Vive la Revolutions: Tour de France 2018

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!