Twitter and the TdF

@LeviLeipheimer Stg 9 finished, uneventful for the most part. Congrats to Fedrigo, they were strong! On our way to the airport now. Flying to Limoges 4 rest


My husband is an avid or maybe RABID road cyclist and racer. For the past ten years, I have been spending the month of July watching the Tour de France. The first couple of years it was half hour coverage on one of the sports channels. Now, it completely takes over the Versus Channel for the month. I have tried very hard not to check cycling news or to flip on the TV at lunch to check out coverage.

Some years I have done better than others. This year, it is almost impossible to not know what is going to happen. I have mastered the TV thing. We DVR the live coverage with Phil & Paul that airs in the morning to watch at night. I have even discovered that if we turn the flat screen we can see it through the window on the deck to be able to enjoy the July weather, dinner, and the coverage.

I am failing with knowing the actual cyclists reporting the results on Twitter. I follow most of the leading cyclists. As I have said before, they get social media. However, I flicked into Twitter this morning while doing research for my interview tomorrow. I was looking up the company, person I am speaking with, and others. There was the tweet above from Levi. Arrgghh!

I am frustrated with myself for looking. Would I trade having the professional cycling community from being so active in social media? Heck NO! I think it is wonderful. No one can provide coverage than the cyclists themselves. They add a good measure of photos, blogs, and video blogs to their tweets. Beyond this, the cyclists are responding the twittersphere on posts that are completely off base. This weekend Lance Armstrong responded to a tweet suggesting there was a conspiracy between Nike CEO, the Astana Director de Sportif Johan Bruyneel to snub Alberto Contador for Lance. The Texan responded,

@BigMiggy Don't think so, mig. @johanbruyneel has the utmost integrity. He's the TEAM director not MY director. (about 23 hours ago from UberTwitter in reply to BigMiggy)


I am also impressed how LiveStrong has been able to capitalize on the tool as well. People are adding the yellow wrist band to their photos. It is getting the word out. I have even dug out my Livestrong band from my jewelry box.


Twitter in reality has given a new dimension to this year's tour. I continue to be impressed with how the cyclists are branding themselves, their teams, and the charities they support. Okay.. now time to get that walk in today with Fiona. She is antsy to get going....

Link to the Lance's video blog on www.Livestrong.com http://tinyurl.com/nmcn9o

Tour Scandal - By Phil Liggett

Yup.. I am being lazy. I pulled this article off of the Versus site. I think Phil does a great job at saying what needs to be said. I look forward to today's stage. I believe in clean riding. I also think that the tests and facilities have huge issues. This needs to be solved without self promotion. If you race dirty, you impact:

• Yourself
• Your family
• Your country
• Your sponsors abd their shareholders and employees
• Your teammates as well as their country and families
• Every professional cyclist and team
• Ability to secure other sponsors
• All other professional clean atheletes
• Amateur racers
• Freddies like me that just pedal around the lake for exercise
• Businesses that make money off cycling - Media Sponsors - Broadcasters and everyone that makes a living as a result of cycling

The list goes on... Race fair, Race Clean, Race Fast ....




Rasmussen Pulled From Race
By Phil Liggett
July 25, 2007

So, the Tour de France is punishing into chaos tonight after both, the French team and the Dutch Rabobank have packed their bags and headed home. The seal of 189 riders in London are now down to 135 to final days heading into Paris. Just what the millions of spectators will make of this, remains to be seen. They certainly will not see the race leader for the past nine days and today’s stage winner, Michael Rasmussen. He was sacked by his Rabobank team for lying about his whereabouts when he failed to make himself available for the now well-documented out-of-competition drug test. His team manager, Theo de Rooy, said that Rasmussen had told him he had been in Mexico with his wife. We all know now that Rasmussen has been seen training in the Dolomite Mountains in Italy. The team then withdrew because of the Code of Ethics, which is now agreed within professional teams.Earlier in the evening, I had also dreaded to go home for the same principles after former Italian champion, Christian Moreni, had tested positive during a spot check on Stage 11 for synthetic testosterone. Moreni finished this afternoon and was then taken away in handcuffs by French police.The new leader of the race will be young Spaniard, Alberto Contador, 1:53 ahead of Cadel Evans and Levi Leipheimer who is plus-56 seconds in third. Thank heavens none of these three riders have ever been remotely suspected in dealing with drugs and could now turn out to be the race’s saviors.Tomorrow is going to be a strange day.