As a former resident I enjoy the stages that start / end in Pau then I can relive my youth, all those years ago…
Elf/Total ?? I enjoyed many a very filling meal at Le Berry while on expenses 🙂
Elf/Total ?? I enjoyed many a very filling meal at Le Berry while on expenses 🙂
No, Turbomeca out at Bordes, though we had friends at Elf and occasionally blagged a seat on their inter-site bus out to St Gaudens. Great staff canteen with pichets of wine (not that I am or was a wine drinker). The french do know how to look after staff culinary needs
Roglic out. Bad news.
Roglic out of Tour - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/articles/clmy4l2e12ro
Wonder if they have decided it is better for him to refocus on Olympics now?
Roglic out. Bad news.
I said yesterday to a friend that I reckon he would be abandoning. Poor guy has no luck at the Tour. A 4th in 2018 and a 2nd in 2020 (the Covid year) but then DNF in 2021, 2022, didn't ride in 2023 and DNF again in 2024.
But he can win the Vuelta and the Giro. Baffling. Hope he recovers well and can come good at the Olympics.
He does seem to be a bit of "crash magnet" like Geraint Thomas can be sometimes. Shame as i was really looking forward to the big-four tearing it out of each other in a four way battle this Tour
Yay half my team down and out. Poor Rog. Just plain bad luck.
Thats shit for Roglic and it explains why it looked like they were not going all out to get back on yesterday.
According to my internet powers, surprisingly given its nearly always in, Cav has not won in Pau. But he has in Nimes. Just saying.
Regarding "luck", on the never strays far pod they were suggesting that Rog was not slowing while others around him were, just before the impact - the overhead supposedly showed it clearly
Roglic looked to be coming back to form, him and Vingago could have put more pressure on Pog
they were suggesting that Rog was not slowing while others around him were, just before the impact – the overhead supposedly showed it clearly
It did look like he was oblivious to it despite everyone else slowing and moving. He was having his crash before he got to Lutsenko, looked like he "panic braked" whilst trying a late swerve and pitched himself into an OTB, he was going over his bars far enough behind to land on Lutsenko and his bike.
Anyone watching today laugh at some of the radio comms snippets they play, especially the ones from Ineos and their DS ordering them about as if they had the same current status as UAE and Visma, they always seem to put in the effort at the front as if they had the GC, instead of expounding their efforts when it actually counts, maybe to win stages instead. They seem to still think they are top-tier, when their GC results say otherwise, i think to the detriment of allowing individuals like Pidcock to be supported for a few wins...
^^
ITV4 commentary team saying exactly the same thing with an undertone of "what are they playing at?".
I'm on Eurosport, but interesting that they are saying similar, Ineos don't seem to be able to let go of being the top GC team, they need to be honest with themselves and ask that is going to be better, coming 5-6th on GC or winning 1-2 stages, I know which i think is better and more interesting. Plus they have some great riders who have spent years being loyal domestiques like Kwiatoski (Sp?) who could be allowed to go and strike out and have some fun, plus as they down on GC they might be given some rope to play with and not chased down.
The race is averaging 50kph!
OK some of it has been tailwind but there's a lot of talk of crosswinds and teams looking to split the bunch.
ECHELONS!!!
Bring the wind!
Hello - crosswind carnage, anyone ??
Messy sprint with a big crash. Leadout guy drifting back through the melee got clipped and went down, took out Cees Bol and others went down in a domino.
Everyone seemingly OK but Bol took a big hit.
Stage 16 on Tuesday is described in road book as a flat stage, but one which is notorious area for crosswinds, but that is last chance. Final day is a Time Trial in Nice
That’s it for Cav. See who makes the time cut on Sunday and who is not infected! Biniam will retain green.
https://inrng.com/2024/07/tour-de-france-stage-14-preview-pla-adet/#more-44766
A preview that hedges its bets around whether there'll be a breakaway allowed to go to the line or if it'll turn into another GC showdown.
Relatively short day at 153km but a lot of climbing, all backloaded; 4000m total and a summit finish at 1669m
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Tom Pidcock is out with "Covid-like symptoms".
☹️
Bugger. Won’t be the last though I think
Covid in the peloton is worrying. I fear a lot more will drop out. It's surprising people are being allowed to ride after testing positive.
[quot]It’s surprising people are being allowed to ride after testing positive.
Geraint Thomas apparently being one of those who has tested positive but isn't showing any symptoms - he's still riding.
Pete Kennaugh referring to Big Hitters, is he a secret STW regular?
Just a casual 60mph off the Tourmalet!
Just a casual 60mph off the Tourmalet!
They go faster up the Tourmalet than I would feel safe going down it 🙂
60-65kph (40mph) is fine, I can do that on many road rides around here.
80kph (50mph) is getting to the sort of point where anything going wrong will go wrong very quickly and very badly.
100kph (60mph) is literally the very knife edge of control, at that point you're little more than a passenger and doing anything at all, even touching the brakes to try and rein it in a bit is pushing the limits of what the bike (and the average rider's skill level) will accept.
A fast hill where I used to live i got 85kph a few times and would spend all time panicking that something on the bike would fail and that was a straight road ?
UAE - why this big push ?
Pog had better be having an ouststanding day or else they're going to look ****ing stupid here
Getting tense but it could all end up cancelling out like the previous couple of stages.
gentle boom just there
Come on JV! Hang in there.
Pog's having a(nother) slow-motion chase nightmare
flattening out a bit here ?
Tadej ??? super strong. Another win, already one of the all time greats.
That's a fairly significant hit to JV there, psychologically and in terms of time.
Could see JV was on a bad day the moment of the attack. Look at how many times he looked down and back. You don’t do that when you’re confident.
Yep, it was pretty much a "minimising the damage" response rather than a "matching the attack" response.
But still, it could all turn around tomorrow or in the final week - anything can happen! Equally of course, the gap could go out to 15 minutes by the final Sunday so who knows?!
