Tour de France predictions

[Jonathan Platt]

Ye from what can gather that group is growing so hopefully ok!
guess also if peloton catch front group it may all slow down a bit.

 

[sxrxg]

I was cheering hard at the end. Great first day. And really pleased for the man in yellow. Won't spoil it too much for anyone waiting for the highlights later.

 

[sxrxg]

And Cav finished 40 minutes down, still managed to be well within the time cut though. Hope he can now recover from whatever was up with him today (heatstroke or some kind of bug by the looks of it)

 

[teestub]

I was cheering hard at the end. Great first day. And really pleased for the man in yellow. Won't spoil it too much for anyone waiting for the highlights later.

Great stage! I think maybe people should avoid a TdF thread until they are up to date.

What a great Tour debut for Frank Van den Broek, that will take some beating

 

[Muenchener]

Experiencing Peak Frenchness with the france.tv live coverage on in the background at work. Not a whole lot happening in the stage, so instead the commentators are talking - knowledgeably - about the grape varieties & pedigrees of the vineyards they're riding through.

You don't get that with English language commentary.

 

[Jonathan Platt]

Sounds ace!
Ive moved hooses in majorca and new one seems to only have smart tv, trying to see if can get/ tune conventional tv for tour!
First 2 stages were much better than I had thought might be.
annoyingly discovery plus wont work over here :shrug:

 

[Duma]

[nsfw]I fucking love Tadej.
Those first few corners on the descent from the Galibier were terrifying[/nsfw]

 

[sxrxg]

Great first stage in the high mountains. It is a shame in some ways we have to wait another week now until the battle resumes head to head (time trails are interesting I just prefer the contenders looking each other in the eye and going up against each other directly). This tour is most definitely not over though, the final week is very tough...

 

[teestub]

Looking forward to seeing whether Remco can gain some time in the TT. Was amazing how fast he closed the gap when the descent stopped and it was flat again today.

 

[Paul B]

[nsfw]I fucking love Tadej.
Those first few corners on the descent from the Galibier were terrifying[/nsfw]

Agreed. Watching that made me feel :sick:

I thought Jonas looked a bit scrappy descending in the preceding stages.

 

[teestub]

One of the first switchbacks on the descent looked off camber and if you messed it up you would have just about stopped rolling at the bottom of the valley amazing how well they can descent after just doing a 35km climb with a 5 min max effort at the end!

 

[Muenchener]

One of the first switchbacks on the descent looked off camber and if you messed it up you would have just about stopped rolling at the bottom of the valley amazing how well they can descent after just doing a 35km climb with a 5 min max effort at the end!

Listened to the Lanterne Rouge podcast while riding home from the wall last night, they were talking about descent finishes being exciting for us viewers but unpopular with the riders "whose lives are on the line". They're not wrong

 

[sxrxg]

Probably not unpopular with all riders just those who have less skills in this area (Remco being the obvious example from the top guys in this years tour). I am a believer that the top guys should be tested in all areas though and not just with mountain top finishes or time trails where VO2 capacity is the overriding factor in winning.

I also watch a lot of the downhill mountain biking world cup where this is always a factor, the athletes need to make the decision of how much they ride within themselves or if they go 100% (or over this in some cases) and just try and hang on. At the end of the day these are professional athletes and risk taking is part of it, this could be extreme diets or training methods that are less obvious or it could just be the amount of risk they are prepared to take by braking later and harder than the others.

Of course organsiers should be trying to mitigate the risk of athlete injury (padding, signage, barriers without footings, route books with enough detail, manditory safety gear such as helmets, etc) however i think everyone understands that there will always be some level of inherent in built risk in a sport where the aim is to get to the finish line as fast as possible.

 

[Paul B]

On one of the recent Zwift academies one of the men was really powerful but couldn't descend for toffee (a side effect of riding on a turbo a lot I assume? Like climbing on a board being bad for footwork) and the DS (Alpecin from memory) was quick to point out that if you can't descend, you can't win so I'm not sure it matters all that much whether it's a descent at the end or mid-stage as there's still the opportunity to lose time where bolder/better riders won't?

If people haven't watched these then they are fairly eye-opening, watching people putting out seriously BIG NUMBERS who are unable to take a musette from a car successfully etc.

 

[andy moles]

not sure it matters all that much whether it's a descent at the end or mid-stage as there's still the opportunity to lose time which bolder/better riders won't?

Probably true except those racing for the stage or GC seconds are all-out on the final descent, which they generally aren't in the middle of a stage?

 

[Will Hunt]

Is there any info out there on the relative risk of peloton riding vs bunched sprints vs technical descents? I can imagine progressively decreasing likelihood and increasing consequences.

In a sport that's often described as gladiatorial, I quite like that there is an element of risk. Obviously you want to limit that and nobody wants to see people seriously injured or killed, but it's a road race, not a velodrome time trial. Do we halt the race when it rains and they have to go round corners? No, they have to adapt and win with whatever the race throws at them over three gruelling weeks :boxing: opcorn:

 

[Paul B]

Do we halt the race when it rains and they have to go round corners? No, they have to adapt and win with whatever the race throws at them over three gruelling weeks :boxing:

:worms:

After significant pushback from riders and teams due to concerns about racing in freezing rain and snow, race Giro d’Italia organiser RCS Sport has announced that the Umbrail Pass has been removed from the route of Stage 16.

Source:
https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/snow-rain-rider-protests-and-confusion-end-with-umbrail-pass-removed-from-giro-ditalia-stage-16/

I think it's fair to say that riders have had issues with some decisions made by race organisers lately when it comes to weather. The stage 5 Dauphine crash was also not pretty:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/HXmuHsEeZ5k

Obviously you want to limit that and nobody wants to see people seriously injured or killed, but...

...but, you'll find crashes featuring in trailers for the TdF/Unchained etc. because it's easy for people to understand crashing = bad?

 

[sxrxg]

Well let's hope that there are no crashes on the potentially wet finish roads for the sprint gladiators! Hope Cav can get in the mix today.

 

[sxrxg]

What a finish

 

[AMorris]

[nsfw]I have never screamed at the tv quite as much as that, unbelievable stuff! He totally dominated that sprint too, no one got close when he went.[/nsfw]