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Tour de France 2016

Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2016 8:25 am
by jonovision_man
Great so far! Cavendish in yellow was pretty awesome... first time for him, neat stuff. Sagan was just awesome yesterday.

Contador ... ouch.

Image

jono

Re: Tour de France 2016

Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2016 9:22 am
by La
I've fallen behind on my Tour viewing. I PVR it every day, but with the Jays playing every day/night for the last 15 days, I haven't had any time to watch! Luckily I'm working from home today, so I can watch live.

Only one Canadian rider, Antoine Duchesne from Quebec. He's riding on the (all-French) Direct Energie team along with Chavanel, Voeckler, and team leader Coquard. He's in the breakaway today (otherwise I wouldn't have known that there was a Canadian rider at all this year).

I'm seeing lots of familiar scenery as the're in the Pyrennees the next few days. :)

Re: Tour de France 2016

Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2016 7:58 am
by 5km
Should be big days for the GC boys today and tomorrow.

Re: Tour de France 2016

Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2016 2:40 pm
by jonovision_man
5km wrote:Should be big days for the GC boys today and tomorrow.


I'll say! Froome's downhill attack was friggin' awesome!

jono

Re: Tour de France 2016

Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2016 3:36 pm
by La
jonovision_man wrote:
5km wrote:Should be big days for the GC boys today and tomorrow.


I'll say! Froome's downhill attack was friggin' awesome!

jono

That position on the bike was insane, especially when he was pedaling while stradling the top tube. :lol:

Re: Tour de France 2016

Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2016 4:28 pm
by turd ferguson
Every year I say "this is the year I'm going to watch the tour and ignore the sideshow". And then Froome punches a spectator, George Bennett runs over a guy, and the finish line attacks a bunch of riders, and I'm sucked back in.

Re: Tour de France 2016

Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2016 10:54 pm
by 5km
La wrote:
jonovision_man wrote:
5km wrote:Should be big days for the GC boys today and tomorrow.


I'll say! Froome's downhill attack was friggin' awesome!

jono

That position on the bike was insane, especially when he was pedaling while stradling the top tube. :lol:


I've never seen anyone pedal that much while riding in that position ... scary!

Re: Tour de France 2016

Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2016 7:56 am
by jonovision_man
5km wrote:
La wrote:
jonovision_man wrote:
5km wrote:Should be big days for the GC boys today and tomorrow.


I'll say! Froome's downhill attack was friggin' awesome!

jono

That position on the bike was insane, especially when he was pedaling while stradling the top tube. :lol:


I've never seen anyone pedal that much while riding in that position ... scary!


I've seen several amateur teams warning their riders not to emulate it. Probably one wicked crash away from a ban on the position entirely...

jono

Re: Tour de France 2016

Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2016 2:27 pm
by La
turd ferguson wrote:Every year I say "this is the year I'm going to watch the tour and ignore the sideshow". And then Froome punches a spectator, George Bennett runs over a guy, and the finish line attacks a bunch of riders, and I'm sucked back in.

I saw the spectator get flattened, but I didn't see the other two incidents.

Exciting finish today! I was pulling for Sagan, but with two riders from Orica in the group, he didn't stand much of a chance.

Re: Tour de France 2016

Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2016 4:21 pm
by turd ferguson
La wrote:
turd ferguson wrote:Every year I say "this is the year I'm going to watch the tour and ignore the sideshow". And then Froome punches a spectator, George Bennett runs over a guy, and the finish line attacks a bunch of riders, and I'm sucked back in.

I saw the spectator get flattened, but I didn't see the other two incidents.

Exciting finish today! I was pulling for Sagan, but with two riders from Orica in the group, he didn't stand much of a chance.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qplqqnVVEOs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2nyDL4DNWg

Re: Tour de France 2016

Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2016 6:59 pm
by jonovision_man
turd ferguson wrote:
La wrote:
turd ferguson wrote:Every year I say "this is the year I'm going to watch the tour and ignore the sideshow". And then Froome punches a spectator, George Bennett runs over a guy, and the finish line attacks a bunch of riders, and I'm sucked back in.

I saw the spectator get flattened, but I didn't see the other two incidents.

Exciting finish today! I was pulling for Sagan, but with two riders from Orica in the group, he didn't stand much of a chance.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qplqqnVVEOs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2nyDL4DNWg


I'm pissed Froome got penalized for decking that spectator running along side him... that was ridiculous. Back off and you won't get an elbow in the head.

jono

Re: Tour de France 2016

Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2016 7:01 pm
by jonovision_man

Re: Tour de France 2016

Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2016 4:35 pm
by jonovision_man
Wow.

Sagan is the coolest guy on two wheels. Froome I can't stand but man he's made me a fan in the last few days.

Wow.

jono

Re: Tour de France 2016

Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2016 7:23 am
by La
Sagan IS pretty cool. Froom? Meh. :?

I have some friends over there right now and they are on Mt. Ventoux for today's stage. They have to cut the climb short by 5.4K as it's too windy at the top. Their group is set up at 7K from the top, so they'll be pretty close to the new/actual finish.

Re: Tour de France 2016

Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2016 11:04 am
by turd ferguson
Every day I say "that's the dumbest thing I've ever seen" and every day something dumber happens.

According to twitter, they're giving Froome back all the time he lost.

Re: Tour de France 2016

Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2016 12:28 pm
by jonovision_man
turd ferguson wrote:Every day I say "that's the dumbest thing I've ever seen" and every day something dumber happens.

According to twitter, they're giving Froome back all the time he lost.


Ironic that they shortened the race in the name of safety, only to create an unsafe situation. I'd rather have taken my chances with the wind!

jono

Re: Tour de France 2016

Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2016 10:41 am
by La
My friend (a friend of CinC's, actually) was not far from the crash site. She said they were across from where Froome threw his bike down and started running up the hill.

Agree that the organizers need to put safety first and create conditions where the fairest race is possible. Those in the know are most critical of the motorcycles and how they get in the way of the racers, but also of the organizers who didn't do anything to manage the crowd in the final kilometers.

In terms of Froome getting all that time back, the consensus of those who have raced is that they did the right thing.

I seem to remember back in the Armstrong/Ulrich days that neither one attacked when the other had a crash on a climb. But I guess that kind of honour went out the window and a new precedent was set when Contador took advantage of Schleck a few years back.

Just finished watching the ITT (the joys of working from home :) ). I have to say that I don't really care about Froome. In fact, I don't really care much about any of the riders this year.

Re: Tour de France 2016

Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2016 11:49 am
by turd ferguson
La wrote:
I seem to remember back in the Armstrong/Ulrich days that neither one attacked when the other had a crash on a climb. But I guess that kind of honour went out the window and a new precedent was set when Contador took advantage of Schleck a few years back.



I read was that in this case the course was so narrow they had no choice to keep riding. It wouldn't have been possible to wait for him.

Re: Tour de France 2016

Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 9:06 am
by jonovision_man
Short of Froome getting knocked off his bike, hard to imagine how he loses this Tour...

jono

Re: Tour de France 2016

Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2016 12:38 pm
by jonovision_man
Haha even when he is knocked off his bike he can't seem to lose the Tour! :lol:

Once again a big assist from his teammates. He hit the nail on the head when he said it'd be a different race if he were on a small team...

jono

Re: Tour de France 2016

Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2016 10:57 pm
by 5km
Last chance tomorrow for anyone to shake things up.
So far it's been pretty dull. The scenery is nice but except for Froome's get away down that mountain, it's been a bit ... meh.

Contador retired. Richie Porte keeps having bad luck. Where's Qintana when we need him?

Re: Tour de France 2016

Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2016 4:46 am
by jonovision_man
Dull? Yesterday was gangbusters! Sure Froome recovered after dumping it, but just him going down added to the drama, not to mention the massive battle for the rest of the podium.

Today should be awesome too, so much climbing and ends with a descent - sketchy. Hoping Bardet holds on to 2nd!

General classification after stage 19
# Rider Name (Country) Team Result
1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 82:10:37
2 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:04:11
3 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:04:27
4 Adam Yates (GBr) Orica-BikeExchange 0:04:46
5 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:05:17
6 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:06:00
7 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:06:20
8 Louis Meintjes (RSA) Lampre - Merida 0:07:02
9 Daniel Martin (Irl) Etixx - Quick-Step 0:07:10
10 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo 0:07:42

And who knows... could still be some drama for 1st.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/tour-de ... omas-bike/
Froome: "Tomorrow is going to be hard, it's going to be really hard and I'm sure that I'm going to be a bit stiff after today. Hopefully I can rely on my teammates and it's just one last push."

jono

Re: Tour de France 2016

Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2016 7:43 am
by 5km
jonovision_man wrote:Dull? Yesterday was gangbusters! Sure Froome recovered after dumping it, but just him going down added to the drama, not to mention the massive battle for the rest of the podium.

Today should be awesome too, so much climbing and ends with a descent - sketchy. Hoping Bardet holds on to 2nd

jono


True. Yesterday was more exciting than many of the previous stages. However, when Contador left and Quintana's challenge failed to materialize, much of the interest for me was gone. No one has been able to break Froome and Team Sky. They are just too strong. I hope there is some drama today!

Vive le Tour!

Re: Tour de France 2016

Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2016 7:15 am
by La
To me, "dull" means that that the eventual winner is a foregone conclusion before the last week of racing is done. Sure, there's the race for 2nd & 3rd, but that's not as fun as when there are only seconds separating the top 3 and anyone could win it.

Re: Tour de France 2016

Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2016 7:47 am
by 5km
La wrote:To me, "dull" means that that the eventual winner is a foregone conclusion before the last week of racing is done. Sure, there's the race for 2nd & 3rd, but that's not as fun as when there are only seconds separating the top 3 and anyone could win it.


+1