Sport on the Internet
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Your support makes all the difference.THE SECOND annual Prutour, which started in London yesterday, is the UK's leading cycle race. Following it in the flesh calls for dedication as it moves around Britain towards its Edinburgh finale on Saturday, but the official Website offers a less arduous alternative.
There are full listings of teams, riders and so on. Comprehensive stage details are provided in advance, including information about cities visited en route, daily mileages, and good vantage points for spectators willing to risk leaving their monitor for RL (Net-speak for real life). Results are posted as soon as they are finalised. The daily commentary by Stephen Roche is insightful. The onsite glossary of jargon is useful, covering common buzz words from "attack" to "time limit", as well as the more esoteric from "bidon" to "wheel sucker".
The site is relatively fast and navigation is not a problem. If you have Netscape and Internet Explorer on a PC, it might be best to use IE. In the build-up to the race, Netscape 4.5 did not completely display the lowest set of navigation buttons on a couple of PCs used to access the site, it tended to crash the machines too. IE 4 and IE 5 proved fast and stable on the same machines.
"More than just a race," the official site says. A statement that cries out for elaboration which is not forthcoming. Exploring the site leads to the conclusion that it might be something to do with advertising opportunities and bad wordplay on the main sponsor's behalf. Last year's site had an "Impruve" section which was for youngsters wanting to get into the sport. This year, the target is "fit women" which turns out to be an acronym for financially independent twenty/thirtysomething women and not the build- up to a politically unsound joke.
Procycling is almost advert free. Edited by broadsheet journalists, William Fotherington and Jeremy Whittle, it is a readable online version of the print magazine. While it is a rich resource for cycling as a whole, it also sets up special pages for major events and has an e-mail news delivery service. Its Prutour section has links to news reports as well as details about the race. Sadly, the overall details go astray - by about 700 miles.
The legend says the seven-day race covers 32 miles. I could do that.
Chris Boardman was runner-up in last year's Prutour. A dedicated focus on his every move as he tries to go one better this year is provided by Greg Lunt's Chris Boardman unofficial fan pages. Unofficial maybe, but comprehensive with live updates, chat facility, an online quiz, Boardman's race records, and a soundtrack to use as background music while surfing the Net. Among the Boardman trivia are details of his favourite food - chip butties - and the claims of fans who have met him or demonstrated their devotion in other ways such as having quadriceps tattooed with a picture of him riding his Lotus bike at the 1992 Olympics.
Site Addresses
Official Prutour Web Site
http://www.prutour.co.uk
procycling
http://www.procycling.com/
Chris Boardman Unofficial Fan Page
http://www.lunt.demon.co.uk/boardman.htm
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