Tour de France 2014

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I doubt that I will get back to this thread for another 6 months, but I thought it might be useful for anybody planning a trip to England next year to see that there will be multiple opportunities to see the Tour in the land of Albion.

I am pretty certain that I will see at least one stage next year (not in England) because the Tour will be visiting both Verdun (for historical reasons) and Nancy. Both cities are part of my heritage and places where I go regularly, so I'm sure I can work on a Schedule that will have me and the Tour in the same place at the same time.

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Freed of its preoccupations with the World Cup, France can now concentrate on the Tour, which starts tomorrow.

Here is a thorough article from The Independent about the British stages.

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If Mark Cavendish is already out on the very first stage, which was supposed to be the best day of his life, I really find that tragic.

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I was pleased to read that the choice of Sheffield as the termination of today's stage was at least partially to help people to forget the Hillsborough stadium tragedy of 1989. On 15 April 1989, there was a human crush in the stadium in Sheffield that killed 96 people and injured 766 others. While this event can never be forgotten in this city (or probably in England), at least the Tour de France gives a new positive memory for the city to cherish.

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Now that the Tour has entered its rainy and cold phase, I bet they can't wait to pedal down south to those places where they have to unzip their jerseys. But that won't be for another 3 or 4 days...

imageshack.com/a/img856/4536/exrv.jpg

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I was thrilled to see Blel Kadri win today's stage, not just because he is a nice guy from Toulouse but because he is yet another example of how wrong the racists and xenophobes are. His mother raised her 4 sons alone -- two sets of twins!

Their mother bought two bicycles for the younger twins (now age 24) when they were 5 years old, and Blel has been obsessed with cycling ever since. When the mother would take the 4 kids on vacation in the summer, there was only one bicycle attached to the car, because everybody else would go to the beach while Blel rode his bike.

It's nice when someone's dreams come true.

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A French cyclist is wearing the yellow jersey tonight, something which as become quite rare in recent years. That's the first time since the poisonous Armstrong years which had their last gasp in 2011.

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I think they are trying to kill the riders this year. After a week in the cold and rain, now they are baking them as they climb the mountain passes.

All of the top stars are already out of the running.

www.letour.fr/le-tour/2014/fr/abandons.html

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Oh, it was so cruel what happened to Jack Bauer today. I understand why he cried like a baby. No, I am not talking about Kiefer Sutherland but about the tragic New Zealand cyclist.

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I have been watching everday and if I happen to miss the afternoon's rendition then I watch from a comfortable pile of pillows in my nice warm bed! My new wider than wide screen TV is doing good things for Le Tour!
I feel for the old favourites but now someone who wouldn't normally be up there in the running has a crack at it.
I would very much like to see part of the tour one day, and not from the sardine tin Rue de Rivoli again!

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I once watched from the Champs-Élysées, Tod, and enjoyed the event much more than I had expected.

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I suspect that the fact that the Tour de France ends tomorrow has something to do with the 3 days of national mourning not beginning until Monday.

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