Tour de France 2012

I think the brits who go out to support british cyclist on the continent will be viewed as the scottish or irish are when they go out for the rugby/football, a rambunctious, but good natured drunken rabble.

Got to say also this constant drip drip of dismay, disgust, cynicism, at what Sky have accomplished feels like super accelerated tall poppy syndrome, before the tour there was this fear that bradley wouldn't live upto expectation, even though the course suited him, and Sky had been smashing all and sundry in the shorter stage races. And now before he's even won the thing, we're pissing on his chips, and saying the achievement isn't as great as it "could" be.

Sky have no contract with the public to put on a spectacle, or provide drama, their aim is to win the tour. End of story. Win ugly, or lose dramatically, just so the audience, the fans can say what a smashing tour it was. It will be a historic tour, just like it was last year, Wiggins first briton to win it, two britons (plastic or not) in the top two positions, and a professional team that looks like it could win more grand tours in the coming years, and be a launchpad for a whole generation of good/great british riders to compete in professional road racing.

How is that boring?

I'm so fucking happy that this is happening whilst I'm of an age to enjoy it, and to see what may happen in the future...

I don't think the tour has been boring at all. Between Sagan and Voekler alone there's been a lot of attacking, then Sanchez, Pinot, and especially Millar's wins were awesome, and Cadel's mountain performances have been a bit of a sad spectacle even without the carpet tacks to add some pathos if the crashes hadn't already.

Sky have figured out a winning formula and bossed it quite clinically. It's not been much of a spectacle though, and despite the hard work and effort and resulting kudos the Twiggy One deserves, people are mardy little slags for drama and seeing passion spunked all over the place like a drunken sailor in a brothel after 6 months at sea. Brailsford with some micro-scales and a rectal thermometer combined with Sky's PR management doesn't do this so the natives get restless.

I'm happy for Wiggo as he's deserved the win, but indifferent to the whole British aspect of it, and incredibly jealous of the generation of UK youngsters that will have seen this tour and will grow up enchanted by it from a very young age and enjoying their cycling.

But again, incase this be misinterpreted, bravo the multinational Sky team for their collective efforts, well done Cav for shelving his personal ambitions in aid of the overall win, well done Froome for tanking it up every hill like a beast, and well done Wiggins for translating such a mammoth amount of hard work and practice into such a comprehensive performance.