Did anyone watch the ITT yesterday?
 

that was pretty funny when Vaughters dropped an F-bomb on the air.

It was the look on Robbie Ventura's face that was amusing. It was like "Oh crap, did he just say that? WHat do I do?" then he wen on like it had not happened.

The thing I couldn't figure out was the apparent inaccruacy of the timing in Vaughter's car. As Millar was going down the straight to the finihs line Ventura says "Millar is 7 seconds behind Schumacher's time" and bee-sting Vaughters immediately and somewhat angrily corrects him, saying "he is 7 seconds AHEAD of Schumacher" and yet within about 30 or 45 seconds Millar pulls over the line 18 seconds outside of Schumachers time. SO did Millar likely lose 11 seconds or 25 seconds over the last minute? The same thign had happened at the second time check. I couldn';t figure out what the problem was but htye clearly had something off.

You weren't paying attention (as usual?). Millar went into the day 7 SECOND AHEAD OF SCHUM.

That's what Vaughters was saying.

Oh. Never mind.

If you had just jumped in and hadn't heard the previous discussion, then you would thought that Millar was 7 sec. ahead on the road.

Man, that Saab commercial that repeats has to be one fo the worst commercials I have ever seen.

AGreed on the Saab commercial. Horrible.

I still can't figure out who thr guy on the podium with the little kid is in the "take back the tour" commercial. This is they guy right after Skeletor with arms up in yellow. WHo is that? It's driving me nuts.

I've just assumed it was Tom Boonen. I could be wrong. What other sprinter (green jersey) could it be? I don't think it's Petacchi.

I ahdn't considered Petacchi. He was banned so maybe it is him. It doesn't look like Boonen to me. Plus, I don't think Boonen has kids. It looks like Zabel to me, and wasn't he banned many years ago (he is an old guy)? But it seems like a cheap shot to put him in the ad and not include RIjs (who was apparently removed becasue hte tour restored his win in the record books due to the lapse of more than 10 years between victory and discovery) or Millar, who was also in it originally and removed in deference ot his current very public anti-doping position.

I will look again tonight and see if it is at all like petacchi. You look and tell me if you think it might be Zabel.

Driving me nuts, I tell you.

I think you're right that it is Zabel. The video is up on the Versus site, so I paused it so I could get a better look. Definitely older podium, and he's wearing a Telekom jersey. Zabel won the green jersey in '96 and '97 and a year or so ago admitted taking EPO during that time frame. I don't know if he was ever suspended (same as Riis, who is the bald guy in yellow earlier in the video, wearing a similar jersey).
http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/1997/ZABEL3.JPG

Do you figure that's Mario Cipollini early on in the video? He often got in trouble for wearing outrageous outfits, but I don't know that he was ever suspended for doping.

Riders I think I can identify are Landis (Phonak), Ullrich (Bianchi and T-Mobile), Basso (CSC), Rasmussen (Rabobank), Riis (Telekom), Pantani (Mercatone Uno), and Vinokurov (Astana).

I don't really care for the ads; I think they're a cheap shot, and would rather they focus on positives rather than negatives.

I think you got it right. Not sure about the first sprint guy being cippo, I couldn't place the rider but he didn't look rangy enough to be Cippo, although I could be wrong.

The ad on the "takebackthetour" web site is the one they originally ran but it is not the version they are running now. The one they are now showing does not include Pantani or Riis or basso or the second shot of Ullrich. It is shorter, so maybe they cut it for length.

I agree that the ads a re a cheap shot. Moreover, they sort of beg the question of who else was cheating. OTOH, I would guess versus feels the need to do something to promote the product and they want to tackle it head on so maybe this works for the casual fan. Sadly, I had to go to work early today and so am stuck following the stage with occasional glances at the updates. Looks like a good stage.