Customer Reviews

1999 Tour de France 8-Hour Remastered

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've always been interested in road cycling, but it's never received much press in the United States. Even today, the only cycling event that gets decent live coverage in the US is the Tour de France, and that's because an American is dominating the event. I watched nearly every minute of the 2001-2004 events, but I was only able to see highlights of the 1999 and 2000 events. I've always wondered what that race must have been like. Now I know.

The tactics used by US Postal are completely different in 2004 than they were in 1999. US Postal was not the team that it is in 2004. Lance Armstrong had to do almost all the work on his own. Armstrong is dominant in the mountains and in the Time Trials. Just watch Armstrong yelling at himself to keep working during the second time trial. It's very intense. When you consider he'd just returned from his cancer battle, it's really an amazing thing. Watching this incredible feat was a lot of fun.

All the big moments are captured, and not just the ones involving Armstrong. Crashes by Zulle and Julich are covered, and a collision between a spectator and a rider is caught live as you watch the dramatic finish on one of the climbs. All the crazy spectators make an appearance as well.

This package is not without it's problems. It's a straight transfer from VHS, so some stages are actually split between two discs. It would have been nice if they would have corrected this. However, this package is more than I ever thought would be available. It's a solid eight hours. Some of that time is taken up by interviews and footage from previous years, but most is 1999 race coverage. Good coverage is also given to the green jersey and king of the mountains battles, but Armstrong is the clear star of this show. I recommend this to any new cycling fan who'd like to see the genesis of the greatest Tour de France rider. You won't be disappointed.

1999 was Armstrong's first win in the Tour, as he came back from three years fighting and defeating cancer. The stars of the show, besides the athletes, are Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen, whose call of the race and expert commentary are flawless. If you're not a cycling fan when you start watching, you will be by the time you finish. This video contains the famous race in which a stupid fan/photographer knocks down the race leader about 1 k away from the top of Alpe d'Huez. The editors make good calls in featuring the mountain stages and time trials, and glossing over the flatter stages. However, I would have preferred a few more minutes as the Tour went through the wine country regions of France. It is very enjoyable to watch this set as you do a stationary bike workout.

Product arrived as specified next day. 8 hours of digitally remastered DVD tour coveragefrom 1999. Quality is excellent, except they copied THE DVD's from VHS, so some of the stages split between 2 dvds. No idea why they do this, but none the less, I was very happy with the purchase.

The DVD set is great until the 4th DVD - half way through , during the last mountain stage, the recording changed to some documentary from the 2004 Tour. Missing the last 5 stages took a little out of the Tour.

While the majority of the stages are covered in a couple minutes, most of the 8hrs are spent on the 4 mountain stages, resulting in the best images from this tour. We mostly witness the battle opposing Armstrong, Zulle and Escartin, the major players. Other riders such as Virenque, Etxebarria, Heulot, Tonkov, Guerrini, Cippolini, Livingstone and Team Kelme also offer inspiring performances.
Minor glitches in the filming cause some forgettable image problems. Having to switch DVDs in the middle of the action while training is somewhat disturbing. Some time spent discussing the doping scandals. Most of the Tour deciding crashes are not on film.
Great replay value. Awesome while indoor training.

Lance Armstrong's first Tour de France victory is a must have for fans - his mountain stage victory is worth the price of the entire set. The video feed quality is generally good (there are occasional bad spots, but it's Lance - who cares!). Phil and Paul are in their usual form as commentators - you've got to love the patter (especially Paul's - he suffered up those climbs!).

I enjoyed the remastered dvd collection a great deal. All 7 of Lance's Tour victories were of course fantastic in themselves but seeing the first was fantastic. The dvds are definitely a much better quality than the vhs and so much more to watch than the previous 6 hour 1999 - 2000 Tours collection. An excellent addition to a dvd library.

Great 4 disc set of the tour. Exactly what I wanted and arrived in perfect condition.

Thank you!

I just got into the Tour de France in 2003 and really had not watched cycling events at all before that. With the advent of the OLN coverage and my own renewed interest in the sport that all changed. It was really interesting to watch the 99 tour to see how it all got started. I found it quite exciting to watch some of hill stages and see what a really dominating force Lance was going head to head against the best in the world. Paul and Phil's color commentary was great and all the boring non eventfull flat stages are condensed.

If you like to watch bicycle racing you will like this. Nice to watch the 1st win. Plenty of close ups, lots of mountains.