Giro d'Italia / Tour de France

[Tom Hark]

Cav doing another season - he'll be in the Tour next year.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/66786721

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Astana are putting together an insane lead out train for him

 

[machin05]

Why, yes. Yes it is.....

 

[Dire Wolf]

Cavendish struggling on the opening stage of the Tour de France. Fallen off the back of the Peloton, seems to be not coping with the heat.

 

[Kenny]

I am no fan of cycling and all I can think of here before the final sprint is "fucking get out of my way, christ learn about personal space. Jeremy Vine would be raging at this shit"

How does that not turn into just a pile of limbs and bike parts!!

Anyway, well done Mark I guess...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1808526474778980617

 

[machin05]

Absolute GOAT

From blowing out his arse and throwing up on the bike struggling to finish stage one before cut off to this is just incredible. Unrivalled desire, effort and talent.

 

[Mel Evo]

Just watched the highlights. Amazing really. Obviously Cav hasn’t endeared himself to everyone at various times in his career. What he has done is quite astonishing though. The way he manoeuvres in that finish and then to have the raw speed is breathtaking. It’s a real sporting landmark.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

The sprinters are absolute loons. Looks like it should end up as carnage every time.

Mind you Pojacar descending the Galibier two days ago was hide behind the sofa stuff too

 

[Tredman]

New one on me, seems very dangerous

Leaders scrutinised as carbon monoxide tests unsettle Tour de France — The Times and The Sunday Times

There has been a strange tempo to this year’s Tour de France. The race moves from the sublime to the serene and then back again. Brilliant days in the mountains followed by days where everything is controlled for the fast finishers. Long before the 150-rider pack got to Nîmes at the end of the...

apple.news

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Unfortunately the article is behind a paywall so I can only look at the three lines in your post.

Looking at those three lines, it is clearly written by someone who has never watched a three week grand tour. The "strange" tempo to which he refers is entirely normal and has been for every grand tour I have watched, and I have been watching since 1984.

The reason you have serene days that end in a sprint is because the terrain doesn't suit a general classification punch up, and the chances of gaining time are pretty insignificant. So all the GC domestiques have the day off and leave it to the sprint teams to catch the breakaway as they are the teams actively targeting the daily prize. This doesn't happen in the mountains as the sprinters shoot out the back as soon as it goes uphill, which leaves a GC scrap, and with more of an opportunity as you can gain minutes on a big mountain stage. So you don't waste energy after maybe a second on a sprint stage.

 

[Johnny75]

Unfortunately the article is behind a paywall so I can only look at the three lines in your post.

Looking at those three lines, it is clearly written by someone who has never watched a three week grand tour. The "strange" tempo to which he refers is entirely normal and has been for every grand tour I have watched, and I have been watching since 1984.

The reason you have serene days that end in a sprint is because the terrain doesn't suit a general classification punch up, and the chances of gaining time are pretty insignificant. So all the GC domestiques have the day off and leave it to the sprint teams to catch the breakaway as they are the teams actively targeting the daily prize. This doesn't happen in the mountains as the sprinters shoot out the back as soon as it goes uphill, which leaves a GC scrap, and with more of an opportunity as you can gain minutes on a big mountain stage. So you don't waste energy after maybe a second on a sprint stage.

That's not what the article is about.

 

[Tredman]

Unfortunately the article is behind a paywall so I can only look at the three lines in your post.

Looking at those three lines, it is clearly written by someone who has never watched a three week grand tour. The "strange" tempo to which he refers is entirely normal and has been for every grand tour I have watched, and I have been watching since 1984.

The reason you have serene days that end in a sprint is because the terrain doesn't suit a general classification punch up, and the chances of gaining time are pretty insignificant. So all the GC domestiques have the day off and leave it to the sprint teams to catch the breakaway as they are the teams actively targeting the daily prize. This doesn't happen in the mountains as the sprinters shoot out the back as soon as it goes uphill, which leaves a GC scrap, and with more of an opportunity as you can gain minutes on a big mountain stage. So you don't waste energy after maybe a second on a sprint stage.

It’s written by David Walsh. You know the Lance Armstrong guy.

 

[BillyDee]

I've seen talk of the use of carbon rebreathers, but not how or why they are used. The only thing I can think of is as a form of resistance training? But I can't see how that would be an issue?

 

[Johnny75]

New one on me, seems very dangerous

Leaders scrutinised as carbon monoxide tests unsettle Tour de France — The Times and The Sunday Times

There has been a strange tempo to this year’s Tour de France. The race moves from the sublime to the serene and then back again. Brilliant days in the mountains followed by days where everything is controlled for the fast finishers. Long before the 150-rider pack got to Nîmes at the end of the...

apple.news

It does, undoubtedly dangerous to cause hypoxia but more than that it's literally carcinogenic.

 

[Tredman]

I've seen talk of the use of carbon rebreathers, but not how or why they are used. The only thing I can think of is as a form of resistance training? But I can't see how that would be an issue?

The gist of the article is it promotes additional red blood cell growth which in turn aids endurance.

 

[Johnny75]

I've seen talk of the use of carbon rebreathers, but not how or why they are used. The only thing I can think of is as a form of resistance training? But I can't see how that would be an issue?

If you starve the body of oxygen the literal response is to produce red blood cells. Essentially you could altitude train everyday and keep your red blood cells count unnaturally high.

 

[BillyDee]

Gotcha, that makes sense.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

As I can't read the rest of the article you will have to enlighten me on what it says to make informed comment, but the three lines I can see suggest either a complete lack of knowledge of how a tour works or dressing it up as strange to hang the story on.

If the carbon rebreathers are an issue, then fine, say so. But the lines written that I can see there are adding nothing whatsoever.

Okay so intervening posts give me a bit more, and I get the idea of it being a way to improve red blood cell count. I stand to be corrected, but didn't EPO do that?

Sounds like this a way to get a similar effect with ingesting or injecting a drug. And presumably impossible to police as you could argue the carbon monoxide is getting there during a race from following the motorcycles and tour cars?

 

[Johnny75]

As I can't read the rest of the article you will have to enlighten me on what it says to make informed comment, but the three lines I can see suggest either a complete lack of knowledge of how a tour works or dressing it up as strange to hang the story on.

If the carbon rebreathers are an issue, then fine, say so. But the lines written that I can see there are adding nothing whatsoever.

Might want to take that down a notch.

May I suggest you register on the website you get so many articles for free, read it and then comment.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

I have edited my post which as you say takes it down a notch.

I don't use paywall sites at all. Just a stance I have.