It should be an enjoyable watch :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Marco
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It should be an enjoyable watch :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Marco
Could we have a ban on disclosing TDF results on here until 9pm,so that those of us who don't get paid to watch it during the day;)have time to watch the highlights without knowing what the days action has in store.
Lot of riders with different times.
A must watch stage.
NO. SorryQuote:
Originally Posted by Marco
The big hill today.
Will have a massive impact on GC.
Very entertaining.
Best man won.
I shall stick my neck out here and predict Chris Froome will not win another tdf.
Presuming the current crop of young riders are not caught out during drug testing and all banned, I reckon they will not be scared, in awe or intimidated by riding against Froome and his new team. Mentally they will attack him with confidence, something he will have lost. Game over for Froome next year, new boys in town.
Anyone want to make predictions for 2021?
Froome was never going to win another Tour after he decided to blow his nose riding downhill in windy weather. He could never get back to as good as he was because he is getting very old at the same time as younger, hungrier riders are getting better than they ever were.Quote:
Originally Posted by molehill
There is a phrase in Hollywood that "nobody knows anything" and every year some rider(s) causes a sensation that no one has forecast - because most commentators play safe to keep on the payroll. (It's why omerta amongst the media allowed EPO (or "Edgar" to the cognoscenti) to thrive for so long).
So,on the basis of one win everybody name checked Bernal for 2020. One tour win, just like Riis, Roche, Ulrich,Evans,Sastre, Schleck, Wiggins,Thomas, Pantani, Pereiro, Ocana, Van Impe, Zoetemelk, Nibali!
So my forecast for 2021 is that someone that nobody is talking about now will emerge as a sensation.Someone always does. :)
Froome not winning another GRAND tour is spot on.
Big question is will Ineos? They have been AWOL.
Well I agree on Froome for this year. He's supposedly working towards team leader at the Vuelta which gives him around 5 weeks.
He looks so far off.
He's arrived at Grand Tours under prepared in the past, but after what happened to him last year I do wonder whether he can come back.
On the plus side for him, he's won plenty so I'm not confident enough to completely write him off.
I was impressed with Porte today. He's starting to look like his old self. If he is riding in to some form, with the stages coming up he has a chance to close the gap on Roglic.
Bernal was lucky to win last year with the shortened Alpine stages helping and probably the lowest standard field I'd seen in my time watching. It was always going to be a tough gig making even the podium this year.
I think Roglic and Pogacar are strong riders, good all-rounders and are probably here to stay for a couple of years and whether anyone else gets a look in at a Grand Tour could well depend on whether those two turn up.
I'd just like to see a bit more aggression at the front end. Yates had a half-hearted effort yesterday but other than that it was left until the last few hundred metres.
In addition to the TDF I have been watching highlights of the Tirreno-Adriatico on Eurosport. In many ways a more action packed watch.
Simon Yates still in Blue and Geraint Thomas simmering along nicely in third, hopefully coming up to the boil for the Giro.
Pogacar is performing brilliantly with a limited team around him.
Me too. Watched yesterday's highlights this morning. Froome was in the mix for a little longer yesterday. Cracking finish and I really felt for the Bora lad getting caught in the last 200m.Quote:
Originally Posted by Llani Boy
TT is on live now.
Just switched on and seen 4 out of 5 (at least) of the breakaway were also in yesterdays. They must be nutters :D
Even an ebike would have run the batteries flat before the top today.
Think we saw the a bloody good race today.
Sure that venue will be used again.
You mean France?Quote:
Originally Posted by Stagger
It was a great watch yesterday. I was willing Carapaz to the finish but it wasn't to be.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stagger
Great effort by the Ineos boys today.
I can imagine Graham having a satisfying glass of Cotes du Rhone last night after watching that ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Stagger
A generous act of charity by Jumbo-Visma for yesteryear's team.Quote:
Originally Posted by Witton Park
And thinking of cheats: although I have dozens of cycling books I have only just got round to buying The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton. I have read the books by or on Pantani, Riis, Walsh, Jonathan Vaughters (One Way Ticket) on EPO etc cheating but the detail in Hamilton's book on blood transfusions, EPO use is stunning.
Almost as stunning as what Armstrong did - but obviously nothing can ever come that close.
I don't think the podium will change after today's TT unless someone blows up big time on the plank or screws up a bike change. (Not sure why this is allowed ie a complete change of bike style/setup rather than a replacement for a mechanical problem.)
Hoping Carapaz hangs on to KoM jersey. The points are decided on the final climb only so he can cruise up to the last time check on his normal road bike and then give it full gas whereas Rog and Pog etc will be on it from the start with GC positions to protect. 2 races for the price of one today! 😁
Good to see some of the aggressive efforts have reaped rewards this year.
Hirschi, Kragh Anderson, Alaphilippe and Carapaz have all got stuck in and been bold.
I didn't see that coming.
Graham - you seem to be the best Tour historian on here. How does that TT sit for you?
Graham is the best at everything (well, apart from reggae music and modesty)
Period
Well done lad. Tadej Pogacar.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Witton Park
Well the Fignon-LeMond turnaround can be attributed to Fignon having a boil and LeMond using a TT bike (arguably illegal) but unless we are told by the Roglic camp it may just be that it is easier to attack than defend.
Cycling Weekly regarded Aru as the "Star Rider" for UAE TEam Emirates but did say "Prodigy Pogacar was one to watch."
And I am glad for Porte.
As my comments on the e-bike thread will suggest, i know precious little about cycling... although i do like to watch the coverage on Eurosport.
However it seems strange to me that a race which is effectively three weeks of conventional racing, can then have its result turned so wildly on its head by a time-trial. Surely time-trialling is almost a different discipline?
(awaits an absolute pummeling from the forum cyclists!!)
Well, Pogacar will never be unwatched again so long as he is astride a bike, also very pleased for Porte able to finally have that podium place.Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham Breeze
Great spectacle on TV, should think all the tdf race directors are wetting themselves with glee and teams are getting their cheque books out for next year.
I think we needed a decent bit of sport to watch this summer and that race provided it, hope it doesn't all fall apart with "you know what" accusations or positive tests.
And allowed to change bike half way through, I don't pretend to understand it but it makes bloody good tv (when it is good), the scenery is lovely and I enjoy swearing at the prattish spectators.Quote:
Originally Posted by Travs
Now where's me gin?
What's reggae?:)Quote:
Originally Posted by Derby Tup
Gently...Quote:
Originally Posted by Travs
The mix of constituent parts of Grand Tours (Mountain Top Finishes, Time Trials, Sprints) has varied over the centuries and sometimes/often been "designed" to favour a home rider. In his day Anquetil was the world's best TT rider and, surprise surprise, the TdF in his era used to include a lot of TTs. Anquetil won 5 Tours.
The TdF once used to devote the first week to sprinter's teams - so Mario Cipollini once won four sprint stages on consecutive days - but in recent years the balance has shifted strongly towards the overall winner being a climber and the TT element being minimalised. And the popularity of the "Team Time Trial" has waxed and waned.
If France suddenly developed the best TT rider in the world you can be sure that the mountains element in a Tour would become minimal and there would be Time Trials every other day!
With the TdF it is always important to remember Le Tour is not about sport - but money: and desperation to find another French winner.
So once Brexit is done and dusted I presume the possibilities of another British rider winning plummet to zero, similar to the Eurovision song contest?
Thank you Graham...
It does seem to the outsider that it will generally always swing in favour of a strong mountain cyclist, due to the time gaps that can be attained (in a similar way that gaps in fell races are usually far larger than flat races).
Not necessarily. Miguel Indurain was tall and heavy and so struggled to get over mountains and won hardly any stages but he won 5 consecutive Tours because he was almost unbeatable in Time Trials. Light mountain climbers are often rubbish at Time Trials (they just don't have the muscle) and cannot get back the time a strong Time Trial rider can gain.Quote:
Originally Posted by Travs
There have been Tours with maybe five Time Trials and long ones at that and that is how Anquetil destroyed his opposition.
The Indurain years are regarded as the dullest era in Tour history since WW2. However they immediately preceded the EPO years when Riis and then Ullrich, Pantani and Armstrong started winning - by being good climbers.
In recent years to win the Tour you have to be more of an all-rounder and the balance has swung to favouring climbers but you still have to be able to Time Trial well - as we saw today, although "hill top" finish Time Trials are somewhat unusual.
I didn't really care who won the Tour - as long as it wasn't Ineos - and I hope 2020
has seen the end of the fear other teams have had for the Sky/Ineos machine.
Indurain pre-EPO Graham? I thought he was more the start
I think Sky bought one very good rider - Froome - but just like US Postal in the Armstrong era he also had by far the richest/best team supporting him. Froome was never simply the "best rider" and if he had not been riding for Sky he might never have won a single Tour.Quote:
Originally Posted by molehill
But that is the nature of the sport. When Hinault realised LeMond was a better rider his team, La Vie Claire, bought him to support Hinault so he could get his 5th win with the promise to support LeMond in future years.
Of course Hinault reneged on that promise but then Hinault was French.
Well there is the suggestion but he has never admitted it and he left the sport the year after his final TdF victory so he may have got out just in time whereas a lot of other Spanish riders were caught. And Spain had the laxest attitudes with regard to drugs etc for a long time.Quote:
Originally Posted by Derby Tup
This is a fun list:
https://cyclingtips.com/2018/04/comm...ved-and-hated/
Funnily enough, Indurain is the name that immediately spring to mind for me when thinking of TdF and brings back the most nostalgia and fondness... Going back to childhood and the Channel 4 highlights programme.
Same with F1 and Mansell/Patrese/Senna/Alesi/Berger.... And pretty much the entirety of 90's European football...
So generally speaking, on average, how much, roughly and typically, would you say a TdF win is down to the individual and how much down to the team?Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham Breeze