Tour de France
Comments
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Who's going to be the first in the Yellow Jersey. My choise is Marcel Kittel.
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Just heared that Nacer Bouhanni is out of the race. He broke a hand in a fight in a hotel last week!! Bet his race manager was pleased.
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Here are the bets so far then:
Ian - Nairo Quintana
Goldie - Chris Froome
TtDa - Romain Bardet
Kennine - Alberto Contador
Pliers - Marcel Kittel
Runrig - Fabio Aru
SteveL - Richie Porte
HughR - Tejay Van Garderen
Nellie - Warren Barguil
Any more takers? It starts tomorrow you know!!!
TtDA - I thought that your other half was having a go?
It's all getting so exciting.......
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Well, what a 'start'! Fabulous views of Mont Saint-Michel and the high expectations of the race and races within the Tour for the coming weeks is very evident. Just an observation but there are hundreds, if not thousands of motorhomes lining the road, haven't seen a caravan yet!
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I have to say that I am bitterly disappointed that ITV4 are not using the commentary from Phil Lyggett and Paul Sherwin.
Ned Boulting is a pleasant enough bloke, but he just isn't anywhere close to being in the same league. He has support from David Millar, but he's hardly the most charismatic of people.
I really miss the in-depth experience and knowledge......and also the explanations of tactics and descriptions of the scenery......and the little asides between Phil and Paul. Great shame.
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I'm watching the tour and although I'm beginning to understand a little about the tactics etc. one thing is flummoxing me. The commentators are referring to "GC teams and GC riders "what does that mean. I'm sure youl know Ian. Can you shed some light for
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Papgeno.....GC stands for General Classification, in other words, a rider's standing in the overall race, all stage times added together, is their standing in the GC.
Some (most) teams don't have anyone capable of winning overall (winning the GC / yellow jersey) and so will go for stage wins on individual days, or for the green jersey (the rider with the most points awarded for sprints) or the polka dot jersey (points
on mountains).There are, realistically, only about 6 riders with a serious chance of winning the GC.....but sometimes a surprise happens.
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Ian - Nairo Quintana
Goldie - Chris Froome
TtDa - Romain Bardet
Kennine - Alberto Contador
Pliers - Marcel Kittel
Runrig - Fabio Aru
SteveL - Richie Porte
HughR - Tejay Van Garderen
Nellie - Warren Barguil
David (DSB) - undecided / lost in France?
Any more takers?
Not lost in France quite yet. Suppose to be going tomorrow, but car isn't fixed yet. It's all a bit of a nightmare! As for who I'm going for in the Tour de France..... haven't got a clue!!
David
David,
I really hope that you get the car sorted and manage to enjoy your holiday.
For the Tour, may I suggest:
Pierre Rolland - French rider, lots of promise.
Richie Porte - nice Australian lad, previously supported Froome, not my choice for a win but some like to think he could.
Thibault Pinot - another French rider with a lot of promise.
The choice, as they say, is yours.......
Thanks Ian. Car sorted and we're here in Germany. Internet not good so I'll be a little quiet at the moment. Hope Internet will be easier when we get to France. Take care, speak soon.
David
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Well, that was quite a day!
We're only in the early days, when the GC contenders usually all finish in the same time and leave it to the sprinters to have their day. But not so for at least two riders.
Richie Porte looks to be pretty much out of it, at 1min 45 behind, and Contador (already suffering from a bad fall yesterday) had another fall today and lost 48 seconds.
Froome, Valverde, Rolland, Baguil, Bardet, Rodriquez, Aru, Quintana, van Garderen......all on the same time.
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Another first Yellow Jersey winner, the present World Champion, Peter Sagan. Stage was specially designed for him, although he nearly madde a mess of it, but was able to recover just in time. Another sprint day tomorrow so perhaps Cav can add another stage
win to his total.Haven't heard the commentators mention Rodriquez at all yet. He must be keeping his head down so that no-one will notice him till it's too late!!
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Wow, what a race already. Always a shame to see GC contenders suffering in theses early stages.
Well I have called the first two stages, so wife is challenging me every day now. Tomorrow will be very open, it would be great for Cav to equal Hinault's stage wins, but I will go with Kittel for tomorrow. He sat up today and is either tired, or saving
himself for tomorrow.0 -
A 'rolling' stage today, with only one Cat 4 climb near the start.
There will certainly be a break-away, but will it stay away this time? And how much time will they spend looking over their shoulders, because it is a sprinter's finish and their teams will be moving them up towards the end.
I'll go for Cav in this one. Although, I don't think that, even though he might equal Hinault in terms of number of stage wins, his won't be of anything like the quality of Hinault's.
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Just found the live EuroSport feed with no commentary at all, just the sound from the rolling camera. Coversations, crowd etc.
It's just like rolling along with them, outstanding.
They must get seriously sick of the continuous helicopter noise though, I am
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I'll go for Cav in this one. Although, I don't think that, even though he might equal Hinault in terms of number of stage wins, his won't be of anything like the quality of Hinault's.
Ian, Really glad you called it today.
Stage wins are stage wins, and they are all relative.
I would not be so bold as to diminish Mark Cavendish's achievement.Chapeau !
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A 'rolling' stage today, with only one Cat 4 climb near the start.
There will certainly be a break-away, but will it stay away this time? And how much time will they spend looking over their shoulders, because it is a sprinter's finish and their teams will be moving them up towards the end.
I'll go for Cav in this one. Although, I don't think that, even though he might equal Hinault in terms of number of stage wins, his won't be of anything like the quality of Hinault's.
Can't see how you can say that, Ian! Different time, different circumstances, different type of racer. Cav is against some of the best sprinters that there have ever been. Didn't Hinault win most of his stages in induividual time trials. But of course Cav
is British so won't be a match for any other racer born on the continent in your eyes, would he?0 -
Hinault (and Merckx) won their stages while also winning the Tour. They did it under enormously greater pressure.
They did win time trial stages, but also mountain stages - vastly more difficult, in my view.
They also won sprint finishes. Hinault won the final sprint on the Champs Elysees (1979) while wearing the yellow jersey. He had no need to go for the win and no-one would do that these days - he just did it for the hell of it.
Hinault also took his wins in the Tour in tbe same years that he was also winning other major races. He regularly rode the Giro prior to the Tour. What else has Cav done this year? What else has he even raced in?
That's why Hinault's wins were, in my view, more impressive.
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Well anyway, it was a close call today, but in a photo finish Cavendish took the win from Greipel.
Peter Sagan came in fourth and retained the yellow jersey. Cav took the green jersey officially (having 'borrowed' it from Sagan today).
Tomorrow is another sprinter's stage - and a long one by today's standards at 232 km. as they skirt the Masif Central. It slopes upwards towards the end with a cat 4 climb, but nothing too serious.
The main contenders are still all together 14 seconds behind the lead, with just Contador 1min 2 secs behind, and Richie Porte (after a badly timed puncture yesterday) at 1min 59 back.
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You may well be right, Kennine. Although that would be a great shame as it is disrespectful to the Tour, to start with no intention of finishing. That doesn't seem like him, but he does seem to have this inexplicable fixation with winning an olympic medal
for some reason.I do actually like Mark Cavendish. We saw the end of the 2010 Tour (where he won on the Champs Elysees but just missed out on the green jersey to Thor Hushovd) and when they did the lap of honour he spent more time than most coming over to the crowd line
and chatting to the audience. Nice bloke.0 -
You may well be right, Kennine. Although that would be a great shame as it is disrespectful to the Tour, to start with no intention of finishing. That doesn't seem like him, but he does seem to have this inexplicable fixation with winning
an olympic medal for some reason.I do actually like Mark Cavendish. We saw the end of the 2010 Tour (where he won on the Champs Elysees but just missed out on the green jersey to Thor Hushovd) and when they did the lap of honour he spent more time than most coming over to the crowd line
and chatting to the audience. Nice bloke.There's been plenty of those in the recent past, Mario Cipollini comes to mind.
For Cav the world doesn't just revolve round road racing, as you obviously think it should. As he started his career as a track cyclist, so his desire to win an Olympic medal on the track. It would complete the full set as far as he's concerned, with World
Championsip Gold in the Madison (2x), a Commonwealth Gold, a World Road Race Championship, a Classics win, points winner in all three Grand tours, and now a Yellow Jersey. Not bad for a lad that can't climb!!0 -
There have indeed been many who have planned to abandon and Cippollini was one of the worst offenders.
Anyway......an even closer finish today, with Kittell just scraping it. He looked well pleased.
No change in the standings of the GC contenders.
Tomorrow will be a somewhat different day! We are into the Massif Central and 6 categorised climbs, four of which are at the latter end of the stage and two of them are cat 2.
There will almost certainly be some changes in the GC standings, but who and what? It's a day of strength sapping ups and downs. The sort that Contador might use to pull a bit of time back maybe? Or will his injuries prevent that?
I'd really love one of the French riders to go out on a successful break. Can't wait!
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Better race today, not much in the way of challenges and sudden breakaways.
Everybody playing safe. Sky team doing everything right but are dull and boring with it.
Lets hope the race improves and we see some real sparkle from the three leading teams, otherwise this will go down as the most boring TDF ever.
K
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Agree today things started to liven up a bit. Also agree that Sky are
such a boring team.That's a heck of a lead that Van Avermaet has. I don't know much about him, but if he can climb, he could become a tbreat to the GC with that sort of lead at this stage.
Contador lost a bit more time, as did Richie Porte, but otherwise most of the main contenders are still together. Peter Sagan had a surprisingly bad day.....presumably saving himself.
The GC riders get another 'day off' tomorrow, in another day for the sprinters. Then we get into the mountains!!
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Beginning to think I've put a hex on Richie Porte by backing him, he's not doing very well at all??
Poor Contador really seems to be suffering from his injuries. Think he'll find it hard to pull back the time even if he starts to feel better in a few days.
thought some of the roads towards the end today were a bit interesting - narrow, sudden bends and sharp shade and sun contrasts
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