Inrng have published their preview too, interesting reading

I would say I can hardly wait for stage 17, it looks AWESOME, but I do wonder if it will get that far…

Double KOM points for stage 17/col de la Loze finish.

French PM ‘undeniable surge’

bloody hell! I don’t like it I don’t like it one bit !

BOOM!

https://www.velogames.com/great-big-bike-game/2020/

Velogames is back! I’ll be starting the usual STW fantasy league later on tonight. CANNOT WAIT!

Usual rules – pick a team you fancy, enter the mini leage and let’s see how badly we all do

League Name: STW FANTASY BBG TDF 2020
League Code: 254579024

https://www.velogames.com/great-big-bike-game/2020/leaguescores.php?league=254579024

ffs
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/aug/27/coronavirus-live-blog-france-italy-hit-post-lockdown-case-highs-as-global-infections-top-24m?page=with:block-5f47f7218f08767dd7f10944#block-5f47f7218f08767dd7f10944

Tour de France in doubt after Covid red alert issued before Grand Départ in Nice

Jeremy Whittle

The 2020 Tour de France, scheduled to start in Nice on Saturday, is edging closer to collapse after the Alpes-Maritimes region, site of the opening stages of the race, was placed on red alert owing to the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The tensions surrounding the race ramped up further still on Thursday evening after the Lotto-Soudal team announced that two of their team’s support staff has tested “non-negative” for Covid-19 and had been sent home from Nice. “Safety remains priority number one,” the statement read.

“Only world wars have stopped the Tour de France,” the Tour director, Christian Prudhomme, said in March this year, but the rapidly growing concerns over the wisdom of going forward with this year’s race led to a cross-examination of the prime minister, Jean Castex, by journalists on Thursday.

“We have taken numerous precautions and health protocols and I’d remind you that this is an open-air event,” Castex said. “The places where the virus spreads and there is transmission have no organisation. The Tour has an organiser.”

Confirming that Nice was one of 19 new regions to be placed under red alert, Castex stated that “the pandemic is regaining ground and now’s the time to intervene”, adding: “France must do everything to prevent a new lockdown.”

But the French education minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer, echoed Prudhomme in saying the Tour should go ahead. “It is a sign that we can continue to live, and of the resilience of our society,” he said.

For once I don’t know what to say.

Le Tour is the sporting highlight of the year on our family.

running a full page story now

cycling news not so negative

May I suggest a Tdf sweepstake with a difference? Closest to the actual result wins the grudging admiration of the rest of us, at least for a few minutes.

How many days will the Tour last this year?

I get to go first: 9 days.

By then a at least three teams will have dropped out for Covid reasons and everyone else will be getting very antsy. Anybody know if it’s like artists at gigs, they have to stay on stage so long to get paid? Do ASO have to run it for so long to get all the telly money??

I should add I hope I’m wrong and it gets to run it’s full course in a safe manner.

If Lotto have two positives, doesn’t the whole team have to leave?

I’m not sure it’ll make it past the first week.

I mean, sure, the completion of the tour is uncertain at best. On the other hand

Ladies and Gentlemen, less than 24 hours until we hear this 🚨🎶🤣pic.twitter.com/EzmQ6oeepJ

— ITV Cycling (@itvcycling) August 28, 2020

If Lotto have two positives, doesn’t the whole team have to leave?

They’ve had 2 “non-negatives” haven’t they?

@stevious

^^ That’s my ringtone so I get to hear that all year round! 😃

I’m still nostalgic for the old C4 version!

Where can I watch it this year?

ITV 4

I get to go first: 9 days.

Nice. I’ll say 12 days and Buchmann for the win.

Cycling Weekly – Teams start list

My prediction; it won’t continue after the second rest day. (For what ever reason!).

Looks like they’ve reversed the rules again….

https://www.velonews.com/events/tour-de-france/stricter-two-strikes-policy-returns-to-the-tour-de-france-after-government-decision/

Well La Course was a cracking race and now the men are rolling out through the streets of Nice waiting for the flag to drop. Will the music continue playing all the way to Paris? And who will be in yellow when the music stops?

Well La Course was a cracking race and now the men are rolling out through the streets

We must have been watching a different race, it was dull as ditchwater. The same 6 riders that always win/place in Women’s racing got a break, sat there looking at each other then had a sprint. Meanwhile we saw bugger all of the bunch behind.

La Course seems to produce a boring race every year, and every year it just shows the gulf in ASO’s understanding and care of Women’s racing compared to the Tour. It’s almost like they treat the whole thing as an embuggerance to get out the way before the “proper” racing and as a result it feels and looks like a token gesture that produces predictable and dull racing.

Wish they’d just accept that it’s a shit idea and take it off to do it properly. Like
Sweetspot do with Women’s Tour / Tour of Britain. They’re standalone races, each with their own story, not one as a token coathook on the other.

Why do the live aerial shots look like they’re a slightly slowed down replay?

Skinwalls, too.

Julian Alaphilippe wins Tour stage on regular Specialized clincher tires & inner tubes!

Lol, road.cc and Cycling Weekly are both still scratching their heads over how Jumbo could possibly still be riding RIM brakes of all things! And they didn’t die on Stage 1 even though we all know rim brakes don’t work in the wet! Plus eeeeeew… they still have their cables showing!

What about the rider (avoiding spoilers as it was in today’s stage and some may not have seen it yet!) who went OTB when he grabbed a handful of the front brake?

Notice he was on rim brakes? They’re unsafe! Ban them!

the rider next to him looked down as if to sat WTF you doing! Hardly a spoiler he was doodling about at the back

Lol, road.cc and Cycling Weekly are both still scratching their heads over how Jumbo could possibly still be riding RIM brakes of all things!

While their adjacent article is fwapping all over the Team Ineos Pinarello with its rim brakes for light weight and ease of wheel changes… 🙄

@crazy-legs

La Course seems to produce a boring race every year

Genuine question: what are you hoping for in a race that La Course doesn’t deliver?

“Lol, road.cc and Cycling Weekly are both still scratching their heads over how Jumbo could possibly still be riding RIM brakes of all things!”

I’ve seen it reported( I will try and find the source later) the Bianchi frame is a bit of a porker. So they have been doing anything to reduce the overall weight of the bike package. You will notice that in addition to the rim brakes most of this years TDF bikes are black not the classic Bianchi colour. This is another weight saving measure as the green pigment itself is heavier than black paint. It also requires more layers of the colour to get the required finish.

Here you go;

https://road.cc/content/tech-news/tour-de-france-tech-2020-jumbo-vismas-bianchi-bikes-276459

Soooo… has anyone else given in to temptation and entered the prize giveaway on ITV4?

I couldn’t tell if everyone was restricted to one entry (fair enough, worth a £2 punt) or you could enter multiple times (yeah, forget it).

Anyway, I entered and immediately got a text offering me another entry for £2 and a FREE third entry. Yes, I gave in again, and got ANOTHER text offering another £2 entry with a FREE (what would be) fifth entry. I put the phone down at this point.

Felt a bit online-gambly, far too easy to just keep punting another £2, and another £2, and another £2 (and ariston…).

Have been entering a lot of online competitions recently, mostly just at the cost of my burner/spam email address. Wonder if anyone ever actually wins them or if it’s just favoured journalists/spouses of sponsors etc…

@crazy-legs I agree that ASO don’t take la course seriously enough. But it doesn’t follow that it’s boring – it works despite that. I think the 2018 version was one of the best bike races (men or women, road or otherwise) I’ve ever watched.

Soooo… has anyone else given in to temptation and entered the prize giveaway on ITV4?

I do it every year, 2 paid entries and one free one. It looks as though there is only one this year for the whole race rather than one per week.

Wonder if anyone ever actually wins them

Well, looking in my garage… Erm, I don’t.

Ive been entering the ITV4 comp every year for years and years and every year I convince myself this is the one. In a way it’s better than a lottery win as I’m guaranteed to get some bikes out of it. Not been able to do it this year as my ‘control content bar’ is in place* and I can’t be arsed to remove it. Shame as I’m sure this year ‘is the one’ although not too excited by Boardman bikes

*Weird as I can access porn to my heart’s content

Shame as I’m sure this year ‘is the one’ although not too excited by Boardman bikes

As if I needed to justify a £2 competition that I’m never going to win, but I figured the full suss would round out my collection nicely. Not fussed on the road bike although I guess I could use it to test if my prejudices about disc brakes are still valid 😀

It was the tubro trainer that caught my eye, could never justify spending money on a smart trainer but winning one would be handy!

Oh yeah, and the £20,000…

New competition today, courtesy of Le Col.

Oh yeah, and the £20,000…

It’s just £20k worth of bikes and kit no?
It’s not all the shiny stuff PLUS £20k is it?

I’m pretty sure it’s £20k on top.

New competition today, courtesy of Le Col.

Oh well so much for my guess that there’s only one this year. Where’s my phone?