Vive la Revolutions: Tour de France 2018

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I’m still watching the replay of Stage 1 but yaaaaaay we’re back u guys :D

Hoping it’s this guy’s year this year
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ugh formatting fail

https://i.imgur.com/mW2lza1.jpg

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and bonus Rigo for good measure <3

https://i.imgur.com/NrlkwPt.jpg

Quite a finish to stage 1! Wasn’t expecting much excitement but already a bit of a shakeup timewise.
Vive la tour!!

Gaviria looks like a beast, awesomely decisive finish

Yeah that was all unexpected, in a good way. Crossed fingers things don't just reassert themselves.

agreed

lol at Froome being responsible for his own crash yesterday

oh i hadn’t heard anything on the cause. how did it happen?

saw an interview with little Lawson Craddock, poor kid. riding with a fractured scapula & an eye swollen closed today - sounds like pure hell. i cannot imagine finishing today let alone the tour but i am a big baby

I like the Cannondale team (or whatever tf they call themselves this year.)

yeah I really like the Cannondale boys even though I can't decide whether or not I like vaughters

agree

Having Charlie Wegelius on deck helps sway me in the positive direction tho

My boy Sagan did good today! :D
Loved seeing veteran. Chavanel on that long breakway, heroic effort to pull that off solo for so long.
Time trial could be interesting tomorrow...

i'm ok with vaughters, that craddock interview was very difficult to watch. i appreciated that he was willing to do it, it was utterly heartbreaking to me. but there's part of me that thinks people need to understand that. he comes across as a very brave good guy.

Going to have to catch up on today's stage tomorrow (I pretty much ignore time trial stages except for the results, or unless I'm reallllly bored).

xpost as a relative newcomer to the sport i do find the “Tour mentality” very confronting at times. Like you have geezers like Paul Sherwen in commentary offhandedly saying “well yes of course Craddock will see it through, the team needs him to support Rigo for time trials, i mean why wouldnt you” as though it’s the most normal thing in the world to ride long distance with a fractured shoulder.

I get it.

...but part of me is like “everyone in this race is severely mentally ill.”

i like the futuristic time trial gear, everyone looks like they’re in Tron

...but part of me is like “everyone in this race is severely mentally ill.”

New Tour motto.

:D

it really should be the thread title in retrospect

that was a FINE sprint, i do not wish for more out of sprint finishes really. sagan waited .5 seconds too long before chasing gaviria's jump, not sure why. there was traffic there, but he STILL almost made it work.

damn that richeze leadout was O_O long and strong.

even at low levels, when you are behind a leadout that's good, you would not believe how ~easy~ it can seem like it's going, you can almost feel like "why is everybody going so slooow"? but the second you hit wind it's like hitting a goddamn wall. cause of one dude turning inside out for you.

ok i just saw the coverage with highlighted kittel, holy fuck, he jumped from sixth spot, his leadout practice was garbage, that was a HELL of a jump. don't know who did the graphics highlighting to show his finale, nice. you can't win like that at tdf, but such a fuckton of wattage happening.

LOL sorry i meant greipel obv.

still catching up on today’s stage but

re Quintana Stage 2 time loss: NBCSports reported via Movistar’s pr manager today that Quintana was offered a bike by his teammate at the time that he ran into his mechanical probs but Quintana said no, the bike was too big & opted to wait for neutral service *there* & a small bike instead of riding 300 m to the 3k mark on a medium sized bike.

hindsight 20/20 but smdh @ that
dude seems to have v poor decision making skills in general

He definitely seems to botch in the strangest of ways.

Anyway, what a conclusion today! This may be one interesting race all around.

wow yeah that was a thrilling finish
Greipel gave full gas but hit just a hair too soon, crazy close between all three!! but my god, Gaviria is a beast in those final moments. And what a brilliant leadout. Just perfect instincts there from Richeze

Crazy to see Cavendish & his leadout seemingly in the catbird seat one moment then *shoop* out of the game altogether, just sucked into the undertow

meanwhile tomorrow looks, um, kinda O_o

Hard stage in the Tour tomorrow, here's a screenshot of the narrow road halfway up one of the climbs tomorrow (in Locronan) pic.twitter.com/Cd5somrdym

— the Inner Ring (@inrng) July 10, 2018

and rough news for AG2R here

Big blow for Romain Bardet and Ag2r as climber Axel Domont suffers a fractured collarbone and a fracture to the petrosal bone in his inner ear #TourdeFrance2018

— Peter Cossins (@petercossins) July 10, 2018

I read that one of quintana’s guys has a bike with a qr seatpost and a post collar to enable him to jump off, drop the saddle to nairo-height and handoff, no waiting for a team car or neutral. thats good domestiquing (when it works, i guess).

Hard to know who to domestique when your team has three leaders. For 300m he should have run in cleats to the 3km mark.

lol

Damn skujins is so my hero after his cali exploits, i can never not root for him just seeing him at the front for points!!

Yeah Skujins kind of a badass

What an exciting stage! And those narrow roads v nerve wracking. Sagan’s finish was pretty damn awesome. That explosion of energy at the end of a tough stage is incredible to watch

Bora team manager confirmed Sagan didn’t know the finish beforehand, he fed Sagan details of the final finish info *2km before* : “Peter could win even blind”

freak ❤️

wonder if Sagan will have a go for it today. Probably too steep for him. But... who knows.

Bora team manager confirmed Sagan didn’t know the finish beforehand, he fed Sagan details of the final finish info *2km before* : “Peter could win even blind”

That's nuts. And yes, great stage. I'm going to be a little sad when we leave the area, been enjoying all this.

So gorgeous!! They noted in yesterday’s stage that one of the towns was where they shot Polanski’s Tess

<3 Dan Martin

What a finish! Dan Martin gets stronger every year

kind of a boring stage, tbh

is anyone listening to The Move, lance armstrong's podcast? as much as i personally dislike him, i gotta say that his race analysis and insight into the workings of the peloton is pretty engrossing. i'm kind of a sucker for inside baseball when it comes to bike racing, so much more interesting than straight play by play

Ha i just had that conversation. That the guy is a true villain and bad person, not merely by cheating but by how he treated everyone he interacted with, is indisputable. I was not a fan past 01. Nonetheless, his actual analysis is good, and sadly his conversational charisma is pretty real for me. I almost like watching that jerk at this point and it pisses me off.

totally -- i have to wonder a little bit about how the young guys in the peloton who he shouts out every now and then (ie lawson) feel about the association

hmm, i might check it out & add to my listening queue.

I mean, he knows the subject, and he's now the old man (relatively) trying to show he still has skin in the game. But that said I'm content to let him ramble without me.

Yeah today was sleepy, but the scenery was nice, the odd quarry aside. But the cobbles await...

I am really worried about Roubaix, as far as its effect on the group. 15 sections is SO extreme.

I think there's gonna be carnage

yeah there can’t not be

Quite finish that one! Grunewagen is so yoked it’s no wonder he finishes the way he does. Hats off.
Greipel and Gaviria declassified to 92nd and 93rd place for headbutting shenanigans. Apparently Greipel’s incident happened in the last km against Arndt, not to do with Gaviria: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/tour-de-france-greipel-gaviria-relegated-in-separate-incidents-during-sprint-in-amiens/

Sagan & Dekenkolb get 2nd and 3rd

Kittel not happy:

The peloton in general appeared agitated today, Kittel among them. He’s typically measured and humble but when your day starts with a boss publicly slamming your work ethic, your men are held-up in a crash and the team is managing divided goals with zip on the board ... shit one. https://t.co/D4FKLpElul

— Sophie Smith (@SophieSmith86) July 14, 2018

#TDF2018 Unfortunately @tonymartin85 won‘t start tomorrow in stage 9. A spinal fracture (vertebral compression fracture) makes it impossible to continue @LeTour. Speedy recovery, #panzerwagen! #raceasafamily

— Team KATUSHA ALPECIN (@katushacycling) July 14, 2018

Katusha’s director came for Kittel publicly in l’equipe soooooo that bus prob sucks a ton right now

Stinging line by Katusha DS Konyshev on Kittel in @lequipe: "We're paying him a lot but he's only interested in himself. Before the Cholet TTT, he played with his phone during the briefing to make me realise I didn't have his attention" #TDF2018

— Peter Cossins (@petercossins) July 14, 2018

Wow what a mess. Just saw the finish.

I did listen to that Lance TDF podcast & he said the finish was so narrow with tight corners that the finishers would be lucky to have even 1 leadout, let alone 2. So it played out kinda that way & became the free for all we saw. And possibly why Sagan jumped early. I guess he still has that tendency at times.

that being said, idk if i can hang with lance’s podcast. the sound of his voice just triggers me to what an on-the-record confirmed dickbag he has been. and it has such a heyyyy morning “radio” show vibe.

i did lol when he deliberately pronounced Chatres as SHART

I listened to the lance and didn’t think it was that good plus him and his cohost are pretty annoying. unsubscribe

oh god is Craddock really going to ride across 22km of cobbles today

that will be brutal. don't envy him

already claimed the first victim

greenpath’s bike looked split in two :O

crashy

what the hell is going on

amazing stage. talk about a jour sans for bardet

yeah that was really something

christ on a bike that was rough
i think this pic sums it up nicely

War hart heute. #TDF2018 pic.twitter.com/ePesRfHi4Q

— Moritz Cassalette (@MCassalette) July 15, 2018

And how about this for a photo: Oliver Naesen coming right over the top of Rafal Majka 🙈🙈🙈

Pic of the day!
Hope you're OK @majkaformal https://t.co/8vSinYa0Ow

— Oliver naesen (@OliverNaesen) July 15, 2018

Until now I had really processed how nuts the second and third weeks are. There’s only one more sprint stage other than the champs élysées. A couple of barrodeur rollers but no real respite.

Despite the early finish I still fell asleep with 20kms to go. Crazy stage.

Yeah the mountains will be a pain train from the off. I can’t imagine going through today & then hitting week 2 with *a* rest day

Just caught up with today's stage, good god almighty. But yeah, well deserved for Degenkolb. Phew.

bike racing!!!

Suggestion for some good rest-day listening: journalist/author William Fotheringham in convo with Cycling Weekly on the 20th anniversary of the Festina Affair. Good stuff!!

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-93r7s-95058e

Just caught up with the highlights. The helmet filth stencils on rider’s stubbly heads are quite something.

classy ride from DVA

Solid stage all around. Alaphilippe in excelsis for sure.

Ok stage, alaphillipe was very much in character, nibbles comment about wind and team sky going very postal matched perfectly to the lack of action from fave group.

Commenter on twitter noted 8 y/o basso quote about when the lieutenants pull 420 watts for huge periods, no one can do anything meaningful in getting clear.

Sky, as ever, have enough money to have domestiques that would be leaders in lesser teams. Geraint Thomas is a case in point, I reckon he’s the equal of Porte at the least. The Yates brothers avoiding sky was a smart move, easy to get complacent pulling in 150k euros a year or whatever sky domesiques get.

Alaphillippe, damn son. Joyous effort, he is a delight to watch. And VanAvemaet! Way to hold onto the yellow, dude. Amazing effort. Love seeing BMC pulling it out any way they can in spite of everything.
Bummed about Uran timeloss :(

Crazy short stage has electrified the action some but even though Sky is chillin back 3 mins on last climb they have SIX riders there.

Nieve’s pedaling style at 6.5km left is fucking beautiful. Id enjoy seeing dumoulin get to him, but nieve looks SOOO nice.

nice finish

Just caught the end of that passing through Hong Kong. That was pretty amazing. Thomas may have more time on Froome than Froome could take back on the TT, but I’m also not sure Froome can attack Thomas unless he is chasing down someone close on GC or Thomas cracks.

Interesting times.

Thomas finally kicked his bilharzia. Good for him.

— Cyclocosm.com (@Cyclocosm) July 18, 2018

Ha when i saw thomas get to dumoulin so fast, i was like, man, nieve is about to get hit by a missile. I was surprised he paused with dumoulin a little.

i like how Wiggins has come back to haunt Froome in the form of Thomas.

the dominance of Sky is very very frustrating though, and bad for cycling. Before this Tour I thought Movistar could challenge them.. but alas. Not even close. Quintana will be happy if he finishes top 5 in this Tour, or so it seems.

Why is Sky so dominant (is it just money?), and why can't other teams compete? Isn't this just about having the right training schedule? Is there a stat on how much each team member gets paid on all teams?

mostly money

as ed said upthread, sky has domestiques that would be team leaders elsewhere but the pay at sky is good, as is (i hear) the benefits (like not medical bens but top quality training / nutrition / mechanics / etc)

I mean, former rainbow kwiatkowski is an _embarrassingly_ big talent as just one of your climbing leadouts. Such a complete racer. Not only winning worlds, but classics and monuments i mean hes outsprinted sagan at e3 and msr aside from dumping him into siena, which u could at least expect.

somehow had not unsubscribed from the lance thing and found myself listening to their stage 10 episode. he is a TOTAL fanny, and seems utterly unrepentant to boot ("I mean, according to wikipedia, I've never won a stage of the tour")

I was sure he'd at least displayed some contrition in the past but he's acting like he's been robbed on this thing, not like he was the one doing the robbing

the finish of la course was unsane

https://youtu.be/VkbyFDrF9kM

Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig post stage interview yesterday i think is really really sweet.

amazing. good on her

woman's cycling is so, so good and gets such a raw deal

i like how Wiggins has come back to haunt Froome in the form of Thomas

Heh. Just seen it (was out cycling all day). I reckon Thomas attacked so early to make sure he went before Froome did. Similarly, I think that's why he attacked again just before Froome bridged across to him and Dumoulin.

tomorrow will be fun

That it will. But yeah I'm getting kinda bored with all these other Sky riders, however great they are, being "Hi we're just this glomp at the front of the peloton who don't seem to have any fun and to hell with you if you don't want to see anything interesting happening. Thanks for the cash, fuck you." (Not that the rest of the field are genteel souls doing it for the charity and fun of it but jeez.)

ok i did listen to armstrong now, and the bit at 7 mins, when he talks about teams that can paceline an hc climb and DESTROY, and then mocks hincapie for his objections during the times it was postal doing them, is actually a-hole bro done in good form by armstrong, sorry all. hincapie ultimately peacing on a climbing paceline is classic to think of and i can only imagine bruyneel spitting in hincapie's dinner.

Not going to listen to that prick.

The Ludwig interview is lovely and yet again women’s racing shows to to be equal if not better in terms of entertainment, drama and quality that the men. Ironically the UCI’s sexism helps this along. In no other major endurance sport do women race over shorter distance than the men. So when we get what is effectively a shorter one day climbing race like nothing on the men’s calendar the women go all out to leave it all on the road (short recovery time after the giro Rosa notwithstanding). Alpe d’Huez could be a snooze fest today partly due to a the battle now being for the third step and partly because there will be tired legs.

The women deserve a lot more than the paltry crumbs they are currently getting.

As for the sky thing - the other advantage that they have is that they are grand tour focussed and pretty much Tour de France focussed. No other team gets that luxury and it becomes a self reinforcing loop. Sky barely show at the classics, the vuelta has been a consolation or development race and the giro was barely anything for them till this year. They have a programme that is all about he top step in July. I don’t think any mainland European team would get the opportunity to do that. Also, looking down the list of sponsors I can think of a name that comes remotely close to the size of sky apart from Movistar ( I guess the state sponsors, Astana, Bahrain and UAE). One does wonder what will happen to the Sky if the Comcast bid succeeds.

The women deserve a lot more than the paltry crumbs they are currently getting.

Rather. I saw some La Course highlights but I'm going to catch up with the full race soon.

i do think dumoulin will be right washed out tomorrow. as far as sky goes, number ones often appear unbeatable til they get beat. it's not likely here.

that pod cites brown's or nibble's claims (and their doubts on the claims) re budgets: "Team Sky spends the most, around $42 million. Bahrain-Merida counts on a budget in the 15 million range. Other teams have only 10 million." https://www.velonews.com/2018/07/tour-de-france/nibali-it-may-seem-boring-but-thats-modern-cycling_472562

"it aint where you focus is the way that focus, and that's what gets results!"

xp

lol "it's"

and um, also "you." gnight!

Annemiek Van Vleuten is a boss ass bitch & the world should know it imo

also women have a decent claim for the two best pound for pound cyclists of the past 7/8 years in voss then PFP

Meanwhile, Cavendish, Kittel & Renshaw didn’t make the time cut.

Alpe d’Huez should be a good watch tomorrow after today’s excitement

yup, i think the rider who finishes first (of the favorites, GC contenders) TODAY, will win the Tour. Thomas' chance really, is he's as good as yesterday.

I think Froome will be looking for some kind of pretext to gain time on Thomas, but hoping it can be under the guise of marking someone else's attack.

In the past 7 yrs when froome has gone into hyper-robo-crab climb mode, he’s been pretty untouchable. Today we r all waiting to see that i think.

I cannot imagine anything much more batshit than his revelation at the giro, but im prepared to be amazed. As dull as his persona is, he has managed to improve his competencies in actual and impressive ways since his tdf run began, from muuch improved descending, to like, creating a new ride pedaling position on toptube, to dismounting and running when necessary.

Groenewegen abandon

Agreed with Ludo and NBS, it will be very interesting to see if Thomas pulls through. Only sky could crack Sky :)

he's doing it.

Poor Steven.

It's certainly convenient for Sky that the rider having a ton of shit thrown at him is doing less well than his team mate this year.

So far.

i want what egan bernal had for breakfast unless it causes cancer.

That was fantastic.

Nibali did well to limit his losses there - I think he pulled back about 30 seconds on them over the last few kms. I've got no idea how this one is going to play out. With Thomas's ridiculous run of bad luck over previous years, I can't help feeling it's just a matter of time before he crashes out in yellow or has a nightmare day like the one (the other) Yates did near the end of the Giro earlier this year and lose loads of time. Difficult to see how the time trial will affect things as well, as even though Dumoulin is clearly the best, both Froome and Thomas are very good at time trials.

I wonder if we're going to see the Giro affecting Dumoulin and Froome as the race goes on. In any previous year, when Froome attacked that would have been it. Instead he didn't get very far away and was clawed back and dropped (for a while). You could put that down to the Giro, but then Dumoulin doesn't seem to be affected at all. It's received wisdom nowadays that it's impossible to win the Giro and the Tour in the same season. I'm trying to think of actual Tour contenders who tried this recently: I think it's only Basso (2010) and Contador (2011 and 2015, with a big asterisk next to 2011). From what I recall, it wasn't that they faded away as the race went on, but more that they didn't have it in their legs as soon as the race hit the mountains. We've done half the mountains in this race already.

Possible fractured vertebra for Nibali: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/vincenzo-nibali-transported-to-hospital-after-crash-on-alpe-dhuez/

would be good to see the world's most overrated cyclist geraint thomas actually add something to his palmares win the tour I guess

Bounced to pcs site today and im like, that was a lot of bloating he got rid of lol.

https://www.procyclingstats.com/mob/

Christ, NBC streaming has been useless today, the replay still isn't up hours later so I have to scrounge for highlights since I'm busy tonight. Anyway, quite a finish!

what a great finish! bardet, i just love him. heart of a lion, i loved seeing him attack again & again. Kruijswijk too - that took incredible, unbelievable gas.

and this sucks - more video evidence to indicate it was spectator & not moto as first thought

BREAKING - Broken vertebrae confirmed, Nibali won't start tomorrow (Italian journalist Andrea de Luca on FB) #TDF2018

— La Flamme Rouge (@laflammerouge16) July 19, 2018

I am a giant softie and this made me well up slightly. https://chpt3.com/blogs/journal/well-done-mark

first time Greipel ever left the Tour. will he ever return? I am not so sure.

I just realized Bradley Wiggins was 32 when he won his only Tour. This could be Gerraint's only Tour. It's certainly starting to look like it.

bit distracting, but comments like this re booing fans are topical and fair imo: http://forum.cyclingnews.com/viewtopic.php?p=2291903&sid=90f04b549ef9013153e8291412a76eb0#p2291903

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/jul/24/tour-de-france-protestors-peloton-farmers

French police accidentally pepper spray the peloton.

cool stage. i felt sick and terrified at gilbert going over that wall, and was so so happy to see him reappear in reasonable shape, then stoked as fuck to see him remount.

but...controp: you CANNOT blow your rad break/positioning tactic like that and get a fatmantis prix de la combativité. can't do it. nope nope.

Yeah that was a shocking moment when he went over, Christ. I figured he had to be okay simply because I hadn't seen any explosion of comments on my feed or elsewhere earlier before I saw the replay.

Alaphillipe had a blast for sure but pity about Yates.

Alaphillipe is easy to enjoy. Larfing at the gifs of his resemblance to begbie tho

JA rules

irl lols

I feel for the riders in the Tour today as when I was a police officer I once pepper sprayed my own testicles when I fell off a gate whilst attending a rural incident and my gas canister exploded into my groin.#TDF2018

— Matt Stephens (@RealStephens) July 24, 2018

crushing hard on Alaphillippe, that was a brilliant performance

heartbroken for Yatesy, so close! and Gilbert pulling for the rest of a way with a broken knee - eat your heart out John Wayne

Gilbert’s leg after the race 🤢

🤕 The most aggressive legs!
Les jambes du plus combatif du jour @PhilippeGilbert 💪#PrixAntargaz #TDF2018 pic.twitter.com/voJCdF1zHN

— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) July 24, 2018

strategic wfh day today

photo of gilbert's knee on instagram was horrible : /

photos of Luis Leon Sanchez's heavily stapled arm 2 weeks after crash :(
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DioWb_pWAAAReB1.jpg

yiiiiiikes D:

This actually got interesting but we need to see dumoulin.

glad Quintana pulled somethin off.

Unless Thomas goes all Adam Yates-y (which he won't) he's ON this thing.

still definitely some crash risk/jour sans risk in play

SIMON I MEANT SIMON :P

gendarme knocked froome off his bike on his way back down the mountain
https://www.instagram.com/p/BlqYeNHBDAX/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=6jyuxi3n3ijy

lmao

Maybe somebody should tell @GroupamaFDJ and @ArnaudDemare that there is GPS tracking in @LeTour. Chapeau to lose just 9min on a 17 km climb on @NairoQuinCo #notthefirsttime pic.twitter.com/OZPfHvRawa

— Andre Greipel (@AndreGreipel) July 25, 2018

alaphilippe has been the one bright light of this tour
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Di-ZT2LWsAI0ePi.jpg

Greipel’s tweet, it’s gone now but presumably Marc Madiot’s bottle was extra sticky today.

i read somewhere Madiot encouraged spectators to push Demare. Oh well.

this long distance dedication goes out to andre greipel hai miss u man

i don't think i've ever been more absorbed by watching a lol-ly finale effort than the one by the EF trio. what does davis say to his kid on that?

Sagan on NBC “I hit really hard my ass muscle” 😂

Name a tour after that phrase.

"After I flew through the forest and I hit a big rock with my ass."

in sagan versh rock paper scissors, assmuscle shatters rock. that big rock is just gravel and dust now.

he asstographed that rock

Interesting in the Tourmalet. Bardet up the road in a handy group, now in virtual 3rd place ahead of Froome. Still a long way to go, though.

It’s all going off. Thomas without team mates for the first time and 11km still to climb.

I work with a *Dutch guy who is so desperate to talk about the Tour de France he'd heard about this one other guy in the organization who is into cycling and looked out his phone number and phoned him up - he was out! I try my best but can't contribute much beyond hoping Froome loses.

(*he's from Maastricht too, so doubly excited about Dumoulin).

i like how kruiswijk (sp?) and roglic and lottojumbo are doing what they doing. with the long descent, all of this is very not obvious for the result to me, tbh.

wow i guessed correct on spelling!

aww that's a sweet story 'Father Ted'.

i feel sad for Quintana, he didn't crash yesterday...

real nice result imo. in the post-epo, kenacort, salbutamol, whatever-6'2"-skeletons-use era, it's weird to see a gc performer look so damn muscular. that's more like the 00s, or the classics. great complete rider afaict.

watching kruiswijk and zakarin descend together, trying to stay in touch with the lead group was um, something that should not be encouraged, tho kruiswijk is far better than z. 2016 giro stage 19, was terrifying (zakarin) and heartbreaking (k) and watching today, all i could think was "was that giro ALSO stage 19?" Yup.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iKeiSk45P8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XhMkbcWpHc

^ I remember Kruiswijk crashing into a wall of ice, but I'd forgotten about Zakarin

xps
Close, but it’s spelled “Kruijswijk”.

o how i love the lingo: "I took a tree to the face" (Phinney)

The cycling podcast has a nice valedictory episode on Silvan Chavanel, who passed 365 days in the saddle on the tour on stage 8. He wants to come back in retirement as a moto pilot.

Andy Schleck is one of the VIP drivers this year!

https://www.bicycling.com/racing/a22564124/what-its-like-to-ride-a-race-motorcycle-in-the-tour-de-france/

One of my friends who does a lot of event photo support on his moto showed this to me.

Vive le Thomas.

Not attacking the leaders on the last stage is dumb. They should race every day or just end the race today. People complain about the radios and meter watchers ruining the Tour, but it’s tradition of not attacking on the last day is ok? It’s idiocy. Race everyday.

That's kind of a naive view, but the "inside baseball" reality is two-fold:

1) grand tour GC contenders are (physiologically) the kind of rider who excels at climbing up long, steep gradients (ie, not flatlanders). The type of rider who can attack on the flat final ride into Paris + along the Champs + successfully hold off the pack are a completely breed/build (see the spring classics).

2) the teams that are seeking a victory on the final stage (which is by pure definition an absolute sprinter's stage), can easily control any breakaway attempts as there are extremely long straightaways and virtually no places to get out of sight. Those teams are trying to secure a stage victory as directed by their team Director, it's not an ego-driven stage like you'll see in the Alps/Pyrenees.

"kind of rider who excels at climbing up long, steep gradients"

ha, no. they (esp sky) are taking giant 185cm+ track watt machines, then skeletoning them so they can ride mostly steady state up long climbs (i do think froome is interesting in his ability to really burst, but he never lets off, he holds that crazy wattage to his finish). i do think this style of guy WERE more tt-rouleur flatlanders, but if you skin them out, it's just watts/kg.

the "classic" gc climbers- dudes who were super scrawny and light who got change pace and rip it on super steeps are gone from gc. Contador was basically this style. pantani too.

you saw this movement to straight power starting with wattage cottage indurain, but the model post-EPO is different. instead of adding pure watts with mega doses of EPO, they add little with microdosing, but get extreme w/kg by slashing fattie trackies (who are still legit great talents in watts) down to what you see, wind em up, let em go.

there is a reason the top 4 are now ALL tt guys, the model is complete.

look i know this looks like infowars bs, but looking across the field at riding and body styles, this is the best overall fit. i've really given up caring too hard about meds and measure "legitness" more on style points.

i want a thread "2018- 'Legitness' is the new 'authenticity'."

sorry, your point that "guy who excels climbing up long steeps" is exactly right, tho. but traditionally those guys were born out of a class of "climbers," and that's not the roots of the current lot. i've not scrutinized dumoulin's palmares, but he def styles more as having been a tt wattage factory than a climber kid.

An acquaintance of mine (retired domestic pro) got dropped on a 15 minute climb at the Tour of California and Froome was with him in the grupetto. Froome was perhaps 4-5kg more than he weighs now but still, this may or may have been after his miracle recovery from whatever plagued him earlier in his career that coincided with his ascent to GC contender.

TdF is considerably the "easiest" of the Grand Tours, which is why you'll see more of the 70kg guys contending.

sidebar: I am not a fan of Sky but I love seeing G win the yellow. He’s been a favorite since I started watching the Tour. it’s cool to see the support from fellow riders too.

Nice words from Cav

If you’re lucky enough to call him a friend, there’s someone there that’ll always have your back. Not one person that knows @GeraintThomas86 doesn’t know how much he deserves this. His loyalty & work ethic is something to aspire to in life, not just cycling. So proud of you mate. pic.twitter.com/VuWf1wwipa

— Mark Cavendish (@MarkCavendish) July 28, 2018

Holy shit, G man has done it. Hot dogs for tea boys 👌🏻

— Luke Rowe (@LukeRowe1990) July 28, 2018

Test 1 for hunt3r legitness: dont be an asshole. thomas seems cool enough i guess.

Xp

jersey al yeah my understanding of road styles and grades is exactly the same. a toc 15 climb is almost not a climb by gt standards- it may or may not be steeper depending on which climb in cali it is, but those guys in season are fit enough to go way superthreshold for almost half of that time usually and recover under load.

froome is interesting- ive said it round here before i know, but his emergence EXTREMELY abruptly vs cobo at vuelta 2011 was WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING HERE level amazing shit.

welp, final day ( no sprint spoilers, i’m watching live)

i like this stage when they all chat together & relax. will be sad to see them go

https://i.imgur.com/lyV8REY.jpg

Lol @ Thomas’s podium speech trying to remember all his teammates, Dumoulin had to remind him of Kwiatkowski 😂

probly not the best thread to post this, but this interview of this past tdf participant/temporary champ is a good human/racing interest story. Landis is a weird hybrid of traits imo. So weird that i find i can't easily and quickly draft a consistent response or comment. For now i'll write "here's an ok, non-asshole person who made some _incredibly_ bad/weak/asshole-y moves in a situation that would test the living fuck out of anyone, but he seems to have reserved his core humanity. which should never be assumed as an outcome." landis and kimmage are a match made in hell amirite.

https://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/cycling/paul-kimmage-talks-to-floyd-landis-he-won-the-tour-de-france-then-lost-it-for-doping-and-it-almost-cost-him-his-life-37164135.html

Post Tour feels <3

From Instagram earlier today:
https://i.imgur.com/M7QB6zO.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/LvPoQIV.jpg

miss u Spartacus

<3

Aw <3

this cover of kraftwerk got to me 2 weeks too late, but i still like how it goes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfVI2nVxo5k

and of course it's 3 years old, but it's a new cover to me.