2017 Tour de France

[scomac2002]

The past two stages have seen the peloton traverse across the rugged beauty of the Central Massif as they make their way to the Alps for the final week. Lots can and usually does happen during stages in this particular part of the race, While we've seen some shuffling in the GC, Froome has regained the yellow jersey largely on experience and the strength of his team rather than his own form. At this point of the race it is more often about protecting what you've achieved than it is about being bold which I find to be a major drawback from a spectator's perspective particularly when the leader has a penultimate stage time trial in his back pocket to pad or regain a lead with. Even though this is the closest Tour in many years, things seem to be pretty much sorted by my accounting. Sickness or a crash can always happen, but by now those with winning form are evident to the observer and reflected in the current results.

[dan360]

The past two stages have seen the peloton traverse across the rugged beauty of the Central Massif as they make their way to the Alps for the final week. Lots can and usually does happen during stages in this particular part of the race, While we've seen some shuffling in the GC, Froome has regained the yellow jersey largely on experience and the strength of his team rather than his own form. At this point of the race it is more often about protecting what you've achieved than it is about being bold which I find to be a major drawback from a spectator's perspective particularly when the leader has a penultimate stage time trial in his back pocket to pad or regain a lead with. Even though this is the closest Tour in many years, things seem to be pretty much sorted by my accounting. Sickness or a crash can always happen, but by now those with winning form are evident to the observer and reflected in the current results.

 

I enjoy your writing style.

 

 

 

[scomac2002]

Thanks dan360!

 

:wave:

[thug the bunny]

I'll admit I have only been actively following the TDF for a couple years now that they televise the whole thing, although I have been into road riding since I was a teen, and always followed only after the fact on sports news. Now that I (somewhat) understand the structure of assigning finishing times, I have to wonder why they don't use real actual finishing times rather than the gap/group times, wherein the whole peloton usually gets the same time. They have technology now to determine real times. What would happen if they switched to this method?

[dan360]

I'll admit I have only been actively following the TDF for a couple years now that they televise the whole thing, although I have been into road riding since I was a teen, and always followed only after the fact on sports news. Now that I (somewhat) understand the structure of assigning finishing times, I have to wonder why they don't use real actual finishing times rather than the gap/group times, wherein the whole peloton usually gets the same time. They have technology now to determine real times. What would happen if they switched to this method?

 

You would hear a metric crap ton of complaining about teams blocking, purposely holding up other teams, etc etc etc.

 

It's hard to pass and make up time in the "pack".

[scomac2002]

I'll admit I have only been actively following the TDF for a couple years now that they televise the whole thing, although I have been into road riding since I was a teen, and always followed only after the fact on sports news. Now that I (somewhat) understand the structure of assigning finishing times, I have to wonder why they don't use real actual finishing times rather than the gap/group times, wherein the whole peloton usually gets the same time. They have technology now to determine real times. What would happen if they switched to this method?

 

You would hear a metric crap ton of complaining about teams blocking, purposely holding up other teams, etc etc etc.

 

It's hard to pass and make up time in the "pack".

 

Yup. It would be chaos. It's bad enough now with everyone fighting to be in the top 25 during the first week of a grand tour to ensure they don't lose on a time gap in a sprint finish. If you think there are a lot of crashes now it would go up by a factor of ten if we had individual timing. You can't physically accommodate 200 riders at the front on narrow European roads with the typical amount of road furniture.

[dan360]

 

Nobody wants to see that

[thug the bunny]

Thanks guys. I pretty much thought as much. Group times smoothes things out but also makes the winner a done deal way before the end sometimes as long as a team can monitor where the closest challengers are and keep their guy close or ahead.

[thug the bunny]

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Nobody wants to see that

 

Um, sorry, but those were hilarious (except for the rider getting thrown off the bridge - that guy should have been arrested for attempted murder). Skinny little boy arms flailing around. I thought Richie Porte was going to go after Sagan after being elbowed into the barrier.

[scomac2002]

You're never sure what you're going to get coming out of a rest day particularly when faced with a short sharp climb right off the hop! Who will have the sans jour and how will that impact the race? A transition stage that traversed the Ardeche and then followed the Rhone valley resplendent with the calling card sunflowers, terraced vinyards and ripened wheat fields. It would prove to be a day for the hard men, the classics specialists who had earned their stripes racing the bergs in northern Belgium.

 

It didn't take long for the fireworks to begin, but it wasn't amongst the GC riders, but rather a battle for the green jersey as Marcel Kittel had been dropped on the first climb and was already down by a minute when the peloton had crested the first climb. That immediately sent team Sun Web to the front who put the hammer down and raced the remaining 120+ km at full gas. Things really got interesting when the Mistral crosswinds hit and blew the peloton to bits into echelons all over the road. It made for great viewing to watch the team tactics unfold on the fly so-to-speak.

 

The result was another photo-finish earning Michael Mathews his second stage win on consecutive stages none-the-less. There were time gaps all over the place for those unfortunate enough to miss the splits in the crosswinds. With two mountain stages on tap for the next two days one wonders how many got caught napping whilst trying to save energy for the up coming tests. All-in-all a great stage to watch and one of the best at this year's edition of the Tour.

[dan360]

TL;DR. Froome still in yellow.

 

just messin'. :)

[TheyCallMeVinnie]

Bike racer until the day I die (going on 20+ yrs living the dream) but man, this years race is so boring. I dont know why but I cant get into it.

 

Id rather watch 3 weeks of Roubaix or any of the spring classics over these monotonous stage races.

[scomac2002]

Bike racer until the day I die (going on 20+ yrs living the dream) but man, this years race is so boring. I dont know why but I cant get into it.

 

Id rather watch 3 weeks of Roubaix or any of the spring classics over these monotonous stage races.

 

There's definitely more action in the spring classics plus you get the wildcard of the weather factoring in. I have always figured that the Tour was the least exciting of the three grand tours due to the set-piece stages and the strength of certain teams in being able to control events. Team Sky is just the present day version of US Postal/Discovery Channel.

 

Conversely, the Vuelta is generally the most unpredictable and therefore most exciting. The big names tend to be in less than optimal form due to it being at the end of the season plus you get a lot of newer riders in their first grand tour, so team strength isn't at the same level. As a result, it is generally the best one to watch. I still think that Chris Horner's victory in the Vuelta at the age of 41 is still the highlight for me in terms of results in the years that I've been watching professional road cycling!

[scomac2002]

It will be interesting to see if Quick Step can ferry Kittel through the remaining mountain stages to get to Paris under the time cut in order to have a shot at the green jersey. He's never completed a grand tour yet and this maybe his one chance to win the points jersey with Sagan having been eliminated.

 

That didn't pan out either...

 

Not only is Kittel a poor climber, but he's is apparently an even worse descender as he crashed out today coming down the Col de la Croix de Fer essentially handing the green jersey to Michael Matthews of Sunweb providing a similar fate doesn't await him!

 

The big winner of the day was Primoz Roglic of Team Lotto Jumbo (Dutch) who prevailed from the breakaway. There hasn't been much success this year for breakaway riders, so it's always good when one gets a result.

 

The GC guys tested one another out, but not much was decided as any move was marked by the main protagonists. The loser on the day from the GC was Aru who got dropped on the Galibier. There are still three within a minute of Froome, but he is in a very comfortable position with a summit finish on tap tomorrow on the Col d'Izoard followed by Saturday's time trial of which he will be favoured.

 

Perhaps the feel good story of this year's Tour is Warren Barguil who sewed up the polka-dot jersey (mountains classification) today and has worked his way into the top ten. Team Sunweb is having quite the year with Tom Doumolin winning the Giro; add to that both the green and polka-dot jerseys at the Tour currently in hand!