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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 himself and 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-trial specialist…..no one else is around him.

Primoz Roglic is an inferior bike handler. He was a skier (ski jumper?) before becoming a world-class cyclist (he has won 5 Grand Tours). He’s uncomfortable in the peloton and poor on descents. He wants to sit back hoping to avoid crashes - as does Remco. Both are shitty bike handlers at the Tour de France level.

When a crosswind split happens, both are fucked.

39 seconds is HUGE. Yes, it’s a 21 day race.
 
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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.
 
I was hoping Jonas Vingegaard would put 30-40 seconds into Tadej today to at least make it look like we have a race.

Nope.

Tadej Pogacar put 36 seconds into Vingegaard. Vingegaard is over 4 minutes behind.

It’s looking like Pogacar will finish the race 12-15 minutes or more ahead of the entire field not named Vingegaard - and, Tadej might be 10-12 minutes ahead of Vingegaard.

The goal for Tadej Pogacar and Team UAE is to win the Maillot Jaune……..it’s looking like they can also try to win the Green Jersey and the Polka Dot (King of the Mountains).

Tadej is at 4 stage wins in this Tour. There are 8 stages to go.

The Great Mark Cavendish holds the record for Tour Stage wins at 35. The GOAT cyclist Eddy Merckx won 34. Merckx was similar to Pogacar - an all-around great - Grand Tours, stage wins, week long races, Spring one-day classics……..Cavendish was a sprinter and he won his last Tour stage at 39.

Tadej has 21 Tour stage wins and he’s only 26 years-old.

He has 3 Tour wins…..most at his age. When he wins his 4th in nine days, he’ll be the youngest with 4 Tours.

One aspect I love about Pogacar is that he attacks.

He’s like Michael Jordan or Larry Bird……he wants to cut your heart out.
 
Cowardly riding by the Frenchman to win the stage today 😡. Healy deserved that 100%.

Great to see signs of life from Jonas the last few days though. Seems to be getting better as the race goes on, hopefully he’ll keep up the aggressive racing!
 
Thursday and Friday are Vingegaard’s last two chances to make this a race……

Thursday is three Hors Categorie climbs - Glandon, Madeleine, and Col de la Loze.

Friday is Cat 2, Cat 1, HC, Cat 2 (followed by a 20-mile descent that will bring the GC contenders and super domestiques back together) and then the HC climb to Plagne.

Both Thursday and Friday are mountaintop finishes.

Saturday is a “hilly” day. Sunday is in Paris; but, it is NOT a sprint stage; more like a Spring Classic stage.
 
nrsair said:
Cowardly riding by the Frenchman to win the stage today 😡. Healy deserved that 100%.

Great to see signs of life from Jonas the last few days though. Seems to be getting better as the race goes on, hopefully he’ll keep up the aggressive racing!
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Paret-Peintre had won two races in his professional career (he’s 27) before winning on Mount Ventoux. Winning a TDF stage is a career-making event; winning on Mount Ventoux is HUGE; winning as a Frenchman?!

Paret-Peintre was leading the charge lower on the mountain after Enric Mas had struck out on a solo effort to win the stage.

There were four cyclists together near the finish. Paret-Peintre did what his team wanted him to do - win the stage on a mountain finish. The team had worked together to position him to do that.
 
The Queen Stage is well underway.

Lidl-Trek controlled the peloton from the start and set Jonathan Milan up to win the intermediate sprint…..he took the win and 20 points…..he leads Pogacar by 92 points…….I doubt Tadej or UAE cares one lick about the green jersey.

Lenny Martinez likely tries to rake in as many King of the Mountain points today - he’ll try to win as many points on Col de la Glandon and
 
Lenny Martinez with THREE sticky bottles up the Glandon today…..he won the 20 KOM points for being first…..

Then, the Tour only penalized him 8 points for cheating……so, the Tour let the Frenchman gain 12 points after cheating…..it’s not only been 40 years since the last French rider won the Tour…..the French don’t win many stages, Green Jerseys (most points - usually to the best sprinter or a great Puncheur such as the incomparable Peter Sagan), White Jerseys (best young rider).

A significant number of French riders have won the Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains); most have been “okay” climbers…..they rack up KOM points on each stage…..then flame-out on the final climb……often finishing out of the Top 50 or 100 on the mountaintop stage; but, they win the most KOM points. See Virenque, Richard (a record 7 Polka Dot Jerseys).

The Polka Dot Jersey is so inconsequential - I hope Vingegaard or Tadej win it.
 
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