bucsfan11

Well I am sure many of you try and watch it early in the morning, but what is your rotuine while watching the race or before?

I get up around 6-7 a.m. and watch it for an hour but then doozeback off for 2 hours then watch the end. when I wake up Dammit I wish I could watch the whole thing without sleeping. I am thinking about taking some sleeping pills tonight at around 9 p.m. so I can be up nice and early to watch the whole thing without doozing off.

Any tips on your routine?

BCRoad

Being on the west coast, there's no way I'm getting up at 4:30 or 5 to watch the live show so I record it on the PVR and watch it at my leisure later in the day. It's pretty easy to avoid hearing any results until I watch it and fast forwarding through the ads, slow bits, etc. cuts viewing time by almost an hour.

roadrider63

I work third shift, so during the weekdays, I'll just watch it after work if I can stay awake. Otherwise, I'll watch it later in the day on one of the replays.

tbdean

On the east coast it's great.

In earlier years I worked from home. I have an LCD monitor mounted on one wall of my home office to show server and team stats. During July this switched to a DIRECTV Tivo and showed the tour.

Now that I'm not working from home my schedule is to get up at 6, get to work (bike / bus), and then open up the Versus stream and hub.BikeHugger.com.

I miss the beginning on the way in, and I've got a meeting in the morning (daily stand up for all the other coders out there...) but I still get to see a large portion of the stage. On weekends I just watch it whenever.

TechKnowGN

Ive been up every morning this week. when I can watch before work, I do, otherwise I track online from work (video streams disabled) or watch on the weekends.

Gotte

In the UK we have it on during the day from about 1.00 PM to 4.00PM on Eurosport, on cable and satellite, but then in the evening we have an hour's highlights with Phil and the rest on terrestrial (free) TV.
I work from home, so I can have the daytime show on, but then I have to pick the kids up about three, so miss the last hour. I HDD (tivo) the evening show, get the kids to bed, lie on the sofa with a cup of green tea, and then savour every minute.
After about 15 years of watching it, I feel confident enough about the rules to have explained it to my (non-cycling) wife, who has been really getting into it.
Oh, I love this time of years, and am so sad when it's over. It seems so long when staring out into August and seeing nothing but a long winter staring back. It's only about April when I start to get the first anticipation. Luckily we get a lot of the Spring classics on Eurosport. We get the Vuelta and giro, but none of that really compares to the sheer breadth and beauty of the Tour.

biffstephens

I get up about 9...make coffee and eat breakfast and wait till about 10 and start watching....skip the commercials. I try to work while it is on as well. So later that night I might watch the recap show..

Howzit

Leave the DVR on overnight, wake up at 6:30 (West Coast), rewind back to the beginning, watch while fast forwarding through commercials.

Get onto BF with some fresh Lance hating.
Do it all over again

HWS

Wake up, put on the coffee, take a whiz, flip on the tube, grab a cup of joe, sit and watch.

Working swing shift has it's bennies.

Pharmr

I record the original morning broadcast on my DVR and then watch it the evening....I also learned from last year to set the recording to go and extra 15 minutes as to not get cut off without seeing the end!!!...I also get to fast forward thru the commercials and the daily devotional to Lance.

Rumpled

As I'm on the West Coast; it usually takes me three sittings to watch a stage. I DVR the morning VS coverage. When I wake up I watch a little while getting ready to work; usually that gets me thru the pregame stuff. Then I go to work and "watch" the cyclingnews text tracker at work on my Blackberry. Work blocks anything good on the web, so that's my way.
I'll know who won and other details; this guides my watching the rest of the day.
I usually go home for lunch (it's only 2.5 miles) and will watch about 40 minutes there; knocking off an hour or more of coverage. If there's not much of the stage I want to watch, then I can FF thru a lot and finish it off.
After work, I usually get to watch TV after the wife and kid have gone to bed ~9:30 or 10. That's when I'll watch the rest of the coverage.
Always set the DVR for at least half an hour if not an hour extra. This doesn't even help me when a hockey playoff game goes three OT's and I nnly get to see one.

JTownCitycycle

what a great tradition watching the TDF has become for me over the last 10 years.I take it all in,the racing,strategy,the personalities of the racers the atmosphere and the beautiful scenery.I watch almost everything along the road just to see how beautiful France differs from where I live.I watch in the morning and I don't care to admit how many more times I watch it again through out the day lol This is a rite of summer,when it's over the best of summer seems to be over.
God bless Paul and Phil also they are great. They make so much of the break away all the time that I actually rout for the peloton to catch up so that they are not always right lol

sykerocker 

Unfortunately, I work. Double unfortunately, I'm also dropping by and caring for the sister-in-law's cat while she and the wife are up in Maine visiting the parents. This cuts my hours down a bit.

Normal routine: Up at 0530, 12-15 miles roadwork while the coffee brews. Back home, breakfast and read the paper. Leave for work 0800, start the VCR running on my way out the door.

Have velonews.com play by play running in the background in the office.

Home by 2000. Start playing back the morning's taping while doing supper, fast forwarding through all commercials, blather sessions, interviews, etc. - just running the actual racing. Since I've already followed it live on the Internet, I can fast forward through particularly dull stretches if I'm hurting for time that night. Which means I'm done by 2200, take care of a few other matters and between the sheets shortly after 2300, to be ready for tomorrow's roadwork.

Wife comes back this Saturday, that'll free me about two hours in the evening since I can come straight home. My normal work week is Tuesday-Saturday (I work in a motorcycle shop), so I'm working like mad to get next Saturday off. I rarely watch the morning Versus feed live, since that'd get in the way of my workouts, but I'll make an exception for next Saturday.

BluesDawg

I record the morning broadcast on DVR. I avoid news all day at work. Ride after work. Once I get settled in at home I watch the recording, skipping through the commercials.

subframe

I have no TV, and I'm on the west coast. This is my routine:

Wake up around 6:45.
Stumble to the computer
Blearily watch the final few minutes of the race while waiting for coffee.

I wish I lived in France right now.

gear

+1 I hate spending time on commercials. I do love the HD broadcast, its the only reason I keep paying Comcast so much money.

bitterspeak

I'm on the West Coast and I don't have Tivo, DVR, etc.

Every morning, I wake up, do some errands, then ride my bike to my girlfriend's place and watch from 9AM to 11AM.

Gotte

This is my favourite thread here. It's got a really human quality. It's a relief from all those threads that end up being a flame war about whether LA did or did not dope.

Howzit

Aaaaaand there goes the thread! TNX!

SunSwingsLow

Central time here in Chicago...so race coverage starts around 7:00am. Wake up at 8:00 eat breakfast while watching on the dvr...then workout for 1.5 hours...come back catch up on dvr fast forward...watch the break a little, watch all the climbs, watch the last 30-50km only skipping commercials. Total viewing time around 1 hour per day.

Suzie Green

I record each stage on the DVR, then watch it around 5 PM eastern time when hubby gets home. Also helps to fast forward through the commercials and the interviews, none of which really have much to offer. I am a Phil and Paul junkie and could listen to them for hours. Bob Roll is enjoyable and I have warmed up to Craig Hummer a bit more after not liking him all that much a couple of years ago. As much as I liked him as a rider, Frankie Andreu's voice grates on me so I tend to avoid some of the little sidebars that he does. I've been listening to and watching Tour coverage since 1975!

Mr_Christopher

I record the race on my TV thingy...I check the official web site before dropping the kids off at school...I look at the little avatar guys riding their little cartoon bikes..Then I check in again at work...Read many posts here on BF (which has really helped in my understanding and enthusiasm) and then watch the last half hour or so each night.

daxr

I get up at 6 am (PST) and check on the Versus live stream for awhile. If stuff is going on, I stay up and watch. If its another controlled stage where everyone knows what's going to happen (nothing's going to happen, that is) I go bad to bed. I've been pretty well caught up on sleep lately.

dagna

July is all Tour, all the time. Get up around 7am ET, make tea, feed the pets, eat breakfast, check email while the VS coverage starts with the pre-race show. Then around 9am get on the trainer and ride for an hour and a half whilst watching the race, enter my ride on-line in the Tour Challenge site, and watch the end of the race. Leave the TV on VS and let repeats wash over me until time to leave for work around 4pm. Home at 10pm, catch end of night-time Craig & Bob show and check out Bike Forums. Edit recorded stage to remove commercials and transfer to DVD to help get me though the other 11 non-Tour months.

Rinse and repeat.

USAZorro

Wow. I thought I was dedicated dagna.

Up in the morning, stumble across the hall to the office, and turn on the TV while working (why do people schedule conference calls at 9:00 and 9:30 so frequently anyway ) If it's a mountain stage, I watch closely. If not, I make sure I watch the final kms. Watch vs reruns, try to catch the wrap-up show to hear Bobke. Come here to make bad predictions, and rap people who misbehave on the knuckles.