most of all, I miss Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen

[aruan]

The Tour de France began yesterday. But with Tom Boonen ousted for an out-of-competition cocaine bust (why even make the distinction if it doesn't matter?) and the entirety of Astana banned over some dirty riders who have since been kicked off the team (meaning Alberto Contador won't get the chance to reprise his win, nor, for that matter, will Levi Leipheimer finally try for his own glory), I feel a little less enthusiasm for the event.

Or maybe I'm just telling myself that because the race is not being shown on any TV station in the Emirates. It might be up on YouTube, but Internet access is sold by gigabytes of bandwidth here, and there isn't a big enough package to let me watch two hours of streaming video daily for a month. Internet in the States may be pathetically slow compared with the rest of the world, but at least it's plentiful and unfiltered.

Comments

[thepouncer.livejournal.com]

Do you know sithdragn? She's big into Le Tour and posts recaps of the stages. It would at least give you a place to talk about it with others?

I'm not watching this year. All the doping scandals are too depressing for me. But it would be awful not to even have the option, especially listening to Phil and Paul.

[gjstruthseeker.livejournal.com]

She seems to have f'locked everything since the end of last year's Tour. I have paper_pusher to whine and cheer at, and Phil's keeping a blog again, but I miss the set decoration of the Tour, the rolling hills and ancient castles and feeding station drama and the running commentary and the immediacy of spectacular events, good and bad. It's amazing to watch - not nearly so to talk about afterward.