TDF 2024 general chat *CONTAINS SPOILERS*

Vingagoago

Hilarious.

To return to the actual subject, I was referring to Evenepoel’s interview – dissing Vingegaard, dissing his team, dissing the race organisation. Childish.

Tested positive for COVID yesterday, currently laid up on the sofa. Why did it have it happen on a rest day, WHY!

It occurred to me that the riders saying “gravel doesn’t belong in GTs” seem to be those who view themselves as “road” racers, those who are fine with gravel are those who like racing bikes. I’m with the latter camp,  it’s a bike race.

Agreed. It’s the best all-round rider over the course of 3 weeks. The Tour has done pave before, gravel is a modern extension of that plus it’s a way for the Tour to get a whole load more publicity (and therefore sponsorship/money) in wider cycling circles. It’s also a nice throwback to the Tours origins when most of the roads were gravel!

FFS Remco, if they could race it 100 years ago on fixed gear steel bikes weighing 15kg on stages that were 450km long, you can cope with 35km of the stuff with your army of support cars!

It occurred to me that the riders saying “gravel doesn’t belong in GTs” seem to be those who view themselves as “road” racers, those who are fine with gravel are those who like racing bikes. I’m with the latter camp,  it’s a bike race

Yep, there is a really conservative element within bike racing, as also exemplified by all the hand wringing surrounding disc brakes. People love gravel, so they put some gravel racing in the TdF and it was great, haiku complete

On the question of gravel or no gravel….  if you look back to the origins of the TdeF and the road surfaces they had to contend with the, especially up the big mountain climbs it’s right in keeping.  Worth looking at some of the old photos of these climbs.

dissing the race organisation

I that that was Vingago, he was the one complaining that gravel had no place in le tour.

FFS Remco, if they could race it 100 years ago on fixed gear steel bikes weighing 15kg on stages that were 450km long, you can cope with 35km of the stuff with your army of support cars!

Not seen Remco complaining even though he seemed far less comfortable on the gravel than Pog. Like he said at least him and Pog had the balls to race. Remco just speaks his mind but many don’t like that they just want a few platitudes and the odd “one day at a time” cliché

As for him dissing his team, well he was left isolated and had to close the gaps himself, had Vingagoagoagoago not had a strong team around him he would have been dropped.

UEA for a team of climbers put in an amazing ride.

Quick rest day roundup:

Yellow:

1.  T. POGACAR          UAE TEAM EMIRATES                  35h 42′ 42”
2.  R. EVENEPOEL    SOUDAL QUICK-STEP                   35h 43′ 15”  + 00′ 33”
3.  J. VINGEGAARD  TEAM VISMA | LEASE A BIKE    35h 43′ 57”  + 01′ 15”
And the Brit riders:
12. Adam Yates (UAE Team Eamirates) @ 04′ 56″
25. Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) @ 09′ 33″
27. Simon Yates (Team Jayco Alula) @ 15′ 57″
29. Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grendiers) @ 16′ 51″
49. Oscar Onley (Team DSM Firmenich PostNL) @ 35′ 44″
83. Stevie Williams (Israel PremierTech) @ 01h 06′ 14″
125. Jake STewart (Israel PremierTech) @ 01h 25′ 26″
130. Ben Turner (Ineos Grenadiers) @ 01h 28′ 28″
131. Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) @ 01h 29′ 35″
150. Dan McLay (Arkea B&B Hotels) @ 01h 41′ 19″
167. Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) @ 01h 52′ 33″

Points:

1.  B. GIRMAY                   INTERMARCHÉ – WANTY  224 PTS
2.  J. PHILIPSEN             ALPECIN-DECEUNINCK     128 PTS
3.  J. ABRAHAMSEN      UNO-X MOBILITY                 107 PTS

Mountains:

1  J. ABRAHAMSEN        UNO-X MOBILITY                  33 PTS
2  T. POGACAR                UAE TEAM EMIRATES          20 PTS
3  V. MADOUAS               GROUPAMA-FDJ                     16 PTS

Young Rider:

1.  R. EVENEPOEL          SOUDAL QUICK-STEP            35h 43′ 15”
2.  J. AYUSO                     UAE TEAM EMIRATES           + 01′ 43”
3.  C. RODRIGUEZ         INEOS GRENADIERS              + 01′ 58”

I’m still a “meh” on the gravel content.  Seems unnecessarily consequential, too much of a lottery, in a 3 week race.  If Tratnik hadn’t been on a really similar bike, Vingo would’ve been left trying to swap his own wheel (and I bet they don’t have axles with levers on ’em, so he’d better have an Allen key on him)

Half the field reduced to walking/running a hill – you see it in, say, flanders in the wet but just daft here IMO

… or else, why stop there?  Let’s have some cyclocross barriers to hop here and there, or maybe some gladiators in inflatable sumo outfits to try & knock ’em off ?

Maybe they should race for 3 weeks round a velodrome.

– gets boring after about 6 days

I’m still a “meh” on the gravel content.  Seems unnecessarily consequential, too much of a lottery, in a 3 week race.

This. It was exciting, but to have a whole Tour potentially decided on a single day seems a bit unbalanced.

That can already happen after a TT though, I know what I’d rather watch…

That can already happen after a TT though, I know what I’d rather watch…

Sure, but not just as a result of a puncture.

Well I thought it was a great stage to watch, with the best riders at the front!

A puncture on a mountain stage could be equally disastrous.

This. It was exciting, but to have a whole Tour potentially decided on a single day seems a bit unbalanced.

Cav’s whole Tour was decided in the most innocuous of crashes on a straight flat bit of road last year. Same with Wiggins the year he broke his collarbone and was out of the Tour.

On the other hand, Chris Froome’s Tour (in 2014, when he was defending champion) ended on the pave in Belgium (actually it ended before the pave and the organisers had already removed 2 sectors due to the shit weather but maybe the peloton was on edge anyway because of the weather and the upcoming cobbled sectors).

I honestly don’t think any one parcours is any better or worse than any other. Narrow roads through towns can easily have at least as much of an effect on the outcome if there’s a crash near the front that the team cars can’t easily access. The thing with gravel or cobble sectors is the teams go all in to staff them with spare wheels and bikes at the exit of each sector – you could argue that actually there’s more resource in place on those stages than a “normal” day.

Over the years I’ve heard riders complaining about cobbled stages; stages that are too long; stages that are too short; mountain descents that are too steep; roads that are too narrow; roads that are too windy (as in side-wind sort of windy, not left and right windy!); roads that are too wide; roads that are too seaweedy; stages that are too boring; too many spectators; not enough spectators….

Somebody above suggested 3 weeks of velodrome – there’d be complaints, quite rightly. Few riders ever complained about the volume of drugs they took, though – makes you think.  ;-)

Apparently from the Cycling Podcast, they were stating that the gravel section was too make sure there wasn’t 3 similar stages in a row, they needed to cross the relatively flattish champagne region, and they had a sprint stage before and a sprint stage next after the rest day, they had already had a TT, so were trying to mix it up.

I really enjoyed it, i think it rewards the best all round bike rider/ handler.

… the teams go all in to staff them with spare wheels and bikes at the exit of each sector

I thought assistance (distict from feeding) had to come from the car ??

I don’t think they can have spare whole bikes, but they can have spare wheels and bidons/food. It is why the teams have loads of volunteers for Roubaix so they can get spare wheels on every sector.

Just sat down to watch the rest day highlights programme only to find it isn’t listed on the itv app. What gives?

Watched the chemin blanc sections and it left me a little underwhelmed. Nice to see pog go on the offensive, but he does that anyway. Vingegard was lucky yesterday, which is why he rode such a measured race. Anyway still all to play for in Week2 as two teams duke it out. The standout star, with little team to help, will of course be Rog. As I have him in my team.

Vingegard was lucky yesterday, which is why he rode such a measured race

His team with the likes of Wout, Laporte, Jorgenson, Kelderman, Tratnik should have been and were very strong on that stage. Had Vingegard been on his own like Remco he’d have been sunk. Don’t see Vizma out riding UAE in the mountains though, although the Giro could catch up with Pog at some point.

@nbt Stage 10 Rest Day is there on the ITVX app. (Categories/sport/TdF highlights)

Stage 10 Rest Day is there on the ITVX app. (Categories/sport/TdF highlights)

Yep, often takes a few hours to appear on the app. It was a good show; lots of Tour history and interviews.

Today’s sprinty stage as well as a roundup of the gravel.

Tour de France Stage 10 Preview

Yep, often takes a few hours to appear on the app.

On race days, the highlights programme is usually up within half an hour of the broadcast finishing (the full race coverage was usually up within the hour). Last night, it still wasn’t up when I went to bed at 11pm. Will have to watch it tonight

Pan flat today isn’t it? Not even a single Cat 4 climb iirc. Not sure what the final is like? As ever, come on Cav!

@TiRed _ I’ve just noticed your team name on STW Velogames, very clever, I like.

Ooooh Go Sir Cav.

Longest through and off damp club ride I’ve ever seen. Lots of chatting and not much racing so far.

Wanty and Lotto DSTNY told to get to it and get the jersey on the tele.

Rolling rest day, fast forward to last 10km to see some racing :D

Yep, just caught the highlights – was in the office today so no chance to watch any of it live.

Christ in the history of boring stages, that one is right up there ?

You can argue the toss about the inclusion of gravel etc, but good god you’ll struggle attract a modern day audience with offerings like that. Even the actual sprint was boring!

On to tomorrow, a day for a breakaway by the looks of things….which means that Pogacar and Evenpoel will start attacking 90km from the finish hopefully!

So boring that the boring history trivia guy was reading out a boring recipe. WTF ??

There’s a blog/opinion piece on it here:

When Nobody Attacks

I actually quite like the history / recipe / geology stuff and I think the commentators have long ago realised that they need fluff pieces ready to go for when the action is monumentally dull. There’s a limit to how much even the most hardened fan can sit there listening to cycling chat and the Tour audience goes well beyond cycling. If you want to make it appeal to more people, focussing on the chateaux, the wine, the history etc during the relative downtime is essential.

Anyway, today looks more interesting!

Tour de France Stage 11 Preview

Bring back Thomas De Gendt.

Bring back Thomas De Gendt.

I used to get loads of fantasy points from De Gendt!

Live on ITV4 now…please…someone…ATTACK!!!!!!!!

Couple of groups got gaps, it was all then pulled back, more attacks. Average speed so far is a fraction off 50kph (31mph) which is just bonkers!