TDF 2024 general chat *CONTAINS SPOILERS*

That Team Visma “Control Room” van is just another way for DS to shout “get to the front!” and “stay at the front!” to riders…

From bits I’ve heard in various podcasts, it’s not much use shouting in to a team radio when the actual radios the riders are using are cheap junk that don’t work half the time!

crazy-legsFull Member
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/jun/27/uci-to-pay-whistleblowers-for-motor-doping-tip-offs-at-tour-de-france

Interesting…

It always feels to me like the UCI isn’t so much trying to catch someone, as being seen to be trying to do it. If they ever did come across a concealed motor in elite cycling, I bet they’d be like a springer spaniel that’s accidentally caught the squirrel that usually gets away and now has absolutely no idea what to do …

Can you imagine the reputational damage to cycling if a top rider were busted for motor doping? On balance they’d probably be better off keeping stumm.

Logically, if stuff like this were going on, it’d be very hard to keep secret. Just about the only way it could work would be for an individual rider to somehow modify their own bike secretly, or have a pet, tame mechanic who’d somehow do it for them and then hope that no-one else ever noticed. If it were a team thing, it would basically be an existential risk, with a worrying number of people knowing about it.

Logically, if stuff like this were going on, it’d be very hard to keep secret. Just about the only way it could work would be for an individual rider to somehow modify their own bike secretly, or have a pet, tame mechanic who’d somehow do it for them and then hope that no-one else ever noticed. If it were a team thing, it would basically be an existential risk, with a worrying number of people knowing about it.

Presumably, IF there is mechanical doping going on, there would be some level of investment in R&D into something that is small enough to be concealable/undetectable, whilst being efficient enough to give some kind of advantage. That would suggest organisational cheating, rather than a GC contender/stage winner and some friendly bike mechanic?

We’re driving to Spain for our holidays starting on 10th July.

So we would normally spend the night of the 10th somewhere in the vicinity of Bordeaux.

But the stage on the 11th starts in Aurillac and ends in Villenueve sur Lot. That’s still 150km from Bordeaux but if we took a different route down then we could go a bit more centrally instead of being near the West coast.

I don’t think I want to watch the finish in Villenueve, as I imagine it would take forever to get out of there at the end, but would anyone advise stopping somewhere in the middle of the route to see the caravan and the peloton go past? If we rock up at a random village is it going to be a nightmare getting out?

Stage 1 preview from Inrng:

Tour de France Stage 1 Preview

No one seems able to call this. It’s so open, form is relatively unknown amongst a lot of the big names who’ve been sidelined due to injuries etc for the last month.

Plus it’s a tough day out. Should be a great start to the race!

ITV4 and EuroSport have full live coverage all day.

hardest opening stage for at least this century…. probably have to go a long way back to find something similarly tough 😕 It’s tricky to call, it might be a gc day if the stage win goes to the break otherwise these early mountain stages end up cagey affairs as no one wants the yellow jersey (apart from the crazy bike yob pogimonster ) with everything that entails. Some of the little less fancied teams might ride today Ineous, lidl trek, Movistar etc

@eckinspain to be honest, if it’s anything like when the Tour of Britain came through our village in Cheshire, it was an anti-climax to see the peloton on the flat. It was literally over in 30 seconds. Worth seeing if it’s at the end of your drive, not so much worth going out of your way for IMO. I believe that climbs, time trials and finishes are far more worthwhile for spectators.

Funnily enough I’m in Briançon next week, so should get the opportunity to see the tour myself for the first time.

Will Sir Cav make the time cut 😉? Could be a hard day for the autobus. Personally, I’m not a fan of a massive stages with potential for GC from the off. A climber or GC will take yellow rather than a sprinter who may have few other opportunities. Where’s that prologue? So passé it seems.

Thought I’d post this from yesterday at the velodrome. It’s on the wall of fame  

Reminder, you have just under an hour to get a velogames team ready if you have not done so already.  You can join the STW league at any point, as long as your team is created ahead of the entry deadline

perhaps the other Yates twin for today…. he has some unfinished business 🙂

Thanks @Kramer. We went to the start of a Vuelta stage a couple of years ago and the family enjoyed it (and it was where we had planned to stay anyway).

Going 150km out of the way for 30 seconds might not be appreciated.

I’ll look at the start town for the following day.

some sites along todays stage

I’m slightly surprised that Kasper Asgreen doesn’t seem to be riding this year after his excellent stage win and nearly consecutive double last year?

The excitement has got too much and I’ve submitted another ‘velogames’ team, on behalf of a relative. Hedging my bets (it hasn’t got Pog in it, ooh La La).

Gary Imlach is such a good presenter.  🙂

**** ouch!

https://x.com/PatLefevere/status/1806999122924163183

You can tell summer’s arrived when you hear the ITV TdF music and see endless adverts for funeral plans and animal rescue

And they’re off. Crash in the neutral zone 😳.

frantic stuff 🙂

Will Sir Cav make the time cut

WvA looks to be “struggling”* @ the back

*relatively 🙂

What did poor ol’  Vermeersch do to upset Uno X ?

Dumb newbie tdf question, why are they racing so hard so early in a long leg? Is if for the KOTM jersey?

Gibbons you wheel sucker! already on jersey zip height watch …. someone big could see their gc out the window today!

Cav being distanced… 🤔

Going to be a long hot day out the back like that. Lovely that Quickstep are helping their old teammate with some water.

~160km of TTT practice for Astana.

Dumb newbie tdf question, why are they racing so hard so early in a long leg? Is if for the KOTM jersey?

It’s to get in the break = if your team has a man in the break you don’t need to chase it, saving energy for the rest of your team. It’s also a great way of getting TV time for the sponsors, so you tend to see the smaller teams always trying to get a man in there.

this is a painful watch!

He looks broken. He must be ill, having come down with something. Physically being sick as he rides… Gutting.

Tuned in just as he barfs

It’s roasting hot.

Would be a particularly grim situation if he’d picked up something from Peta – she flew out to Florence to be with him for an hour yesterday before flying home again. It’d be a truly horrible way to end the TdF thing after all the build up to “Project 35”, the extra contract, building a pure sprint team around him.  🙁

some sites along todays stage

Does look stunning. Not a part of Italy I’d considered going to but defo would now

WvA was faking it!

He’s getting further and further back. Anyone know what the time cut is going to be?

Talk of cut off being ~45mins for stage 1.

Anyone know what the time cut is going to be?

It’s calculated based on a percentage of the winner’s time rated against the difficulty of the stage. On flat stages it’s about 3%, in mountain stages it can be up at 20%.
Not sure how this stage will rank (I think it’s on a scale of 1-6?) so probably a 4 or 5 cos it’s not a full mountain day.

That said, the race jury can decide to allow riders to “escape” the time cut – if it’s a big group or there are mitigating circumstances (like being 2 seconds outside cos of a puncture in the last 500m). Whether or not illness counts is debatable but the escape route might be that it’s Cav and chucking him out is going to be really bad publicity for the Tour.

Would be a particularly grim situation if he’d picked up something from Peta – she flew out to Florence to be with him for an hour yesterday before flying home again.

FICTION !!! 🙂

That descent looked amazing!

David Millar / Ned Boulting reckoning that the time cut is likely to be about 45-49 minutes after the winner crosses the line.

peloton @ full chat!

Pogi has cracked the whip!