Who didn't see the Tour

"John B" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Coming home today on the train from Petersfield, it seemed the whole
world had been at leTour - the guard, the refreshment trolly man, the
chap I sat next to, and the couple opposite.
They had all been and were ecstatic about the excitement of the event..

I then called in our local butcher to find he too was wearing a leTour
T-Shirt.

Incredible.
If you coudnt get there you missed out on some real cycling history.

According to reports on the BBC, two million people turned up to watch. Is
there any other sporting event in the UK which generates such popular
support? Which of course raises the question of why the media think that it
is something to be ignored usually?

"John B" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Coming home today on the train from Petersfield, it seemed the whole
world had been at leTour - the guard, the refreshment trolly man, the
chap I sat next to, and the couple opposite.
They had all been and were ecstatic about the excitement of the event..

I then called in our local butcher to find he too was wearing a leTour
T-Shirt.

Incredible.
If you coudnt get there you missed out on some real cycling history.

John B

I saw a bit of it on TV. I don't have digital so I was rationed to watching
the last bit as the riders approached Canterbury. The sporting group of the
local cycling club organised a ride to Tunbridge Wells and I was considering
joining them but the thought of trying to keep up with them for 70 miles on
a mountain bike put me off.

Adam

Adam Lea said:

"John B" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Coming home today on the train from Petersfield, it seemed the whole
world had been at leTour - the guard, the refreshment trolly man, the
chap I sat next to, and the couple opposite.
They had all been and were ecstatic about the excitement of the event..

Quoted message said:

I then called in our local butcher to find he too was wearing a leTour
T-Shirt.

Quoted message said:

Incredible.
If you coudnt get there you missed out on some real cycling history.

Quoted message said:

John B

I saw a bit of it on TV. I don't have digital so I was rationed to watching
the last bit as the riders approached Canterbury. The sporting group of the
local cycling club organised a ride to Tunbridge Wells and I was considering
joining them but the thought of trying to keep up with them for 70 miles on
a mountain bike put me off.

Adam

Le Tour is _THE_ reason for getting digied up, IMHO.

John B said:

Coming home today on the train from Petersfield, it seemed the whole
world had been at leTour - the guard, the refreshment trolly man, the
chap I sat next to, and the couple opposite.
They had all been and were ecstatic about the excitement of the event..

I then called in our local butcher to find he too was wearing a leTour
T-Shirt.

Incredible.
If you coudnt get there you missed out on some real cycling history.

John B

I rode to Dartford. A round trip of 87 miles. I even got to ride a
stretch of the route, with the roads closed off and the police clapping
and cheering as I went past. Had a superb day... the crowd was awesome,
and the people around me were generally interested in the goings on.

Even the calls on the way home from drivers shouting "France is that way
mate!" made me laugh, each and every time.

It's the first time I'd been to that area on bike, and Shooters Hill was
a joy to descend early on a Sunday morning.....

John B said the following on 09/07/2007 22:29:

Quoted message said:

Coming home today on the train from Petersfield, it seemed the whole
world had been at leTour - the guard, the refreshment trolly man, the
chap I sat next to, and the couple opposite.

Tour? What tour? :-)

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

in message <[email hidden]>, John B ([email hidden]'😉

Quoted message said:

Coming home today on the train from Petersfield, it seemed the whole
world had been at leTour - the guard, the refreshment trolly man, the
chap I sat next to, and the couple opposite.
They had all been and were ecstatic about the excitement of the event..

I then called in our local butcher to find he too was wearing a leTour
T-Shirt.

Incredible.
If you coudnt get there you missed out on some real cycling history.

I didn't see the Tour. It's a long way, I don't like crowds, and I work on
two stage races every year (and organise a number of smaller events).
However...

Crowds over the weekend are now being estimated at more than four million.
If that is so, 8% of the whole population of England - of the whole of
England - turned out to watch. The number on the roadside on Sunday
exceeded the whole population of Kent.

More people went to watch the Tour than went to watch all events of the
Athens Olympics put together. The number of people who went to watch the
tour is double the capacity of all the football stadiums in England put
together.

And bike racing 'isn't popular' in Britain?

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
;; If any council in the country has anything to say to cyclists
;; about cycle paths, it should be: "We are terribly, terribly sorry."
- Zoe Williams, The Guardian, 13th Sept 2006

In article <[email hidden]>, Simon
Brooke <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Crowds over the weekend are now being estimated at more than four million.
If that is so, 8% of the whole population of England - of the whole of
England - turned out to watch. The number on the roadside on Sunday
exceeded the whole population of Kent.

Huge numbers of foreigners including French, Spanish, Italians, Germans,
Dutch, Aussies and Americans were also present, judging from the many
accents and tongues I heard from my various vantage points.

First of all I was near the start on Whitehall, then at the south east
corner of Buckingham Palace - directly across the course from Didi Senft
(El Diablo) who was shouting up a storm, then the Mall and finally St
James Park flat out in front of the big screen, which had the best view
of the lot.
--
congokid
Eating out in London? Read my tips...
http://congokid.com

Simon Brooke said:

Crowds over the weekend are now being estimated at more than four million.
If that is so, 8% of the whole population of England - of the whole of
England - turned out to watch. The number on the roadside on Sunday
exceeded the whole population of Kent.

You can see me on the telly at the top of the Quarry Hill climb by
going to <http://tour.itv.com/>. Click the Video button and select
"Stage 1 - McEwen's Kent comeback". At exactly 19:00 minutes I am on
the left in a steward's hi-viz orange vest, wearing shorts, sunglasses
and an official Tour cap. I yelled something like "Go, Dave, go" as
they shot past and one "go" is clearly audible on the soundtrack. :-)

--
Dave...

dkahn400 said:

You can see me on the telly at the top of the Quarry Hill climb by
going to <http://tour.itv.com/>. Click the Video button and select
"Stage 1 - McEwen's Kent comeback". At exactly 19:00 minutes I am on
the left in a steward's hi-viz orange vest, wearing shorts, sunglasses
and an official Tour cap. I yelled something like "Go, Dave, go" as
they shot past and one "go" is clearly audible on the soundtrack. :-)

Autographs, autographs ;-)

John B

Simon Brooke said:

John B (') said:

If you coudnt get there you missed out on some real cycling history.

I didn't see the Tour. It's a long way, I don't like crowds, and I work on
two stage races every year (and organise a number of smaller events).
However...

I didn't see the tour, though it's quite close.

I'm not very interested in watching any sport and I really _really_
don't like crowds (probably verging on the phobic - certainly I get
irrational sensations of unease and discomfort heading towards panic).
Even the photos of it make me feel a bit iffy.

If you need to stand in crowds to experience cycling history, you're
welcome to it.

regards, Ian SMith
--
|\ /| no .sig
|o o|
|/ \|

dkahn400 said:

You can see me on the telly at the top of the Quarry Hill climb by
going to <http://tour.itv.com/>. Click the Video button and select
"Stage 1 - McEwen's Kent comeback". At exactly 19:00 minutes I am on
the left in a steward's hi-viz orange vest, wearing shorts, sunglasses
and an official Tour cap. I yelled something like "Go, Dave, go" as
they shot past and one "go" is clearly audible on the soundtrack. :-)

That's inflation for you. It used to be 15 minutes for fame but now its
down to just 2 seconds ;-)

Tony

On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 11:22:20 -0000, dkahn400 <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Simon Brooke said:

Crowds over the weekend are now being estimated at more than four million.
If that is so, 8% of the whole population of England - of the whole of
England - turned out to watch. The number on the roadside on Sunday
exceeded the whole population of Kent.

You can see me on the telly at the top of the Quarry Hill climb by
going to <http://tour.itv.com/>. Click the Video button and select
"Stage 1 - McEwen's Kent comeback". At exactly 19:00 minutes I am on
the left in a steward's hi-viz orange vest, wearing shorts, sunglasses
and an official Tour cap. I yelled something like "Go, Dave, go" as
they shot past and one "go" is clearly audible on the soundtrack. :-)

Mrs. Hall is on t'telly too, as they approach Goudhurst. She's on the
left hand side of the road,part of the Tandem Club Massive, but not in
TC kit. My right leg also gets its 15 milliseconds of fame a frame or
two later.

Tim

Tim Hall said:

My right leg also gets its 15 milliseconds of fame a frame or
two later.

You was robbed. One field in the UK should be 20ms. A whole frame
should be 40ms. :-)

Tim.

Quoted message said:

On Jul 10, 6:30 pm, Tim Hall <[email hidden]> wrote:
You was robbed. One field in the UK should be 20ms. A whole frame
should be 40ms. :-)

So was he robbed or framed? ;-)

Tony

icogs wrote on 09/07/2007 23:19:

Quoted message said:

Le Tour is _THE_ reason for getting digied up, IMHO.

I have a passing interest in it and watched a little on ITV4 the other
day. However, the bandwidth allocated to the channel combined with the
bike uplinks corrupting meant that it was pretty much unwatchable - the
artefacts were just horrible. Since I wasn't too bothered I didn't
persevere.

Without getting into a uk.tech.broadcast style discussion about digital
TV and thte bandwidths given to different channels... I'm surprised it
didn't put other people off too.

Peter

--
http://www.scandrett.net/lx/
http://www.scandrett.net/bike/

Peter Scandrett said:

icogs wrote on 09/07/2007 23:19:

Quoted message said:

Le Tour is _THE_ reason for getting digied up, IMHO.

I have a passing interest in it and watched a little on ITV4 the other
day. However, the bandwidth allocated to the channel combined with the
bike uplinks corrupting meant that it was pretty much unwatchable - the
artefacts were just horrible. Since I wasn't too bothered I didn't
persevere.

Without getting into a uk.tech.broadcast style discussion about digital
TV and thte bandwidths given to different channels... I'm surprised it
didn't put other people off too.

Check your aerial - we watched it on a 40" screen and it was fine..and
my eyesight's not that bad.

Tony

burt said:

"John B" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

news:[email hidden]...> Coming home today on the train from Petersfield, it seemed the whole

Quoted message said:

world had been at leTour - the guard, the refreshment trolly man, the
chap I sat next to, and the couple opposite.
They had all been and were ecstatic about the excitement of the event..

Quoted message said:

I then called in our local butcher to find he too was wearing a leTour
T-Shirt.

Quoted message said:

Incredible.
If you coudnt get there you missed out on some real cycling history.

According to reports on the BBC, two million people turned up to watch. Is
there any other sporting event in the UK which generates such popular
support? Which of course raises the question of why the media think that it
is something to be ignored usually?

you spot on the media think cricket tennis fi and soccer.they dont
know a good sport just take the drug issue out of cycling which is a
bad thing but the crashes they have and get back up

In news:[email hidden],
Tim Hall <[email hidden]> tweaked the Babbage-Engine to
tell us:

Quoted message said:

Mrs. Hall is on t'telly too, as they approach Goudhurst. She's on the
left hand side of the road,part of the Tandem Club Massive, but not in
TC kit. My right leg also gets its 15 milliseconds of fame a frame or
two later.

Can I have your leg's autograph, O Mighty Tim :-)

--
Dave Larrington
<http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk>
Where's the gin?

Quoted message said:

burt said:

"John B" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Coming home today on the train from Petersfield, it seemed the whole
world had been at leTour - the guard, the refreshment trolly man, the
chap I sat next to, and the couple opposite.
They had all been and were ecstatic about the excitement of the event..

Quoted message said:

I then called in our local butcher to find he too was wearing a leTour
T-Shirt.

Quoted message said:

Incredible.
If you coudnt get there you missed out on some real cycling history.

According to reports on the BBC, two million people turned up to watch. Is
there any other sporting event in the UK which generates such popular
support? Which of course raises the question of why the media think that it
is something to be ignored usually?

you spot on the media think cricket tennis fi and soccer.they dont
know a good sport just take the drug issue out of cycling which is a
bad thing but the crashes they have and get back up

I think there is a difference between a once in a childhood event like
Le Tour coming to Britain and a week-in, week-out sport like football,
rugby or cricket or even a regular annual event. The novelty factor
brings out a lot more people to watch than would otherwise. How many
would come out to spectate if there was a yearly big race in Britain?
Well we have the latest incarnation of The Tour Of Britain. On a
shorter, city based stage maybe up to 100k will watch (I don't know
about the longer stages). This is still a good turnout.

Also I am not sure it is ignored by the media - this year I have seen a
number of track cycling events on terrestrial TV, and some mountain
biking. Which is more live / as-live coverage than there is of cricket
on terrestrial TV. Although if you add in radio coverage cricket does
rather better. Many popular sports get even less coverage than that.

Obviously if you are a big fan of sport cycling then you would want more
coverage. If you have only a casual interest in sport cycling then I
think the coverage is at about the right level. If you have no interest
then those people would say too much already.

--
Andy Leighton => [email hidden]
"The Lord is my shepherd, but we still lost the sheep dog trials"
- Robert Rankin, _They Came And Ate Us_