Monday, July 24, 2006

An (other) American wins the Tour de France!


Gee, what is it with you Americans and the Tour de France?! Did you decide to take it over for good or what?! (LOL). Last year Lance Armstrong won - for the 7th time - and this year he handed it over to another American: Floyd Landis. Anyway, Sunday I went to the Champs Elysées especially to take a photo of the Tour arrival, just for you. And guess what? I was not the only one... Have a nice week.

33 comments:

  1. Love all those "jelly colours" in lycra, Eric!

    At least "our Aussie" boy got to wear the green jersey a few times :-)

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  2. A great tour. I followed it closely. And now it's on to hip replacement surgery for Floyd (?!).

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  3. It is surprising and pleasing to us that our teams are able to succeed with such consistency. Merci beaucoup for your gracious congratulations.

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  4. Eric, I didn't know that you'd be posting a Tour de France photo today. This is an exciting and fantastic shot! I posted a Tour de Seattle photo for the 23rd. If you don't think you could ride with the stamina of Landis and the cyclists pictured here, you might like to see it. :-)
    And Sally, you crack me up! Too funny,
    -Kim

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  5. I think you had a better place in La Tour de France; taking photos and not riding in hot lycra. How on earth do they pee during the race anyway? Ahh..don't moan everybody...you know you had the same question too!

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  6. Eric, I didn't follow Tour de France, but hey, think about the World Cup......France did better right?

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  7. did u really think u would be the only one at the tour the france? heheh i don´t think. But thanx for going and take a pic exclusively for us. Lance Armstrong had a magic strenght, something that I can´nt find in Landis.

    Greetings from Perú.

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  8. great colors. if it's alright to ask, what kind of camera do u use?

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  9. Great photo! I actually love the other spectators in the foreground. I'm suprised to not see more people taking photos. But then maybe they aren't DP obsessive... :)

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  10. Eric uses a Kyocera Finecam M410R.

    For a review of it got to
    http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_reviews/m410.html

    Eric:

    Thanks for the shot!
    I also followed the race and appreciated the photo.

    Steve in Chicago

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  11. I went to see the tour two weekends ago in Plessala, Brittany. It was great to feel the atmosphere, even though all the riders had passed within 30 seconds!

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  12. I was in Paris twice during the Tour in previous years. Excitement is contagious. THANK YOU for posting this since I miss the crowds, especially when an American wins :>)
    And your photo caught a great :30 sec view!!

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  13. Looks like they have better products than Europeans do...

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  14. Thanks Steverino for your reply to Richard. You are right but I might upgrade in the days to come tada... !

    Grant. True, it's really amazing how fast they go, I was amazed.

    LOL Sarah on the DP obsessive!

    And Perfido, LOL. That's really perfid!

    OK. Gotta go back to work now... ;)

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  15. I plead guilty for not having followed the Tour one stitch this year. But big congratulations to Floyd Landis.

    Michael - OK, I'll admit it, I have wondered about that too before... I'm still waiting to see if anyone will answer your question.

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  16. Hard to open the commenting window today. Maybe they knew I was going to say something silly to answer Michael's question ... )

    What I wonder is how do they manage to keep up this kind of work out in the heat?!!

    Good shot, Eric.

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  17. Of course, YOU would bring this up, Michael!
    They probably sweat out most of any extra water in their bodies - especially in this heat. Are there no rest stops or porta-potties along the way? What about equipment malfunctions or adjustments? And I would think you would get hungry too! I often wondered about the race car drivers as well. I think they (race car drivers) have a setup like the astronauts in their space suits. Anyone who even competes in this race deserves a medal in my book!

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  18. LOL! Aren't there any cyclists out there who know the answer to this? I imagine it's not a very interesting subject to comment on for a blog, but hey, nobody has the answer now do they?!

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  19. Michael, i couldnt help but wonder about the peeing story. i just googled, and found about this blog, from a non-pro cyclist.

    http://blog.france2.fr/coureurscyclistes/index.php/2005/10/05/2685-pisser-tout-un-art

    read until the end, and you'll see how it goes... and sorry for the non-french-familiar...


    Pisser, tout un art »mercredi 5 octobre 2005 à 20:45 :: JOURNAL :: Alerter la modération


    Les aléas du métier...



    1) les chiffres

    - durée moyenne d’une course ou d’une étape :

    5 heures

    - nombre moyen de bidons consommés par coureur :

    4, soit 0,5lx4 = 2 litres


    Conclusion : a. la vessie est rapidement submergée

    b. chaque coureur la vide donc au moins une fois durant la course/l’étape


    2) les chiffres

    - nombre moyen de coureurs dans un peloton :

    8x20 (nombre d’équipes) =

    160 coureurs

    - distance moyenne d’une course/étape :

    180 km


    Conclusion : a. les coureurs disposent d’un peu plus de 1 km chacun pour satisfaire leur envie.

    b. pour un peloton qui roule à 40 km/h, 1 km correspond en temps à 90 secondes. Sachant qu’un pipi n’excède pas 20 secondes, chaque coureur dispose donc de plus de 4 fois le temps nécessaire.


    Cette simple théorie mathématique démontre que l’épineux problème du pipi en course, n’en est, en fait, pas un (problème)…


    Application dans les faits

    Km 96. Les spectateurs se sont massés au bord de la route. Les banderoles à la gloire de leurs héros flottent dans l’air, balayées par un doux vent marin. Les appareils photos sont prêts à faire « clic ». Les fans aguerris, casquette vissée sur le crâne, glacière à portée de main, radio enfoncée dans l’herbe, se redressent sur leurs chaises pliantes. C’est l’heure, le peloton arrive.
    Pas de chance, le km 96, c’est celui affecté à Nicolas*, ainsi que le peloton en a décidé, ce matin avant le départ. Nicolas se laisse donc glisser à l’arrière du peloton, se place le long du bas côté, et se soulage enfin (il se demande d’ailleurs comment le coureur qui doit pisser au 180e km pourra tenir jusque là, sans compter qu’il arrivera dernier de la course…). Il arrose l’herbe fraîche, puis un trottoir, puis une chaise pliante, une glacière, une radio enfoncée dans la pelouse, un sac à dos, des mollets. « Ah ! Mais qu’est-ce donc ! Un coureur qui me pisse dessus ! », disent les uns, « Bon Dieu mais sont-ils devenus fous ! », disent les autres. Choqués, leur admiration envolée, les spectateurs regardent leurs chaussures mouillées.
    Sans doute attirées par ce remue-ménage, les motos suiveuses, autrement dit les caméras, rappliquent promptement. L’image arrive sur les écrans télé. Dans les chaumières, on se marre. Dans les maisons bourgeoises, on planque les enfants de moins de 12 ans, en laissant échapper, le souffle court : « quelle honte de s’exhiber ainsi ! »
    Nicolas, son activité urinatoire** terminée, rouge de honte, tente de se fondre à nouveau dans le peloton. Les quolibets pleuvent. Son nouveau surnom le suivra jusqu’à la fin de sa carrière : « pissette ».


    Voilà donc, en quelques lignes, une théorie mathématique mise en miettes. Dans la pratique, pour éviter ce genre de désagréments (et bien d’autres, cités ci-après), les coureurs se soulagent lorsque plusieurs conditions sont réunies :

    - présence d’une longue ligne droite plate et déserte
    - pas ou peu de vent, sous peine de trimer pour recoller au peloton, voire même de rouler comme un con tout seul, vent dans la gueule, jusqu’à la fin de l’étape ou de la course
    - moment de calme du peloton : pas de poursuite d’échappée, pas d’accélération à l’approche d’un sprint, pas de menace d’attaque (paramètre difficile à calculer…), sous peine, une fois encore, de finir la course tout seul, largué par ses collègues…


    * prénom pris au hasard, ne faisant référence à aucun coureur (même s’il existe des Nicolas dans le peloton) **J’aime bien inventer des mots...

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  20. If we look back in history, language tells us much. The term 'prix' evolved from the Middle French 'peex'. Because of the need to run long distances to gain national athletic acclaim, the racers simply had to hold it. At the end of the race, of course, they all had a 'grande prix'.

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  21. This reminds me. I was listening to the radio in my car yesterday and some radio personalities were talking about the Tour de France and were trying to pronounce the Champs Elysees. It was hilarious listening to these two dumb Americans who probably were only talking about the Tour because their producer told them to, and they were trying sooo hard to pronounce it right. Finally they just gave up and settled on "chomps el-iss-ee-ous."

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  22. charlus...merci pour l'histoire! It was excellent and I only wish it was shorter to translate. At last someone has the answer.

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  23. Too funny, Charlus. So they pee on the way. Not too surprising, really, seeing we've never seen them stop and go hide behind a tree...

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  24. Funny thing is, we don't even watch the Tour de France in the US.

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  25. i'm in the US and i watched the tour on OLN everyday! twice! because in the evening they had their enhanced coverage.

    i was rooting for george hincapie since day one, but i was ecstatic that floyd landis won. especially after that amazing stage win he had to catch back up to the top three. his ride was the "flight of the phoenix" as my boyfriend says.

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  26. Mike is right. In Atlanta, I think few even knew the tour was going on. We follow that about like we follow soccer, oh, I mean football.

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