Paris-Tours, who will win it?

Powerful Pete said:

Well, so who will it be?

I have to check the starting lineup. Another Zabel-Petacchi race?

Ale-Jet has a few things to prove following the World Championships.

Don't know if was translated, but the first words out of Bettini's mouth after his victory in Zurich were... 'well, this time I had a team to help me...' 🙄

Paolo was expressing some thoughts, eh ?
I thought that the Azurri should have worked harder for PB in Madrid but that's only my opinion.

Paris-Tour is traditionally a sprinters race.
Got to favour Petacchi but if Boonen is going, he might just have a say as well.

limerickman said:

Paris-Tour is traditionally a sprinters race.
Got to favour Petacchi but if Boonen is going, he might just have a say as well.

Boonen is done - surgery.
Pettachi is burnt.
Zabel needs something big- WINNER

limerickman said:

Paolo was expressing some thoughts, eh ?
I thought that the Azurri should have worked harder for PB in Madrid but that's only my opinion.

Paris-Tour is traditionally a sprinters race.
Got to favour Petacchi but if Boonen is going, he might just have a say as well.

PB: No i don`t think it`s not just your opinion. We spoke a lot about it during a trainingsession this week and we all wondered why PB was left alone.

For Paris-Tours: I hope Zabels is gonna win, but i am not sure if it`s just hoping (i like Erik very much, he is a real nice guy and needs another win at the end of the season..)

cyclingheroes said:

PB: No i don`t think it`s not just your opinion. We spoke a lot about it during a trainingsession this week and we all wondered why PB was left alone.

For Paris-Tours: I hope Zabels is gonna win, but i am not sure if it`s just hoping (i like Erik very much, he is a real nice guy and needs another win at the end of the season..)

I believe that most people think that the team should have supported Bettini more, but then again, out worst result was the Zolder WC with the team working exclusively for Cipo. Now the National DS believes that going with a single captain is the only way to win. Just about everyone else disagrees, but there you have it. 🙁

I like Zabel too, but I think that, unless he has a particularly good day and the other boys (a la Ale-Jet) have a bad one he does not stand to win.

But let us see...

cyclingheroes said:

For Paris-Tours: I hope Zabels is gonna win, but i am not sure if it`s just hoping (i like Erik very much, he is a real nice guy and needs another win at the end of the season..)

Zabel does need a win, but France needs one even more. Thus far this season, French teams and French riders have won NO ProTour events, only managing to pick up a few stage wins (and many of those were claimed by foreign riders on French teams). T-Mobile won L-B-L with Vino', and German squad Gerolsteiner took the Team Time Trial competition.

So for this, the last race on French soil of the innaugural ProTour season, I will select (based on factors entirely outside the realm of empiricism) JP Nazon to come out of nowhere and take it for Ag2r (marking the first overall ProTour victory by a non-ProTour squad.) My even-more-sentimental favorite is Jimmy Casper, but he doesn't tend to do well after more than 170k of racing.

You folks will have to tell us in the States how it turns out. I'm sure Our Lame Network will be showing their daily "Hot to be a Survivor in your RV whilst Barbecuing the Bull you just rode in the Rodeo." marathon.

Chance3290 said:

You folks will have to tell us in the States how it turns out. I'm sure Our Lame Network will be showing their daily "Hot to be a Survivor in your RV whilst Barbecuing the Bull you just rode in the Rodeo." marathon.

Are people out there still watching OLN in hopes of seeing some bike racing? Unforkingbelievable. It's the "Only Lance Network," and guess who just retired? Honestly, I was stunned they even did the Giro this year.

Fortunately Cycling.TV has probably got your back. I've seen Tour Down Under, Het Volk (live), KBK (live), Paris-Brussels, the World Championships (though I saw those up close), Euskal Bizikleta (albeit in Spanish), Tour of Britan, Tour of Romandy, Gent-Wevelgem, Tour de Suisse etc etc

They didn't announce it, but their webpage says they'll have Championships of Zurich later this week. Wouldn't suprise me if they came up with Paris-Tours in a few days, too.

Chance3290 said:

You folks will have to tell us in the States how it turns out. I'm sure Our Lame Network will be showing their daily "Hot to be a Survivor in your RV whilst Barbecuing the Bull you just rode in the Rodeo." marathon.

OLN is having a one hour Paris-Tours show Sunday afternoon.

I'm pulling for Zabel.

DiabloScott said:

OLN is having a one hour Paris-Tours show Sunday afternoon.

I'm pulling for Zabel.

You're [censored] me!!?? Thanks, DS. I just went on their website and could find anything.
Thanks for the heads up.
OK, OLN, I take back some of the nasty stuff I said about you. You [censored].

cosmo_the_third said:

Fortunately Cycling.TV has probably got your back. I've seen Tour Down Under, Het Volk (live), KBK (live), Paris-Brussels, the World Championships (though I saw those up close), Euskal Bizikleta (albeit in Spanish), Tour of Britan, Tour of Romandy, Gent-Wevelgem, Tour de Suisse etc etc

They didn't announce it, but their webpage says they'll have Championships of Zurich later this week. Wouldn't suprise me if they came up with Paris-Tours in a few days, too.

COSMO!! :eek: YOU DA MAN!!😄
I don't know how I've missed this one. But now I'm not going to get any work done.

Chance3290 said:

OK, OLN, I take back some of the nasty stuff I said about you. You [censored].

Well, it's also on at 5-6pm, so expect the OLN tape-delay slice-and-dice. I'll never forget the '04 Roubaix, when Boonen, Flecha and Hincapie (man, that group sounds familiar...) got away, OLN went to commercial, and when they came back, it was gruppo compatto, and no one spoke of the break again.

And then there was the '04 Amstel Gold race, where the coverage was so chopped up that one minute Erik Dekker would have a few seconds gap, they'd do some feature on Trek's new '04 bike, cut back to the front and Boogerd would be away. Even Phil Liggett had no clue what was going on.

The last time I had something nice to say about OLN was during the '03 Vuelta (which they broadcast every stage of). The image of Heras doing that final uphill TT so fast that he had to throw the brakes on to make it around corners is forever burned into my mind. The last week of that race was one of the greatest comebacks ever.

oh, and Petacchi is out of Paris-Tours.

Chance3290 said:

You're [censored] me!!?? Thanks, DS. I just went on their website and could find anything.
Thanks for the heads up.
OK, OLN, I take back some of the nasty stuff I said about you. You [censored].

They probably got a package broadcast deal with TdF since they're both put on by ASO. I'd much rather have seen Zurich or Lombardia. If we could get Eurosport here without buying some 50 channel package from DirecTV, I'd never watch OLN again.