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Pro cycling returns......and so do the crashes!


Cade

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2 minutes ago, Space Pirate said:

Looks like more of the same tomorrow until the last climb where the pure sprinters will blow a gasket. 

 

stage 4.jpg

I’d expect there there to be a more serious breakaway tomorrow, if it gets pulled back before the last climb it will be an interesting finish. Yates is looking good but Allaphillipe can pull himself up climbs when needed but could struggle against the specialists. It could be a day for Mikel Landa if he was to get in a breakaway. 

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Greedy Jambo
21 minutes ago, Tazio said:

I’d expect there there to be a more serious breakaway tomorrow, if it gets pulled back before the last climb it will be an interesting finish. Yates is looking good but Allaphillipe can pull himself up climbs when needed but could struggle against the specialists. It could be a day for Mikel Landa if he was to get in a breakaway. 

 

Yeah, i would imagine (and hope) that they set a fast pace to make it as difficult as possible for faster men to get up that climb. I'm leaning towards the likes of Valverde, but i've no idea what kind of form he's in. 

I defo wouldn't rule out Allaphillipe though, that would be silly. 

Edited by Space Pirate
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Just seen the day's highlights.

 

What a finish from Ewan - pretty special.

 

What d'you reckon for tomorrow @Tazio? Might need to pay my sky bet account a wee visit...if they do cycling.

 

Edit...just read two posts up from this one :facepalm: sorry, bud :lol:

Edited by Boof
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9 minutes ago, Boof said:

Just seen the day's highlights.

 

What a finish from Ewan - pretty special.

 

What d'you reckon for tomorrow @Tazio? Might need to pay my sky bet account a wee visit...if they do cycling.

 

Edit...just read two posts up from this one :facepalm: sorry, bud :lol:

To be fair I wouldn’t even attempt to guess tomorrow’s winner. A lot of the good young guys like Bernal, Pogacar, and Carapaz are good climbers as well as genuine contenders for this years race. 
I still stand by my theory that people won’t be as cagey as usual this year waiting to make their move tactically. Mainly as there is no guarantee the race will make the full 21 stages, so tomorrow is a good stage to try and throw a gap into your rivals. Unless they all try it and cancel each other out. 

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Christ but his is a dull stage. Basically several hours of watching a social ride with some excitement in the last few km. 

Please someone try a breakaway. 

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All roads lead to Gorgie

Nice shot of Mont Ventoux at least. I wish those blokes out for a gentle peddle would get out the way and let us have a better view of the vineyards and olive groves🙂

 

It must be a rest day for the tour which is supposed to be going through this area round about now 🙂

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When you're running on empty you have to weigh up how much the time penalty for taking an illegal feed will be against how much time you'll lose blowing oot yer erse off the back of the peloton.

 

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16 minutes ago, Cade said:

When you're running on empty you have to weigh up how much the time penalty for taking an illegal feed will be against how much time you'll lose blowing oot yer erse off the back of the peloton.

 

A bit silly of him to say he didn’t know the rule. Even as a fan of cycling I know that rule and have seen it applied over the years. Including riders deliberately breaking it on team orders after the DS has weighed up if they would lose more time by not feeding. 

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Could have had a team-mate take the bottle (and the penalty) then hand it to Alaphilippe. 

Richie Porte did that once for Froome and Froome didn't get penalised.

Commissaires may have wised up to that and changed the rules since that, or maybe not.

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I expect to see all the young guns contesting the mountaintop today. With the potential for Allaphillipe going shit or bust to keep his tour alive. 

I've got an all afternoon Zoom meeting with work but have cunningly placed my laptop that I can see the telly behind it. 

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1 hour ago, Greedy Jambo said:

Changed the rules today apparently 🤔

 

And they've also been shown to be "flexible" in the past (https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/tour-de-france/watch-should-romain-bardet-have-been-penalised-20-seconds-for-taking-illegal-feed-at-tour-de-france-341779) (check the update at the bottom).

 

Obviously taking the SPFL/SFA approach to creating regulations on the hoof and coping with any transgressions. ;)

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It's good to see some of the ineos boys dropping like flies and we're not even in the proper mountain stages yet. 

I don't like seeing a team run away with it, never mind year after year. 

Kwiatkowski should have left them as well and got some glory for himself, before he ends up on the old man pile. 

 

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5 minutes ago, Greedy Jambo said:

I've just tuned in, how did Sam Bennett and Co end up dropped? 

 

Crosswinds and a wee climb right at the start combined with Sagan and other teams firing right up it.

 

 

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18 minutes ago, Cade said:

 

Crosswinds and a wee climb right at the start combined with Sagan and other teams firing right up it.

 

 

Cheers 

 

It's made this flat stage more interesting, that's for sure. 

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9 minutes ago, Greedy Jambo said:

Bennett will be straight to bed with nae dinner the night. 

No point in him burning himself out trying to keep the green as he’ll need all his strength for the stage tomorrow as it’s classified as a mountain stage. To be honest it’s not a great year for the pure sprinters as there’s a lot of climbing and not many classic sprint finishes. 

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5 minutes ago, Greedy Jambo said:

De Gendt currently 20/1 with Ladbrokes if anyone thinks he'll make this stick. 

 

Not a chance. The stage is pretty much all downhill with a fairly flat finish. Could be a day for one of the sprinters that hasn’t shown much so far like the Italian lads or Brian Coquard. I would expect Sagan to do his usual of going for the sprint but sitting up if he isn’t going to get the win and playing the sensible game of making sure he scores a few points without too much of a risk. 
 

edit. Obviously I meant downhill for the last 50k or so. 

Edited by Tazio
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I’ve checked out tomorrow’s stage profile. 
ouch, 2 Cat 1 climbs and and HC climb. That’s sprinter hell right there. 

Tuesday however is possibly the flattest tour stage I’ve ever seen. I hope they set off at a painful pace or it could be a very boring 170k. 

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This is getting interesting. They aren’t really chasing him down very hard and he’s pulling away. I might need to eat my words here. They always reckon you need a minimum of a minute at 10 k from the finish for a breakaway to work and he has that he can time trial to the end as he has no other riders to distract him. 
Still around an hour to go though. 

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If you download the TdF app you can track the riders speeds in real time from their GPS. That long straight at around 30k to go the front group were knocking out over 80kph! 

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3 minutes ago, Greedy Jambo said:

Gc riders losing time on a flat stage. 

Lovely Jubbly

Pinot is still there, a very real possible winner of the race, Bernal is still there as well. 

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8 minutes ago, Tazio said:

Pinot is still there, a very real possible winner of the race, Bernal is still there as well. 

It's only really Landa, Pogacar and Porte that are in the 2nd group, sore one for them

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2 minutes ago, Tazio said:

David Millar said it right after the finish but now having seen it again I’m not so sure he did.

It looked to me like he took the wrong line, banged into somone, then gave up lol, but he may well have had an issue with his bike. 

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Just now, Greedy Jambo said:

It looked to me like he took the wrong line, banged into somone, then gave up lol, but he may well have had an issue with his bike. 

I think it might have just been too fast for him. Van Aert crossed the line at over 70kph. If you don’t get it perfect at that pace you’re nowhere. 

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This a great video of what it’s like to be in the pack over the last couple of km of a race. Scary stuff when you consider the speeds they will be doing, especially the bit near the start when Degenkolb eases the guy out his way with his arm. 
 

 

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19 minutes ago, Tazio said:

This a great video of what it’s like to be in the pack over the last couple of km of a race. Scary stuff when you consider the speeds they will be doing, especially the bit near the start when Degenkolb eases the guy out his way with his arm. 
 

 

 

That was superb. Seriously buttock-clenching, but superb. 

 

Surprises for me:

1 - the shouting (is English the language of choice or did I just not hear the others?)

2 - the closeness of each other

3 - the nudges, the gentle hints that 'I'm coming through'

 

Hunting for more...

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Thanks for posting that @Tazio.

 

I was watching it and then realised that I was tapping my foot vigorously as the action sped up, almost like I was in there with them. :D

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16 minutes ago, Boof said:

 

That was superb. Seriously buttock-clenching, but superb. 

 

Surprises for me:

1 - the shouting (is English the language of choice or did I just not hear the others?)

2 - the closeness of each other

3 - the nudges, the gentle hints that 'I'm coming through'

 

Hunting for more...

He language of the peloton is now English as he majority of the riders will speak it. In the past it was always French but that’s gone as their influence has lessened over the years.  People don’t always realise how ridiculously close they are, even when just travelling along mid stage. I’m a pretty confident cyclist with faith in my bike handling but that stuff gives me the fear. 

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1 hour ago, Boof said:

 

That was superb. Seriously buttock-clenching, but superb. 

 

Surprises for me:

1 - the shouting (is English the language of choice or did I just not hear the others?)

2 - the closeness of each other

3 - the nudges, the gentle hints that 'I'm coming through'

 

Hunting for more...

Get a bike and get involved, it's amazing flying along in a bunch.

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