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Author Topic: Tour de France 2018  (Read 135070 times)

Mr Larrington

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Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #600 on: 21 July, 2018, 01:32:04 pm »
Definitely going back to that bit of the Ardèche once the furore about Brexit has died down.
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mattc

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Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #601 on: 21 July, 2018, 01:44:35 pm »
Quote from: quixoticgeek on 20 July, 2018, 04:27:33 pm
Today's theory.

Sky want Thomas in yellow because that way he does all the media stuff, saving Froome. Froome has to be ahead of Demoulin if he is to be able to resist the time trial on stage 20. But if he's in Yellow, it's a. Lot harder cos of the media obligations. So Thomas does his duty, does his days in Yellow. And in so doing he protects Froome. Add this to the stuff previously said about stage 17. Froome is still sky's number 1.

I hadn't considered the media circus angle! Makes perfect sense.

But IMHO it's more likely to be that G wanted the glory of the stage wins and the Yellow Jumpers - just as any bike racer would.
- He's PROBABLY still the loyal No2; in which case he is grabbing glory+fun while he's allowed.
- If he ISNT loyal, then he's being sneaky and grabbing as many seconds as he can get away with before Froome+Brailsford start letting his tyres down.

This is shaping up to be good fun - it may rival the Hinault-vs-Lemond battle :)
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Samuel D

Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #602 on: 21 July, 2018, 02:05:10 pm »
Quote from: mattc on 21 July, 2018, 01:44:35 pm
If he ISNT loyal, then he's being sneaky and grabbing as many seconds as he can get away with before Froome+Brailsford start letting his tyres down.

They won’t do that to him in any kind of explicit way. If Thomas can win, he will win. The question is whether he can maintain his lead through the Pyrenees. He usually has a bad day somewhere (sometimes by wrapping himself around a telegraph pole or similar), but he’s never been protected for three weeks so predictions are difficult.

Froome is hyper-competitive so he’ll race against Thomas as if against any other competitor while not holding hard feelings against him. How will Thomas react to that after sniffing a once-in-a-lifetime chance to win the Tour? Richie Porte couldn’t cope with his old friend Froome snatching victory from him in the Dauphiné, and their friendship suffered.

Hinault was as thick as two short planks and irascible to boot. It was also a different, less professional era. I highly doubt we’ll see anything like the Hinault-Lemond rivalry.
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Mr Larrington

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Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #603 on: 21 July, 2018, 02:07:00 pm »
They did note yesterday that while the rest of T $ky were all showered and in civvies at dinner, G came in halfway through the hors d'oeuvres still wearing Lycra.  Lots of extra hassle attached to the shinyjumper.
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Hot Flatus

Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #604 on: 21 July, 2018, 02:12:32 pm »
The Lemond-Hinault rivalry was different because Hinault had promised to help Lemond win....then attacked him.
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mattc

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Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #605 on: 21 July, 2018, 02:27:22 pm »
Quote from: Hot Flatus on 21 July, 2018, 02:12:32 pm
The Lemond-Hinault rivalry was different because Hinault had promised to help Lemond win....then attacked him.
It's early days yet!
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No.11  Because of the great host of those who dislike the least appearance of "swank " when they travel the roads and lanes. - From Kuklos' 39 Articles

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #606 on: 21 July, 2018, 04:58:51 pm »
Well, that was more fun than yesterday's yawn.
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Beardy

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Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #607 on: 21 July, 2018, 05:04:01 pm »
It’s going to get more funner though
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T42

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Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #608 on: 21 July, 2018, 05:29:01 pm »
Only if the guillotine was set at 15 minutes.
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Beardy

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Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #609 on: 21 July, 2018, 06:30:16 pm »
It did rather fizzle out didn’t it. Team politics would seem to be in play.
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Mr Larrington

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Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #610 on: 21 July, 2018, 06:53:01 pm »
Stage 14: Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux > Mende

(click to show/hide)
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Kim

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Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #611 on: 21 July, 2018, 07:42:05 pm »
I almost understood that one!
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Croft

Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #612 on: 21 July, 2018, 09:28:03 pm »
After the wiping out of most of the sprinters, I remain astonished by, and in awe of, Peter Sagan who seems to be able to both sprint and climb with the best of them (and a bit of an entertainer to boot)

My ignorance of professional cycling knows no bounds, but have we ever seen anyone with such talent in the last few decades?
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Peter

Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #613 on: 21 July, 2018, 09:43:28 pm »
The last few decades taes us back to Eddy.  No more to be said.
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Basil

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Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #614 on: 21 July, 2018, 09:44:48 pm »
Well, I'll start with a recent one.  More knowledgeable peeps will be along soon.
Robert McEwen?
My kids and I used to call him "de-cloak Robbie" because he always appeared out of nowhere in the last 60 metres.
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Basil

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Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #615 on: 21 July, 2018, 09:46:01 pm »
Quote from: Peter on 21 July, 2018, 09:43:28 pm
The last few decades taes us back to Eddy.  No more to be said.

True
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Torslanda

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Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #616 on: 21 July, 2018, 09:50:00 pm »
Quote from: Peter on 21 July, 2018, 09:43:28 pm
The last few decades taes us back to Eddy.  No more to be said.

Mr T. Orslanda: Beaten to it. Piss!!1!
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VELOMANCER

Quote from: trekker12 on 16 July, 2016, 08:54:33 am
Well that's the more blunt way of putting it but as usual he's dead right.

Torslanda

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Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #617 on: 21 July, 2018, 09:54:02 pm »
@ *** Boult-on, C Boardmen, Rofflemeister Imlach, SD Millar et al

Is it possible we could have some continuity with pronunctiation of riders' names?

Steven Kruijswijk appears to be at least three different riders who are the same person. See also Tom Squidge . . .
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VELOMANCER

Quote from: trekker12 on 16 July, 2016, 08:54:33 am
Well that's the more blunt way of putting it but as usual he's dead right.

Croft

Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #618 on: 21 July, 2018, 09:55:12 pm »
I used ‘last few decades’ intending to exclude Merckx. Sagan looks like quite a beefy chap (for a cyclist) so am surprised at how well he seems to be able to climb. I guess he has the advantage that not (currently) being a GC contender means he’s allowed to escape as he did today, but even so, considering how the other sprinters struggle so on these climbs he seems to have something special.
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Torslanda

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Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #619 on: 21 July, 2018, 10:12:29 pm »
See the pinned post at the top of this board

Beloki. If only he hadn't broken himself . . .
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VELOMANCER

Quote from: trekker12 on 16 July, 2016, 08:54:33 am
Well that's the more blunt way of putting it but as usual he's dead right.

Peter

Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #620 on: 21 July, 2018, 10:14:58 pm »
Can't disagree with that, Croft.  Was only saying same to Tors in the shop yestre'en.  Tors. said he would love to see Peter win a Grand Tour - and so would I, though I suspect he may be a good climber "for a sprinter" and not quite have the dancing-on-the-pedals ability of the specialist.  I think Cav. once won a "mountain" stage in the Tour Of Britain, though I'm not sure.  He could certainly climb (as they all can) when compared with a club cyclist.  But the specialists are special - though less special than Eddy!

Peter
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Nick H.

Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #621 on: 21 July, 2018, 11:01:26 pm »
Sagan's very gifted but I don't like him.
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Samuel D

Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #622 on: 21 July, 2018, 11:05:23 pm »
CP Sagan is remarkable. He can climb well as he showed today (and many other times, most clearly on stage 7 of the 2015 Tour of California; it’s worth reading the Wikipedia entries for stages 7 and 8 of this thriller if you missed it at the time).

On short climbs like today’s he is especially strong. However, today he might have passed riders in the last kilometre after the climb, while the camera was on the Basque. Sagan can really pour on the power on flats or false flats when he needs to for a short duration. His 5-minute power must be off the charts.
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citoyen

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Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #623 on: 21 July, 2018, 11:06:09 pm »
I’ve always thought Sagan is more in the mould of Sean Kelly, who was also a fearsome all-rounder and even won the Vuelta. Sagan has won more than Kelly had won by the same age, and three world championships in a row is something even Merckx never managed.

He’s certainly more versatile than Zabel, whose green jersey record he will almost certainly beat one day.

Probably won’t ever win a GT though.

The other thing that’s stopping him, aside from being too chunky for the steepest mountains, is his so-so time-trialling, though I suspect we’ve never really seen him give 100% in that discipline as there’s never been much at stake for him.
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Samuel D

Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #624 on: 21 July, 2018, 11:27:17 pm »
Yeah, Sean Kelly and CP Sagan have a lot in common on the road. Kelly had perhaps a better racing brain, although Sagan has shown much improvement in the last three years. Of course their personalities could hardly be more different.

Sagan has done well in and even won short time trials such as prologues up to about 20 minutes. I suspect he could pull a huge one-hour TT out of the bag if it was ever needed, just as he did that awesome climb in California to keep Alaphilippe in his sights for the GC. After that climb he had a wild coughing fit (exercise-induced asthma?), the likes of which I’ve never seen another time, presumably because he rarely makes that kind of sustained aerobic effort.

But Sagan is paid more than Froome – or anyone! – so probably sees little appeal to living like a monk in the mere hope he can be a grand tour GC winner (something I ultimately doubt anyway). Now that he’s finally won Paris–Roubaix I think it’s even less likely that he’ll attempt a conversion to GC rider. That Roubaix win seemed like proof of destiny to me.
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