Tour de France 2018

Garden Kitty

Tranquillo
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It's not really TdF season until Tour day Schmalz posts a race preview

This Tour really has an “up for grabs” feel to it, and on paper, there’s no reason why Porte shouldn’t win. He won the Tour de Suisse. He can climb, he’s can time trial and he has a strong team, he’s backed by Tejay “Bad Day” Van Garderen, and they have a strong TTT team. It’s just that Porte has had tremendously bad luck: crashes, ill-timed punctures, running into motorcycles, he’s really done it all. If he doesn’t spontaneously combust, he has a good shot.
 

Aceon6

Wrangling the duvet into the cover
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29,788
Can’t wait. I just assume everyone’s cheating and enjoy the ride. For US folks, see you at 5 am on Saturday on NBCSN!!!
 

Theatregirl1122

Needs a nap
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30,012
I'm staying with my dad this weekend (he began my love of the tour) and he woke up with about 15K left. He was like "how is it going?" and I said "boring." Oops! Drama and time losses everywhere!
 

Aceon6

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I'm staying with my dad this weekend (he began my love of the tour) and he woke up with about 15K left. He was like "how is it going?" and I said "boring." Oops! Drama and time losses everywhere!
Turned it on too late to listen to the pre-stage summary. Did they mention Craddock’s status? Team EF will be sol in the time trial without him.
 

NinjaTurtles

No lamb chop, so don’t you fork my peas
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4,404
Just curious, why would it ever be anything but completely positive?

Doping drama leading up to the TdF. He tested last year during the Vuelta and was flagged for excessive salbutamol. The follow up PK sample wasn’t collected. Only last week did UCI make a decision and drop the case.

You don’t win as much as Froome has or have a team as wealthy as Sky without the cycling fans and reporters grumbling about cheating -fair or not.

He’s been booed at the start of both stages. Better than a couple of years ago when a spectator threw a cup of urine at him.


Anyway, happy that Sagan won today’s stage!
 

Aceon6

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So, are Gaviria and Greipel out of the tour due to today’s mash up in the sprint? Or is there some sort of other punishment. The article I read said that they were “disqualified from their places on the podium” but little else.
 

Garden Kitty

Tranquillo
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So, are Gaviria and Greipel out of the tour due to today’s mash up in the sprint? Or is there some sort of other punishment. The article I read said that they were “disqualified from their places on the podium” but little else.

I've been on vacation this past week, so I haven't been following as closely as usual. However, the typical punishment for "bad" sprinting is relegation in which they basically penalize you by moving you down the placement list for finishers, so the sprinter loses any points they may have earned on that stage (and this hurts their chance of winning the green jersey). Kicking you out of the tour typically requires something perceived as egregious. Sagan was kicked out last year for reportedly causing a collision that got Cavendish injured and out of the tour. Most people thought that punishment was unusually harsh because on review the Sagan sprint may not have seemed so bad (and a high profile rider usually gets the benefit of the doubt whether that's fair or not). Most people thought Sagan would have been simply relegated for the stage, so being kicked out was fairly surprising.

I saw some tweets from Greipel that seemed a bit annoyed but not really angry, so I suspect they were relegated for the stage (losing the points they won) and not kicked out.
 

kedrin

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1,516
Watched the cobble stage yesterday with my brother. Sorry to see Richie Porte crash out again on Stage 9, but what a great win by Degenkolb!
 

NinjaTurtles

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Watched the cobble stage yesterday with my brother. Sorry to see Richie Porte crash out again on Stage 9, but what a great win by Degenkolb!

BMC is such a mess. The second Tejay became team leader, he crashed and took himself out of the contention. I like Richie and Tejay, but it's so frustrating to watch talented cyclists struggle with mental focus/bike handling.
 

Aceon6

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BMC is such a mess. The second Tejay became team leader, he crashed and took himself out of the contention. I like Richie and Tejay, but it's so frustrating to watch talented cyclists struggle with mental focus/bike handling.
The cobbles really show who came up in the velodrome/flat road system vs. those with extensive off road experience. From what I saw, TeeJay just ran into someone. Richie’s was more his error.
 

NinjaTurtles

No lamb chop, so don’t you fork my peas
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The cobbles really show who came up in the velodrome/flat road system vs. those with extensive off road experience. From what I saw, TeeJay just ran into someone. Richie’s was more his error.

I'm being unfairly hard on Tejay out of frustration; although I do question his mental toughness when it comes to expectations and being a leader. Certainly every rider's body is tense and nervous with the cobbles.

Ochowicz's comments on Porte's injury seemed a bit cold to me. He mentioned a couple of times that it wasn't a fracture and that he'll be back on his bike in a couple of days.
 

kedrin

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1,516
I'm being unfairly hard on Tejay out of frustration; although I do question his mental toughness when it comes to expectations and being a leader.

My brother and I talked about that as we saw the Porte crash. When he crashed, my first response was: 'Already the pressure of being team leader is getting to him'. And yes, I like Tejay, too.
 

Garden Kitty

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At this point the most interesting contest is between Froome and Thomas. The personalities involved are different from Wiggins/Froome (or Hinault/Lemond!) but I still think it could get interesting. Sorry to see Nibali and Rigo both out with injuries.

Cav's fight to the finish line when he was clearly beyond the time, and his statement after that stage make me nervous that he might be retiring (or at least not planning to go back to the TdF). He hasn't said anything official, but it really seemed like he was saying goodbye in some fashion.
 

kedrin

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1,516
So many sprinters gone. I was looking forward to a green jersey fight, but you have to get to Paris to get the jersey. Now it's really Sagan against himself. The Froome / Thomas fight should be interesting. I'd kind of like to see the Giro/Tour double. So hard to do.
 

Aceon6

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The end of today’s stage was fascinating. In the end, it was Tom Dumolin who decided everything, not Froome. I hope Sagan gets to finish and am shocked and surprised that Craddock is still hanging in and racking up donations for the Houston velodrome.
 

Garden Kitty

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This race turned out to be more exciting than I expected. I like that you didn't know the podium until the penultimate day, although i did wish Roglic could have held onto a podium spot.
 

Lorac

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5,362
Congratulations to Geraint Thomas. After years of bring one of the support riders he gets his moment in the sun. He has cycled so well and deserves the moment.
 

Aceon6

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Yes, very exciting. Lawson Craddock finishing has got to be another big story. His fundraiser for the Houston velodrome is over $150k and still growing.
 

SHARPIE

fsuniverse.COM (finally)
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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 yay Geraint! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

He went to the same school in Cardiff as Gareth Bale and Sam Warburton.
 

kedrin

Well-Known Member
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1,516
Congratulations Geraint! I really enjoyed the tour this year- some amazing shots of the countryside, and glad that it didn't follow the scripted outcome. Team dynamics in Sky will be interesting next year.....
 

Garden Kitty

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Mark Cavendish wrote a nice column about Thomas (who is an old friend and former teammate) and how Thomas helped Cav back to the group on stage 1. Cav said he sent Thomas a message saying thanks, but don't waste any energy on helping me because you can really do something in this race. Thomas responded that he's always happy to help when he can. Cav's take was that Thomas is really "one of the good ones" and that's why so many people were thrilled for him.
 

floridaice

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Saw reports several hours ago. My husband introduced me to cycling and I've become a bigger fan than him. Learned so much from listening to Paul, the Tour de France in particular will never be the same.
 

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