chasm54

The parcours impressed me. The organisers got that pretty much right, and set up the conditions for one of the most interesting tours for many years. Some of the young riders impressed me, there seems to be an unusually talented bunch in their early to mid twenties. I was disappointed that Wiggins crashed out, I don't think there's much doubt that he was in the form of his life and would have added to the interest towards the end.

Keith99

How many winners of the TDF does Luxemborg have? How many does the whole of the U.S. have?

chasm54

Quite. And since when was there a minimum size for a nation?

DiabloScott

Only two, but we also got two World Champions (in fact they're the same two guys as the two TdF winners) compared to zero for LUX.

On a "Tour Wins per capita" metric though... LUX is the clear leader.

What is this argument about again?

Kind of Blued

Guys, it was a joke, and a good one, considering that Andy Schleck won the national time trial championship, which is a joke in itself. He has fewer potential competitors than the number of people that live in the metro area of Boise, Idaho for chrissakes.

Is there any way I can sign up for the road race and time trial national championships in Monaco or Lichtenstein? Maybe even Vatican City. Pretty sure I could drop the Pope.

NathanL

I think long term I would have remembered Andy's ride off from the Peloton early in the mountain stage longer if he had won..but he didn't.

Thor's first win in the mountains. I know it was hard but he really made it look easy setting his own pace and riding right to the finish line. Even if he had been a climber it came off great the way he rode at his own pace and he caught him at just the right time.

Romans8:28

Impressed by Cadel big time..... thought for sure he would crack in the high mountains

Impressed by Thomas V.... not certain he is clean (hate to say it, but I do wonder)

Disappointed that Contador lost time in the crash and hurt his knee, I was hoping for a very tight battle royal

bobvonb

impressed by:

HTC machine, including Cav, even my wife who only casually watched was awed by that
Garmin Team, getting 3 riders to finish well consistently was amazing
Thor!
Thor!
Edvard!
Edvard! Watch out for this kid in the next 5 years.
Garmin TT
Cadel's grit
Podium girls
Bobke wanting to ride
FDJ in the breakouts
Europcar team effort
Tommy V. makes me think about my preconceptions of Frenchmen.

disappointed:

Radio Shack bad luck
lack of GC from HTC

predictions:

Garmin will work on strategy to get Tyler to the line better, he clearly has the speed. He'll win at least 2x.
Radio Shack will come back strong and have someone on the podium
Andy S will win next year
HTC will win the Team TT next year
fewer vehicles on the course

dagna

Yep, that was a disappointment for me, too. I hope his recovery is going well and he can be in next year's Tour.

Impressed:
1. Cadel, strong and steady--and then taking the chase of Andy Schleck all on his own shoulders on the Galibier, successfully pulling back enough time to salvage his chances. And that stage got accidentally erased from my DVR--arrrrgggghhhhh!!!!!
2. Rolland. Every time Voeckler was riding over his expectations, hanging with the big dogs, Rolland was there, too. It was like he was invisible, though--the announcers never mentioned him. Then he won on l'Alpe d'Huez. That was sweet!
3. Hoogerland. Just--wow. Triumph in the face of adversity. I'm willing to believe he might have made a run for the polka dot jersey if that car hadn't sent him into the barbed wire. Looking forward to seeing him next year.

Impressive on a lesser scale: The commercials weren't nearly so bad this year. OK, Weezer/Izod was incredibly annoying, but I was singing along with the dog protecting his toys commercial even on the last day... And much gratitude to Road ID for springing for several different commercials, all more or less funny (top marks to Hincapie and Leipheimer in those, though Bob's disappointed groan was the highlight of all of them).

Did it drive anyone else crazy that Liam McHugn pronounces "Tour" like "Tor" (which is of course, how Thor is pronounced). Everytime he did it, I envisioned an inside joke on "Thor de France". Not that there's anything wrong with that.

colombo357

Disappointed by AC's performance.

Hope to seem him back in top form next year and spank everyone like he usually does.

diphthong

impressed: thor and gilbert in the first half of the race, challenges to cavendish that actually worked early on, hoogerland, rolland, voeckler,
smyzd, monfort, voigt, porte, sammy sanchez, contador the last few stages, andy's solo win on the galibier, evans clawing back all the
essential attacks, the galibier mountaintop finish, the massif central, dicey descents and in general, prudhomme's route(s). guy puts a lot of
thought and energy into them-thank you. here's hoping for puy de dome in 2012! haha, somehow forgot about boassen-hagen!

disappointments: radio shack's luck, vino/van den broeck/wiggo crashing out, andy's whining about dangerous descents, contador's form/injured knee.

daytonian

I'm sure we'll have to hear from Vaughters all year how great Danielsons 9th place was and how they are prepping him to top 5 next year. Garmin cracks me up.

Flaneur

Contador's early mishaps and evident tiredness left a leadership void, at the head of the peloton. The willingness of Evans to assume the responsibilities of favouritism- and his fantastic solo chase on the Galibier stage- was the highlight of the Tour.

maxine

Gotte

I'm with you. If I lived on Easter Island, I'm sure I could be world Champion (well, maybe).

kleinboogie

Disappointed: The crashes, several of my favorite riders either lost big time or were taken out, Levi losing gas and that frickin' media car.
Impressed: Cadel/BMC, the whole Leopard Trek team, Garmin/Cervelo, Voeckler, Alberto and Sammy.

Laggard

Curious, is there a US National Champion and when was the last time one stood on the podium at a GT?

Scrabbler

Impressed: Euskaltel - always up to something, for some reason I just like those guys.

Disappointed: Team Radio Shack.

Kind of Blued

Yeah, there's always one road race national champ and one time trial national champ. Can't think of the answer to the second part. Maybe "never", since the national champ road races usually favor riders who aren't quite pure sprinters, and not quite GC/climber types. More of a well-rounded one-day classics type.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_..._Championships

Edit: Leipheimer got 3rd in the Tour in '07 when he was the US Road Race champ.

DiabloScott

Maybe not in the same year for the GC, but here's a guy who stood on the podium with his USPro jersey on as winner of Stage 5 in the TdF 1993...



And later on the GC podium in Paris a few times with different jerseys.

bobvonb

Levi had a good 2007;

2007Champion, USA Cycling Professional Tour
1st National Road Race Champion
1st Overall Tour of California
1st Prologue
1st Stage 5 ITT
1st Copperopolis Road Race
1st Stage 4 ITT, Tour de Georgia
1st Stage 5 Tour de Georgia
1st Stage 3 ITT, Tour of Missouri
2nd Overall Deutschland Tour
3rd Overall Tour de France
1st Stage 19 ITT

I also remember seen George H. wearing the colors in the TdF, but not he didn't make the podium.

Cat4Lifer

he didn't get to wear that stars-and-stripes jersey for the whole year,
because he won some other race--the world road-racing championship, i think
.:Edit:.
and he just managed to beat raul alcala, who beat him in the tour du pont in may, for that stage.

Namenda

Hushovd impressed me the most. Is there anything this guy can't do? He was awesome. The Garmin team, as a whole, was great throughout.

Danielson surprised me. I didn't think he would do nearly as well as he did, this being his first TdF.

Farrar winning on Independence Day was great, as was his tribute to Wouter Weylandt when he crossed the line.

Disappointed by Vinokourov's crash and injuries. He looked really good up til that moment. Love him or hate him, he's damn exciting to watch.

Disappointed that Cavendish won the green jersey, for no other reason than that I don't really like him. Hell of a sprinter, though.

Disappointed in A. Schleck's TT ability, or lack thereof. I could swear that he said he'd been working hard on his TT-ing, but it sure didn't show. I'm certain that he's a lot more disappointed by it than I am, though.

SunSwingsLow

+
Cadel Win - Didnt see that happening
USA sponsored teams doing so well
Europecar - Who thought a team like that could have such great success
Cav and team HTC - Hope they find a sponsor and keep the boy together
Stage 18 and 19 - Old school im gonna go early and see if anyone catches me. Especially AC on 20
Only 1 intm sprint point

-
The crashes and all the contenders knocked out by them especially the Radio Shack boys
KOM comeptition seemed lost in the noise.
No prologue and only 1 ITT - I like the order it creates in the GC early on and i think in part it caused the peleton to ride a little more frenetic.
AC not being at 100%
Schlecks whining.

Keith99

Some people on the site objecting to a Luxembourger wearing the national championship jersey in the TDF.

I was a bit confused by your post, but knowing it was yuo I figured it out. You are saying the U.S. has 2 TDF winners each of which also won a Worlds. You Luxembourg has no Worlds winners , but has more TDf winners than the U.S.

In checking on this I found this interesting tidbit on Charly Gaul:

Rather interesting as some attribute the invention of that technique to a much more recent American. (I do not know of that American making the claim he invented the technique however and in fact would bet that if someone dug they could find that he at some time credited a former rider as his source).

https://www.cyclinghalloffame.com/rid...sp?rider_id=10