have to love Farrar, because this year not only will he be crashing, he’ll be crashing dressed as a football ref/ Juventus player

I always have to giggle when the commentators are naming their favourites for the win and his name comes up. He then rolls in just outside the top 10. Even when he doesn’t crash he seems wildly overrated by the English speaking TV teams.

Kiriyenka hitting the front and over-hyped 2nd rate GC contenders going off the back as he barely breaks a sweat is one of the finest sights in cycling I reckon.

In any other team that would suggest do……..oh hold on, that can’t be mentioned on this thread. Sorry. 😆

At least he’s not from one of those places where we stereotype them as all dop… oh wait, wrong thread

What do people reckon to the route? Looks like a lot of flat days and if the 13km of cobbles are calm then it could take a week for the race to get going

if the 13km of cobbles are calm

Am I the only one praying for rain and thus a proper spring classics feel to the day?

Am I the only one praying for rain and thus a proper spring classics feel to the day?

Hell no, I want the first week to be properly brutal, wind, rain, generally hellish conditions. A week of Classics followed by a fortnight long Grand Tour, that’ll do me.

Hell no, I want the first week to be properly brutal, wind, rain, generally hellish conditions. A week of Classics followed by a fortnight long Grand Tour, that’ll do me.

+ another.

Snow in the mountains a la Giro would be good, as well. 😈 (When was the last time, if ever, that snow disrupted the TdF?)

Hell no, I want the first week to be properly brutal, wind, rain, generally hellish conditions. A week of Classics followed by a fortnight long Grand Tour, that’ll do me.

Rather see the race decided by great racing over three weeks rather than a repeat of last year. Was good but the GC was a disappointment being pretty much done and dusted by the end of the first week.

… and for anyone wanting to get all nostalgic about Tour’s past… this is a great read…

Just finished it, very much recommended. Wish I’d been around to see him race more.

Hell no, I want the first week to be properly brutal, wind, rain, generally hellish conditions. A week of Classics followed by a fortnight long Grand Tour, that’ll do me.

Would be awesome! Plus keeping the jersey favourites healthy throughout to keep the next 2 weeks alive.

I predict Contador will take himself out at some stage (it’ll be the only way with Oleg wanting his money’s worth out of him) when he realises he doesn’t have the legs for 2 Grand Tours and Riis offers him a week at a quiet mountain retreat to reminisc about the good old days together

I think Alberto will fight like a beast but will ultimately succumb to the difficulty of the course in the last week. Until that point he’ll still be awesome to watch racing.

DanW – Member
What do people reckon to the route? Looks like a lot of flat days and if the 13km of cobbles are calm then it could take a week for the race to get going

Long flat stages: for the Poncheurs/Rouleurs have a go types. The types that not only want to sit on the front gaining tellybox airtime, but genuine arms bent flat footed hackers with snot dribbling from their nose and no time to feed. Perfect IMO.

Cobbles: Too short to make much difference, hardly worth putting them in except the course around them is typical Belgian/Northern Franco hard lands. Grit of the North and grit on the tyres. Should be a good stage(s) for the Belgians and Dutch. In their hearts this is the place for them to polish up the Pave’ with spinning 25mm rubber. I want these couple of stages to show up the GC lot, shake them into order and place a few other names up the leaderboard before it turns all containment and control.

So, yup happy with this, also whilst you may think it flat and possibly a tad boring, I can assure you there will be some very knackered legs and some very relaxed GC’s greatful of having 6 supporting riders around them.

Other than that I expect Tinkov/Saxo to jettison 6 of their team to the Bus within 100k’s of each stage during the race leaving one stagitair and Bertie with 50k’s to go…
And Tinkov sporting Yellow hair.

Liked this about Kiryienka from inrng…

FDJ even have a motor pacing training session called La Séance Vasil to simulate riding behind Kiryienka when he’s on patrol.

🙂

I think Alberto will fight like a beast but will ultimately succumb to the difficulty of the course in the last week.

Thought that about last year’s Vuelta. He’ll be fine. There are a couple of rest days in there and he always goes well after a rest day 😉

Oh well in that case:
1) Contador, because he’s always unbelievably strong at the end of a 3 week race
2) Astana, because they’re always unbelievably strong at the end of a 3 week race

😉

and he always goes well after a rest day

yes I always find I go well after a rare steak for dinner :-), so does Mrs D… and she likes to think of herself as a vegetarian

I’d like to see a very hilly/ mountainous short stage a bit earlier to encourage everyone to go nuts from the start, a bit like some of the Giro stages. The last 2 days before the roll in to Paris could be fantastic for this but may come a little to late to affect the GC. If everything is quite even towards the end then these could be crazy days!

yes I always find I go well after a rare steak for dinner

Washed down with a nice glass of Glen Butronol 🙂 (^^^ he started it!)