The Cycliste Moderne, October 31, 2005

Tour de France Announcement

Thursday was the launch of the Tour de France with the presentation in Paris. Next year’s Tour will follow a fairly traditional route. The Tour will pass through Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain as the race makes the counterclockwise trip around France.

The Tour’s homage to the Spring Classics continues with trips to Valkenburg in the Netherlands (the finish of the Amstel Gold Race) and Huy in Belgium (the finish of the Fleche Wallone). The mountain stages have some of the classic climbs of Tours past. Stage 11’s finish in Spain comes only after passing over some of the most famous climbs in the Pyrenees: the Col du Tourmalet, Col d'Aspin, Col de Peyresourde, and Col du Portillon. The first stage in the Alps finishes on the slopes of the L’Alpe d’Huez. The next stage crosses the Col du Galibier before going over the Col de la Croix-de-Fer. The Tour will include two individual time trials of 52km and 55km.

The big change in the Tour de France this year is the elimination of the Team Time Trial from the route. The event had returned to the Tour in 2000, having been part of the Tour off and on over the years after being removed from the Tour in the early 1990’s. Clearly Lance Armstrong and his team have been the dominant team in the team time trial over the last three years.

Next year’s Tour should be exciting if you are actually able to watch it.

Tour de France Announcement Part Deux

The actual announcement of the Tour, however, only came after the Tour’s organizers made a lengthy presentation on the problems of drugs in cycling. The organizers made no reference to Armstrong’s past seven victories other than to say they were closing a “very long chapter” in the Tour’s history. The Tour organizers appeared to be in a time warp. From the content of the Tour announcement, you would have thought that nothing had been done to address doping in cycling or that anything had happened since the Festina scandal.

In fact, the video montage displayed by Tour organizers conspicuously lacked any references to Armstrong, causing you to wonder if the Tour had not happened since 1998. Many of the team directors in attendance were critical of the approach taken by Tour organizers. Johann Bruyneel, director of Discover Channel, was highly critical of the snubbing and criticism of Armstrong’s legacy.

Clearly the Tour is glad to have Lance gone.

Media and Cycling

This week I was faced with a significant dilemma in my consumption of television. Dish Network and Comcast are engaged in a bitter broadcast dispute which resulted in Dish removing OLNTV from its satellite system. Dish has advised viewers that they can watch the Outdoor Network instead of OLNTV.

Dish has in the past cut off networks in fee and broadcast disputes. When they cut off channels my kids watched for a few days, I did not really care. However, when OLNTV got cut off I sent Dish an e-mail indicating that when my cable system got rid of OLNTV, they told me that I could watch the Outdoor Network instead which caused me to go and get satellite. Guess how Dish responded? They told me I could watch the Outdoor Network instead of OLNTV.

I guess I will be moving to DirecTV come March when OLNTV’s spring cycling schedule starts. Oh, the occupational hazards of running a cycling media company and blogging on the status of European cycling. I am really torn, however, because DirecTV does not have RTPi, which I get so I can watch the Portuguese Superliga Saturday Match of the Week, as well as “Top Mais” the Saturday morning Portuguese music show.

Media and Cycling Part Deux

If you did not stay up and watch Lance Armstrong host Saturday Night Live, you did not miss much. Lance took the expected shots at the French and their treatment of him. Of course, they started with the requisite urinalysis jokes, cycling jokes and Sheryl Crow jokes. The monologue was the highpoint of the show. Armstrong clearly ought to race bikes and do commentary because comedy is probably not going to be his next career.

Happy Halloween

Though this is the least favorite of the Cycliste Moderne’s holidays, this Halloween has shown that we have succeeded in brainwashing our son. Our nine-year-old is trick-or-treating as a cyclist. We call it simply “going for a ride.” He is bemoaning the fact that he does not have a pair of cycling tights. He is even wearing a musette for his treat bag. He will look quite authentic begging for candy alongside a cheerleader and a bunny.

Cycliste Moderne Hiatus

The Cycliste Moderne will take a hiatus over the next couple of weeks as we make our annual pilgrimage to the Netherlands to buy cycling art and memorabilia. We are going to visit cycling museums in Roeselaere and Oudenaarde, Belgium as well as Nijmegen in the Netherlands. We will be sure to give you a complete travelogue when we return.