TdeF 2016 (Contains spoilers)

[Jaded]

*** Boulting:

Ooh look! Sylvain ["Poisonous Term" - Ed.]anel! And now a 16' tall psychedelic wol will talk to u about pensions!

teh win 

[T42]

This thread was more fun than the race. Thx all.

[Veloman]

A great result for Froome, Team Sky, GB and cycling.  An eventful race and if the finger of boredom is pointed, then why not point it at the inevitability of Sagan winning Green for the 5th consecutive year.  May be raw talent, or may just be the way the points are distributed compared.  (That said, I think Sagan is a great rider and talent and thoroughly enjoy watching him)

[Mr Larrington]

I found the race interesting enough even if the GC was rarely in doubt from the moment C Froome took the yellow tunic jersey.  They threw in enough flatter stages later in the race to keep the sprinters happy and the likes of de Gendt, Majka, Alaphilippe, Jarlinsson Pantano et al, not to mention the antics of Crazy P Sagan, kept this unsophisticated punter happy.  Not enough Little Tommy Voeckler^TM gurning away on futile breaks this year but I suppose the lad's entitled to a quiet Tour once in a while.  Or he's getting Too Old For That Kind Of Thing

And as a bonus we BRITONS had commentators rather than colemantators this year; from the noises *** was making during last night's highlights I'm guessing that he and Super D Millar are going to be asked back

[T42]

Would have been better for me if I hadn't missed the best part of every afternoon from 7th July on.  I think I saw the end of just one mountain stage, and two or three sprint finishes.  Nice seeing Cav knocking off n°30, more pleasing even than Froome getting n°3, which felt like a done deal as soon as he got yellow.  Very pleased at Bardet's stage win/2nd place.  It'd be great if he could improve on that next year, but I'm not holding my breath.

Apart from mountain finishes, the stages I like best are the ones where the échappée keeps its shit together and doesn't degenerate into a suicidal game of "after you Cecil" 2k out, but makes it home to an honest 100m sprint just in front of the ravening horde peloton. You can go for years without seeing it happen, but it's great when it does.

Little Mr Voeckler comes from just up the road from here, something of a local darling. Kinda surprising that he's 37 already - it's only 5 minutes since he first put on the yellow jersey in 2004. Hardly saw him this time around.

[Karla]

Can they change the green jersey back to a proper sprinting contest, so Peter Sagan doesn't win it so much?

[Mr Larrington]

Can they change the green jersey back to a proper sprinting contest, so Peter Sagan doesn't win it so much?

Or reintroduce the red jersey (to howls of anguish from Katusha and Lotto-Soudal)?

[T42]

[mrcharly-YHT]

I've just watched the post finish interview on the BBC with froome.

What was it people said about him?
"Can't handle a bike" descends crouched on the top tube at 110kph

"No character" Punches out moron spectator who nearly caused a crash, runs up a mountain after his bike is broken.

"Humourless, doesn't talk to press"

"It was amazing to win, just as special as the first time, the beers are definitely on me tonight"

I think the detractors can just eff off.

[citoyen]

You forgot:

"just sits on the Sky train all day" - jumps on to Sagan's wheel for the utterly brilliant sight of the green and yellow jersey jointly putting the whole race to the sword on a stage that was supposed to be flat and boring.

[trekker12]

Can they change the green jersey back to a proper sprinting contest, so Peter Sagan doesn't win it so much?

Or reintroduce the red jersey (to howls of anguish from Katusha and Lotto-Soudal)?

On that note, can they do something about the yellow jerseys worn by Lotto Jumbo? ONCE always used to change to pink from their normal yellow for the tour so the point of the yellow jersey (to stand out) was upheld.

I think (according to the French) the green jersey is supposed to be about the best all-rounder rather than just sprinters. They changed it to stop M. Cavendish winning it so much IIRC.

As for the race, I thought it was great, although anyone who watches three weeks of the tour and then claims it's boring aren't cycling fans as there is always many sub-plots going on. Even if it's won by four minutes and the winner does it purely in time trials (which doesn't happen any more) Froome's performance this year was one of the best I think I've ever seen.

[Dibdib]

On that note, can they do something about the yellow jerseys worn by Lotto Jumbo? ONCE always used to change to pink from their normal yellow for the tour so the point of the yellow jersey (to stand out) was upheld.

To be fair to Lotto, they changed their kit especially for the Tour last year (white shoulders rather than yellow) and then kept a very similar kit as their "standard" kit this year. And it's still better than the mega-fluoro-yellow of Tinkoff's 2016 kit.

[T42]

I think (according to the French) the green jersey is supposed to be about the best all-rounder rather than just sprinters. They changed it to stop M. Cavendish winning it so much IIRC.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classement_par_points_du_Tour_de_France#Bar.C3.A8mes

[Mr Larrington]

They binned the maillot rouge in 1989.  There's probably a case to be made for separating intermediate "sprints" from stage finishes, though Crazy P Sagan already has more jerseys than he can possibly wear anyway.  I had a bit of trouble distinguishing the Cannondale mob from the maillot vert in the overhead shots - yesterday I thought Sagan was on the front coming off the final right-hander until he popped up on Greipel's wheel.

[citoyen]

They changed it to stop M. Cavendish winning it so much IIRC.

Exactly the opposite - they changed it to help Cav win it. And even then he's only won it once.

The changes were dropping some of the intermediate sprints and weighting the points more to the finish, so in theory it should have favoured more of a 'pure' sprinter, but Sagan is able to hoover up points on all kinds of stages because he's a good enough sprinter to be pretty much guaranteed a top five place on most stages, as well as being a breakaway specialist and a puncheur all rolled into one. Not a bad climber either.

[bobb]

I reckon if you took away all intermediate sprint points from this year's race, Sagan would still have won it....

[Mr Larrington]

Someone with way too much time on their hands has probably already calculated it

[citoyen]

Doesn't take much working out - even if he'd won every intermediate sprint, that would have added up to 180 points, but his margin over M Kitteh in second place was something like 240 points.

[Nuncio]

jumps on to Sagan's wheel for the utterly brilliant sight of the green and yellow jersey jointly putting the whole race to the sword on a stage that was supposed to be flat and boring.

My favourite bit of the tour in which there were a lot of interesting things happening but where the TT made the biggest difference. I just felt it lacked one, long, mountain top finish, with all the GC contenders fighting it out for the stage win and big time gaps ie what might have been had the Ventoux stage not been curtailed.

[Exit Stage Left]

The most interesting aspect of the Tour was the Olympics. It was assumed that Sky would have the whip hand in the GBR team, but Cummings and Yates have posed some interesting questions. Gold for Geraint Thomas would be compensation for toeing the Sky line, but that's not now as likely as it was.

[T42]

Doesn't take much working out - even if he'd won every intermediate sprint, that would have added up to 180 points, but his margin over M Kitteh in second place was something like 240 points.

Someone should inform Marcel of the correct way to spell his name.

[pcolbeck]

Looking at the weather details for Ventoux I am surprised they haven't had to abort the climb before the summit more often. The wind at the summit tops 90kmph on 240 days a year on average !

[Andrew]

The interest for me this year was outside of the 'battle' for yellow - because there wasn't one, the GC was about 2nd place. Yates and Bardet (in particular) made it for me, as Quintana just didn't really happen.

There were some cracking sprints, it was great to see Cavendish's return to form. Sagan really is on helluva of a bike rider and deserves a jersey simply for turning up. For me, he is the type of rider the green jersey was intended for.   

I wonder if a rule change for next year might be to exempt Sky from having to turn up. Just award Froome yellow and be done with it. Or make them ride tricycles or something. Anything to make for a more open competition.

[T42]

Looking at the weather details for Ventoux I am surprised they haven't had to abort the climb before the summit more often. The wind at the summit tops 90kmph on 240 days a year on average !

As you do the C-R => summit bit you go through the Col des Tempêtes.  I've never been there during one, though - must be fun.  I have "ridden" through the Corbières in 90 kph wind, if you can call it riding when you have your bum in the saddle and both toes on the ground. Mildly terrifying.

[T42]

The interest for me this year was outside of the 'battle' for yellow - because there wasn't one, the GC was about 2nd place. Yates and Bardet (in particular) made it for me, as Quintana just didn't really happen.

There were some cracking sprints, it was great to see Cavendish's return to form. Sagan really is on helluva of a bike rider and deserves a jersey simply for turning up. For me, he is the type of rider the green jersey was intended for.   

I wonder if a rule change for next year might be to exempt Sky from having to turn up. Just award Froome yellow and be done with it. Or make them ride tricycles or something. Anything to make for a more open competition.

Yeah. Froome had a lid on it from early on and everyone seemed to accept that, esp. with Contador DNFing. WRT Sky & C° they could simply ban cash-doping slap a lid on team budgets: the good riders would still be good but their back-up wouldn't be so efficient.  Dunno what the English equivalent is, but here they speak of someone riding/winning dans un fauteil, meaning either easily on his own merits or by riding most of the way behind a strong team. Eliminating the deluxe upholstery would liven things up a bit.

Probably knotty to implement and would probably penalize a good number of riders, though.