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Crosswind carnage!
Excellent! A winner not sponsored by a repressive regime or advertising premier killing technology!
Anyone else having transmission problems with ITV4? Very low quality picture. Other channels are OK
Yes. I had to stop watching ItvX and switch to normal telly.
Well done Sam Watson, what a result.
Hands up who else had Ganna in their fantasy team. I really am a bad luck charm 😂
I know, I'll pick two of the top 3 sprinters, bound to pick up some points on stage 1. Guess which two I picked...?
yep, picked Ganna
bonus point for getting a mention in the highlights show?
Some fool up there ^^^ was banging on about the straightforward finale today.
So Sad for Jake Stewart getting a mechanical. Was feeling that this was going to be a good day for him.
Kaden Groves deserves a time bonus for the way he avoided a crashed rider - awesome bike handling !
Today's stage is looking interesting and classics-y:
As usual, inrng is worth a read on the subject:
https://inrng.com/2025/07/tour-de-france-stage-2-preview-boulogne/
I feel like under usual circumstances the GC teams would just do their best to stay safe and let some classics riders fight it out. The thing is that Visma seem to want to create as much chaos as possible in these opening stages and the other big GC team have *quite* a good classics guy as their leader.
Whatever the scenario, if Van der Poel isn't up there in the finish today I'll be very surprised.
I missed the first hour or so of today's stage only just turned it on. Looks a damp and rather miserable day.
ITV4 is off into one of the occasional digressions they like to do which in some respects is a relief to mundane shite about the race when nothing is happening. Going to miss Ned and David when this coverage finishes, Ned always manages to find some history, literature or geography to weave into the narrative.
@crazy-legs Ned and the gang have a plan for next year. Neverstraysfar
Quinn Simmons - riding 650 on the back ? Shame that double-denim kits are no longer an item
That's better, first, second, sixth and yellow. Good last 10km to watch.
Good last 10km to watch.
Everyone has been intent on knocking seven bells out of each other today! Moments of real full gas hardcore racing, every last bit of terrain and wind direction exploited.
Good win though, that was well deserved and well executed.
Bit bemused by what Visma think they are achieving in the first two stages, unless you can either win the stage or drop Pog there's no point and the last two days have just set up MVdP and Pog.
Even if you watch the live coverage, the ITV4 highlights show is well worth a watch. As it's ITV4's final year broadcasting the Tour, they're showing excerpts from the archives and some historical race footage.
Even if you watch the live coverage
I've signed up the whole family to a cut-price cremation and saved several donkeys.
When I grow up I want a motorised profiterole...going to miss le tour highlights...it's literally been with me almost all my life
Bit bemused by what Visma think they are achieving in the first two stages, unless you can either win the stage or drop Pog there's no point and the last two days have just set up MVdP and Pog.
According to Daniel Benson on his substack, the plan was to set up WvA but he wasn't up for it, so they tried with Jonas V.
According to Daniel Benson on his substack, the plan was to set up WvA but he wasn't up for it, so they tried with Jonas V.
Fair enough with Wout but Jonas was never going to beat Pog or MVdP so why bother, just a waste of energy. Even Evenepoel played it more canny than Jonas and he often gets it wrong. Better to just mark Pog and try and let him waste his energy racing MVdP
Worth a skim on the VLab tactics. https://www.domestiquecycling.com/en/features/vingegaard-adopts-classics-state-of-mind-at-tour-de-france-analysis/
Even if you watch the live coverage, the ITV4 highlights show is well worth a watch. As it's ITV4's final year broadcasting the Tour, they're showing excerpts from the archives and some historical race footage
I enjoyed yesterday's piece on Boardman's win in '94.
It's been really cool in these 2 stages to see some big names change the way they race.
- Jonas is absolutely having it - I don't know if it will win him the race but I really like it.
- MvdP played a really smart race today. He used to be all power and bloody mindedness but today he just sat in the exact right spot for the entire last 40km and timed his sprint to perfection. Love to see him turning into more of a racer and less of a WMD.
Jonas was never going to beat Pog or MVdP so why bother, just a waste of energy.
Because the alternative is to ride around France for 3 weeks watching his rear wheel.
There's always a chance that Pogacar will be caught in the wrong place, become isolated from any teammates, have an ill-timed mechanical.
Plus it's marketing as much as anything - JV can be written as an exciting rider who animates a stage, takes the fight to Pogacar... or he could be a boring person who follows a wheel for 3 weeks.
Because the alternative is to ride around France for 3 weeks watching his rear wheel.
There's always a chance that Pogacar will be caught in the wrong place, become isolated from any teammates, have an ill-timed mechanica
Dropping Roglic and Evenepoel was stupid on the first day, they want Pog and his team watching those two as well.
Yesterday all they did was set up MvDP for the win. It's all very well being attacking but they need to let UAE control the race and expenditure energy and then attack on a stage where Pog hasn't got an obvious advantage.
As for going if Pog is in the wrong place, yes good idea but seeing as he was right behind Jonas it couldn't have been hard to work out that day one and two were not those days. They should be following the favourite and making him control or animate if he wants a stage win
MvdP played a really smart race today. He used to be all power and bloody mindedness but today he just sat in the exact right spot for the entire last 40km and timed his sprint to perfection. Love to see him turning into more of a racer and less of a WMD.
He was helped by Jumbo animating the race and UAE chasing down attackers, had pog sat back when lipowitc went and made MvDP chase he would likely have won
Alex Dowsett replacing Chris Boardman (until Paris). (after reading his book I'm an even bigger fan than I was before).
philipsen out
Well that's opened up the sprint jersey a bit, Phillipsen taken out at intermediate sprint with collarbone!
Philipsen is out with a broken collarbone, coming into the intermediate sprint it looks like Bryan Coquard slipped, bounced off Axel Laurentz and then took out Philippsen. Other riders from the team had stopped to bring him back but were sent back to the peloton straight away
One of the alpecin riders seemed to be having a go at Coquard as they crossed the line, saying "why were you even trying" - he's there to try. If he doesn't try why bother? He tried, it didn't go well.
here's me carefully composing spoiler alerts so people can check the thread but still enjoy the highlights :/
That was a nasty one.
On a purely selfish note, helps my fantasy team slightly as I've got Merlier and Milan.
spoilers are allowed here no?
Merlier and Milan.
Two sprinters...greedy. I have Nys but he went AWOL yesterday, would love to see him v MVdP on an uphill finish.
I've got MvDP too!
I have Merlier, MVdP and Thibaut Nys I thought I would at least get support points not matter who wins the sprint!!
Well, that was intense! TV commentators talking about “what was Coquard doing”. Last I heard it’s a bike race so he can compete for what he wants. From what I saw he was a bit of a victim himself, so I don’t think he needs to feel bad?
Last I heard it’s a bike race so he can compete for what he wants.
It doesn't quite work like that, especially in the Tour. Sprinting is a particular skill and trying to barge in and compete in a competition which you have no chance of winning is kind of like walking into the kitchen and pushing Gordon Ramsay out the way. It's just not the done thing.
Coquard is a decent rider and he's won a couple of stages in lower tier tours but he's not a contestant for this, he's not up to competing against pure sprinters and if a relatively inexperienced rider is put into the A Group of sprinting excellence, he's going to be out of his depth and he's going to cause problems.
It's part of the reason that the 3km rule was introduced - back in the day, GC riders were so worried about being delayed by a crash (or caught up in it) that they pushed all the way to the line which meant they were getting in the way of the pure sprint trains and generally clogging the place up. By putting in the 3km (now being trialled at 5km on a few stages), it means the GC riders get to the 3km to go then sit up and retreat to the back of the bunch, well out of the way of the sprinters who are used to the argy bargy.
If there'd been a proper lead out, I reckon it would have lined everything out; the problem was that with the headwind everyone had just sat there all morning so a full bunch arrived with fresh legs, all desperate for points, cash prizes and possibly thinking about UCI points as well.
From my armchair analysis, Coquard moved right to try and get past Milan, but wasn't aware/didn't check to see the rider to his right, bumped into him, bounced left and took out Philipsen.
I see he's got a yellow card from the race jury.
I was in the office today, didn't see any of the stage but watching the highlights is almost too painful. It's chaos, I hate watching stuff like that. Those crashes just looked horrific. 🙁
I think Coquard was responding to something Milan did (getting out of the saddle perhaps), moved right, bounced off the rider on the right and took out Philisen. Very unfortunate but I don't think it deserves a yellow card.
[ignore me, I misread something]
Coquard definitely looked like he reacted to Milan doing something.
It doesn't quite work like that, especially in the Tour. Sprinting is a particular skill and trying to barge in and compete in a competition which you have no chance of winning is kind of like walking into the kitchen and pushing Gordon Ramsay out the way. It's just not the done thing.
Coquard is a decent rider and he's won a couple of stages in lower tier tours but he's not a contestant for this, he's not up to competing against pure sprinters and if a relatively inexperienced rider is put into the A Group of sprinting excellence, he's going to be out of his depth and he's going to cause problems.
I disagree here. Coquard is an infrequent winner but to imply that he's some sort of hairy-legged nodder playing with the big boys does him a disservice - he's probably been in more Tour sprint top 10s than most of the people he was bouncing off.
https://www.procyclingstats.com/rider/bryan-coquard/statistics/grand-tour-starts
What's mot likely at play here is that his team are struggling for UCI points so have asked him to get as many green jersey points as possible, even if he's unlikely to win the jersey overall. He's a bike racer doing his job.
I disagree here. Coquard is an infrequent winner but to imply that he's some sort of hairy-legged nodder playing with the big boys does him a disservice
It certainly does. OK he hasn't won many sprints but he's been right up there on many occasions with top end sprinters.
What's mot likely at play here is that his team are struggling for UCI points so have asked him to get as many green jersey points as possible, even if he's unlikely to win the jersey overall.
In his last two TdFs he has finished 3rd in the points classification.
Shame that was such a cursed finale as it overshadowed a majestic finish from Merlier. No one else can come from deep like that and beat Milan HtH.
He seemed more relieved than euphoric post race - stressful finish.
Meanwhile, in "completely overshadowed by the TdF" news (and still valid for this thread cos it's Grand Tours in general), Britain's Anna Henderson (3rd in the recent National Road Race Championships) won Stage 2 of the Giro Donne from a 2-up breakaway and with it, the pink jersey!
https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/the-current-gc-standings-at-the-giro-d-italia-women-2025/
Can't find the stage 4 live coverage in ITVX, am I missing something?
If you have any questions for the ITV4 cycling team, they're inviting people to post them on facebook
Can't find the stage 4 live coverage in ITVX, am I missing something?
Just a bit of patience, live coverage starts at 14:30
That was a phenomenal finish. Full gas, super technical run in with big sweeping bends and they're doing 40-50kph uphill! Just... wow.
A brilliant final 20k to that stage. Oscar in 7th having chased back on after a crash, though he'll have his work cut out in tomorrow's ITT.
Expected pog to drop vingo. He kind of did but kind of didn't. Let's see if the dauphine TT was a pog oddity or will he lose time. I'm going for lose only a little time. And Remco to win obviously.
Let's see if the dauphine TT was a pog oddity or will he lose time. I'm going for lose only a little time. And Remco to win obviously.
I'm fairly convinced that the Dauphine TT was either a mind game ("OMG, Pogacar lost time, what could be wrong?!") or he was testing some specific pacing strategy or kit or something. Given the rest of his performance in the Dauphine (including, y'know, wining it outright), there's a really slim chance it was a genuinely bad day and a really high chance he was just playing around. It's all a bluff.
I reckon that he'll either absolutely demolish the TT tomorrow or, at worst, it'll be within a couple of seconds of Evenepoel & Vingegaard, probably with the yellow jersey to follow. Shame that Ganna is out, it would have suited him down to the ground.
Watching the highlights and I'm still staggered by the speeds they were doing. 50-60kph through Rouen, OK some of it was slightly downhill but the final run in and kick up was 7% gradient and they were doing 30+kph!
I can manage about 10kph on gradients like that. 😳
Hurrah - I'm currently narrowly leading the 'teams without Pogacar' STW league 😂
Lantern rouge not living up to there usual expectations. Currently doing quite well!
Wasn’t the Dauphiné TT a bit hillier than this one? If so there’s a bit of a limit on how useful a predictor it will be for today’s course. Other than the fact remco is likely to avoid every single air molecule on the way to victory
Remind me of the league code please. I'm on 1872 points in nowhere land. I though Pog was measuring his efforts so didn't go full gas to drop them all. Until the sprint. Possibly as a test and possibly for the ITT. Nice to see Ving looking strong. I hope he can last the distance with those efforts as I like him as a rider and a person. It's clearly not Remco's year and the form is inversely proportional to the complaints. He'll probably win today though as he's a TT machine.
Club ride last night I rode fixed and dropped our group three up a climb at about 440W. That's Pog's FTP and he's 3cm shorter and 4 kilos lighter than me. Obviously I still have some work to do 😀
The code for the STW mini league is 170623027, and that league will cover you for ALL velogames competitions so we can use the same one for the TDF and the vuelta
Blimey!!
As a quick reaction, it feels like maybe Jonas never really recovered, at least psychologically, from his crash. We'll see.
I reckoned Oscar would be doing well if he lost 3 minutes. He only lost 2.
My team has gone above you been 😜
Did catching back up with Pog up the final steep climb yesterday, hit Vin badly today with fatigue?
I this so. Assuming similar CdA (they’re all tested in a wind tunnel down to about 0.19), the 3% time difference in speed is about 10% power difference (power for speed and increases as the cube of speed). That’s massive and 20 miles is a decent TT and just above FTP test.
My team has gone above you been 😜
Even with the typo I understand! I checked about 10 mins ago.
Maybe we need a mini-league for our town.
I really hope that's not the end of the competition with it ending up as another Pogacar Procession to Paris.
I fear it is crazy legs but here's hoping... Problem is that Tadej isn't normally the kind of rider that messes up tactics or has bad days.
If I were visma's DS I'd be giving them the instruction to do no work at the front whatsoever and put riders in the break to make UAE chase everything, id even wander over to the QS team bus and talk with their DS on how to gang up on UAE
All I'm hoping for is that Pog gets overexcited and tries to win "all" the stages, maybe in strange ways and cooks himself. Otherwise I fear that there may be nothing to see here
I don't mind if Pog wins. There, I said it! 🤣 I was watching the most recent Tour Unchained series, and it was interesting to hear some of the other team managers/DS's being quite vociferous in their 'dislike' for UAE, so it seems that UAE are just the new Team Sky, and no doubt there'll be another team along in a year or so to take their place too.
So do we think Vismas animation of the race thus far has been worthwhile given yesterday's events?
I still think they'd have been better served sitting back and following whilst Pog and MVdP knocked lumps out of each other.
I don't mind if Pog wins.
Nor do I - and there are other things going on in the race.
ITV4 live already on today.
So do we think Vismas animation of the race thus far has been worthwhile given yesterday's events?
No
The way that panned out, so many questions. What happened to Vingo in the TT? Why not in the dauphine? Why was Vingo so punchy in the other stages? What was pog hiding in the dauphine?
There's still a chance for vingo: mission everyone get pog to bonk on a big stage. But the way it's going it's looking less and less likely.
Todays profile is somehow hiding 3500m of climbing. Tough day.
There's still a chance for vingo
For sure, yet to reach any mountains.
Proper black country boy doing his stuff today!!
Outstanding!
Looks like Pog enjoyed his club ride. No gifts in professional cycling 😉 . But 48 km/h for the first hour was pretty mad and it took a couple of hours for the eventual selection.
it was interesting to hear some of the other team managers/DS's being quite vociferous in their 'dislike' for UAE,
When you employ a team of GC contenders as domestiques (and pay them GC rider rates) for a super-GC contender generational talent, of course they are upset! Visma have now followed the same strategy with their own Yates twin among others. Other teams just don't have the budget to do the same.
Pretty much what they said about Team Sky. Apart from the super GC generational talent.
I couldn't really get into today's stage. Had it on most of the day but just didn't get excited by it.
Plus I've plummeted down the STW league. AA, up to second for you!