[Closed] 2017 Tour de France: Concluding Observations

Racism still rife in the Tour the France

Booing Chris Froome on the road and today again.

Combativity not for De Gendt they really like to stick their ass up their nationalist ass

genesiscore502011 - Member
My observation is that Dan Martin is nails! And someone earlier wrote Kelly Slater is robotic .... erm no .... he did not compete for years (when he was winning)as he felt the judges could not truly progressively assess his style / ability. I do appreciate he is now getting older and maybe "slowing down" but robotic is harsh.

Without pushing this too off topic, I didn't mean slaters surfing is robotic, meant the way he seems to constantly analyse, and it was a compliment not an insult! It's what you need to be so dominant!

Not sure why he is still alowed to ride after depriving Andy Shleck the experience of winning the Tour and all that comes with it.

My apologies ferrals- misread and misunderstood your comment

Thomas was tenacious and very sad to see him go out after getting to wear yellow.

Foome has a bit of an aura of an elder statesman, seems to have decorum and is strong on the sportsmanship.

Radios being banned is not likely to happen as there is a safety aspect that the riders have pushed, but I would like to see power and heart rate meters stopped from being a live feed. Might make attacks and chases a bit less measured and open the race up in the hills and on the flats. The break rarely seems to succeed any longer.

I can't work out whether to be pleased or disappointed that Contador and Quintana both seem to have completely lost any form. Suggests that there was more to Contador than an isolated spiked meat product. Quintana might not have had Valverde to support, but seems to have struggled to hold a wheel on the hills. High risk for Sky if the suggested swap between he and Landa comes to fruition.

My observation is that team road cycling is boring as hell....

hours of nothing interspersed with some guy "attacking", or as I see it, riding a bit faster than the pack for maybe ten minutes before the pack gain up on him.

Froome being praised in the media despite it mostly being down to his team mates as to whether he gets the yellow jersey.

Some weird sado masochistic riding positions.

Not saying that the feat of endurance is phenomenal, but as a spectator sport I find it rather bizarre.

OK, Contador isn't at his best. But I'm in the camp of, I never really used to like him, yet he's grown on me a lot

Best stage racer of his generation. I find it hard to believe people don't like him. Absolutely class rider. But he got caught, the boring brits have yet to be; apart from the team sky shit show at the end of last year

OK, Contador isn't at his best. But I'm in the camp of, I never really used to like him, yet he's grown on me a lot

You shouldn't judge it all by the TDF, but I agree, it's pretty much a write-off with Team Sky/Froome involved. Even more so as Sagan/Valverde/Cavendish weren't racing.

My observation is that team road cycling is boring as hell....

hours of nothing interspersed with some guy "attacking", or as I see it, riding a bit faster than the pack for maybe ten minutes before the pack gain up on him.

Froome being praised in the media despite it mostly being down to his team mates as to whether he gets the yellow jersey.

Some weird sado masochistic riding positions.

Not saying that the feat of endurance is phenomenal, but as a spectator sport I find it rather bizarre.

I find that perspective incomprehensible.

Do you watch and enjoy other cycling disciplines?

Froome may have had a team helping him but he still has to pedal his own bike!!

Froome may have had a team helping him but he still has to pedal his own bike!!

Not only that, the Tour is a team event. Isn't that the point? We don't denigrate a goal-scoring footballer because people passed the ball to him!

I must admit, in previous years, watching the Tour on hazy afternoons has more been a kind of pre-doze meditation for me.
Seeing how far ahead the French farmers Maize crops are and if they've cut much wheat yet etc etc.

But this year, the realisation that my fastest sprint at peak power is around 35mph has made the sight of guys drilling it for 10 or 15 minute efforts at 40mph slightly more amazing!

It's three weeks- it's not going to be hectic every second but it's quite a spectacle!

These guys are the most impressive athletes around. Even the ones who don't win anything.

Not an epic tour IMO. I miss the mountain top finishes, Froome looks awkward on a bike, no style, not that it matters I guess. Sad that Cavendish and Satan went out so early on.

Miss the team time trial.

Still a great spectacle and I watch it in admiration of all who take part.

Loved the Gendarme motorcyclist pushing the running spectator into the ditch and the return of a worthy wearer of the King of the Mountains jersey.
Disappointed not to see what Richie Porte could have done but I doubt BMC could have stopped the Sky train.
The constant booing of Chris Froome just baffles me.

The constant booing of Chris Froome just baffles me.

It comes from the media fuelled "riding by numbers" originally applied by Sky. Froomes riding above it IMO, being gentlemanly and not complaining. His response in the TT today was perfect - whether you like it or not he beat the GC riding by himself. Hes also shown hes a bit vunerable, and has had to make changes to win again - in this case his training peak.

Anyway, the overiding conclusion for me is that in the current "dope free" age you just simply cannot have a dominant rider; plenty have been sick, ill, ground to a halt, hence for me its the sheer ability of these guys to ride like they do every day for three weeks.

The tour organisers - ASO - have tried changing the tour route and tinkering with stage finishes to reduce the dominance of TeamSky; nothing they have done has neutralised TeamSky or reduced their ability to control a stage.
I don't know were it can go from here - capping the investment in individual teams; 'valuing' each rider (either £ or points) and then capping the max any team can submit for the tour.......could be interesting option but teams would never agree to any scoring/valuing unless it clearly favoured them.
Great for Froome but his fantastic achievements have been diminished by all the shit that has swirled around him - Brailsford & Wiggo to be specific.
I think - a truly 'nice' guy & world class athlete that he is - he will never receive he true recognition he clearly deserves.

I think a salary cap could work, possibly in the same way that MLB do it. Namely you can spend, say, 15M on rider without penalty but above there you pay 20% of that value in "tax" that is given to other teams with the poorest teams getting most.

TBH though, it's ALWAYS been the case that the best teams can attract the best talent. If you ride for Fortuneo-Oscaro you MIGHT get into a breakaway or do well on a single mountain stage or sprint well, but you're never going to get a chance to win a grand tour or even be part of a grand tour winning team.

There's an article in the BBC today about Froome: It's a bit hypocritical, IMO, given that the BBC only give the TdF token coverage:
Tour de France 2017: Is Chris Froome Britain's least loved great sportsman? - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/40692045

As for banning power meters: that would have no effect at all. Banning radios might, but that would also punish the small teams who don't have the fire power to send riders back to the cars to get information.

I'm looking forward to how both Yates bothers will develop. They don't seem to race together at all, but could they work together to mount a future GC challenge?

I've enjoyed the race. Froome has been consistent without being spectacular, wonder if we will see a more attacking rider at La Vuelta?

The constant booing of Chris Froome just baffles me.

The French crowds have often booed the dominant champion its just now it's on TV and we get to comment about it on social media. They seem to back the fighter and the underdog even more than the British (see Poulidor the eternal second vs Anquetil who got booed). Add Sky's arrogance right from the off, massive budget and dominance and it's not surprising.

This tour has reinforced my opinion that the "unwritten rule" of not attacking when the leader has a mechanical is BS. This isn't running, it's cycling, where equipment and technology are integral. Bike and component manufacturers supply and sponsor teams, market their products as "race proven" and often use the Tour to unveil new kit. If your chain drops, or you snap a spoke, or your brake caliper jams with a stone, or your carbon wheel collapses, well that's not a good advert for your supplier but it's on you. I couldn't help notice that my post-Chaingate Sram road groupset came with a chaincatcher as standard...

I'm happy to keep radios, they give the teams more options to do things, like the other day when they let Landa go off the front, knowing that if things started getting a bit spicy for Froome they could call him back to help, which is exactly what happened.

Sans radios, he'd have stuck with Froome all the way, which would have been less interesting.

My favourite bit was the interview with Aru's teammate, who, when told Aru had lost the yellow jumper, said "has he? Good!"

And regarding Sky's "massive budget" , as someone posted previously, it's only slightly more than the next best funded team...£34m vs £33m IIRC

And regarding Sky's "massive budget" , as someone posted previously, it's only slightly more than the next best funded team...£34m vs £33m IIRC

it might be now, what was the differential when they started? And for the French they're comparing with French teams (not, say BMC) who have a much smaller budget and suffer disproportionately from their taxation regime.

So in 2015, Sky 29m Euros, Tinkoff 23m Euros, AG2R 14m Euros

http://inrng.com/2016/09/the-finances-of-ag2r-la-mondiale/

http://inrng.com/2016/07/the-finances-of-team-sky-2015/

I think ASO did a decent job of mixing things up a bit.

Dunno why people get so vexed about "fixing" things so Sky don't dominate.

I'm no fan, but they target the TDF more than anyone else and they have the best GC rider in the world - so it's hardly an injustice that they keep winning.

Would be interesting to see if Froome could do it for another team... bit like Mick Doohan never did in MotoGP in the 90s

Not sure if anyone else spotted it, but whilst watching the TT yesterday I was wondering whether Tony Martin had shat himself.

[img] [/img]

😯 Too many gels?

sandpaper glued to top of saddle.

It's completely worn through his skinsuit before 😯

Not sure if anyone else spotted it, but whilst watching the TT yesterday I was wondering whether Tony Martin had shat himself.

He drew blood here!
[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

Someone tell him about velcro, for everyone's sake!

L’Équipe really did hype things up about Bardet...

“He must conserve his second place or, better still, take advantage of Froome’s failings to rip the yellow jersey from the Sky leader’s shoulders. Romain Bardet has no choice but to pull off an exploit on the streets of Marseilles.”

.....so much pressure on Badet, who in the end was lucky to hold on to third.

He was a great rider to watch, along with Dan Martin....will miss Bertie tho 🙁

I think this has been one of the great tours.

It was so close for so long, not because nobody was attacking, which they did relentlessly on some stages, but because all of the GC riders were so closely matched. Take Dan Martin, for example; he was arguably in the form of his life - this wasn't by accident, nor was Ritchie Porte's phenomenol strength. They've all identified what it actually takes to beat Froome.

Teams have clearly taken a step up and in some ways mimicked the formula used by Sky. Froome & Sky knew this was coming so have approached his periodisation differently to years gone by. Coupled with the calibre of riders such as Kwiatlowski acting as domestiques then you can see how hard they've worked to take yellow this year.

My biggest observation though is how Froome has developed as a professional; his bike handling (particularly his descending) has vastly improved. Again, this isn't by happy chance - look at Bardet; his descending is simply awesome, generally matched only by Valverde. Now look at the profile of this year's tour - it seemed designed for Bardet. Let's not underestimate just how much the French want a French tour winner - I don't think this has escaped Froome & Sky, hence we saw a striking improvement in Froome's downhill ability.

Absolutely great tour - loved it & now slavering at the thought of this year's Vuelta..!

All my comments on Lunges thread, soz SR not that I don't support your thread but Lunge did every day schematic..

Turns out Dan Martin fractured his L2 and L3 vertebrae in the Porte crash - no wonder he was walking around like old man Steptoe!