Author Topic: Tour de France 2018  (Read 133830 times)

SoreTween

  • Most of me survived the Pennine Bridleway.
Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #850 on: 26 July, 2018, 01:05:02 pm »
Are FrogPlod holding a fuckwit of the year contest? Never mind who yesterday's contestant pulled down, pulling a rider off a moving bike is never going to be safe. Can you imagine the risk analysis in planning that method of dealing with spectidiots?
2023 targets: Survive. Maybe.
There is only one infinite resource in this universe; human stupidity.

Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #851 on: 26 July, 2018, 01:16:43 pm »
It's probably a cultural thing. :demon:

"He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." ~ Freidrich Neitzsche

Mr Larrington

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Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #852 on: 26 July, 2018, 02:03:15 pm »
This one is looking like an epic snoozefest unless les paysans decide to kick off again.  Sole excitement so far has been Lawson Craddock, of all people, trying it on.
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Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #853 on: 26 July, 2018, 02:03:32 pm »
Sure, but the likes of Indurain and Anquetil didn't gain time on the climbers in the mountains. Typically they hung on as best they could and then destroyed them in the TTs.

Look up the 1991 stage to Alpe d'Huez on Youtube. Indurain and Bugno dropped all the pure climbers, and only Luc Leblanc could hold on to their wheels. Bugno won the stage by a second or two but only because he was a better sprinter than Indurain.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #854 on: 26 July, 2018, 02:07:32 pm »
You can hardly complain that Thomas is taking road stages.

In most of the 90s Tours there was a prologue, Team TT and 2 individual TTs to go at. This year it's a Team TT, and a hilly 32km TT, designed to disadvantage pure testers. So the GC contenders are going to have to win road stages.

Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #855 on: 26 July, 2018, 02:25:25 pm »
This one is looking like an epic snoozefest unless les paysans decide to kick off again.  Sole excitement so far has been Lawson Craddock, of all people, trying it on.

With a 14-minute lead in the lanterne rouge competition, he left it a bit late to try to move down the order...  :demon:

You'd think that riders would have learned about the futility of biding their time by now.  ;)
"He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." ~ Freidrich Neitzsche

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #856 on: 26 July, 2018, 02:43:21 pm »
Oops. Quintana, Yates et al. Q. bashed elbow/shoulder.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #857 on: 26 July, 2018, 02:46:05 pm »
What was the rationale for this 'rest' day, why not just three full on climbing stages?
Cycle and recycle.   SS Wilson

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #858 on: 26 July, 2018, 02:50:29 pm »
At a guess, so as not to eliminate all the sprinters, or at least to prolong the agony.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

LittleWheelsandBig

  • Whimsy Rider
Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #859 on: 26 July, 2018, 02:52:18 pm »
Because not all TdF riders are climbers and a variety of stage winners is a good thing. Because mountain towns don't have to pay very much to host a stage start or finish but other parts of the country have to pay quite a bit. Because the GC blokes will take an unofficial rest day anyway if there are too many mountain stages in a row.
Wheel meet again, don't know where, don't know when...

Mr Larrington

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Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #860 on: 26 July, 2018, 02:54:02 pm »
More birdwatching brilliance from *** as he starts babbling about storks while we look at a pair of herons :facepalm:
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #861 on: 26 July, 2018, 02:59:32 pm »
You can hardly complain that Thomas is taking road stages.

In most of the 90s Tours there was a prologue, Team TT and 2 individual TTs to go at. This year it's a Team TT, and a hilly 32km TT, designed to disadvantage pure testers. So the GC contenders are going to have to win road stages.

I'm not complaining.  I was just responding to your observation:
Quote
Very few of the podiums have consisted of people I wouldn't think of as too thin, or too musclebound. The Arras/Roubaix stage was the exception, and that had other freakish elements in it.

I don't see how people can complain about the extreme physiques of the GC riders and  then enthuse about freak-shows such as yesterday. TTs are one leveller, but those aren't dramatic enough for casual viewers.

And pointing out that even in a tour with little to no TTing, it's the bigger, TT style riders who are on the podium, which I find a bit strange. Is it just because they are sooo thin now (when compared to 20 years ago)? What sort of parcours would you need to get the likes of Quintana to win on GC?

Mr Larrington

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Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #862 on: 26 July, 2018, 03:16:25 pm »
Just looking at the front of the pelican.  Is Jhon Darwin Atapuma really only three and a half feet tall?
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Beardy

  • Shedist
Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #863 on: 26 July, 2018, 03:18:51 pm »
More birdwatching brilliance from *** as he starts babbling about storks while we look at a pair of herons :facepalm:
I saw that and thought it was a shame that they weren’t Pelicans  ;D
For every complex problem in the world, there is a simple and easily understood solution that’s wrong.

Mr Larrington

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Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #864 on: 26 July, 2018, 03:40:32 pm »
There is a shitvert doing the rounds for a company which has a pelican for a logo.  This is a measure of the excitement generated by this stage.

Edit: Royal London
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Beardy

  • Shedist
Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #865 on: 26 July, 2018, 03:47:52 pm »
And as if by magic I look up from the last post to see the advert in question on the screen. I’ve not noticed it before.
This is the twilight zone....
For every complex problem in the world, there is a simple and easily understood solution that’s wrong.

Mr Larrington

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Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #866 on: 26 July, 2018, 04:00:11 pm »
M Cavendish is on the phone. He claims he's been "training" since leaving the Tour.  I think he's using the BHPC definition of "training" viz. "riding to the pub".
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

cygnet

  • I'm part of the association
Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #867 on: 26 July, 2018, 04:25:49 pm »
Think he may be trying to win the sprint on the Mall to take his mind off missing the sprint on the Champs.
I Said, I've Got A Big Stick

mattc

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Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #868 on: 26 July, 2018, 04:33:13 pm »
Lots of pro riders climb on the tops. I think it depends on how spinny you are at that point - if you are pulling on the bars then you need more leverage, but if your upper body is relaxed then you can hold on wherever (or not if you are Egan Bernal!).
The exact opposite being Dan Martin. unusually for a "flea-like" climber, he has a very stampy style when seated, with quite a low cadence. It looks almost - ALMOST - as inelegant as Froome's style. IMO of course!
Has never ridden RAAM
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T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #869 on: 26 July, 2018, 04:35:39 pm »
Are we nearly there yet?
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #870 on: 26 July, 2018, 05:04:44 pm »

One of the main English language ways I follow the tour, aside from on here, is the 5 live bespoke podcast.

But they keep saying something that is bugging me, and I am wondering what the jury think.

The podcasters keep saying tour de frances. Surely as there is only one France, and that there are multiple tours, that it should be Tours de France? Same as it's Surgeons general, or Attorneys general...

What does the jury think?

J
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Mr Larrington

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Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #871 on: 26 July, 2018, 05:16:08 pm »
This has been remarked upon before.  Anyone speaking of "Tour De Frances" had better mend their ways the day after I lead the Panzers down Whitehall.

Did Super D just describe the Tourmalet as a legendary crime?
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #872 on: 26 July, 2018, 05:23:02 pm »
He's read the Graun's horrid headline about Froome's Climb & Punishment.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #873 on: 26 July, 2018, 05:32:58 pm »
Anyone speaking of "Tour De Frances" had better mend their ways the day after I lead the Panzers down Whitehall.

Frances de la Tour, on the other hand...
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Re: Tour de France 2018
« Reply #874 on: 26 July, 2018, 05:37:37 pm »
Don't have my copy of Steven Pinker's Language Instinct to hand, but pretty sure Tour de Frances is correct, as 'Tour de France' is the single entity you are making plural. It's similar to why we say Mickey Mouses (if you saw two at Disney, say) rather than Mickey Mice.
“That slope may look insignificant, but it's going to be my destiny" - Fitzcarraldo