Giro d'Italia / Tour de France

[Paddingtonwolf]

Plus a lot of the fastest tour ever numbers come from it being attacking every day from kilometre one rather than phoney wars for 60k every day. That naturally brings the average speed up.

 

[Johnny75]

Sick to death of that insinuation frankly

There were drug raids in Slovenia before the tour at Bahrain Victorious.

It doesn't go away because people cheat.

This tour has been very exciting.

I'm not convinced the sudden rise of Slovenian cycling is natural.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Last I looked a Dane was winning.

 

[Johnny75]

Last I looked a Dane was winning.

Which is nothing to do with my point.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

I know. Just feeling a touch defensive and spiky. Bahrain victorious have nothing to do with the two main slovenians, as one races for UAE and the other is a Jumbo Visma rider so not sure who was being raided.

The main reason this tour has been fast is full bore racing every day from the depart . There hasn’t been a shit boring day (although I suspect today might be). That’s why it is a tiny bit quicker. This isn’t everyone smashing Strava times to pieces on the climbs, which naturally does generate a bit more suspicion.

 

[1986]

Sick to death of that insinuation frankly

The view that questions should not be asked is a very dangerous one . Those kind of questions were simply not allowed during the era of Lance Armstrong - and look at the damage that he and his cronies did .

It can only do cycling good that people continue to expect the highest standards in adherence to the controls over performance enhancing drugs .

The drugs raid at the beginning of the tour tells you that it is still around unfortunately - we cannot close our eyes to it .

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

It is no better or worse than a myriad of other sports. That’s the point

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Track rather than road here - but that is one scary awful crash on the commonwealth velodrome. Riders and bikes ending up in the crowd is proper scary.

 

[Sniffer]

Tom Pidcock, back on the mountain bike and destroys the field at the European Championships.
Phenomenal multi bike rider.

 

[Johnny75]

Tom Pidcock, back on the mountain bike and destroys the field at the European Championships.
Phenomenal multi bike rider.

He's going to be our Wout Van Aert

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Here we go then! Three weeks of sporting awesomeness has just started. I’m in for some seriously reduced sleep between this and the cricket.

 

[jd1981]

Really enjoyed them going to the Basque region today and letting Guernica having such a pivotal part in the race considering it’s history and fair play to Ned Boulting for bringing it to everyone’s attention.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

They did exactly the same on the Oz coverage, including showing the famous Picasso and explaining the history really well.

The stage was an absolute banger. Peloton blown apart on a spiky little 2km climb and a Brit 1-2 for the Yates twins. UAE played a blinder as Vingegaard is now going to have to pay serious attention to Adam (and Simon to be fair) which takes the spotlight off Pojacar while he rides into form.

 

[jd1981]

No I’m fairly new to cycling so just getting use to the dynamics but really enjoyed yesterday. Glad broadcasters around the world picked up on the significance of the route yesterday often find the Guernica atrocity is often lost in history unless you’ve studied the Spanish civil war or have studied the arts off Picasso.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Because you have several hours of coverage to fill it’s not unusual for the broadcasters to talk about the area being ridden through. It’s a nice part of the show, but they really went into Guernica in quite a bit of detail here in Oz.

I’m expecting fewer fireworks today but the last climb is a bit of a Dennis Wise* so we could see some fun there.


* short nasty fucker

 

[Mel Evo]

Because you have several hours of coverage to fill it’s not unusual for the broadcasters to talk about the area being ridden through. It’s a nice part of the show, but they really went into Guernica in quite a bit of detail here in Oz.

I’m expecting fewer fireworks today but the last climb is a bit of a Dennis Wise* so we could see some fun there.


* short nasty fucker

Seizing the chance to be a forum ITK here… Not knowing it’s cycling credentials I parked up my campervan at the foot of this climb last summer and took the dog for a ‘quick walk’ up it. So, I can confirm it is indeed nasty, and also a really, really, stupid place to try and walk a dog. Great campsite bar though.

 

[jd1981]

Just so I’m clear laugh if you want Tete de La course is the leaders, Peloton is the chasing pack. I know yellow jersey is race leader, Polka dots is king of the peaks not sure on the green.

 

[Johnny75]

Just so I’m clear laugh if you want Tete de La course is the leaders, Peloton is the chasing pack. I know yellow jersey is race leader, Polka dots is king of the peaks not sure on the green.

Green is the leading Sprinter.

White is the leading young rider (U25)

Head of the course is the leading rider on the stage.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Lantern rouge is the rider in last place overall.

Gruppetto is the pack formed by the sprinters on mountain stages to try and ensure they get in to the finish before the time limit (usually between 5 and 10% extra on top of the winners time for the day.

Back in the day there used to be a wagon with a broom mounted on it that would drive at the pace to arrive at the cut off point and if it overtook a rider they were swept up and had to abandon. I don’t think they do that any more.

Look out each day for a rider with his number in gold. This used to be white numbers on a red background but the sponsor has changed this year so the colours are different. This means the rider was awarded the most combative rider award the day before.

Anything else I can think of over the race I will let you know.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Today I imagine the most combative holder is Powless and he is in Polka dot and in the break so should be easy to spot.