Tour de France

The Prologue for this years Tour is today. Looking forward to 3 weeks of the greatest test of endurance and the longest cycle race on earth!!!

Catch the Prologue is on Eurosport UK (13.15-17.00) 6.4km through Liege.

Remeber watching this when Indurain won every year, until Jan Ulrich beat him. Pantani (dead now) king of the mountains. Use to be brilliant in them days. But I lost all interst with the drugs problems, the whole of the festina team banned at one point.

At least Phil Liggots still knocking about somewhere

Might give it a go.

Great Start by Wiggo 2nd

(30-06-2012 16:00 )mellover Wrote:  Remeber watching this when Indurain won every year, until Jan Ulrich beat him. Pantani (dead now) king of the mountains. Use to be brilliant in them days. But I lost all interst with the drugs problems, the whole of the festina team banned at one point.

At least Phil Liggots still knocking about somewhere

Might give it a go.

indurian was a freak of nature, Indurain had a physiology superior to fellow athletes. His blood took seven litres of oxygen around his body per minute,compared to 3–4 litres for an ordinary person and 5–6 litres for fellow riders. His cardiac output is 50 litres a minute; a fit amateur cyclist's is about 25 litres. Indurain's lung capacity was 7.8 litres, compared to an average of 6 litres. His resting pulse was as low as 28 BPM, compared to an average 60–72 bpm, which meant his heart would be less strained in the tough mountain stages. His VO2 max was 88 ml/kg/min; in comparison, Lance Armstrong's was 83.8 ml/kg/min and Greg LeMond's was more than 92 ml/kg/min.

indurian would make up any time lost in the mountains or time trails in the time trails or the mountains. i would consider indurian to be the best ever, i know armstrong won it 7times in a row but the quality of the field lessened during armstrong's reign now there is a lot of quality cyclists in this years field.

There are too many question marks over Armstrong to call him the best ever. All IMHO etc.

And i really need to get back out on the bike

(01-07-2012 21:08 )bigguy01 Wrote:  Indurain had a physiology superior to fellow athletes. His blood took seven litres of oxygen around his body per minute,compared to 3–4 litres for an ordinary person and 5–6 litres for fellow riders. His cardiac output is 50 litres a minute; a fit amateur cyclist's is about 25 litres. Indurain's lung capacity was 7.8 litres, compared to an average of 6 litres. His resting pulse was as low as 28 BPM, compared to an average 60–72 bpm, which meant his heart would be less strained in the tough mountain stages. His VO2 max was 88 ml/kg/min; in comparison, Lance Armstrong's was 83.8 ml/kg/min and Greg LeMond's was more than 92 ml/kg/min.

I read that on wiki too.

The problem with Armstrong was he did'nt have a good nickname. Miguel Indurain had the brilliantly stupid nickname of "Big Mig" so was more likeable. Cavendish and Wiggins have crap nicknames "Cav" and "Wiggo" but Johnny Hoogerland has the great nickname "Hotpants" so i like to follow him.

(02-07-2012 00:49 )flumpertron Wrote:  The problem with Armstrong was he did'nt have a good nickname.

Marco Pantani = The Pirate.

(02-07-2012 00:49 )flumpertron Wrote:  The problem with Armstrong was he did'nt have a good nickname.

Lance "The Boil" Armstrong.

Has a nice ring to it