Just a few thoughts/ramblings:
Who else is watching?
Even though the big European riders are out it’s still an exciting race to watch!
Personally, I want Hincapie to win overall. He’s spent so many years as a hard-working domestique it’d be great to see him win a tour for himself.
My favorite team name is Phonak (imagine E.T. saying it), though I also have a fondness for Liquigas; especially when Phil Ligget pronounces it ,“Leaky-gas.” 
Aldon
Tour de France???
Oh - yeah…
That’s the thing Lance won so many of. You mean they are still having it without him? (I’m kidding, well, sort of…).
Yep, I’m watching, and hoping for Hincapie as well. It’s kind of a relief to have such an open field this year.
A hundred Bucks says Armstrong comes out of retirement to ride another Tour within the next 2 years, guys like that just can’t helpthemselves…
Loren
I’m following it too. It’s about the only major sporting event I pay any attention to. Liquigas is an Italian-sponsored team so I think “leaky-gas” is pretty close to the correct pronunciation. What kills me is when Bob Roll says, “Tour day France”. Also the chalked logo on the pavement that OLN keeps showing that says, “The Tour de France.”
Ming
Ooh, lots of crashes during stage 3.
It’s been on, but I’ve only been listening…
I’m going to go watch it now. 
Bless you for starting this thread!!! Just finished the stage; Horner was involved in a crash??? Fast Freddy R is out and O’Grady limped home- Ugly day on the road for those guys. I want to see Horner get close to a stage win, that boy is strong.
I’d like to see George on the Podium (as well as Landis and Levi) but we’ll see.
Need to go see it again. Almost as much fun as learning a tune.
I watch occationally. I like outdoor sports like these in general. But with bicycle races in particular, I get bored with watching it for more than like 10 minutes at a time. It would be cool to try and compete myself though (at a very low, domestic amature level of course).
Generally, I’m more of an Adventure Racing, Expedition, Climbing, Paddling, Mountaineering sort of guy.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=898799212756115613&q=adventure+race
Primal Quest, mmmmm, that’s one of my many dreams
We had a small session at the house last night, and the Tour made for good between-the-tunes conversation, along with the World Cup. It’s fun to see some of these riders who’ve been overshadowed by the stars get a shot, instead of having that sense that the real competition is between a couple of big, efficient team-machines. Exciting endings to the last two stages.
(Aside to fel bautista: I found a photo of the Raleigh 753 Pro on line. Very nice. I had a Gitane from around the same period that I still miss. I do have a 1968 Raleigh Sports 3-speed, which is just what it should be.)
Agreed.
I’ll miss the team time trial, though. Who’s bright idea was it to take it out this year anyway?
Oh well. The mountain stages will be here soon enough.
I’m watching it every day as I have been for the last six or seven years 
Have a “live gold package” so I can watch it live in the background on my computer here at work. Usually enough to have a tiny window up in the corner for the first ten stages. When the tour reaches the mountains there are just too many things that happens, so I keep flipping up the window and watch the tour instead of working. Luckily, in July there are no supervisors here at the department.
I had Ullrich for the yellow jersey this year but the Fuentes dealings took away most of the favorites. I was hopping for Valverde but that showed to be a bad choice and ruined my chances for any final wins for my on-line tourmanager team. I hope I will score some climbing points on Rasmussen and Sastre next week and on Lövkvist and Posthuma for young riders.
With Valverde out of the race I think Floyd Landis will win this year.
So it will still be another American 
A Swede, Bäckstedt is now up driving the “tête de course” , Im going to watch the end of todays stage, then take the bike out for a 100k spin before I head down town and the pub tonight.
Summer fridays are great
/MarcusR
Edit: My favorite team:
Go CSC!
Nice clip Henke, thanks!
If you are into adrenaline kicks, there is nothing that compares to “speedgliding” 
Here is speedgliding clip from one of my favorite flying sites in the US, Chelan.
I got my first glider exactly twenty years ago this month, best sport in the world, road cycling second.
Cheers!
/MarcusR
Haven’t seen the stage today ( getting dressed to go out for a ride). But yesterday’s finish-WOW!! where did Oscar come from?? I say the replay still can’t believe he out dragged Boonen for the win.
And I like Liggett’s nickname for Mcewen- the Pimpernel- “you see him there, you see him here…”
Not to hijack your thread or anything guys. You’ll have it back in a minute.
Marcus, that looks really cool. Would be awesome to try that some time.
There are lots of activities like that, that seems really cool.
The thing I like about Adventure Racing (commonly refered to as multisport in Sweden, although multisport is also a name for the sport in general and Adventure Race is also the name for a certain type of competition within this sport, the one that goes on and on for anything between 5 to 10 days until first team crosses the finish line) was that the longest parenthesis you’ve ever seen? -back to original text here- is that it’s so versatile and such an extreme challange. It’s both physically and mentally challanging to the limit, and you have to be very good allround. It’s also a team based sport. I got interested in Adventure Racing many years ago when Discovery Channel organized a world championship race in the French Alps. I hate them for never letting it rerun so I can record it. Since then we’ve been able to see some of the major annual races on tv, like Primal Quest, Eco Challange and Raid Gauloises as well as the Raid World Cup. This is great stuff, hope to see lots more in the future.
I always called that “hang gliding”. Then again I have never done it but it looks like fun.
Perfect leadout for Mcewen-me thinks Boonen is get miffed about the whole thing
And tomorrow the time trial
The young Swedish rider Gustav Larsson is doing well right now on the time trail
On Wednesday it begins for real!
It is FUN! Speedgliding is hangliding on a timed short downhill course with check points you have to pass through, under and straight over. Fastest time after two runs wins. Quite spectacular as it is quite a bit of ground scimming.
Normal hangliding comps are like a long distance track where you have to verify by photo the various turnpoints. You can chose your route as you like as long as you pass the turnpoints and make it back to goal.
Speedgliding cource ~ 1-2 minutes
Hangliding course ~ 3-6 hours (x 2-7 days)
/MarcusR
This should go in the conspiracy theory department but my riding buddy came up with this:
We also came up with eliminate the aero bikes and make the teams use normal road bike; eliminate all the aerodynamics- yes, its goes backwards, but then there is the hour record that is done on essentially a track bike without the bars and such.
How’s them apples???
Stage 17-OMG- no one, no one would have believed it; i’ve followed cycling for 20+ years and it was a MONUMENTAL stage 17. Hats, Please, Off to Floyd!
Pretty amazing, wasn’t it?!?! Can’t imagine what the guy could do this year if he didn’t need a new hip.
Loren