Our Tour de France Preview Mag!

by Chris Fontecchio on Jun 30, 2008 4:34 PM EDT in News

Since Cycle Sport has, in its words, issued "the only Tour guide that counts," I'd say it's time for the Podium Cafe to announce "the only Tour guide that you didn't waste $7.99 on." Yep, we're covering all angles of the Tour de France in our various previews... which, taken together look an awful lot like a magazine. And all for the low, low, LOW price of your productivity at the office. You may have already seen these, but in any event here's what you can read up on here at the Cafe in anticipation of the World's Greatest Bike Race:

The Participants:

Our picks of favorites for the Maillot Jaune
Gavia looks at the best young riders
Ursula examines the dark horse favorites
Gavia previews the sprinters
Chris looks at the teams and their plans
Live thread of the teams presentation

The Course:

A rundown of the stages you can't miss
A closer look at the opening stages in Brittany
Compare this year to courses from previous years
Our initial take when the route was announced

The Distractions:

A listing of games you can play
Our own special Le Tour-only Virtual Directeur Sportif (deadline: July 2)
Podium Cafe Le Tour Quick Challenge (deadline July 1)

Three More Must-Have External Resources

The massive Steephill.TV TdF dashboard
The parcourse in Google Maps
HIstorical information about the stages from James Raia

And this isn't counting all the team rosters, Gossip della Gavia, news, rumors, flowcharts, etc. I'll leave this post in the features for the rest of the week, so anyone who stops by can get the benefit of all the prep work being done here for the Tour. Feel free to use the comments to group other resources here.

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Comments

Sweet!

I heart PDC! all this stuff so rocks!
Been reading and laughing for the last year or so – even if you’re a complete newbie to the pro cycling scene there’s plenty of opportunities for just swooning over Benna (although I personally prefer Tommeke and am thinking of switching to Thor for le Tour – not to distract from the purpose of this thread lol).

by kimchi on Jun 30, 2008 4:48 PM EDT reply actions

you have been hard at work!

Just here for the view

by ZoeRochelle on Jun 30, 2008 5:13 PM EDT reply actions

I don't believe

any of those other publications will even bother following the hotitude jersey compeition- sheesh.

by Katiek on Jun 30, 2008 6:16 PM EDT reply actions

yesss

this one is very mostest importantest of all.

friday, we will have to discuss this in more detail.

by Jen See on Jun 30, 2008 10:58 PM EDT up reply actions

"Someone"? We don't need no stinkin "someone"!

Chris- I think I can speak for all of us in saying that there’s only one person who’s writing the KOM flow chart.

by ursula on Jun 30, 2008 7:12 PM EDT reply actions

with polka dots !

by lyne on Jun 30, 2008 10:27 PM EDT up reply actions

points in progress

i wandered off the grid today.

did i miss anything?

;-)

by Jen See on Jun 30, 2008 10:58 PM EDT reply actions

No Musette today

but here’s a nice interview with Cavendish. I hope the PR people never manage to muzzle him.

by Monty. on Jul 1, 2008 4:15 AM EDT reply actions

I seriously don't know

why you put so much time and effort into this Chris. You could just do a halfassed shabby job like the fellows over on Velonews do. How can they even publish such a poor piece on the eve of the Tour? It’s like they didn’t even bother to do the factchecking.

Congratulations on having a much higher quality product than your commercial colleagues. With your limited time and resources (and I’m betting Drew has even spent the petty cash by now) you present good writing, insight and analysis on a level that I have a hard time finding elsewhere. And it doesn’t hurt that you do it with a great sense of humor as well.

So if I haven’t said so before, thank you for your work with this site! I hope you have the energy and enthusiasm to keep writing for a long time.

by Jens on Jul 4, 2008 3:34 AM EDT reply actions