Anybody watching the Tour de France?

I try to watch some of it, sometimes I just go straight to the highlights. I like watching Marcel Kittle, Peter Sagan, Andre Griepal, but lot of these guys are no longer competitive. I am lost on who are the riders now.

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

Tons of crashes, you oughta watch. And most of the time something's broken and the guy is out for weeks

Used to watch. But it was on a channel that we would get a channel we got on cable. It's a good way to pass a morning or see something different for the evening replay. Since nbcsn died a few years ago, and the Olympics channel then died- haven't seen any cycling on tv. Not worth getting a streaming channel for. 
 

Great for the real fans, not so much for the casual ones. 

1988RedT2 said:

budget_bandit said:

Can't fault him too much, it's a miracle he's in this Tour after that terrible crash he had descending earlier this year.

Ooooh!  There's crashes?!  I'm an avid cyclist, I do wear spandex, but I don't watch bike races.  But if there were more gnarly crashes, I bet viewership would go up!

There are a berk-load of crashes in road racing. Pretty much at least one during every stage.  Having fallen on the road a few times, it amazes me how they usually get back up and keep going... often with large patches of skin missing.  That's why I race downhill mtn bikes - it's a lot safer. 

It will be fun to see how well Pog can maintain this current pace for the entire race and if he can repeat the "try to win as much as possible" tactic he used during the Giro. 

CAVENDISH BREAKS THE RECORD! 

I have to admit, that was awesome to watch.  Old Man still has it! 

So. I was zwifting with cavendish and (400 other people). He's umm. Fast and I'm fat

Great TT today. Three (maybe 4) real contenders for the overall win in a few weeks. Evenepoel looked strong, and with a TT as the final stage this year we could have a great finale. 

I like watching the NBC Sports extended highlights in the evening. They do a pretty good job condensing all the action to 20ish minutes.

I hope it ends up being a close race for the GC. Not sure anyone else the strength or team support to really challenge Pog this year.

We get a huge up tick in spandex waring LWB riders during the TDF. I will say the 99 percent of them are fine. Single riders or small groups are fine but a pack of 20 or 30 is crazy. I mean at this point they really should have a police e s c o r t.  It is like me trying to emulate a F1 race on the streets of concord ma.  I can legally do it but should I?  Probably not.  As for 40 seconds?  What are you talking about?  It is not a time thing. It is large packs acting like ass wipes.  I was a biker and I give lots of room to bikers. but we were always taught to share the road. I don't see how a pack of bikers blocking traffic is sharing the road.  I am really surprise there are not more road rage incidents because of this.   
 

At least it is only a temporary thing in my area.  
 

Brotus7 said:

I like watching the NBC Sports extended highlights in the evening. They do a pretty good job condensing all the action to 20ish minutes.

I hope it ends up being a close race for the GC. Not sure anyone else the strength or team support to really challenge Pog this year.

I've been watching the same via Peacock. The 25-45 minute wrap up is awesome! The gravel stage was crazy! 

He's back! What a finish!

This has to be a huge mental victory for Jonas, and I can't help wonder if it will rattle Tadej...

In reply to budget_bandit :

Indeed. It seems like Tadej has relied on his raw talent for the past few races and isn't concerned about making a few tactical errors.  Losing that sprint to Jonas might knock some sense into him. 

Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to budget_bandit :

Indeed. It seems like Tadej has relied on his raw talent for the past few races and isn't concerned about making a few tactical errors.  Losing that sprint to Jonas might knock some sense into him. 

I do love the 'berk it I'm gonna race' mentality that he has, but it did bite him in the butt today.  He had 2 teammates in the lead group that he didn't even really use, for a long distance flyer over some pretty mild (for TdF standards) terrain.  It just to me felt like a high risk, low reward flyer.  

The fact that he almost went down on the descent proves that theory.  Save if for the real mountains and summit finishes... 

Get Paid, Biniam!!!  I don't think outsiders understand how monumental of an event that the first Black athlete to win 3!! stages of the Tour de France is... And unlike Phillipsen, his sprints are mostly clean, and he does it without any leadout to speak of really. 

In reply to golfduke :

I agree, that is just astounding. I'm a Jasper hater admittedly, but i feel like most of those sprinters would stand a chance to win if MVDP was their leadout man. Biniam doing this on his own is incredible!

Every single one of Jasper's sprints ends up with someone in the barriers, I feel like.  He needs gamesmanship AND MVDP to win.  There is 0% chance he could have won any of the Girmay or cavnedish wins, because he doesn't have sprint instincts IMHO.  He just wheel sucks to a world champion and bobs and weaves his way to the finish line.  It's like line blocking in nascar, only way more dangerous. 

I also LOVE how Girmay starts his sprints from wayyyy back.  He's got a little Sagan in him, I think it's now fair to say. 

Roglič abandons this morning after crashing in the last two stages. Crushing end to a decent tour performance. He was in 4th before the horrible crash yesterday. 

Really poor situation with the traffic islands on that part of the course yesterday.

In reply to hobiercr :

I agree that those islands were questionably placed. And i hate to blame Roglic for that...but the man crashes so much, at what point is it not "bad luck" and is it "he just cant stay upright"?

Same with WvA. I'd love to see him win a stage, yesterday he looked to have plenty of juice to do so, but he's always getting cut off at the barriers. At one point is it on him to position himself better?

In reply to golfduke :

Watching the leadout I was like "where is Girmay?"  He was SO far back and luckily got reconnected with his teammate who drove him up to the front. Amazing sprint. Cavendish was on his wheel but had to jump out and around another rider and lost his momentum. Wout looked crushed that he lost at the line.

In reply to budget_bandit :

The crash on the slick road is one thing. That was not paying attention. Having someone yard sale right in front of you on a sketchy turn is just bad luck.

EDIT: They replayed the crash on today's stage and I may agree with you. A lot of people stayed up while Roglič got caught trying to cut back from the outside curb with too much speed and low sided when his front tire overlapped the rider in front. Maybe his focus isn't to the level it needs to be? Tough stuff either way.

In reply to hobiercr :

i'm not exclusively talking about this Tour either. IIRC he's had like 4-5 crashes in the last races, including i think the crash that took out Jonas earlier this year (though Roglic was much less injured than Jonas)

In reply to budget_bandit :

Yeah. It seems to be a thing. Bob and Phil discuss this around the 102km to go point in today's stage.

We have on our hands a very intriguing stage today.  3 of Jonas' teammates up in the break makes for a very dangerous situation for Tadej... I wonder why they let them go...

In reply to golfduke :

Perhaps they are trying to copy UAE's strategy the other day, when Yates went out in front and then Tadej leapfrogged up and past him?

Or did you mean why did the peloton allow them to get out? I can only imagine they don't think Jonas has the legs for an attack. And to be honest, unless he has been sandbagging the last few days I don't think he does either....

Ugh, that was a rough stage. You'll get yours Matteo.