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Old habits die hard, it may be a rest day but I'm still in Le Tour website at 8am.
So, the first rest day, who's done better than expected and who worse? Who is the hero and the villain? A place to generally reflect on the first week of fun and games.
But first, a couple of pics from yesterday, may I suggest you have a glance at CyclingTips gallery here, I could have picked any of the images, it's stunning.
I'd be watching that Movistar team after yesterdays showing also Sky. Given that most teams had riders down at some point those two teams seem to have shown themselves to be strong. Also I suspect that Bardet will be having a less than polite word with Prudhomme about route choices.
Great viewing that it was I'm not sure that yesterdays stage has a place in the tour, to many places for serious injury. I'd like a riders view, especially those that are looking for a high position. I wonder what Porte is feeling about yesterdays stage.
Pretty cool so far...
Degenholbs stage win yesterday was awesome, so pleased for him.
Yes the stage should be in the Tour, for all the reasons posted on the days stage thread.
Groanwaggon, Awesome bloke.
QS in general highlight so far, bunch of hard blokes out to ride for each other.
Cradock for carrying on despite injury.
To all of them that can stand upright today.
Its hard to tell how Dan Martin coped with all those cobbles after his crash on Saturday. But I really, really want him to get further up the table and stop losing time.
Rest day has come at a good time for him.
Yesterdays stage was the highlight of the week,just look at how much interest it generated on here.
So good to see Degenkolb get the win after what he's been through in the last couple of years.
Dan Martin has took a stage win & survived the cobbles despite his crash the day before.
I don't think anyone expected Quintana to do as well as he did yesterday
Richie Porte managing to crash out before they even got to the first set of cobbles is probably the biggest fail,judging by his own standards Cav has been under performing.It was awful to see Tony Martin's tour end the way it did.
Sagan's been... Sagan,just great to watch
@bikebuoy
read the thread yesterday but am still uncertain on the pave stage, can't disagree with either side of the argument. Cannot deny it was brilliant to watch all the way through, I was shouting at the telly. However had there been a really serious injury as has happened in spring classics (pave sections) in yesterdays stage, would we still think this sort of stage should be in?
Perhaps we'll get some riders views today in the various rest day interviews.
Thought the discipline of the Movistar team was good yesterday, I wonder if they'll be able to repeat on the mountains.
^ And they complain about disc brakes...
Good job chain is on the big ring there.
TBF it's his own fault for laying down in the road like that....
Bet the doc is still writing up the notes for the day
Oh and obviously obvious is obvious...
The Man Lunge for sparking and maintaining a thread on here, for us lot to get hot and bothered about.
✊👏
While I think it was great to watch i think that other grand tours manage to be more interesting without putting the riders at risk. The first week of the your has been achingly dull, when the TTT is the highlight then you know they're doing something wrong.
Flat stages are fine but they need to be spaced out more.
Nibbles is still up there. Based on how he blew apart his team in the TTT, he’s lucky not to be a minute down. GvA still in yellow. Great ride yesterday and a very worthy maillot jaune. And Gavi picking up the wins means Quickstep have had a great week and can all go home now!
Movistar not falling apart was a result, prior to a decent hill. They will still fall apart of course.
Sagan has already won the maillot vert, so job done.
btw there is no truth to the rumour that next year will see the first off-road downhill alps stage. Well it’s about the best bike rider and they change bikes for an uphill time trial. How about a down hill enduro? Props mincing, none of that soft pave nonsense. Sagan ftw and yellow. And probably only one to Paris!
Lots of Trek with "motor" video shares on FB today
I think the variety of stages this year is excellent. If it’s meant to be the ultimate test of a road cyclist I can’t see why any type of stage should be ruled out.
Complaints about the pave seem to come from the people who aren’t any good at it or who have countrymen who have to drop out.
Richie Porte dropping out isn’t great but to blame that on the pave (which someone on the ITV coverage did) is a bit of a stretch.
I think Chris Boardman said that a mix of types of stages really shows who the best all round cyclist is. Otherwise you just get the time trialists/climbers guaranteed to win. This year it’s been blown wide open, whoever wins will be a very worthy winner indeed.
Flat stages are fine but they need to be spaced out more.
This is for sure. I love the types of stages they’ve got this year but mixing them up across the weeks may have been better.
obvious point, but logistically to be swapping between flat parts of the country and mountainous areas would be a nightmare...you do the flat stages mainly together because they are all in the same parts of the country!
Lots of Trek with “motor” video shares on FB today
Go back another few seconds and he turned the pedals to relocate the chain that had got muddled in the dismount.
The first 50 km were the most nervous Dumoulin summed it up. That was due to what was coming, and when you’ve ridden in a nervous peloton, you know the crashes are coming. It’s not a great feeling and took out a GC contender. Been in the same place place. And crashed through no fault of my own.
We could just have a rogue farmer taking pops across the field for added excitement a la Lemond. Best rider is obviously Sagan or GvA. Both have gone down on the cobbles in the past. Neither has a chance of winning. It’s all racing. But I don’t think mixing it up is the way. I love the classics, but time has loved on and there will be no Merckx In the future.
Some cracking mountain stages coming. Particularly the short one. Turbo warm up for that one!
Richie Porte dropping out isn’t great but to blame that on the pave (which someone on the ITV coverage did) is a bit of a stretch.
then
The first 50 km were the most nervous Dumoulin summed it up. That was due to what was coming, and when you’ve ridden in a nervous peloton, you know the crashes are coming.
I'd take notice of what people were saying here, it was a factor in a big pile up getting to the first stage.
Have we talked about how easy Bardet found getting back to the bunch? Rumours are he got a wee bit of assistance from French TV cars...
But the same can happen on any stage, nerves over an upcoming sprint or sharp climb have exactly the same effect.
I imagine the TV would be keen not to see how sticky Bardet’s bottles may have been. They did comment he was going back for them for the team, but not when suffering a mechanical. How many punctures? Some serious tyre pressure issues in that team.
Bardet getting assistance? Never happened unless its been recorded. I wonder if it has?
Getting a position into the cobbles is not the same as an upcoming hill climb or sprint, similar but much more nervy given the all round un-predictable events (well lots of falling off is predicted).
It isn't about individual incidents it is about the overall risk. Overall, that much cobble introduces a higher risk of unavoidable mishap than other types of stage. The question is, is this justified by the fact that (risk aside) it provides a valid test of a slightly different skillset from other types of stage and also adds undoubted sporting spectacle?
I never saw Bardet getting a sticky bottle or drafting but he did seem to make up an awful lot of time in the last few km. The whole Landa group as well. The last few shots of Bardet grimacing were very cropped. Given his bad luck with punctures I can understand commissaires etc looking the other way.
this isn't a new discussion is it, at least it wasn't wet remember the 2014 Tour, Froome crashes out on cobble stage, Nibali blows everyone away.
is a cobbled stage any more attritional overall than the tree-covered slippy mountain descents or the corners before sprints? or is it just harder to protect GC riders?
I thought yesterday was a fantastic stage and cobbles should feature every few years.
I can understand commissaires etc looking the other way.
Err, no.
Well, I'll be riding some of those pave sections in a couple of weeks so I'll let you know how easy they are and that the pros are just hamming it up and they can't really ride bikes on rough stuff. 😉
Trouble with Roubaix i think is that if you are towards back on bike, cars are always going to be squarely in front of you on the narrow roads, especially pave sections and they are often slower moving then the bikes, so difficult i guess to say who was drafting when most of the time a car will be slower moving then you'd like to be going.
Saw it a number of times yesterday where riders were struggling to actually get past the cars to proceed?
Err, no.
I wasn't condoning it for a second. Dumoulin got docked 20s last week for draughting so at least the same should apply if there's evidence. My point was, given ASOs general dislike of Froome and Sky and Lappartient's recently history with Brailsford, I can imagine the conversation the commissaires had with the race organisers over Bardet. They'll justify it to themselves as it makes for a better race. Having had 5 mechanicals, I have no doubt they turned a blind eye. Not that they should've.
It does seem very odd to lose so little time when her had to stop so many times. But he was hardly on camera from what I watched - this may or may not have been deliberate - so could have gotten away with it.
I'm going to cut him a bit of slack. It seems the pace was up and down throughout the stage. There were quite a few riders who crashed/had mechanicals who before to long were back at the pointy end.
According to Strava the stage average was 28mph. There is no way Bardet could have chased back on without using team cars. If he can solo back on 4 times, then he can win Paris-Roubaix next year no problem
There is no way Bardet could have chased back on without using team cars. If he can solo back on 4 times, then he can win Paris-Roubaix next year no problem
He was so for any if them he had team mates and for the last ine he had his his team mates and Landa's. Him and Landa just did the last bit together and at least 1 AG2R rider was not far behind.
New sponsor
Its just a race
I read the CCC link up with BMC yesterday, which puts my Sky funding pull out and link up with BMC right out of the park doesn’t it 🤪🤦♀️
Oh well.
And a change of bikes too... so not BMC anymore, more like CCC Sprandi with GvA and Kung et all.
So, who are BMC going to provide bikes too now then ?
So, who are BMC going to provide bikes too now then ?
I heard Di Data, although it's entirely hearsay so who knows really.
I've been watching the highlights every day and have had a few thoughts/ things I'm curious to see other people's opinions on:
- Team Sky: as they get into the mountains, will team orders be that Thomas has to fall back and support Froome - is team standing that rigid? (And I wonder if there'll be the histrionics of Froome/ Wiggins...)
- Bardet yesterday had 4 events on the highlights in terms of flats, changing bikes, changing wheels etc. Was there something in his setup that just wasn't right - too low pressure, for example?
- Seeing Cavendish's results and performance in the sprints juxtaposed with him holding his kid got me wondering if maybe the fight isn't there. Maybe being a wee radge was good for him, fighting til the end of each sprint rather than looking up at 300m and visibly thinking "meh, not today". Even his interviews are weirdly chilled out now.
- Having not seen anything about yesterday's stage, before the highlights started I did think "I bet Porte falls off". As Boardman said, "it's a perennial problem for him" - every year he seems to have a significant fall. If you believe in sports psychology, you might wonder if mentally he's got everything to believe that he is a winner, can be a winner and deserves to be the winner of the TdF.
Firstly, massive thanks to lunge for the daily threads, which I read every day unless I'm behind on the highlights.
Secondly, I thought yesterdays stage was brilliant watching and great to see Degenkolb winning, clearly meant an awful lot to him!
as they get into the mountains, will team orders be that Thomas has to fall back and support Froome
I doubt Thomas will keep up with Froome tbh.
Dan Martin - hero, also surprised to see UAE ride/put in a bit of a team effort.
Gutted to see Ritchie Porte go out the way he did.
Got to say am disappointed that Cav is off form. His record is still one of the best ever.
Excited to see what Uran and Yates might be capable of.
Big fan of QS and great to see Degenkolb/Chavanel have the legs to make the races interesting.
In reality it was just the lack of more wind that hindered the racing spectacle in the first week. And the pave made for a nail biting spectacular but was probably a bit too much.