TdF Discussion thread ***SPOILER ALERT***
Lard_Vader
Posts: 138 Member
I thought there might be one that already existed, but it looks not. So let me kick this off (we can spare the occasional chatter on status updates for here).
Today's stage # 5 post report question (on NBC Sports) was "Should the cobble stones be in the tour?" There were several good interviews after the stage with Geraint Thomas, Tejay van Garderen, Fabian Cancellara., as well as the NBC commentators Bobke and Vande Velde, I didn't get to watch all of the post-show before having to get back to work, but for the most part the opinion seemed mixed. Bobke seemed to nail it IMO stating you can't predict the weather and if that had been taken out of the equation the gaps might have not been as bad.
As far as my $0.02, I really liked watching today's stage. I think in past Tour's its been too heavy on mountain stages or TT's. There should be a even mix of all IMO. Even if the time gaps stay as is to the end, I think Nibali deserves to be in yellow. The problem is the commentators create too much drama on the favorites and since Froome is out, it seems as though they're giving indication the excitement is over. I for one like rooting for the underdog and after all it's a unscripted bike race (almost seems too fabricated sometimes).
In any case, curious to get others feedback on this stage and hopefully we can get some chatter in here for the remainder of the tour.
Today's stage # 5 post report question (on NBC Sports) was "Should the cobble stones be in the tour?" There were several good interviews after the stage with Geraint Thomas, Tejay van Garderen, Fabian Cancellara., as well as the NBC commentators Bobke and Vande Velde, I didn't get to watch all of the post-show before having to get back to work, but for the most part the opinion seemed mixed. Bobke seemed to nail it IMO stating you can't predict the weather and if that had been taken out of the equation the gaps might have not been as bad.
As far as my $0.02, I really liked watching today's stage. I think in past Tour's its been too heavy on mountain stages or TT's. There should be a even mix of all IMO. Even if the time gaps stay as is to the end, I think Nibali deserves to be in yellow. The problem is the commentators create too much drama on the favorites and since Froome is out, it seems as though they're giving indication the excitement is over. I for one like rooting for the underdog and after all it's a unscripted bike race (almost seems too fabricated sometimes).
In any case, curious to get others feedback on this stage and hopefully we can get some chatter in here for the remainder of the tour.
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Leave them in. It keeps it interesting.
I had to crack a smile when a former World Champion in cyclocross won stage 5.
Glad to see Sagan widen his points lead for the green jersey.0 -
I loved the Cobbles in LeTour... Definitely good to have an all-round rider in with a chance, not just some waif-like climber or Tester running away with it.
seems I'm in good company in enjoying yesterday...
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/merckx-i-would-have-loved-to-race-in-this-tour-de-france
Lets not forget, before yesterdays stage, L'equipe were rubbishing Nibali's chances - "He's no track record on the cobbles, neither have his Astana Squad"... Of course, what they forget is that he's a consumate bike handler, a tough little sod when it comes to adverse weather, and he's done quite a bit of stuff on the Strade Bianche type roads - and anyone who's been to Sicily where he came from knows just how awful the roads are down in the south of Italy...
Yeah - Personally, I wish they'd have dropped the transition stage from Cambridge to London and made room for 2 stages over the cobbles.
(of course, it didn't hurt that I had a cheeky £10 on the winner of yesterdays stage either...)0 -
SRM has posted some of Andre Greipel's stats from Stage 6.
"André averaged 227 watts over the stage with a 72rpm cadence average maintaining an average speed of over 45kph (26mph). The primarily flat stage required roughly 3,000 kilocalories and featured just over 1,000 meters of climbing.
Inside the final 500 meters Andre averaged over 983 watts with an average speed of 62kph (38.5mph). He took control of the sprint with 150 meters to go and charged the line for victory."0 -
To those riders that b*tched about the cobblestone stage (e.g., Van Garderen), I'd be curious to hear the new complains to riding in the rain... Just goes to show you anything can happen in the Tour. It's certainly keeping things exciting this year and IMO the podium is wide-open this year (i.e. no favorites as much as previous years).0
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Cobbles? Yes. Rain? Puh-leeze, I commuted year-round in the PNW, we'll talk about soggy rides.
That said, I'm loving the derailment of the Sky Train (now if only Phil and Paul would remove themselves from Sky's colon) and the Tour back to being a race with exciting possibilities. The last couple of years of watching a grand procession instead of a race really blunted my desire to watch, but I'm headed home everyday after work to watch the stage now because I know it's not going to a 5 hour long shot of a particular team with the commentators falling over themselves to say how great they are. Bike racing should be exciting.0 -
Cobbles? Yes. Rain? Puh-leeze, I commuted year-round in the PNW, we'll talk about soggy rides.
That said, I'm loving the derailment of the Sky Train (now if only Phil and Paul would remove themselves from Sky's colon) and the Tour back to being a race with exciting possibilities. The last couple of years of watching a grand procession instead of a race really blunted my desire to watch, but I'm headed home everyday after work to watch the stage now because I know it's not going to a 5 hour long shot of a particular team with the commentators falling over themselves to say how great they are. Bike racing should be exciting.
Vai Vincenzo...!!0 -
Ted King stats from Stage 8...
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Calories seem awfully low. I heard that they usually burn over 5,000 calories.0
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Calories seem awfully low. I heard that they usually burn over 5,000 calories.
Yeah, sometimes I don't think Strava properly accounts for calories--TBY has written about this in other threads.
I liked Chris Horner's comments about gaining weight during the tour from eating too much. I would have thought the opposite. Of course his example was drinking 6 cokes and lots of snicker bars. ;-)0 -
I think I mentioned the weather may play a factor in this tour in my "newsfeed" posts... Looks like I may be right... Bye Bye Beefsteak Bertie...
Now all we need is the other Doping Dago from the Movistar team to have his usual "Jour Sans" somewhere along the line and it's down to Titchy RItchy, Vincenzo and Purito (if his ribs have knitted enough!)0 -
Chris Horner cracks me up, he goes on and on about stuff and it's fun to listen to. I was surprised about the weight gain on the tour as well, even with all those Snickers bars
I have a question about Ted King's stats - moving time 4:44, elapsed time 5:33... where did 40+ minutes go? I know they sometimes stop to 'water the daisies' but that seems like a lot of time...0 -
Calories seem awfully low. I heard that they usually burn over 5,000 calories.
Yeah, sometimes I don't think Strava properly accounts for calories--TBY has written about this in other threads.
I liked Chris Horner's comments about gaining weight during the tour from eating too much. I would have thought the opposite. Of course his example was drinking 6 cokes and lots of snicker bars. ;-)
Maybe it's factoring in some sort of metabolic efficiency, he is a pro... I don't know, it does seem low.0 -
Additional ***SPOILER ALERT**** here for anyone who's going to be watching later...
Can I just say, Contador is a BEAST. I caught the last bit of recap from today's stage so I didn't see him fall but apparently it was a nasty one.. but he got back on the bike for a time even though... and finally quit due to a FRACTURED TIBIA. Holy cats.0 -
Calories seem awfully low. I heard that they usually burn over 5,000 calories.
Yeah, sometimes I don't think Strava properly accounts for calories--TBY has written about this in other threads.
I liked Chris Horner's comments about gaining weight during the tour from eating too much. I would have thought the opposite. Of course his example was drinking 6 cokes and lots of snicker bars. ;-)
Maybe it's factoring in some sort of metabolic efficiency, he is a pro... I don't know, it does seem low.
strava basically just takes the Kw power developed, converts it to joules (watts/second) then applies a "global" Metabolic Efficiency Factor to give the calories... Training peaks takes a 1:1 approach, Strava seems to give you maybe 10% ish more, but basically, unless you've had a proper lab test, you dont know your own MEF - but the global approach is going to be flawed, as it's highly unlikely my metabolism is as efficient as Marianne Vos or Laurents ten Dam....or, for that matter, Cloggsy71 or antistu
I'll drop a link to the thread where I went into (overpoweringly) great length on this issue tomorrow - for the moment, I'm more concerned that my Vin Rouge is getting a little warm...0 -
Additional ***SPOILER ALERT**** here for anyone who's going to be watching later...
Can I just say, Contador is a BEAST. I caught the last bit of recap from today's stage so I didn't see him fall but apparently it was a nasty one.. but he got back on the bike for a time even though... and finally quit due to a FRACTURED TIBIA. Holy cats.
Oh yeah, cyclists are double diamond hard *kitten*... Cadel rode half the tour with a broken elbow and didn't even tell the team manager.... Geraint finished the 2012 TdF after fracturing his pelvis on stage one....0 -
Can someone explain to me WHY Tiago Machado gets an exemption for finishing outside of the time limit when last year Ted King missed the cut by seven seconds and gets no exemption?0
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I suspect that it has something to do with the fact that the riders are dropping like flies.0
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and the fact that his crash was in the same stage as he finished late on, not 3 days earlier.
or, they may not have wanted to eliminate the person who was 3rd on the GC at the start of the stage, especially when the 2 main favourites for the race had been taken out through crashes - and eliminating someone who had also crashed, but had the grit to ride on and finish the stage would have been (at best) bad PR.
OR, and knowing how the French generally work, it may just have been that the race commisaires had had a good lunch, and were feeling generous on their national day, and decided to cut the guy a little slack...
Top and bottom of it, theres a big difference between
crashing 3h20m from the end of a stage in the mountains, riding over something like 4-5 categorised mountains (albeit tailed off) and finishing the stage
and
getting dropped in the opening kilometer of the team time trial 3 days after a crash.
I suppose that ultimately "rules is rules" and they should be employed "to the letter, with an even hand", but personally, on this case I think they may have made the right decision - certainly PR wise.
(or they may just be 'merkin hating cheese eating surrender monkeys... who knows)0 -
Felt sorry for Talansky yesterday; he was clearly 'in bits'.
He wanted to pack it all in and was clearly distressed at the after race interview; he had to leave before bursting into tears - poor lad...
Not expecting to see him in today's starting line up!0 -
Felt sorry for Talansky yesterday; he was clearly 'in bits'.
He wanted to pack it all in and was clearly distressed at the after race interview; he had to leave before bursting into tears - poor lad...
Not expecting to see him in today's starting line up!
He just needed a couple of Pies and a Pint.0 -
Nah... He's abandoned
He just needed a couple of Pies and a Pint.Felt sorry for Talansky yesterday; he was clearly 'in bits'.
He wanted to pack it all in and was clearly distressed at the after race interview; he had to leave before bursting into tears - poor lad...
Not expecting to see him in today's starting line up!
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Difficult to get a decent pie over in France... #BetterInYorkshire0
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#BetterInYorkshire 0
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#BetterInYorkshire
I beg to differ, nowhere does pies better than Wigan - and that's on t'other (better) side of the Pennines
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:noway: How very dare you? :grumble:I beg to differ, nowhere does pies better than Wigan - and that's on t'other (better) side of the Pennines
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:0 -
:noway: How very dare you? :grumble:I beg to differ, nowhere does pies better than Wigan - and that's on t'other (better) side of the Pennines
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
C'mon - you have to give me that one - they don't call Wiganers "pie-eaters" for nowt!!!
Mmmmmmmmmmm piiiiiiiiiiiiiie
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You Brits crack me up! Arguing over meat pies. :laugh:0
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makes a change from arguing over the colour of a rose...0
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You Brits crack me up! Arguing over meat pies. :laugh:
mmmmmm pie
On the subject in hand Skys chances are now through the floor, should have taken Wiggins!
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Dunno what happened to Richie there... Just popped & started going backwards :grumble:You Brits crack me up! Arguing over meat pies. :laugh:
mmmmmm pie
On the subject in hand Skys chances are now through the floor, should have taken Wiggins!0
