Smokin Joe
Squire
- Location
- Bare headed cyclist, Smoker
Tour de France - Stage 21 - SPOILER
- Thread starter Keith Oates
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
byegad
Legendary Member
- Location
- NE England
I've been watching semi live. I record it on my DTR and start play back well after the start of coverage. That way I can jump through the advertisements. Still ready to scream every time I clipped Boardman's sound bights.
Despite starting to watch at least an hour of start of coverage I've caught up a couple of times and watched the later part live.
Despite starting to watch at least an hour of start of coverage I've caught up a couple of times and watched the later part live.
I recall now in a similar way to the Boardman adverts, that when I watched "The Tour of California", I started to pull my hair out with those Tetley beer adverts, night after night, but I had to endure them as I had not recorded the programme.
Usually, when the tour was live in the afternoon, I would record it, then after almost after half an hour or more, start to watch it, skip the adverts, and eventually I would almost catch up to real time towards the end in the last few kilometers when they stopped putting the adverts on.
Also, I noticed that fat tub of lard made an occasional apperance during the TDF with his "Go Compare" adverts, give me the Boardman adverts any day to that cack. At least I never laid in bed trying to sleep with, "I used often wonder why there was a second and third place on the podium" going through my mind repeatedly, unlike the "Go compare advert" which could keep me awake for hours once the tune stuck in my mind.
Usually, when the tour was live in the afternoon, I would record it, then after almost after half an hour or more, start to watch it, skip the adverts, and eventually I would almost catch up to real time towards the end in the last few kilometers when they stopped putting the adverts on.
Also, I noticed that fat tub of lard made an occasional apperance during the TDF with his "Go Compare" adverts, give me the Boardman adverts any day to that cack. At least I never laid in bed trying to sleep with, "I used often wonder why there was a second and third place on the podium" going through my mind repeatedly, unlike the "Go compare advert" which could keep me awake for hours once the tune stuck in my mind.
Hello
Good being retired, I watched every stage every day, best tour I have seen in years, and to say I was not jumping up
and down at the end of todays willing that man in green over the line first is an under statement.
I knew it had been a good tour when the wife had to lift me from the settee at the end of the afternoon
Good being retired, I watched every stage every day, best tour I have seen in years, and to say I was not jumping up
and down at the end of todays willing that man in green over the line first is an under statement.
I knew it had been a good tour when the wife had to lift me from the settee at the end of the afternoon
That may be but its down in the also rans section of the BBC News Front Page while Lewis Hamilton and Cadel warrant big headlines. He does a little better on the Sports Front Page but its dominated by Hamilton and Formula 1.
HLaB
Marie Attoinette Fan
Cathryn
Legendary Member
- Location
- Marlborough, Wiltshire
Very belatedly....what a fantastic result!!! We watched it in bed (first thing in the morning) and were shouting at the TV, even Arthur was shouting!! A great result all round!!
Cathryn
Legendary Member
- Location
- Marlborough, Wiltshire
I knew it had been a good tour when the wife had to lift me from the settee at the end of the afternoon
That made me cackle for a long time!!!
NickM
Veteran
- Location
- Darwin's birthplace
Er - I was out cycling...
Certainly a very good TdF this year. I found the Pyrenees a little too cat-and-mouse, but lots of fun elsewhere.
As to Mark Cavendish being BBC SPOTY, cycling just isn't that sort of sport.
I'd love it if Cav were recognised by SPOTY, but in truth very few people follow stage racing or even care or know very much about it.
I'm not sure the SPOTY award is really meant to have any credibility. It's not about credibility; I think it's just a big media jamboree. It doesn't pretent to be anything else... It's about condensed sport on TV for grannies, isn't it?
Stage racing is much more popular in the UK than it was 10 or 20 years ago, but in terms of viewer numbers it cannot compete with football, boxing, golf, tennis, rugby, F1 and the like.
Ask ten people in a UK street who won the TdF, what the Green Jersey is for, why some riders have red numbers... most will have no idea. Ask the same people what the Ashes are, who won the FA cup, who won the Derby and they'll know. Ask the same group of questions in France, Belgium or Spain and the results will be reversed.
Like James Toseland a few years back, I imagine Cavensish might be on the short list, but with no expectation of winning. There'll be a little montage of the Tour during the SPOTY show and everyone will clap.
That's all that's needed, really. The Tour is a great event if you like this sort of thing, but utterly dull and inpenetrable if you don't. I do; my family don't. Most of my friends don't. Most people I know would be gobsmacked if a 'drugged-up bike rider' won SPOTY.
Let's just enjoy the spectacle and the fury and forget about pointless TV awards. (Unless he wins it)
Anecdote warning: When Armstrong won his first Tour, a guy I knew who had read about the race came to me in shock and said "It turns out the only reason he won is that he had a massive team doing all the work for him." That is representative of the level of understanding of Stage Racing in the UK.
Beebo
Firm and Fruity
- Location
- Hexleybeef
Cav will get in the top ten for SPOTY, but will be very lucky to get 3rd place. Cycling is like rowing it will only get noticed in an Olympic year if we win loads of golds. It is a public popular vote - remember Phil Taylor was on the SPOTY podium last year. AP McCoy was a deservibg chamoion IMO but it took him 10 years and Brand National win before he got any recognition.
2011 has already produced 2 major golf winners, Alistair Cook's Ashes heroics, Amir Khan's boxing and we still have the Athletics world champs and the Rugby Worls cup to come, so by December there will be loads of sportmen with a chance of winning SPOTY, by which time Cav will have been forgotten.
2011 has already produced 2 major golf winners, Alistair Cook's Ashes heroics, Amir Khan's boxing and we still have the Athletics world champs and the Rugby Worls cup to come, so by December there will be loads of sportmen with a chance of winning SPOTY, by which time Cav will have been forgotten.
It might be better if he gets no where near the studio for the sake of all involved. For reasons outlined above he's unlikely to win but my mind turns to interviews with Nicole Cooke by the BBC in recent years.
Adrian Chiles: Do you ever fall off?
NC (very curtly): I don't fall off. SOmetimes I crash.
Radio 4 interview after she'd won the Tour Feminin (or something)
Interviewer: So, you've won the Olympics, 10 national championships and the Tour Feminin what next?
NC (Lists all the other major races she'd won that year): Well, I'm 26 and I've won everything there is to win, so it's a case of motivating myself to do it all again
Interviewer (stunned silence as he realises that he had no idea how successful she'd been): erm, yes, erm, so, erm obviously that's great success, erm, how do you motivate yourself...?
Given that Cooke, overall has been even more successful than Cav, and in the decade 1999-2009 was one of the most prolific and consistent sportswomen in the world, let alone the UK and has only had the odd patronising interview on SPOTY, I'd say Cav's chances look even slimmer.
Adrian Chiles: Do you ever fall off?
NC (very curtly): I don't fall off. SOmetimes I crash.
Radio 4 interview after she'd won the Tour Feminin (or something)
Interviewer: So, you've won the Olympics, 10 national championships and the Tour Feminin what next?
NC (Lists all the other major races she'd won that year): Well, I'm 26 and I've won everything there is to win, so it's a case of motivating myself to do it all again
Interviewer (stunned silence as he realises that he had no idea how successful she'd been): erm, yes, erm, so, erm obviously that's great success, erm, how do you motivate yourself...?
Given that Cooke, overall has been even more successful than Cav, and in the decade 1999-2009 was one of the most prolific and consistent sportswomen in the world, let alone the UK and has only had the odd patronising interview on SPOTY, I'd say Cav's chances look even slimmer.
I don't see that it follows that if pro cycling becomes more mainstream that it would be safer for cyclists on the roads.
Football is mad popular, but there are still 'no ball games'signs all over estates and parks, and people often complain about kids kicking a ball about in the street.
There is also a massive moan every time football match crowds clog up London roads
Football is mad popular, but there are still 'no ball games'signs all over estates and parks, and people often complain about kids kicking a ball about in the street.
There is also a massive moan every time football match crowds clog up London roads
