One of the World’s greatest sporting spectacles starts Saturday. 21 stages over three weeks, covering 3500km, the Tour De France kicks off (unusually) in Brittany with the Massif Central, Alps and Pyrenees to come. British hopes for overall victory lie with Geraint Thomas, with a revitalised Mark Cavendish in with a realistic chance of adding to his 30? Stage wins. You can marvel at the contest and the scenery on ITV 4 everyday for the whole stage. Stage by stage guide. https://road.cc/content/feature/tour-de-france-2021-stage-stage-preview-284245?amp Competitors https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/tour-de-france/2021/startlist Fishal site https://www.letour.fr/en/
I have to admit I don’t really get cycling, especially the long distance variety. But for those who do: enjoy.
For those who do, it’s an intriguing, complex team sport, with spills and thrills all played out over fantastic backdrops.
Stage one is a long hilly up and down affair with a short climb at the end. Current betting is Matthieu Van Der Pol 2-1 Wout Van Aert 6-1 Julian Alaphilippe 13-2 It may play out a bit like this finish earlier in the year.
UAE have a strong squad - hopefully Marc Hirschi will produce some performances like he did last year when with SunWeb, if allowed a break from supporting Pogacar
Yes, they have. Hirschi was great last year, but he’s been a bit underwhelming in 2021. Probably because he’s playing a supporting role and then when he’s not he’s a marked man. No one is going to let him get up the road.
From when I started getting into it... Looking at the bikes in the outro segment, this is from when road bikes still had shifters on the downtubes.
Yes and when the thickness of a cyclist’s mullet was all there was between them and a serious head injury.
Talking of which, as the roll-out approaches, I’m mostly hoping for a safe race. Road racing is silly level dangerous in many instances and although (following the awful Tour of Poland crash) the UCI have introduced further safety measures, the ultra competitiveness and fitness of riders means ever faster races and more risk taking. A big problem is road layout. The mitigation for street furniture is often insufficient or amateurish, like a steward waving a flag. It’s also fundamentally nuts to descend a mountain in excess of 100 kmph on a machine with 23-25mm of contact with the road. The road furniture problem was brutally illustrated by the crash that took Mikkel Landa out of the Giro D’Italia. Got to do better. From about 1.20.
I remember Cav smashing into a traffic island around 10k from the end of a Milan-San Remo... imagine being in contention to win a ~300km monument and having that happen. They're a tough bunch...
Oh FFS. Spoiler Crash as mad a bag of cats https://twitter.com/CyclingWiz/status/1408791025603198987?s=20
TBF serious incidents on descents are fairly few and far between. My best ever indicated speed on a non-powered 2 wheeler was 106kph coming down the Malaucene side of Mt Ventoux. As a motorcyclist it wasn't that scary; mind you it was on a hybrid with road bike wheels, so the v-brakes were a bit more confidence inspiring than the old calipers or cantis.
Wide roads help. You can be going really fast downhill without noticing just how fast until you get to some bends or a narrower lane.
Mayhem. Maybe 2/3rds of the riders involved in crashes today. Maybe should use the spoiler code for results as some will watch the highlights?
Brittany beaches looking luvverly as they get going on Stage 2. I can't believe MVDP will allow himself to be so out of position today, so he's my choice.
If you find cycling boring you’re in luck as I have some good advice for you. Don’t watch it and don’t be a bore on this thread.
That would be the sporting highlight of the Summer for me, but can't see it unfortunately. Caleb Ewan is probably the fastest guy in the race...
Yes and his lead out looks spot on. It’s a straight run in though, so maybe one for a bigger rider with more horsepower, like Demare. It should be exciting though as there are so many good sprinters and it’s possible that Bora will try to make it tough to drop a few along the way. Thunder and lightning also forecast just to spice it up a bit.
Within the first hour, Geraint Thomas down with a dislocated shoulder. Team osteopath in the team car has popped it back in on the roadside and he's riding to get back to the main group. Mental.
The effort is a bit mental. It always makes me laugh that after a 200km+ stage the best riders get back on the exercise bike right after to 'warm down' or, if the pace has been moderate, to have a bit of extra exercise.
No tears about that TBH. We had Ratcliffe and his entourage doing La Marmotte with us back in 2009 or thereabouts. Peak 'don't you know who I am?'.
