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Mapping The Tour de France Riders From Space
Roland Piquepaille writes "It was just a matter of time before someone gets the idea of using satellite localization to map the positions of the cyclists of the Tour de France. In a first test on July 21 during the ascension to l'Alpe d'Huez, ten riders were equipped with receivers and tracked by the EGNOS European satellite positioning system, a preparatory programme for the Galileo system. The European Space Agency (ESA) reports about this first test in "The best view of the Tour is from space." It's highly possible that all riders can get receivers as soon as next year. And this data will be available on the Web, so you will know in real time the exact location of your favorite champion. Read this summary for more details and a computer-generated image showing the respective positions of Lance Armstrong and Richard Virenque, the top-ranked climber, while climbing to the top of l'Alpe d'Huez."
Sometimes events inside the peloton go unwatched by commentators who are paying more attention to the leaders who have broken away from the main group. It would be nice to be able to see the jockeying that occurs between teams and individuals.
The data feed could also be used to help keep track of riders as they go after the green (points) jersey. This is a really exciting part of the Tour de France that never really gets as much attention as it deserves.
Let's hope this data gets put to good use. Kudos to the ESA!
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
The strange thing about Brandt's withdrawal is that methadone is typically associated with treatment of heroin addiction. I don't think there are any performance-enhancing effects to methadone, and it's certainly a rare occurrence to hear of someone in professional athletics testing positive for it!
Bikes are no more affected by drugs than Baseball, Football, Soccer, track and field, swimming, you name it, there are drugs. It's only the sports that crack down on drug use that fight with the immage problem, such as the Olympics and Tour de France.
who | grep -i blond | date cd ~; unzip; touch; strip; finger; mount; gasp; yes; uptime; umount; sleep
Cite please?
It has been ages since a French cyclist dominated the tour like the non-French cyclists have been doing for the past editions. As far as I know, the French cycling public, like their like-minded counterparts in the rest of Europe having nothing but respect for Lance Armstrong (with the exception of some nagging doubt about him being dope-free, but that goes for every cyclist in the top-10 in the Tour).
Mart"I know I will be modded down for this": where's the option '-1, Asking for it'?
But, the result would be that athletes have very short life spans (including many that would die while competing), and people who care about their long term health would not be able to compete effectively.
you clearly have no idea what top athles eat. Do yo really think these guys eat sandwiches during the race ???
Please dude, inform yourself before making a joke. racing food is developed by laboratories that also work on food for astronauts and fighter-pilots : i.e. eating under extreme conditions.
As i said in my previous post : top-athletes like Armstrong & Ullrich burn up to 12.000 calories in 6 hours. That would be about 100 sandwiches i guess.... No way you can intake such amount of energy trhu ordinary food. They eat liquid food & powerbars during the race. Food that is made in proportion to what their body needs and can absorb. There are dozens of vitamin and mineral additions in it that we probably don't even know. They have a team of doctors and food specialists to balance the diet and add whatever the body seems to lack (they have blood taken before & after every race to balance the diet). Do you really think these racers have time or energy or interest to follow tat up ? They blindly trust their doctors and hope nobody messes it up. Armstrong will never take any drink from a spectator offering it, even during the heaviest climb when he badly wants to drink. The risk that there's something forbidden in it is just not worth it. Do you think that these guys would just go hupla and as you phrase it "have a methadon sandwich" ?
puhlease...
When will I end this grieving ? When will my future begin ?
... it's not about data, it's about the riders.
I don't want to see every bit of telemetry. I can't be there live, and sometimes I can't watch it on TV. (Work does tend to frown on that a bit.)
So I want to see words. I want to read a description of how the sweat is pouring off Ivan Basso as he wobbles up the last agonizing meters of Col d'Madeleine and looks over his shoulder at Virenque, a hundred meters behind. I couldn't care less whether his heart rate is 200 or his cadence is 86.5. I want to hear about Lance posing for photos and sipping champagne as he rides into Paris, not that he's doing it at 28.8 km/hr.
The folks at Velonews did a spectacular job this year describing the minute-by-minute action over every stage. I'm not going to link to it, because they'd probably have me killed if I got their server slashdotted now that it's all over, but if you care, you can find it. It's better than all the telemetry in the world.
Umm are you sure about that?
Armstrong is the leader, yes. There is no controversy about it, despite what the post you are replying to said. All teams are set up like that. Kloden came in 2nd, ahead of his teammate Ullrich (the team leader), who came in 4th. Kloden was still riding for Ullrich, even to the end. Read Armstrong's book "It's Not About the Bike"; he describes the team setup pretty well. Or look online.
THE USPS placed 1st, 6th, and 9th.. Very respectable.
True. A lot of that has to do with the fact that they have some good climbers on the team, and their job is to tow Lance in their slipstream to the top of the climbs so that he can "rest" on the way up. As such, they place pretty well too, being at the front of the pack leading out Armstrong. Obviously Armstrong is a good climber on his own (evidenced by L'Alpe d'Huez), but without a team he'd be nowhere. Cycling, far more than most people realize, is a team sport.