Was a good stage to watch today.
Was a good stage to watch today.
It was. Sepp Kuss is lovely. Although when he started thanking his parents and his girl friend and his girl friend's family... I thought I'd tuned into the Oscars.Originally Posted by Travs
One drama queen with Cavendish is more than enough for me.
"...as dry as the Atacama desert".
Cavendish is a different bloke this Tour - Long may he stay like that!!
Thinking of Lemond but 1986 - in Sean Yates' autobiography he recounts Hinault's behaviour on the Tourmalet stage in getting 10 minutes ahead of Lemond - whom he was supposed to be supporting - before blowing up. Yates wrote that if you look up hubris in an encyclopoedia you will see a picture of Hinault in 1986.So long ago I had to think about it. It was 1989 wasn't it Graham?
Last edited by Graham Breeze; 12-07-2021 at 09:20 AM.
"...as dry as the Atacama desert".
[QUOTE=Marco;674954]
I've read Sean Yates' autobiography, but I can't remember this detail. In fact the only thing I can remember clearly from his book was his maximum career speed - 71mph down the Côte de Laffrey.
I reached my maximum career speed of 50.3 mph yesterday evening whilst dropping into the Goyt Valley.
Totally unplanned and I shan't be aiming to beat it any time soon.
Last edited by Llani Boy; 12-07-2021 at 01:57 PM.
Visibility good except in Hill Fog
I had to look up what hubris meant - I do learn a lot on here
I've read Sean Yates' autobiography, but I can't remember this detail. In fact the only thing I can remember clearly from his book was his maximum career speed - 71mph down the Côte de Laffrey.
Back to the race; they'll be going up the Tourmalet (a HC climb) on the way to the finish at Luz Ardiden (another HC climb) on Thursday. I think this will pretty much finalise positions in the race, both in the yellow and green jersey competitions; if Cav can finish within the time limit on Thursday he should make it to Paris
You might remember the DS of Fagor initially rejecting Yates for the team with Yattez? Il ne passe un pont! which Yates translates as Yates. He can't climb a bridge!
One year I was watching part way up Luz Ardiden and when the bulk of the riders had gone past thousands of spectators started streaming down the single narrow road while the tail-enders were still on the climb, having to dodge pedestrians all over the road.
And I remember thinking what a grim life it is for the rank and file domestique.
"...as dry as the Atacama desert".
In the early 2000s a friend and I caught the ferry to Brittany to do a bit of tour watching, using a van and our pub bikes.
We watched the climb up the rather boring Mur de Bretagne, and then drove to the finish (Quimper?) where we parked on the outskirts and cycled in to town. We found a spot by the flamme rouge and settled down to watch the bunch go whoosh.
Once the bunch had whooshed, the crowd started wandering off. So, we decided to see if we could get to watch the presentations. We hoicked our bikes over the barriers and cycled along the closed roads, on the basis this would be the quickest route to the finish.
All was fine for the first 200m, then we turned a corner and suddenly the crowd was still several deep on each side of the road, and quite vociferous in a French sort of way. Some gendarmes also began to get quite excited, rushing to intercept les deux f***offs in our jeans riding our bikes with panniers on.
Turned out there had been a big crash at the edge of town, and at least a third of the bunch were still to finish and were in fact bearing down on us rather fast from behind.
And that was how me and Steve rode in the tour. We said je m’excuse quite a lot…
A great story.
"...as dry as the Atacama desert".
Did a similar thing when there was a massive split in the Tour of Britain in 2015. They’d been over the Cat and Fiddle and others and came past us at Carsington Reservoir, where we watching with small children and our bike trailer at the end of the dam.
The bunch came past and I thought it was a little bit small…we then decided to cycle back along the road to the visitor centre rather than the busy cycle path.
Thankfully Mrs FT Spotted the rest of the race coming down the hill 15 minutes back as we were cycling towards them.
My son (6months) and daughter (3 1/2) were non-the-wiser of a very panicked mum and dad lifting a laden trailer onto the grass post-haste!
Gee. It's all coming back. I ran up from Luz St Sauveur (it's what fell runners do) and yes, it's basically a car park.It's the only HC climb I've ever ridden using the big chainring, (I'm a small weight, low amount of power, small chainring type of climber), and it was pretty grim at the top.
Here is a picture I took a couple of months after the Tour de France finished at Luz Ardiden in 1994. It's basically a car-park, with that ghastly looking shed which I believe is still there - we'll find out on Thursday
"...as dry as the Atacama desert".
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