Well, we are through stage ten of the Tour de Carnage of the 2011 Tour de France and one thing is for certain…this is not your typical Tour de France. From the new teams in the field(four American teams), an incredible amount of roster jostling on the teams themselves, to the Contador/perennial runner up Schleck rivalry, the intensified race for the green jersey, to the bizarre car crashes involved, this has been an interesting first week and a half of the Tour so far. With all this action going on, what better way to get the inside scoop of what is going on than hearing it straight from the horse’s mouth per se…or though that little service called Twitter. With things about to crank up even more and the tour gets ready to separate the men from the boys(with these boys being 10X more man than I will ever be on my best cycling day…) with the upcoming Pyrennes mountain stages, there should be a lot of chatter going from the cyclists themselves. Or shall I say the tweets will be flying across the twitter-verse as the cyclists work those thumb muscles as much as they are “dancing on their peddles” across France, as a Mr. Phil Liggett would say. Here is a very un-comprehensive, very subjective, and very biased(mostly English speakers) list of those cyclists that we think are the most entertaining Twitter-ers. This list will not include a Mr. Andy Schleck or Alberto Contador(even tweets in Spanish and English) even though they are two of the favorites to win the Tour, mainly because they are GREAT cyclists but not that interesting of tweeters. So without further ado, here are some of our favorites:
10. Cadel Evans, @cadelofficial - This Aussie has already managed to win a stage in this year’s Tour(Stage 4). Pretty neat to see him wear that chicken pox jersey...
9. Chris Horner, @hornerakg – Unfortunately, Chris is already out of the Tour this year due to a crash, but he has always been a favorite of ours for his always upbeat attitude. Even after his crash this year, he was able to complete the race and not even remember crashing in the first place. Lady luck has not treated Team Radio Shack too kindly this tour, though him being out may mean that he will have a bit more time to tweet off some more inside scoop…
8) Christian Vande Velde, @ChristianVDV - Christian has paid his dues over the years and is starting to take the spotlight himself. Plus he usually has some entertaining pics posted...
7) Dave Zabriskie, @dzabriskie - Yet another rider who is out of the tour due to a crash and broken collar bone, but entertaining none-the-less. Anyone who thinks the Book of Mormon musical is funny as well is good by us...
6) George Hincapie, @ghincapie - This Tour de France veteran(15 times) seems like a constant on the tour. He helped Lance to win all seven of his titles and is the domestique extraordinaire.
5) Mark Renshaw, @mark_renshaw - Renshaw has been Mark Cavendish's lead out man, not afraid to throw a head butt every once in a while.
4) Thor Hushovd, @thorhushovd - Thor, God of Thunder, managed to hang onto the yellow jersey for seven days to start, which is a very impressive feat considering he is a sprinter at heart.
3) Levi Leipheimer, @levileipheimer - Levi came into the tour hot off a win at the Tour de Switzerland though has had a tough Tour so far with several crashes already and losing several members of his team. Hopefully this Santa Rosa neighbor's luck will turn around shortly.
2) Taylor Phinney, @TaylorPhinney - Even though this young buck isn't even racing in the Tour this year, he is worth a follow. Taylor is a a pretty prolific tweeter who seems to respond to just about everyone that tweets at him...
1) Mark Cavendish, @MarkCavendish - The Manx Missile himself is by far the most entertaining and interesting cyclists tweeter out there. If you're going to follow one Twitter-er cyclists, Mark is your man. He usually doesn't hold back on his tweets, which sometimes gets him in trouble and they then disappear. He is the self-proclaimed fastest man on a bicycle and already won 2 stages this year and 15 in the previous three Tours.
Now that was our exclusive cyclist only list and would be remiss if I didn't include a few other notable tweeters that you may want to follow as well. Here are four bonus cycling personalities that are pretty entertaining as well.
4) Neil Browne, @neilroad - Neil is a pretty popular blogger and 'kind of a big deal' who is also a commentator for Versus.
3) Bob Roll, @bobkeroll - Former cyclist and one of our favorite commentators out there.
2) Phil Liggett, @PhilLiggett - Cycling icon Phil Liggett is quite the tweeter. I can't imagine a tour without him announcing it.
1) Jonathan Vaughters, @Vaughters - Vaughters is quite an entertaining tweeter and the manager of the Garmin-Cervelo cycling team. Plus any team that wants to get a sponsorship by these guys is good by me...
Who are your favorites? Anyone we missed?
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