Category: tour de france

Tour de France 2008 updates

KWC spent the weeekend writing a tool that automatically finds the best Tour de France stage summaries. The result is the amazing velo.kwc.org. He links to stage summaries, photos, commentary and analysis, team blogs, podcasts, video, and blog posts for each stage.

I need to figure out a way to manage my Tour de France Twitter tweets — since le Tour started, my phone message box has been overflowing, but that’s because I subscribe to too many tour updates. I need to cull some of that back.

Unfortunately, I haven’t found any decent Tour de France 2008 photos posted to Flickr yet, though I ran across an interesting “Tour de Fleece” set of some Navajo textiles.

Tour de France 2008 TV and streaming video

NOTE: This page is about 2008 information. For Tour de France 2009 Internet Streaming Video, please visit this page.

Le Tour de France. Photo by Carlton Reid.

In the United States, Versus TV will show some live coverage from every stage of the 2008 Tour de France beginning this Saturday, July 5. Coverages begins at 8:30 AM on most days and continues through 11:30 AM, though Versus will begin coverage as early as 6:30 AM for some stages. The complete Versus TV schedule is available here.

Your options are very limited if you live in the United States, don’t have cable TV and you want live Internet streaming video, and the streaming video providers in Europe are getting very good at blocking access from outside of their regions. Versus will show live streaming video online for the early risers before TV coverage begins in the States.

For worldwide television schedules and Internet viewing options, Steve has a comprehensive listing of global television schedules and Internet video options at Steephill.TV.


Tour de France teams

Of the 20 teams participating in the 2008 Tour de France, three will have new title sponsors. Team CSC is now Team CSC Saxo Bank; Team High Road became Team Columbia after signing Columbia Sportswear as title sponsor; and Slipstream Chiptotle is now Team Garmin-Chipotle Presented by H30. Ken writes about the new sponsorships. I’ve seen the new CSC/Saxo kit; I’ve missed it if Garmin and Columbia kit has been unveiled yet.

Does anybody have idea when Garmin/Chipotle will be promoted to a ProTour team? They certainly have the roster for it and it looks like they now have the sponsorship commitment.

More Tour de France 2008 news.

Thanks for dropping in at Cyclelicious, but my updates will be sparse this week. I recommend Velo.kwc.org, The Fredcast, and Masiguy for Tour de France information.

Floyd Landis loses CAS appeal

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed the appeal filed by Floyd Landis. Landis has also been ordered to pay $100,000 to the US Anti Doping Agency for the costs incurred by his appeals.

The full details are posted everywhere; Trust But Verify is dedicated to tracking Floyd Landis and his doping appeals so it seems like as good a place as any to following the discussion.


Moving forward, the Tour de France starts this Saturday! Woo hoo!

Team CSC finds sponsor

Riis Cycling (RC) announced that Saxo Bank will be a title sponsor for the cycling team. The agreement will let Saxo Bank become a co-sponsor of Team CSC together with CSC. The agreement becomes effective immediately, which means that Team CSC will appear as Team CSC/Saxo Bank at the upcoming Tour De France. Computer Sciences Corporation announced last March that they would not renew their sponsorship of the cycling team after the 2008 season.

The agreement runs to the end of this year, and on January 1st 2009 Saxo Bank becomes the sole main sponsor of the team that, from then on, will be known as Team Saxo Bank. The duration term of the contract is three years.

“With Saxo Bank, we have found the perfect partner for the future. We are extremely proud to become associated with such a strong brand and a company that has a great passion for our team and our values. It has been a pleasure closing a deal with such dedicated and professional people as Kim Fournais and Lars Seier Christensen. From day one, we have found a great understanding and this promises to become a first class collaboration for the years to come,” says Bjarne Riis.

Signing the agreement with RC, Saxo Bank’s founders and joint CEOs, Kim Fournais and Lars Seier Christensen pointed out that this is an opportunity they have been waiting for for a long time. “For a global bank like ours, this is the perfect match and when it became possible, we just could not let this chance pass by,” they said in a joint statement. “Team CSC/Saxo Bank has the international reach and name recognition that means that we will be able to get our message out to most of our clients group around the globe. We love the sport, we trust Bjarne Riis, and believe that together we will be winners.”

“At the same time, I want to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to our main sponsor CSC for their passionate and consistent support,” Riis said. “They have made it possible for us to become the best team in the world. We have achieved fantastic results thanks to their dedication. The level and the quality of this partnership is what we want to continue with Saxo Bank as our new sponsor.”

Saxo Bank takes over the sponsorship from CSC whose contract with the team expires by the end of the year: CSC has been the team’s main sponsor since 2001.

In explaining their decision to sponsor the team, Kim Fournais and Lars Seier Christensen in their statement said that, in addition to being one of the world’s most popular and watched sports with an audience of billions of viewers, cycling on this level expresses the same kind of values and attitudes that Saxo Banks identifies with. “Winning and team work, is what Saxo Bank has been about from the outset,” they said. “Endurance and passion are some of the other features that we have in common. We are proud that we now will have the opportunity to highlight these values and show what sports and business can do together.”

The two CEOs have worked closely with their counterparts at CSC during this transition, and they point out that the CSC executives generously have shared their sponsorship experience with them. “We are very pleased that CSC has included us a co-sponsors for the remainder of their contract with RC creating the best possible transition for the team and us as the new main sponsors,” Fournais and Christensen said. “It goes without saying that this is the best possible scenario for all stakeholders.”

At CSC, this is also significant and good news.

“We are pleased to welcome Saxo Bank onboard as a co-sponsor of Team CSC for the remainder of 2008 and thrilled that they will become the team’s title sponsor in 2009,” said David Booth, President of Global Sales and Marketing for CSC. “We have enjoyed an incredible partnership with the Team for these past eight years; helping them secure another strong partner like Saxo Bank is in keeping with that spirit of partnership.”

For Bjarne Riis, the partnership with Saxo Bank will secure the kind of stability that is necessary for the team’s future success. He too, sees the sponsorship agreement with Saxo Bank as a match between two partners that have much to offer each other.

“Now we can focus on the next big event – Tour de France knowing that we have the possibility to build a team for the future with Saxobank. We are very ambitious about being the best team in the world and with Saxobank on board we have found the best possible partner for this project,” says Bjarne Riis.

The nine RC riders will get started as Team CSC-Saxo Bank in Brest when Tour de France takes off on July 5th.