Tour De France 2021
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Absolute chaos on TDF today.
Rog, Pog and Thomas all lose time with some serious road rash for heaps of riders.
Calendar Ewan out after breaking his collarbone in the final sprint too.
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@davesofthunder Roglic has lost nearly a minute on Pogacar and 30 seconds to Geraint Thomas - Thomas apparently dislocated his shoulder, which might come back to haunt him.
Some harsh words from the Groupama Director - maybe the organizers will have to sue themselves?
Saturday’s (Sunday NZT) opening stage was marred by two big pileups – one caused by a spectator – and the latest brutal scenes prompted veteran sports director Marc Madiot from Groupama FDJ team to lash out over the lack of safety on the road.
“Tonight, I don’t want to see my son become a professional rider,” Madiot said at the finish in the town of Pontivy.
“My wife does not want to see my son on a bike. It’s been years that we are talking about [safety], we need to find solutions. It’s not bike racing any more. One day there will be dead people.”
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@chris-b Marc Madiot the biggest twat in cycling..
makes it sound like crashes like today haven't happened in the tour forever. So much pressure and every team going for the win just creates the perfect storm for crashes.
good luck solving it. Only real thing that might make a difference is if they move the neutral zone out to 8km like the riders want to get rid of the GC trains from the front which will leave more space for the sprinters.
On the race front.. I kinda wondered if Wout Van Aert might be a bit of a gc darkhorse.. defo not a climber but not much in the way of hilltop finishes this year.. think he'll be in yellow after first TT and will take a bit to dislodge him
Jumbo didn't call him back to tow up Rog after his stack so guessing they're thinking the same.
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this good - interesting insight and different from most peoples opinion!
https://cyclingtips.com/2021/06/the-secret-pro-tour-de-france-sagan/ -
@williethewaiter said in Tour De France 2021:
this good - interesting insight and different from most peoples opinion!
https://cyclingtips.com/2021/06/the-secret-pro-tour-de-france-sagan/pretty handy article to read after the first couple of days have panned out like he said
never head that about Sagan before. Didn't he cause the sprint crash today?
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@mariner4life said in Tour De France 2021:
@williethewaiter said in Tour De France 2021:
this good - interesting insight and different from most peoples opinion!
https://cyclingtips.com/2021/06/the-secret-pro-tour-de-france-sagan/pretty handy article to read after the first couple of days have panned out like he said
never head that about Sagan before. Didn't he cause the sprint crash today?
Ewan took him out. Comms were saying Ewan 'lost control' but it looked more like bad riding to me.
No need to punish him though as he came off worse with a broken collarbone. -
@williethewaiter said in Tour De France 2021:
this good - interesting insight and different from most peoples opinion!
https://cyclingtips.com/2021/06/the-secret-pro-tour-de-france-sagan/I don't get his logic. Says Sagan is selfish because he has better skills than everyone else? WTF?
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@williethewaiter said in Tour De France 2021:
this good - interesting insight and different from most peoples opinion!
https://cyclingtips.com/2021/06/the-secret-pro-tour-de-france-sagan/Interesting predictions - but, I'd say Ineos would already be reviewing Plans A&B after the crashes. Richie Porte is already 3 minutes down on Pogacar - and Thomas is going to be very sore, at best.
Those two might have been the planned team leaders, but I'd say Carapaz will be a bigger part of the equation now.
Long way to go, but I reckon the GC winner will come from Pog, Roglic and Thomas - and obviously advantage Pog at the moment.
I'd like to see Alaphilippe win it all, but he'd need a few others to fall over - literally.
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@chris-b said in Tour De France 2021:
@williethewaiter said in Tour De France 2021:
this good - interesting insight and different from most peoples opinion!
https://cyclingtips.com/2021/06/the-secret-pro-tour-de-france-sagan/Interesting predictions - but, I'd say Ineos would already be reviewing Plans A&B after the crashes. Richie Porte is already 3 minutes down on Pogacar - and Thomas is going to be very sore, at best.
Those two might have been the planned team leaders, but I'd say Carapaz will be a bigger part of the equation now.
Long way to go, but I reckon the GC winner will come from Pog, Roglic and Thomas - and obviously advantage Pog at the moment.
I'd like to see Alaphilippe win it all, but he'd need a few others to fall over - literally.
Maybe the lady in the yellow jacket is a big Alaphilippe fan?
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@canefan said in Tour De France 2021:
@chris-b said in Tour De France 2021:
@williethewaiter said in Tour De France 2021:
this good - interesting insight and different from most peoples opinion!
https://cyclingtips.com/2021/06/the-secret-pro-tour-de-france-sagan/Interesting predictions - but, I'd say Ineos would already be reviewing Plans A&B after the crashes. Richie Porte is already 3 minutes down on Pogacar - and Thomas is going to be very sore, at best.
Those two might have been the planned team leaders, but I'd say Carapaz will be a bigger part of the equation now.
Long way to go, but I reckon the GC winner will come from Pog, Roglic and Thomas - and obviously advantage Pog at the moment.
I'd like to see Alaphilippe win it all, but he'd need a few others to fall over - literally.
Maybe the lady in the yellow jacket is a big Alaphilippe fan?
Maybe she's a South African waitress named Suzy?
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Worth noting most of the crashes in day 3 were rider error rather than the course though
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Totally stoked for Mark Cavendish today.
Something great about seeing someone roll back the years
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@davesofthunder said in Tour De France 2021:
Worth noting most of the crashes in day 3 were rider error rather than the course though
I guess - in a way - they always are.
Course designers job is to reduce the chance of those errors. However, as Willie notes - that's not easy.
For whatever reason, there's been too many crashes at the start of this one though - it's quite severely affected the GC race - removed a number of plotlines.
Interesting to see the riders themselves having a protest at the start.
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Stage 3 was pretty fucked though, the narrow winding sections leading in to the finish was always a risk
The riders and the teams need to take some responsibility. If you are going to send absolutely everyone to the front, not just the sprinters, then that's where the bunching happens, and as the pace and jostling increases their is only one outcome to be had.
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@crucial said in Tour De France 2021:
@mariner4life said in Tour De France 2021:
@williethewaiter said in Tour De France 2021:
this good - interesting insight and different from most peoples opinion!
https://cyclingtips.com/2021/06/the-secret-pro-tour-de-france-sagan/pretty handy article to read after the first couple of days have panned out like he said
never head that about Sagan before. Didn't he cause the sprint crash today?
Ewan took him out. Comms were saying Ewan 'lost control' but it looked more like bad riding to me.
No need to punish him though as he came off worse with a broken collarbone.just an unlucky racing incident. Ewan started to move up on the right just as Merlier moved to his right to go around his lead out man and took out Ewans wheel. Lots of fingers being pointed at Ewan but he did nothing wrong.. I certain don't get the 'his wheel was overlapping' comments - last time i checked to pass someone your wheel has to go past theirs..
anyone saying 'there was no gap there' look at the gap Cav squeezed thru today to win!
fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck taht was good!
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@mariner4life said in Tour De France 2021:
Stage 3 was pretty fucked though, the narrow winding sections leading in to the finish was always a risk
The riders and the teams need to take some responsibility. If you are going to send absolutely everyone to the front, not just the sprinters, then that's where the bunching happens, and as the pace and jostling increases their is only one outcome to be had.
Armstrong had a good solution today - just flat out reduce the no of teams in the race.. reduces the teams fighting for the front then go back to 9 riders from 8 so you get the sprinters trains back and life becomes more orderly again!
johan bruyneel suggested disc brakes responsible to that big crash that took G down on stage 3- guys braking much later into big corners
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@williethewaiter i remember that debate from a couple of years back. Essentially guys were saying discs were a problem because of how good they are at stopping bikes.
