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Spoilers within, obvs.
Yesterday's finale had it all. The eventual winner showing a perfect blend of tactics and tenacity to take a much needed win after a shocker of a day for FDJ yesterday:
https://twitter.com/cyclingtips/status/1552033013671886848?s=20&t=5bZ8Is1cbQqN5q4xziSXNQ
Uttrup Ludwig's win here shared a lot with her compatriot Magnus Cort's win in Mende in the men's tour, winning for a long way back and saving the race for their teams.
On to today:
Those little beige icons with grapes (?) on them denote Chemins Blanc. White roads. Strade Bianche. Given the first 3 stages have been ridden like spring classics, today promises to be quite a battle. Trek Segafredo have dominated the 'bumpy roads in France' scene in recent years so expect Elisa Longo-Borghini to be in the mix. And Mariane Vos, who knows a thing or two about bike handling. SD Worx have the reigning Strade Bianche champ Lotte Kopecky on hand - will she have her own chance or try and set up Demi Vollering? Kasia Niewadoma has shown she is in good form and very motivated.
Coverage starts at 1300 on GCN/Eurosport/Discovery with the finish expected around 1500.
This should be a good one.
I just hope there's fewer crashes (ideally NO crashes). It's been a bit like a demolition derby at times so far. 🙁
Yes they are grapes (vineyard roads). Let's see if Annemiek has got over what Wiggo would call "the 2 bob bits" or if she'll lose more time.
It's blowing to pieces! Good stage - very reminiscent of the Strade Bianche scenery.
Blimey they weren't joking when they said there'd some gravel today... surprised none have framebags and "dangle mugs"...
It is going absolutely gravel.
Blimey that UAE team car needs to be more aware of how close he is to the pack..
This womens TdF seems to have been a nasty crash fest so far.. going to be more of an attritional event than the mens
Nasty crash for Mavi Garcia. She has been taking a LOT of sticky bottles and then ended up getting wiped out by her team car.
I'm watching on about a 10-min delay (live pause on TV cos work rather inconsiderately called me) but FFS, there's a LOT of mechanicals, some very clumsy and poor bike changes and a lot of related minor falls.
Nasty crash for Mavi Garcia. She has been taking a LOT of sticky bottles and then ended up getting wiped out by her team car.
That was 50:50. She swung across to the back of the group, the car was too close as well.
Also - there should be no way that the [b]driver[/b] is handing stuff up. That is absolutely never allowed in UK racing. Rider drops back to the passenger side of the vehicle and the soigneur hands stuff up, the driver does the driving.
All the safety stuff that the UCI come up with (and most of it is pretty justified) but then they allow drivers to control a vehicle within inches of riders at speed while speaking on the radio and handing up bottles, food, clothing...
looks like there was nothing but air in a few of those bottles!
Agree car was too close, lucky he didn't roll over her as she came down right in front of the car.
Great finish there!
There has been a hell of a lot of crashes, normally i'd say that might be due to the large discrepancies from the top female teams to the bottom where many are amateurs still.. but a lot of the crashes seem to be amongst the top riders?
but a lot of the crashes seem to be amongst the top riders?
Nerves at being in an event far bigger and more complex than they're used to?
Pressure of needing to perform to get the sponsorship deals?
This event is trialling (delayed) transmission of team radio broadcasts too - similar to F1 - but some of what is being shouted over the radio is just pointless noise and drivel. That's got to be distracting, constantly being yelled at to move up. 🙄
Too busy today to chat too much, but here’s the highlights:
First set of extended highlights I've watched after the free GCN pass.
Was super excited and really looking to get into it.
Has it all been this shockingly awful? I mean the coverage. Utterly moronic commentary (I think they restated vos' cx win about 45 times), no idea of who was where, skipping away when people attack, no discussion of time gaps pace of peloton what the teams are doing etc. Every five minutes a skip to another person who happens to be magically off the front with no warning, time gaps skipping with no explanation. Weird cuts to Manon talking about the size of the rocks.
Really doing the event absolutely no credit. Embarrassing and little better than the advertorial GCN YouTube tripe. My better half - a keen cyclist - who watched the tour day in day out couldn't get through 5 minutes of this.
Is there any better coverage? I tried the Eurosport short highlights and the commentator kept forgetting the names of riders, how many climbs there were, distances etc.
Some weird crashes over the last couple of days. Seems like some riders lack concentration 🤔 or make overly optimistic moves...anyway, enjoying the coverage even if it isn't as polished as ITV4
Yesterday's highlights program was quite strange. It was very disjointed and seemed to be a fairly random attempt at cut and pasting the day's action.
It did seem like a race of many incidents and utter carnage on the gravel. I can't believe the Spanish rider got hit by the team car. Mad!!
It did seem like a race of many incidents and utter carnage on the gravel. I can’t believe the Spanish rider got hit by the team car. Mad!
And that was after her and her mate wiped someone else out !
Eurosport guy does like telling us how many of the riders names in a bunch he knows, not just their first names, or their second, but both names... every time, every 2 minutes.... bunch of 20, he'll rattle each and every one of them off... lol.
I think that sudden bike change in the middle of the road deserves a slap from the commissaries. They could have pulled off and not taken her out. Surprised she didn't get up and start swinging!
I watched yesterdays stage whilst work on GCN and got to agree with the comments about commentator, random cuts to Manon, not to mention Iris on the motorbike and also the complete lack of info about villages and chateauxs on the route.
My highlight was Adam Blythe in the Breakaway afterwards rather uncomfortably ripping into the team tactics of the day of multiple teams and also his reaction as they played Garcia and the team car.
I think they need to let Adam in as a co-commentator just to spice up the content a bit.