Tour de France 2008
July 5, 2008
The wait is over. The Tour de France 2008 begins today.
For the next few weeks I’ll be glued to the SBS Television coverage of the event and the official Tour de France website.
The Tour de France has been described as the toughest sporting challenge in the world. The elite athletes who take part face 21 grueling stages with many involving cycling up incredibly steep mountain roads. Some have compared it to marathon running saying that it’s like running a full marathon every day for three weeks.
This year’s favourite to wear the yellow winner’s jersey into Paris is Australian, Cadel Evans. If Evans wins it’ll be the first time an Aussie has won the event. Evans stood on the podium at the end of the event last year in second place, the highest ever finish for an Australian.
So what does the world’s greatest sporting event hold for us this year?
Running from Saturday July 5th to Sunday July 27th 2008, the 95th Tour de France will be made up of 21 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,500 kilometres.
These 21 stages have the following profiles:
* 10 flat stages,
* 5 mountain stages,
* 4 medium mountain stages,
* 2 individual time-trial stages.Distinctive aspects of the race
* 4 mountain finishes,
* 2 rest days,
* 82 kilometres of individual time-trials,
* 17 Category 1, Category 2 and highest level passes will be climbed.
You’ll have to excuse me if I’m a little sleepy over the next few weeks. The stages are run each day in France which is late at night here in Perth.
C’mon Cadel.
Posted in Cycling
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July 5th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
One day I will do a photography holiday in France that coincides with the Tour … it always looks superb & will again enjoy the SBS coverage, if mainly for the scenery!
July 5th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
I understand that it’s hard enough for some of the support cars to make it up some of those mountains so I’m even more impressed by the abilities of the riders.
July 5th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
July 5th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
They’ve got a couple of individual time trials but they’re a bit shorter than in previous years. There’s no team trial and the usual prologue time trial to start the event isn’t happening this year.
July 6th, 2008 at 2:08 am
July 6th, 2008 at 7:11 am
As for press in the US not mentioning the race, I wonder if that doesn’t have more to do with the fact that there are no serious contenders from America this year. From what I read there was little to no interest before Lance started winning and now that he’s gone he’s taken the interest with him.
It’s a different story here in Australia. For the first time I can remember there was a photo of a Tour de France rider on the front page of the paper a few days ago. That’s only because for the first time ever the outright favourite, Cadel Evans, is an Aussie.
Unfortunately, I don’t think that cycling will continue to grab the headlines in Australia or in the US if we don’t have a real chance of winning.
July 6th, 2008 at 8:23 am
afterall you guys are our second cousins …
blessings on you! ENJOY ,,,
July 6th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
July 7th, 2008 at 9:48 am
July 7th, 2008 at 11:09 am
I will be watching along with you. I find the laptop on the lounge beside me with all the news flashes and stage profile info etc from the official website is a really good companion to the large projector screen surround sound and hidef set top box I prefer to view it on,. Last night was insane with the F1, tdf and wimbledon on all at once - i got to bed at 6:30am!
July 7th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
It sure would be nice to see Cadel win.
July 7th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
July 7th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
July 7th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
July 8th, 2008 at 10:44 am