Tour de France prologue party!!!!!!!

[Simon Llewellyn]

Hey guys it's that time of the year again, the tour de france starts on the 5th July & that means it's time for a party!!!!!

It's a Saturday night so no one can use the work excuse to get out of this one (unless your a shift worker or way over worked to miss the biggest event of the year...). If I can get an idea of who's interested then we can work out a sizable location to suite.

There are no opens on this weekend either just a planned DHBC omnium....

This year Cadel will win for sure!!!!!! So don't miss it!!!!

[FAswad]

Amen

This year Cadel will win for sure!!!!!!

[Toff]

I was talking with Lindsay a week ago about this. Preferred venue would be someone's house with a BIG TV. I've put a few feelers out for venues, but a decent TV is what lets most of them down...

I'd also like to run a tipping competition for Le Tour, with daily updates online here at the forum.

To make it more interesting, we could charge a fiver to enter, with the winner getting the loot...

[Simon Llewellyn]

Sounds good! Give us a buzz when you find a venue. T-bone has a pretty big tv in digital, when it works, that's where we watched pari-roubaix.& add me to the tipping comp.

[T-Bone]

Especially with Rogers ruled out, it's all Cadel now.

For the Green Jersey it seems McEwen is finally hitting some form in Switzerland, but i expect a bit of competition from the usual suspects like Hushovd (not sure exactly who's racing yet). Cavendish will also be up there.

I also want to see what Team Columbia's (formerly team high road) jersey looks like. I've already seen the new CSC/Saxo bank jersey, not much different. I wonder if anyone else will be changing jerseys. Of course there's the new Dura-Ace and Record to look out for, and some new frames around the place.....

[T-Bone]

T-bone has a pretty big tv in digital, when it works...

TV is currently working well, and the media centre has only lost SBS once since Paris Roubaix, but as long as i check earlier in the day i'm sure it will be working fine.

[weiyun]

But McEwen won't have too many helpers this year as most of the team will be helping Evans.

[FAswad]

McEwan (when he is his usual racing self) does not need helpers. Let's hope he is still the good old McEwan that we know!

As for Cadel, c'mon, go dude, all the way, to the top. Its about time. Win the darn competition already. I'm so excited.

[Simon Llewellyn]

You've got to think that McEwan is in form if he is offending Swiss officials!

But I think Bennati will also be another man to watch for & possibly Zabel though I don't see too many more wins in him. Freire will more than likely get at least one win if not two, no-one beats him on his day.

[jimmy]

Big TV, well that rules me out...

[weiyun]

Big TV, well that rules me out...

Big flat screens are cheap these days. Harvey Norman had a 42" LCD for $800 just 2 weeks ago. The problem is, what to do with the old but perfectly functioning tube TV.

[Huw]

TV is currently working well, and the media centre has only lost SBS once since Paris Roubaix, but as long as i check earlier in the day i'm sure it will be working fine.

Well, if it doesn't work out, I've got a monster 53 cm CRT with remote hooked up to a neverfail analogue signal. At least we'd all stay warm by huddling around.

[Camilla]

Count me in! For the party & the tipping comp.

Hang on, maybe not....Ted, did we seriously pick that week to go away to place in the middle of nowhere with NO TV RECEPTION!!!!

[T-Bone]

Well, if it doesn't work out, I've got a monster 53 cm CRT with remote hooked up to a neverfail analogue signal. At least we'd all stay warm by huddling around.

I do have a backup 51cm CRT TV/DVD, which was lugged all the way back from Grafton last year, though i need to get around to selling it as i don't use it at all.

I'm in for the tipping, just let me know how it's going down. Don't forget to make a velogames team, i'll let you know when you can create a team.

[mcrkennedy]

Now that Robbie has found his legs it should mean that he and Cavendish should have a great battle for the green, particularly given that the Tomando is out (sniff, sniff!)

While I am sure that Cadel will win, I think it will be no walk in the park with no single team able to control the race and with people like Valverde in good form.

[Simon Llewellyn]

I got my hands on the official guide from ride magazine this morning and & I was just having a look, there's no prologues this year!

It's a standard 197km road stage of varying gradient, which is kind of good as it starts at 10pm rather than 2am or whatever it was last year. But on the downside it won't introduce all the riders as they start...

[T-Bone]

Road stages are more exiting than Prologues anyway, well at least the last 10km. Not sure if it's a good one for McEwen due to the uphill finish, but i'm sure it'll be entertaining!!

[geoffs]

Our place isn't that big but we do have a TV that's about 2.5m wide
how many people are we looking at?
BBQ bring a plate kind of thing?

[Stuart]

Hi groovers from DHBC,
Pity Stuart and I are still in France as we would have gladly had the Prologue Party at our house as it is big enough (and stuart could have wipped up some culinery delights). Our TV isn,t as big as Geoff's as its q CRT 75cm but we'll miss it all but do have the advantage of seeing it in Rome instead. See you all at slowies on the 12th.

[Simon Llewellyn]

Our place isn't that big but we do have a TV that's about 2.5m wide
how many people are we looking at?
BBQ bring a plate kind of thing?

I think this is pretty much the confirmed place of the party, I haven't heard back from Chris (Toff) yet,so as it is fast approaching a decision needs to be made. Geoff is suggesting bbq from about 7:30pm which will be the bbq for the omnium also. So rather than doing it at the track we shower and go to Geoff's house & bring a plate & meat or whatever you want to eat.

As for getting his address, since he doesn't want to post it on the net he said he would PM people who confirm their attendance or once we get it you could just ring one of us, me or Lindsay or whoever.

So is that cool with everybody? It's on this Saturday night, TV coverage starts at 10pm & the actual race about an hour later. Expected finish time is about 1:30-2:00am Sunday morning.

[T-Bone]

Sounds alright. Count me in.

[geoff m]

This has been re-named the PRO-Prologue party in memory of the prologue movement!

Bring back the prologue!

Yours sincerely,

A PRO Prologue man

[geoffs]

We will be making a fair sized serve of
BBQ Baby Octopus
Peanut curry of tofu, potato and shallots.
Massaman Beef curry
BBQ chicken with wasabi butter on a spinach salad.
Rice.

So if people could bring some dips, biscuits, crackers, cheese, drinks.
Desert.


We are doing the shopping today so an idea of numbers would be really good so can plan a bit.
So let me know who's in.
Cheers
Geoff.

So far definites.
Geoff and Marian.
James Fowler
Simon L
Christian
Huw + 1
Toff - cheezels?
Lindsay and Anne
Peter and Fiona - cakes
Ted and Camilla - Cheese

[Simon Llewellyn]

I'll b there.

[timyone]

im a distant maybe for being there late :S
i have a wedding
so im assuming my friends will want to go out after it though

[christian]

I'll be there

[weiyun]

i have a wedding
so im assuming my friends will want to go out after it though

I'd suspect your new bride may also want you to stay around.

[Huw]

Me + 1 = 2

Really looking forward to Saturday!

[Toff]

I'll be there too.

I got snowed under with end of financial year committments, and I'm only just resurfacing now. Other good news is that I've put some work into designing a tipping comp. It's a bit more challenging than just picking the winner of each day's stage, and it should reward people who do their research on the race and riders beforehand.

Head over to conversation area to see it.

Entries will be accepted on the night too.

[T-Bone]

Anything you want people to bring??

[geoffs]

So if people could bring some dips, biscuits, crackers, cheese, drinks.
Desert.

[Toff]

I've got some beers lying around, which I'll bring. I'll also bring a few snacky things, like cheezels...

[Camilla]

I'll bring some cheese.

[T-Bone]

I'll bring some beer as well, need to decrease my supplies a little. Plus i'll bring a bottle of soft drink, and i've got some lamb steaks (will be marinated of course) to bring. I can bring some breadrolls if no one else is bringing any.

[Camilla]

Toff! Love the new avitar! Meanwhile Ted's gone off looking for Brest/Plumelec cheeses.

[geoffs]

Thanks James.
Looking forward to the cheeses Camilla
Cheezels Toff?

I might have a few Belgian beers around the place somewhere.