Cycling Fans

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Zoo_View

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Anyone on here a cycling fan?

Road cycling is one of my favorite sports……

The Tour de France started today and it was an appropriately chaotic first stage with at least three brutal crashes…..one in a situation I’ve never seen - one guy trying to grab a KOM (King of the Mountain) point or a sprint point - on cobblestones and his bike bounced and he took down the other cyclist in the breakaway with him.

The peloton hit EXPECTED crosswinds with 20km to go and the peloton split…….2 of the 4 pre-race supposed favorites were behind the split - a split in the field in a crosswind is HUGE - Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic each lost 39 seconds to the two true favorites - Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar.

Today’s stage showed Remco is still inferior tactically and he’s uncomfortable in a racing pack. He’s one helluva time-trailer…..no one else is around him.

Primoz Roglic is an inferior bike handler - he wants to sit back hoping to avoid crashes - as does Remco.

When a crosswind split happens, both are fucked.

39 seconds is HUGE. Yes, it’s a 21 day race.
 
I’ve always watched the Tour since the Lance era. Not an expert, but I enjoy the scenery, the announcers and the strategies of the teams

Great race today in the Pyrenees. Tremendous effort by Pogacar today. Those guys are amazing.

Also currently enjoying watching Tour de France - Unchained on Netflix about last year’s Tour.
 
I missed this when it was originally posted! Been a great Tour so far, love seeing the GC guys attacking during the first week. It’s also been really cool seeing Quinn Simmons continually on the front or on the attack in the Stars and Stripes. Dude’s a monster and he’s only 24.

I do think Tadej put it away today.
 
ram rightly touches on one of the best and greatest aspects of the Tour - the scenery.

I love stages like today’s - mountaintop finish on one of cycling’s classic climbs - Hautacam.

Adam Yates, Jonathan Narvaez, and Tim Wellens did yeoman’s work at the front….Narvaez’s explosive acceleration to lead out Tadej Pogacar was devastating. Then, Tadej did Tadej! Accelerated away with 10-10.5 km to go and put 13 seconds per kilometer into Vingegaard.

I was laughing at prognosticators who thought we’d have a 4-man race in this year’s Tour - Pogacar, Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel, and Primoz Roglic. At best it was always going to be a 2-man race; now, that looks unlikely.

Tomorrow’s mountain time trial will be huge. Remco’s able to get into a more aerodynamic riding position on time trials than anyone; that ability doesn’t matter as much on a mountain TT because the speed is slower than on a flat TT. Jonas weighs so little and can generate so much power/watt that a mountain TT might help him.

But, Tadej is Tadej.
 
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