[Closed] Tour de France 2020 - The day after the 3 weeks before

Thanks for your posts, it's been interesting and valued.

it does seem to have been largely successful in spite of Covid and shows that things can still be run. It was nice to have something daily to watch and to get invested in. The bubble mechanism seemed to work well with minimal positive tests.

We still have the Giro and Vuelta to look forward to as well.

Thanks for the daily thread lunge!

Thanks again for doing these, Lunge. They're loads of fun and very much part of my annual TDF experience. I'll continue to read them for as long as you can be bothered making the effort.

I hear that Pogacar's hoping to leverage the win in order to finally lose his virginity.

Thanks for doing the threads, awesome as usual, now who won the fantasy league?

Wellys wanabes, my team managed mid table after a shaky start. Pinot, Bardet and Viviani didnt amount to much!!!

We still have the Giro and Vuelta to look forward to as well.

And the "Spring" classics.

Yeah thanks for doing these Lunge.

Overall despite the covid weirdness I think it was a great tour.

Highlights for me:

Alaphilippe's win on stage 2, it got a bit dusty when in the post race interview he dedicated the win to his father who had passed away.
Hirshi animating the race at every opportunity (deserved winner of the Super Combativity)
All the GC guys battling it out on the Grand Colombier and Col de Loze
Sam Bennett and an actual Green Jersey competition

But overall, that final TT was just extraordinary. Triumph and despair

Thanks for your three weeks of work pulling this together every day @lunge !

I enjoyed it overall, I thought it was raced very differently from a normal year and the Green Jersey battle was very engaging for once - rather than the usual yawn-fest of giving it to Sagan and having done with it. Nice to see some new faces coming through and almost a changing of the guard. We're sort of on two generations down the road from Armstrong now and each has seemed fresher and marginally less prone to suspicion each time. I doubt very much that it's completely clean by a long way but it does seem to be improving slowly but surely each year.

Apart from Day 1 it seemed to be mostly very good weather which was nice for scenery shots.

As we'll be WFH for the foreseeable future now, I'm glad that the Giro and Vuelta are on very soon as well! What a weird year!

As above, no time for withdrawal symptoms as Worlds this weekend followed by Giro the following. By the time the Vuelta hits, we'll be sick of sweeping panoramas and impossible feats, or not. Given the Vuelta largely takes place in the high mountains of NW Spain, theres a real possibility of snow at the end of October.

I agree with the comments above, good work doing these posts.

One of the best tours for quite a few years in my opinion. Jumbo-Visma doing a Sky/Ineos domination job then having it snateched away at the penultimate stage. Roglic was gutted, but gentlemen enough to congratulate Pogacar, a class act. Jaw dropping performance on the TT by the eventual winner, the margin of victory raised some questions but I choose to believe that it was above board. Loved the Pogacar reaction "I'm just a kid, this is all too big for me." Would have been amazing to be in Ljubljana yesterday, properly socially distanced of course.

Highlight for me was Sam Bennet, it shows how much of a confidence game sprinting is. After his first win, having come so close before, he absolutlely dominated the Champs Elysee finish, Sagan is a great rider but good to see him having some competition.

Just add my thanks to you lunge for doing these every day.

I thought it went off pretty well TBH, and I imagine that the organisers are probably heaving a great sigh of relief right now. Went off with mostly without a hitch, exciting last stage, some great scenery, decent weather, and largely sensible spectators...

Merci Monseiur Lunge!

I've really enjoyed this Tour. Like others, I didn't really warm to the GC race but then that's rarely the most interesting part of the tour anyway. The stages themselves were superb and a whole host of stories have emerged.

Really hope the rest of the calendar can happen this year. Some autumnal spring classics could be great.

Thank you, great posts.
Really enjoyed this year.

Excellent Tour this year - expectations were really uncertain, and clearly Gary Imlach and the ITV crew weren't even sure it'd last the distance.

Some great days, amazing performances and an engrossing race overall. It just leaves the question, really:
...which of the pro bikes would you want in the shed, waiting to go for a quick spin every morning when you wake up/ every time you have a spare 15 minutes from work?

The Specialized SL7 was pretty ubiquitous, but the Williers were weirdly tempting for me...

Thanks lunge - really appreciate your efforts

Thanks Lunge! 🙂

Oh dear...

https://road.cc/content/news/nairo-quintanas-tdf-hotel-room-raided-police-277411?fbclid=IwAR16ebSbENo3xuZ3rmc5eBuoJ9HZI8qobC6G5It19ZNsy8zSMG5xBqmfLpI

If he’s been doping then he’ll probably want his money back!

IIRC, at the wrap up of yesterday's stage, Gary Imlach remarked that they'd be back for the Vuelta, implying the Giro won't be covered by ITV4.

Does anyone know whether the Giro will be broadcast free-to-air? If so, by whom...??

Does anyone know whether the Giro will be broadcast free-to-air? If so, by whom…??

Not available on free-to-air in the UK as far as I know. Eurosport/GCN will likely be the only place to see it.

Damn...I'm in Canada but prefer the ITV4 team (even if the adverts are infuriating!)...

Who won the fantasy cycling? 6th me, blew the budget on all three of pog Rog and bernal so was knackered the second bernal withdrew. Also blaming de marchi who got a mere 14 points when he's normally in every mountain break going