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I'm really surprised to read here that the Tour was a success commercially,
it never was on its own,
relying heavily on newspapers when they were influential and very profitable.

Nowadays the Tour is a franchise indirectly subsidized to the hilt,
with a 20% margin after tax.
I bet running a female race would dent their profits.

If only pro cycling wasn't a white heterosexual male only affair.

The Tour operates with a margin of 20% on average,
even on the 98 Festina Tour
thanks to the free help (financial/manpower/etc) of many administrations, local bodies .
And scant regard to employment laws.

They could certainly set up a women's race.
There was one in the past.

Internal note fom French Customs:
"Please take into account the intense media coverage surrounding the event."
"Do let us know of any controls targetting teams and supporting staff, or family members of riders."
"We do not recommend systematic controls of teams"

This will make for a drug free tour: the weight watchers tour?

samples are kept for 8 years i think

Would you know if it is a mandatory requirement,
are all the testing labs keeping some samples ?
Can't find anything on this.

I'd welcome an injection of knowledge.

Luckiest cyclist of the month award.

I do hope nobody photographs me when I fail to ride up Ditchling :-(

Who cares,
the picture is lovely.

My best cycling memory includes far less elegant walking.
Failed to find a student job one summer,
sold all my vinyls to finance a trip to Italy.
Never having toured before I left home saying:
" if I don't make it over the Alps I'll be back in 4 days"
Making it over the Mont Cenis pass, involved 3 bouts of very unlegant walking.
Italy was mine for the following month.
On the way back I took revenge and breezed up all the pass I could find from the sea to Chamonix.

A sad quote of the head of AFDL, almost an unvoluntary stand up line.
When they fished out the frozen samples taken on the Tour,
to run the newly available EPO test on them.
"There were so many positives that we thought we had made a mistake in the process".

I have been wondering if samples are still frozen and kept for future new testings.

^ Amazing.
I bet the rider could have fed the O- Shit moment thread.

No issues about the route of the Tour crossing "your" motorway appart from the distraction of drivers, the tolls will be rolling as well.
There will be a lot of traffic around that area.
The best way to find out about road restrictions are the local papers,
they will print the usual "how to" avoid/go to the Tour articles .
Mostly they will use this :
http://www.bison-fute.equipement.gouv.fr/fr/les-previsions-regionales-r191.html

the document called "communiqué de presse" for your dates seems unavailable yet,
but here is what it is like for the Marseille stage:
http://www.bison-fute.equipement.gouv.fr/fr/IMG/pdf/Tour_de_France_5eme_etapes_-_03_07_2013.pdf
Please do not assume that cars around the Tour are cycling minded.

The picture is beautifull, the size of the jump terrifying.
But it's this industry standard nowadays that bugs me.
Bikes way too heavy to be used even on the flat, far too expensive to buy and service.

The shooting spots are heavily doctored,
the ramp is obvious here, the landing area either flatened or well used,
going up generally implies quads, trucks, even helicopters on high budjet shootings.

I really enjoy this thread, it gets me to look for stuff I wouldn't look for otherwise,
thanks all.

There is a paragraph in this piece:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2004/mar/07/cycling.features
mentioning a hematocrit of 60% on arrival in emergencies in 95.

Is this an unofficial world record ?

I use a very sharp knife and tap gently on the back of the blade going around,
go steady, open the gap very slowly.
When the blade is about to touch the steerer, use another tool or the back of the blade.

Don't try to get some movement straight away,
just go around taping,
when something moves , don't rush, make it level, repeat etc..

I'm glad you're recovering well.
It's very traumatic though and difficult to come to terms with,
I wouldn't spend some time on my own on the scene alone,
get a friend to go with you .

I don't really understand all this:
if I floor somebody while playing football there,
and very elegantly wonder off without leaving my details,
when somebody is badly injured.
I would expect to be in trouble if my identity was found out.

Can someone please teach the French about dog leads!

Corsica is reknown for it's free roving cows and pigs,
so we did put an effort in to avoid any on that roads.

As you are now all training for hills to do some touring there,
please don't call anybody French there ;)

Great, teams complain about rider safety then put someone who has had a head injury back in to a race where crashes are almost certain and the route contains some difficult descents.

Rugby guidelines for light concussion(internationaly defined):
no physical or otherwise efforts during the first 48h,
another example of cycling having health far away from their agenda.

I' m half Corsican, not very pleased at the moment.
Just a few clues from the video above:
the arch is mobile and set up higher in the morning to allow general trafic through,
divers have to ask verbal authorisation to use the road to the arrival,
it was given to him but the arch is lowerered for the arrival,
apparently it got through thanks to deflated tires.
The road managing must be very difficult,
very few options available,
the advice to locals was: "don't take your car".

As we're having a little wandering about in other sports.
The AFDL who kept deep freezed samples of Armstrong and Jalabert amongst others,
until new tests were available, has been sidelined from testing on the Tour.
Their highest number of positive this year comes from rugby.

Dibs ,
on the meat.

Fixed brakeless truck ?

It's not very fashionable but overheads cables used to be common,
the amount of work needed to put them back on is nothing,
compared to the road works and space needed to set up a tram line.
But tram lines look sleek and are an easier sell for mayors .
As a cyclist a tram line equals 2 car lanes gone,
but the rails involved are vicious.

Does a CUNT bidon,
thrown at another competitor during a sprint ,
qualifies as an insult ?

Therefore saving you being expelled.
0.34 here:
1997 Tour de France Stage 6 - YouTube

  >>>  >>>>>>>

Virenque works for Eurosport, don't know if he does extensive live commentating.
There's an appaling commercial for this.
I'm no expert on this: even when I still watched the Tour I was turning the sound off.
Jalabert has been working on the national French TV for a decade,
coanchoring live , doing interviews pre and post podium, very high profile.
About Virenque "doping unbeknownst of my own free will",
the quote was an instant urban myth,
it was coined by the local spitting image.
Jalabert used roughly the same line of defence when interwied by the senate,
this could explane why these elderly gentlemens leaked his name.
Saves embarassement to the national TV,
to the Tour managing team as well,
who's headed by the former head of sports of the very same national TV.

Lovely,
the colour is unusal as well.
Mine is a year or so older, not in this condition.
The frame is incredibely strong :
I started touring with far too much weight on it.
Flicking it into corners, loaded, in the alps or the Pyrenees was a test it sailed threw.

Forgot to mention,
in the last picture above,
the empty box bears the commercial name of EPO in Spain.
Local products, ethics!

The French Senate enquiry's final document will be published in full on the 18th of July.
More names will come out.
Jalabert as "decided " to give up his TV consultancy job to "concentrate on his defence".

He deserves to get caught his pants down.
He was always in denial of any doping commentating the Tour live.
Still in denial.
"Dr"Sainz , Dr Pedro Celaya ( in 99 ex US Postal), Dr Ferrari looked after him.

As for others a few positives were followed by very diplomatics DNS.
Vuelta 95 win for Jaja,
here is what the Doc bedroom's bin looked like:
http://www.alternativeditions.com/2013/06/06/laurent-jalabert-compl%C3%A9ment-d-enqu%C3%AAte/