The Zen Tour Fan
Since my personal life has become more complicated than I'd like I've decided to focus my blogging on the Tour de France.
Not that my feelings about the Tour are simple this year either. You see, my favorite team (CSC) lost a rider in the off season. In fact, they lost my favorite rider. Dave Zabriskie switched to the Garmin-Chipotle team. He's not riding in the tour though, so I suppose I'm still free to cheer for Team CSC, and they've got a decent shot, with Frank Schleck, at winning the Tour. He's likely to lose time in the next time trial, but there are still a couple more mountain stages where he could gain enough time to offset the losses he'll see in the time trial. As it stands now he's only got 8 seconds on Evans, 38 seconds on Menchov, 39 on Vandevelde, and 49 on Sastre. Since Carlos Sastre is probably (technically) the CSC team leader, I don't think Schleck would mind losing to him. He lost a minute forty-seven to Evans in the previous time trial which was only about half as long as the upcoming one. Menchov and Vandevelde got time on Schleck in the time trial as well (both weren't far behind Evans).
I suppose I'd also like it if an American to won it. Even though I'm a huge fan of the CSC team and of the Schleck brothers, I'd love to see Vandevelde (who's racing on, the American sponsored, Garmin-Chipotle team as well), win this year.
My loyalties as a cycling fan are difficult to define. Its not like there's a home town team to root for. Although Tyler Farrar of Garmin-Chipotle is from Washington, he's not on their Tour team this year. You can bet, when he is I'll be rooting for him because he's local and because I have the added benefit of having met him and seen him race a bunch locally before he joined a pro team. Obviously, I have a certain amount of national loyalty. I like to see Americans winning races.
Beyond that, I couldn't say why I root for certain riders. I prefer the classics to the tours so I tend to like sprinters, and classics riders more than grand tour contenders. Also, it's not as much a situation where I like rooting for the underdog (like in baseball). I like winners, but I also like guys who seem laid back, whether they win or lose they say in the interviews something like, "Yeah it was/would have been great to win, but it's just a bike race". I like Tom Boonen, despite his resent arrest for cocaine, for all those reasons (i.e. he wins a lot, mostly in sprint stages or one day classics, and doesn't seem to care one way or the other), but I also like the way he looks in spandex so who's to say which of those are the reason I root for him.
This year...I guess I'm just enjoying watching the race and not really invested in the outcome so much.
Not that my feelings about the Tour are simple this year either. You see, my favorite team (CSC) lost a rider in the off season. In fact, they lost my favorite rider. Dave Zabriskie switched to the Garmin-Chipotle team. He's not riding in the tour though, so I suppose I'm still free to cheer for Team CSC, and they've got a decent shot, with Frank Schleck, at winning the Tour. He's likely to lose time in the next time trial, but there are still a couple more mountain stages where he could gain enough time to offset the losses he'll see in the time trial. As it stands now he's only got 8 seconds on Evans, 38 seconds on Menchov, 39 on Vandevelde, and 49 on Sastre. Since Carlos Sastre is probably (technically) the CSC team leader, I don't think Schleck would mind losing to him. He lost a minute forty-seven to Evans in the previous time trial which was only about half as long as the upcoming one. Menchov and Vandevelde got time on Schleck in the time trial as well (both weren't far behind Evans).
I suppose I'd also like it if an American to won it. Even though I'm a huge fan of the CSC team and of the Schleck brothers, I'd love to see Vandevelde (who's racing on, the American sponsored, Garmin-Chipotle team as well), win this year.
My loyalties as a cycling fan are difficult to define. Its not like there's a home town team to root for. Although Tyler Farrar of Garmin-Chipotle is from Washington, he's not on their Tour team this year. You can bet, when he is I'll be rooting for him because he's local and because I have the added benefit of having met him and seen him race a bunch locally before he joined a pro team. Obviously, I have a certain amount of national loyalty. I like to see Americans winning races.
Beyond that, I couldn't say why I root for certain riders. I prefer the classics to the tours so I tend to like sprinters, and classics riders more than grand tour contenders. Also, it's not as much a situation where I like rooting for the underdog (like in baseball). I like winners, but I also like guys who seem laid back, whether they win or lose they say in the interviews something like, "Yeah it was/would have been great to win, but it's just a bike race". I like Tom Boonen, despite his resent arrest for cocaine, for all those reasons (i.e. he wins a lot, mostly in sprint stages or one day classics, and doesn't seem to care one way or the other), but I also like the way he looks in spandex so who's to say which of those are the reason I root for him.
This year...I guess I'm just enjoying watching the race and not really invested in the outcome so much.
posted by Beth at
12:43 PM
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