tom Kunich said:

Not that it will do any good in the long run. Can anyone think of a
Frenchman with a chance other than from sheer luck to win even a stage?

Jimmy Casper?

"Tom Kunich" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Bob Martin" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

in 511067 20060702 235416 "Brian Phillips"

Quoted message said:

Lance retires, Ullrich and Basso and Vino are out, and they still won't
be
able to win their own damn race... not even a foreign rider on a French
team
will win it!

Pity the poor bugger who feels obliged to trot out this Francophobic
rubbish.

It was ASO who decided NOT to allow substitutions on teams thereby
automatically eliminating Vinokourov. I can see no reason for this "no
substitutions" rule other than to attempt to eliminate foreign riders and
boost the French percentage of particupation.

Wrong again, Tommy. It was the teams that decided on no replacements.

Teams spokesman Patrick Lefevere said that there will be no replacements for
the riders who have been taken out. "We have unanimously decided to send all
the riders who are on the list home, and not to substitute them."
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2006/jun06/jun30news3

And where's the cite to Merckx taking money from ASO to not ride the 1973
Tour? You are such a putz.

Quoted message said:

Tom Kunich said:

Not that it will do any good in the long run. Can anyone think of a
Frenchman with a chance other than from sheer luck to win even a stage?

Jimmy Casper?

David Moncoutie

Tom Kunich said:

Quoted message said:

I can cite a man who toured around France for 6 months. In

a town near the Mediterranean he said that while riding through a town he
saw another cyclist and that they were both so surprised they stopped in
the middle of the street and just stared at each other in shock at seeing
another cyclist in France.

Your friend has a penchant for hyperbole or he's just full of
[censored].......I'm thinking the later.

jj1075

in 511338 20060703 232825 'Tom Kunich said:

And this has NOTHING to do with drugs and EVERYTHING to do with the fact
that the French simply do not bicycle anymore. Totaly aside from my own
experiences there I can cite a man who toured around France for 6 months. In
a town near the Mediterranean he said that while riding through a town he
saw another cyclist and that they were both so surprised they stopped in the
middle of the street and just stared at each other in shock at seeing
another cyclist in France.

My son has just spent two weeks cycling in Provence.
He said there were cyclists everywhere.

Bob Martin a écrit :

Quoted message said:

in 511338 20060703 232825 'Tom Kunich said:

And this has NOTHING to do with drugs and EVERYTHING to do with the fact
that the French simply do not bicycle anymore. Totaly aside from my own
experiences there I can cite a man who toured around France for 6 months. In
a town near the Mediterranean he said that while riding through a town he
saw another cyclist and that they were both so surprised they stopped in the
middle of the street and just stared at each other in shock at seeing
another cyclist in France.

My son has just spent two weeks cycling in Provence.
He said there were cyclists everywhere.

Not to worry. We ride. TK is not abstracted from reality. He is just
writing silly lies to draw attention to himself. A modest personality
disorder, cured by removing the keyboard.

Sandy said:

A modest personality disorder, cured by removing the keyboard.

As modest as madonna.

Sandy said:

Bob Martin a écrit :

Quoted message said:

"Tom Kunich" <[email hidden]> wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

middle of the street and just stared at each other in shock at seeing
another cyclist in France.

My son has just spent two weeks cycling in Provence.
He said there were cyclists everywhere.

Not to worry. We ride. TK is not abstracted from reality. He is just
writing silly lies to draw attention to himself. A modest personality
disorder, cured by removing the keyboard.

Removing TK's keyboard from what orifice?

In article <[email hidden]>,

Quoted post said:

Sandy said:

Bob Martin a écrit :

Quoted message said:

"Tom Kunich" <[email hidden]> wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

> middle of the street and just stared at each other in shock at seeing
> another cyclist in France.

My son has just spent two weeks cycling in Provence.
He said there were cyclists everywhere.

Not to worry. We ride. TK is not abstracted from reality. He is just
writing silly lies to draw attention to himself. A modest personality
disorder, cured by removing the keyboard.

Removing TK's keyboard from what orifice?

Removing his cranium from his orifice might be even more helpful.

--
tanx,
Howard

Never take a tenant with a monkey.

remove YOUR SHOES to reply, ok?

Sandy said:

Bob Martin a écrit :

Quoted message said:

in 511338 20060703 232825 'Tom Kunich said:

And this has NOTHING to do with drugs and EVERYTHING to do with the fact
that the French simply do not bicycle anymore. Totaly aside from my own
experiences there I can cite a man who toured around France for 6 months. In
a town near the Mediterranean he said that while riding through a townhe
saw another cyclist and that they were both so surprised they stopped in the
middle of the street and just stared at each other in shock at seeing
another cyclist in France.

My son has just spent two weeks cycling in Provence.
He said there were cyclists everywhere.

Not to worry. We ride. TK is not abstracted from reality. He is just
writing silly lies to draw attention to himself. A modest personality
disorder, cured by removing the keyboard.

Close, but not quite right. TK takes silly positions to draw attention
to himself. The silly lies are then needed to support the silly
positions.

BTW, I saw very many cyclists when I was in France last year, but any
time I spoke to one, they turned out to be either German or Dutch. I
quickly stopped assuming that the guys riding Treks in full
Postal/Discovery kit were Americans.

Bret

In article <[email hidden]>,

Bret said:

TK takes silly positions to draw attention to himself.

Regarding the need for attention: like all the times he's posted (and not just in
this forum) lists of the bikes in his garage.

--
tanx,
Howard

Never take a tenant with a monkey.

remove YOUR SHOES to reply, ok?

"Bob Martin" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

in 511338 20060703 232825 'Tom Kunich said:

And this has NOTHING to do with drugs and EVERYTHING to do with the fact
that the French simply do not bicycle anymore. Totaly aside from my own
experiences there I can cite a man who toured around France for 6 months.
In
a town near the Mediterranean he said that while riding through a town he
saw another cyclist and that they were both so surprised they stopped in
the
middle of the street and just stared at each other in shock at seeing
another cyclist in France.

My son has just spent two weeks cycling in Provence.
He said there were cyclists everywhere.

In 2001 I spent three weeks in July in France. Two weeks around Dijon and up
to Lausanne and back through Basancon - out to Lyon and the final week in
Paris.

Inland I didn't see one single bicycle in two weeks save a couple of farmers
riding down the road to another field pulling trailers with hand tools in
them. There were a few bike shops but they were combination bike-motorcycle
shops and had only a couple of bicycles in the place.

In Paris I managed to find three bicycle shops. Not one of them had anything
that I'd call an upper end road bike in stock though the one out in
northeastern section that had some moderate priced road bikes from the
French conglomerate with if memory serves the Mercier name upon them. Not a
bad bike but in just about any California bike shop you'd find three times
as many bikes and at least several high end frames around the place.

There were some sort of "bicycle tours" that started down near the Eiffel
Tower in the mornings. The used mountain bikes and rode very slowly about
the central section of Paris.

I didn't see an upper level road bike until the day before the Tour ended in
Paris. Then on the morning of the final stage, which was a circuit race
inside of Paris, there was some sort of group ride around the closed course
before the race started. In the US there would have been hundreds if not
thousands on such a ride. In Paris I observed perhaps a hundred cyclists
maximum and only a small percentage of those were serious looking cyclists
with good equipment.

During the race I sat in a square at Picpus which was the top of the
circuit. I was with a man from Britany and had a conversation with him about
the lack of bicyclists I'd noticed. He AGREED that there were few cyclist in
France save in the Britany region.

As a contrast, when I went up to Lausanne there were bike lanes along the
lake and there were THOUSANDS of cyclists riding in an almost continuous
stream one way or the other around the lake. And a VERY large percentage -
perhaps half - were new TOP END bicycles, many Colnagos, and most of the
rest were much older but still top of the line for their time cycles.

Three weeks isn't a long time and the Côte d'Azur in July isn't densely
populated but nevertheless I saw far more cyclists in Switzerland in 10
minutes than in three weeks in France.

By the way - L'Equipe special that July wasn't on the tour - it was on
football! When I asked for a copy of the newpaper L'Equipe the vendor would
talk about football and football only. When I mentioned cycling they would
often be at a loss. Even more telling was when I asked about L'Tour they
would look around and ask "what tower?"

"Tom Kunich" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Bob Martin" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

in 511338 20060703 232825 'Tom Kunich said:

And this has NOTHING to do with drugs and EVERYTHING to do with the fact
that the French simply do not bicycle anymore. Totaly aside from my own
experiences there I can cite a man who toured around France for 6 months.
In
a town near the Mediterranean he said that while riding through a town he
saw another cyclist and that they were both so surprised they stopped in
the
middle of the street and just stared at each other in shock at seeing
another cyclist in France.

My son has just spent two weeks cycling in Provence.
He said there were cyclists everywhere.

In 2001 I spent three weeks in July in France. Two weeks around Dijon and
up to Lausanne and back through Basancon - out to Lyon and the final week
in Paris.

Inland I didn't see one single bicycle in two weeks save a couple of
farmers riding down the road to another field pulling trailers with hand
tools in them. There were a few bike shops but they were combination
bike-motorcycle shops and had only a couple of bicycles in the place.

In Paris I managed to find three bicycle shops. Not one of them had
anything that I'd call an upper end road bike in stock though the one out
in northeastern section that had some moderate priced road bikes from the
French conglomerate with if memory serves the Mercier name upon them. Not
a bad bike but in just about any California bike shop you'd find three
times as many bikes and at least several high end frames around the place.

There were some sort of "bicycle tours" that started down near the Eiffel
Tower in the mornings. The used mountain bikes and rode very slowly about
the central section of Paris.

I didn't see an upper level road bike until the day before the Tour ended
in Paris. Then on the morning of the final stage, which was a circuit race
inside of Paris, there was some sort of group ride around the closed
course before the race started. In the US there would have been hundreds
if not thousands on such a ride. In Paris I observed perhaps a hundred
cyclists maximum and only a small percentage of those were serious looking
cyclists with good equipment.

During the race I sat in a square at Picpus which was the top of the
circuit. I was with a man from Britany and had a conversation with him
about the lack of bicyclists I'd noticed. He AGREED that there were few
cyclist in France save in the Britany region.

As a contrast, when I went up to Lausanne there were bike lanes along the
lake and there were THOUSANDS of cyclists riding in an almost continuous
stream one way or the other around the lake. And a VERY large percentage -
perhaps half - were new TOP END bicycles, many Colnagos, and most of the
rest were much older but still top of the line for their time cycles.

Three weeks isn't a long time and the Côte d'Azur in July isn't densely
populated but nevertheless I saw far more cyclists in Switzerland in 10
minutes than in three weeks in France.

By the way - L'Equipe special that July wasn't on the tour - it was on
football! When I asked for a copy of the newpaper L'Equipe the vendor
would talk about football and football only. When I mentioned cycling they
would often be at a loss. Even more telling was when I asked about L'Tour
they would look around and ask "what tower?"

ROTFL. No wonder you can't come up with support for your Merckx 1973
assertion. Your reality is delusional.

Tom Kunich wrote:
[nutbar stuff that I've snipped]

Tom also believes that McCarthy had lists, we needed to invade Iraq to
protect the US from WMDs, global warming is a left-wing conspiracy, aero
equipment doesn't have any benefit, and that Bush is competent.

In article <[email hidden]>, "Robert Chung" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Tom Kunich wrote:
[nutbar stuff that I've snipped]

Tom also believes that McCarthy had lists, we needed to invade Iraq to
protect the US from WMDs, global warming is a left-wing conspiracy, aero
equipment doesn't have any benefit, and that Bush is competent.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

--
tanx,
Howard

Never take a tenant with a monkey.

remove YOUR SHOES to reply, ok?

"Robert Chung" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Tom Kunich wrote:
[nutbar stuff that I've snipped]

Tom also believes that McCarthy had lists, we needed to invade Iraq to
protect the US from WMDs, global warming is a left-wing conspiracy, aero
equipment doesn't have any benefit, and that Bush is competent.

Does this therefore mean that you don't believe that:

1) McCarthy had lists?
2) Iraq had WMD?
3) Global warming is man-made?
4) Aero equipment is worth the expense to a beginning racer?
5) You're competent to judge Bush's competence?

This ought to be really interesting if you have the guts to answer.

Tom Kunich said:

"Robert Chung" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Tom Kunich wrote:
[nutbar stuff that I've snipped]

Tom also believes that McCarthy had lists, we needed to invade Iraq to
protect the US from WMDs, global warming is a left-wing conspiracy,
aero equipment doesn't have any benefit, and that Bush is competent.

Does this therefore mean that you don't believe that:

1) McCarthy had lists?
2) Iraq had WMD?
3) Global warming is man-made?
4) Aero equipment is worth the expense to a beginning racer?
5) You're competent to judge Bush's competence?

This ought to be really interesting if you have the guts to answer.

Hmmm. I think your response shows that I was pretty accurate in my
description of your beliefs.