The Tour Of France 2021

[twistedAM]

Boom. Massive gaps on the first day in the mountains. He hasn't got the team to control the race, but does he need it?

UAE gave IneoS a tactical lesson today. Ineos were doing their usual thing of driving a train to drop the UAE doms so instead the two UAE guys went to the front at a massive pace so that when they unleashed the Pog there was only Carapaz who could possibly follow him and Pog soon took care of that.
Ineos promised exciting tactics but it’s the same old shit. The Jumbo train couldn’t dislodge Pog last year so it was unlikely that predictable tactic would work again.

 

[Cid]

 

[rubbershoes]

Ineos : Fear our marginal gains

Pog: Pojdi se solit

 

[twistedAM]

A quote from a poster elsewhere which brings home how hard today was:

“The autobus featured four Grand Tour winners, three Kings of the Mountain and eight World or Olympic champions”

Another post I saw in the same theme:

Mark Cavendish today finished ahead of past GT winners Froome, Roglic and Thomas. On a tough mountain stage.

 

[hash tag]

The giro was good earlier in the year but this is really good, but, have we now seen the best of the jousting? Lutsenko in 3rd is 4.5 minutes down with just 1 week gone.

 

[twistedAM]

The giro was good earlier in the year but this is really good, but, have we now seen the best of the jousting? Lutsenko in 3rd is 4.5 minutes down with just 1 week gone.

Funnily enough if you read on other forums, this is the minority view. They’re all moaning about the race being over already and that Pog must surely be injecting sone kind of Slovenian super juice. Ironically that’s coming mostly from Ineos fans and the patriotic Dutch press.
I was quite happy seeing a 22 year old smash two expensively assembled trains.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

The race isn’t over yet. A day or two of crosswinds or a crash and it can all still change. 2 weeks is a long time to hold on to yellow.

Plus a lot of riders are now free to head up the road in a break so fights for stage wins could be a lot more entertaining.

 

[twistedAM]

Of course it’s not over. You’d think these people never watched sport let alone a three week bike race - for instance just the other day I switched off when France went 3-1 up against Switzerland. Doh.
I’m just happy the trains got smashed and we’re going to have a different last two weeks from previous editions.

 

[David Clapson]

Roglic has abandoned. Van der Poel has quit to focus on the Olympics

 

[twistedAM]

The race isn’t over yet. A day or two of crosswinds or a crash and it can all still change. 2 weeks is a long time to hold on to yellow.

Plus a lot of riders are now free to head up the road in a break so fights for stage wins could be a lot more entertaining.

Actually we’re wrong. Brian Smith said it was all over on the pre-show!!!
It was funny as Dan and Orla immediately jumped on him. No doubt the producer did a facepalm. Smith must have got a right bollocking because as soon as he came in to do live commentary his line had changed.
He’s easily the worst of the GCN team.

 

[Cid]

80kph in those conditions is fucking terrifying.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Man it looks miserable out there today

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Sounds like it's going to be another tight day for the grupetto..

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Cav home safe, Démare outside the time cut. Between that and Colbrelli seemingly deciding he’s now a climber, that Merckx record might be doable

 

[twistedAM]

Cav is still ahead of Froome on GC.

 

[stavros]

Boulting and Millar were musing on whether anyone could live with Pogacar at the moment, and thought that maybe Bernal was the only contender. I don't think Evenepoel's done a whole GT yet, so do you think he should be considered in the next couple of years?

 

[twistedAM]

Cav home safe, Démare outside the time cut. Between that and Colbrelli seemingly deciding he’s now a climber, that Merckx record might be doable

And Tim Merlier was a dnf today.

 

[Cid]

Cav is still ahead of Froome on GC.

It's the disc brakes.

 

[DJWrongspeed]

Boulting and Millar were musing on whether anyone could live with Pogacar at the moment, and thought that maybe Bernal was the only contender. I don't think Evenepoel's done a whole GT yet, so do you think he should be considered in the next couple of years?

I'm wondering which was the more impressive, Pogacar breaking from the peleton on stage 8 or O'Connor winning on Stage 9 and moving into 2nd on GC, both amazing efforts.

 

[hash tag]

Cav home safe, Démare outside the time cut. Between that and Colbrelli seemingly deciding he’s now a climber, that Merckx record might be doable

I had to settle for ITV highlights. As per usual, Cav was very emotional....to have finished within time limit. I think there might have been a sprinter or two who missed the cut off.

Boulting and Millar were musing on whether anyone could live with Pogacar at the moment, and thought that maybe Bernal was the only contender. I don't think Evenepoel's done a whole GT yet, so do you think he should be considered in the next couple of years?

Boardman also. Barring accidents....

 

[stavros]

Boardman also. Barring accidents....

Was it Boardman? I watched the whole five hours, and know they swapped between Boulting and Rendell on lead and between Millar, Kennaugh and Boardman as the pundit.

 

[twistedAM]

Was it Boardman? I watched the whole five hours, and know they swapped between Boulting and Rendell on lead and between Millar, Kennaugh and Boardman as the pundit.

Are they letting him do lead commentary now? Ffs, the man even managed to make a book about Marco Pantani boring!

 

[hash tag]

Was it Boardman? I watched the whole five hours, and know they swapped between Boulting and Rendell on lead and between Millar, Kennaugh and Boardman as the pundit.

Like I say, all I could watch was the highlights on ITV. They should Cav just scraping in in time, then Boardman said about pogocar winning barring accidents

 

[twistedAM]

Anyone else catch Dan Lloyd shit talking about Pogacar, asking off it's too good to be true? Why pick on Pog when you have van der Poel and Cavendish performing out of their skin? Or what has he said about the Sky legacy or Ganna's outrageous numbers in the Giro?

Anyway here's a vid of a man getting carried away with himself:

 

[hash tag]

A bit lumpy but could still be a day for Cav.

 

[Cid]

Another brutal mountain stage tomorrow with double Ventoux at 4,500m of up over 199km, so depends how he's feeling I suppose. Looked pretty chilled just now mind you.

 

[Cid]

Brad on a bike looks like he's dropped a couple of pills...

 

[hash tag]

I see Cav is making minor adjustments to his saddle again

 

[Cid]

I see Cav is making minor adjustments to his saddle again

Clearly planning something then.

 

[hash tag]

Was Quintana penalised for ditching his shirt with his race numbers on 2 days ago?