The Big Engine that Usually Didn’t.

Brilliant, and the whole article sums up pretty much exactly how I felt about Bugno.

Disagree about your criteria of what makes a Tour boring, but that’s a given. ;-)

His announcement that he was over the attack by Contador during his mechanical issue, and for the fans to stop booing Contador was pure class. I got a kick out of his interviews on Verses – the accent, the laid back but postive attitude, his jokes. When asked if he will watch the Tour for review – “No, I am not in love with myself”. Great stuff.

How does a kid that young get so down to earth? And, does anyone else find him to have a surprisingly deep voice? I do.

On Armstong:

His “post retirement” era wasn’t easy – broken collarbone with surgery, the crashes and bad luck, not being the hands down force of the race – yet he raced on. The dude obviously loves the sport, otherwise why come back and suffer like that? He could be lounging in Texas counting his dough. So, dig Lance or not – you gotta give him props for that.

It’s an interesting situation, and I’m not afraid to admit I don’t understand it. I think he sat on his couch in ’08 and said, “I used to spank those guys and make them take out my dirty laundry. I can win the Tour again.” I think he was surprised, and he never came back with the same desire and attention to detail. He said himself, he used to just repeat the same process and win, win, win. He never followed the process post-retirement, and he lost, lost. That’s OK, but I don’t understand why he would come back if he wan’t 100% committed.

All that aside, I don’t like him and I don’t think he added a lot of positive value to the sport since his return. But I do respect him and until he sat up after his series of crashes, I was actually starting to like him. The underdog thing again, I suppose.

@Jarvis
He doe look a bit like Mench!!

And Mench looks like Ralph Feines:

Which means Bungno looks like Ralph. That makes him seem somehow less manly. I’m going to back to him just looking like a fucking stud. So scratch all that other stuff.

Can I be the “Four Banger That Got His Oil Drain Plug Left Loose By Jiffy Lube and Blew Up”?

That is classic. There should be a special place in the motorcade for a guy riding around with a loose screw in the oil pan. I’ll nominate you every year.

Bugno is one of the reasons I have too many not quite enough steel Mosers in the stable. Classy bikes, classy rider.

Fixed your post.

Frank, I know we both have little Gianno Bugno altars deep in the crawl space of our houses. We can crawl down there, by the warmth of the water heater, and feel safe.

That picture of him is just too sweet. What a fucking man. Jesus, he looks like a tough bastard there. Christ.

He is looking a litte better than Lemond these days.

I saw a squashed banana last week that looked better than LeMond thesedays.

As for the “not quite good enough”, I should have clarified, “Not quite good enough in the Tour.” He should have gone for the win in ’90. He could have done it, easily. That whole, “I want to learn about the Tour before trying to win it” approach is a bummer, because he could have been one of the storied doublers.

Be still be beating heart.

You also gotta give Chris Horner major kudos for his 10th place finish. The guy is one of the hardest working pros ever.

The Schleck/Contador battle was fantastic. The thrown chain incident adding to the drama. The painful chess game on the climbs. The final time trial was awesome. The first half of the TT – can Schleck pull it off? Shades of the ’89 Tour, win by a few seconds? Not to be, but it forced Contador some stress and he rode hard for the win – taking some heat off the tossed chain attack “win”.

Besides reading a bit about Schleck, I didn’t know much about him. I’m now a fan and I was pulling for him to win the Tour. His announcement that he was over the attack by Contador during his mechanical issue, and for the fans to stop booing Contador was pure class. I got a kick out of his interviews on Verses – the accent, the laid back but postive attitude, his jokes. When asked if he will watch the Tour for review – “No, I am not in love with myself”. Great stuff.

With any luck, we’ll see a repeat of the battle in 2011. Should be even more interesting with brother Frank Schleck along for support.

And you look great in green, Rob.

Indurain was boring, Armstrong was inevitable then the Mennonite mutant – now the tour is fun again and next year will be a great race. The Grimpuers will be older/better and together, newbie’s like Gesink will be there in the mix. Can’t wait.

p.s. Geof the jersey looks good on you!

@Marcus
My point, that I made badly, was that Frank wrote

Exciting is watching a rider take a chance on a day-long break. Exciting is watching a rider attack over and over again because maybe just one more attack is all it will take to win.

But that was a construct of an era when riders caned as many drugs as they could, it isn’t something that clean riders are physiologically able to do. Attacking early in a stage is harder to do these days because domestiques are so much fitter/stronger than they used to be it is easier for The Contender to order others to chase people down

But to answer your question: Chiappucci, Tricky Dicky, Pantani, Ullrich.

*it’ll never happen, I don’t have the hair

Frank, I know we both have little Gianno Bugno altars deep in the crawl space of our houses. We can crawl down there, by the warmth of the water heater, and feel safe.

Can we talk? Bugno is now a helicopter pilot. He is looking a litte better than Lemond these days.

and let me just say again, Chiapucci was a goofy looking fuck

Mate I reckon you are looking at the past with rose colored glasses (potentially purchased during a drug induced haze?). The Tour de France rarely has close finishes (we have been spoilt post-Armstrong) and is often effectively decided relatively early in race during early climbing stages when the best rider of the race stamps his authority. This was certainly the case in the Armstrong era (save for 03) and is backed up by Eddy Merckx who has always said that the TdF is the easiest race to win because it was the toughest – so the best rider prevailed.

If we say the EPO period began at or around the commencement of the InduReign, save for:
– pantani in 98; and
– the little Basques in 03,

pray tell when we have seen a Tour with true GC riders “attacking endlessly through the mountains”.

The Giro parcours, with far steeper inclines, has always lent itself to more thrilling attacks from climbers, whereas the Tour sees far longer climbs which make the GC appear to be more a race of attrition.

All I hope for is that there might be a Frenchman in amongst those also-rans and that someone/somepeople actually decide that in order to beat them, you have to do things differently.

However it would appear that the days of riders attacking endlessly through the mountains are gone with the cleaner racing. You want exciting, then the drugs need to return.