Vive la Revolutions: Tour de France 2018

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DhXSEz_VQAE__e8?format=jpg&name=small" class="noborder">

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
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dhc5kBPU0AAMW5m?format=jpg&name=large" class="noborder">

ugh formatting fail

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

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

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

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.