I was watching this the other night and I noticed the best rider was a guy named Quintana. Unfortunately, he wasn't getting enough domestique support.

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Don't take it personally.

How is this still a thing?

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

All updates can be kept in this thread and this thread only.

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I'm not a fan but it was exciting enough to keep me watching. Try it. You can limit yourself by changing the channel the first time the announcer says "dodgy" or "penultimate".

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Don't take it personally.

For the next 10 years.

Where's MOFO?

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

I'm not a fan but it was exciting enough to keep me watching. Try it. You can limit yourself by changing the channel the first time the announcer says "dodgy" or "penultimate".[/quote]

You've said you bike. You wear those shorts? Please don't they don't look good on anybody.

So I've had to watch this in years past and I don't get it.

I don't wear a biking outfit. I also don't ride my bike like I'm in a Grand Tour flying through a park where six year olds are toddling around with sand pails and screaming, "ON YOUR LEFT!!!!!!" like a complete asshole.

I don't really understand the Tour de France rules either, the different jerseys, the timing, the stages, etc. But when the peloton is climbing a mountain with all those guys shoulder to shoulder it's pretty cool.

Also, I appreciate something so venerable with so many traditions.

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Don't take it personally.

Fixed.

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The stuff those guys are doing is way beyond steroids, but so what? They're all trying to get an edge. I recently heard an interview with a guy who wrote a book about doping in sports and particularly the Olympics. Even back in 1908 at the dawn of the modern Olympics there was a movement to keep cycling out because it was a "professional" sport which meant doping was expected. At that time if you were a pro athlete and you didn't do whatever you could to win you were considered to be giving less than your all. Doping was actually expected of a pro. The anti-doping movement in America rose in the late 60's/early 70s and really grew out of an overall anti-drug sentiment. Of course at the same time the East Germans were installing a state-sanctioned doping program for all their athletes, particularly women where the edge would be more pronounced.

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Don't take it personally.

I once heard Bernsie misuse the word penultimate on air, like it means "most ultimate." I was excited. I mean I was really excited about that. It was pretty weird in retrospect.

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Soccer 1,2,3
Spanish Honor Society 1,2,3,4
Forensics 1,2,3,4

"Smiles with Nostrils"

"...no Hmong, go find some blacks"

I heard every night during the race the tour de france riders all get blood transfusions of blood donated by angry chihuahuas.

The best days to watch cycling is when they are climbing mountains. You can get a better sense of how hard they work than if you watch a flat stage.

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Same sex, different habits - who gives a fucking shit
This won't make the species unfurl

It's cool when they come back down a winding hill going like 70 mph. I did one of those things in Hawaii once and was pissing my pants the whole way. The brakes were smoking.

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Soccer 1,2,3
Spanish Honor Society 1,2,3,4
Forensics 1,2,3,4

"Smiles with Nostrils"

"...no Hmong, go find some blacks"

check out stage 12, mt ventoux. one of the legendary mountaintop finishes of the tour. way above the treeline, it looks like a moonscape with thousands of fans lining the road up, it is a ridiculous scene at the top of that hill. it is very hard to fathom that level of fandom for a sport such as cycling in the US, but it is larger than life over there.

Its almost like other countries on the other side of the planet have different cultures than we do. WHY CANT I FIND A WAL MART IN SAINT-ÉTIENNE?

full disclo: I'm about as big of a Francoweeb as you'll find (especially for someone who's never even been to France), but their taste in sports really sucks. I had a pen pal from Auxerre, smack in the middle of landlocked Burgundy, who was an obsessive fan of fucking sailing. For some reason the French get really competitive about their pleasure hobbies, and aside from soccer and rugby really aren't interested in team games. Even the sailing teams, which have crews of three or four, identify themselves soley by some sponsoring brand and the team leader's name. No mention of the others.

That's very similar to Sweden... if you have Sweden rooting for you, you're screwed.

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas