2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Now we have something / quite-a-lot to discuss and celebrate.
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Brucey
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2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by Brucey »

Tomorrow sees the Grand Depart of the 106th edition of this race, from Brussels, in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Eddy Merckx's first Tour win. Let's just hope that Eddy's wins are not taken from him in some flurry of retrospective drugs testing.... :wink:

Obviously no Froome, but G should be there. Other established GC contenders have shown well but not brilliantly well in the lead-up to the Tour so this could be the most open race in years.

Anyway there is live coverage on ITV4 (10.30 to 4.30) and a highlights show from 7 to 8pm.

I can hardly wait!


cheers
Last edited by Brucey on 6 Jul 2019, 8:14pm, edited 1 time in total.
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NATURAL ANKLING
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Re: 2019 Tour de France

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

HI,
Your confusing me I thought it started on Saturday............oh its Friday already :)
Who's riding.
I see froome is cutting it short at 34 to win again maybe? to get up there with five wins.
G is only a year younger, will we see another British winner for some time?
Cav is also at 34 maybe not going to manage to match merckx.
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Spinners
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Re: 2019 Tour de France

Post by Spinners »

I would love to see Geraint Thomas win for a second time and he has every chance of doing just that but something tells me that it's going to be a wide open TdF with the race leadership chopping and changing until very late into the third week.
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Re: 2019 Tour de France

Post by mjr »

The team presentations were yesterday, in the Grand-Place, live on Eurosport. G is there. He said he won't know if he stands a chance of winning again until the second week.

Cavendish isn't there. Reportedly, his team had to choose between him and Cummings and the manager decided, overruling the performance director.
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Re: 2019 Tour de France

Post by Glyno »

Am I right in assuming setting your TV box to record (highlights?) on Eurosport is a waste of time owing to their random scheduling? I see ITV4 do highlights in the evenings and are probably more reliable.
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Re: 2019 Tour de France

Post by mjr »

Glyno wrote:Am I right in assuming setting your TV box to record (highlights?) on Eurosport is a waste of time owing to their random scheduling? I see ITV4 do highlights in the evenings and are probably more reliable.

Pretty much. If you do, either use EPG control or set huge margins for error. Their highlights usually just consist of the last 40 minutes of the live coverage and a little punditry before and after, whereas ITV will generally add a feature or two and show some of the earlier bits if they were interesting.
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Re: 2019 Tour de France

Post by Richard Fairhurst »

mjr wrote:Cavendish isn't there. Reportedly, his team had to choose between him and Cummings and the manager decided, overruling the performance director.


I never understand why c̶r̶a̶p̶ lower order teams like Dimension Data do that - it was the same when Slipstream, equally c̶r̶a̶p̶ low ranking, omitted David Millar in his last year. Your team isn't going to win a jersey, you'll be very lucky to win a stage, so why not send along an entertaining rider who'll make headlines and get TV interviews - even if their form is below par? At least you'll get some exposure for your sponsors.
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Re: 2019 Tour de France

Post by mjr »

Richard Fairhurst wrote:
mjr wrote:Cavendish isn't there. Reportedly, his team had to choose between him and Cummings and the manager decided, overruling the performance director.


I never understand why c̶r̶a̶p̶ lower order teams like Dimension Data do that - it was the same when Slipstream, equally c̶r̶a̶p̶ low ranking, omitted David Millar in his last year. Your team isn't going to win a jersey, you'll be very lucky to win a stage, so why not send along an entertaining rider who'll make headlines and get TV interviews - even if their form is below par? At least you'll get some exposure for your sponsors.

Because with the almost total lack of surprises among the other team selections, they've already made headlines by not sending him = headlines and interviews got, job done?

It's also a bit unfair in two ways: firstly, Cummings has won Tour stages more recently than Cavendish IIRC.

Secondly, TDD are punching even lower than Slipstream in terms of WorldTour rankings. While Slipstream were comfortably mid-table (11th of 18 in 2014) in the year they didn't take Millar to the Tour, TDD seem welded to the bottom every year so far. If there was a functioning promotion/relegation system, they'd probably either gone or had to requalify by now.
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Re: 2019 Tour de France

Post by mattheus »

mjr wrote:
Richard Fairhurst wrote:
mjr wrote:Cavendish isn't there. Reportedly, his team had to choose between him and Cummings and the manager decided, overruling the performance director.


I never understand why c̶r̶a̶p̶ lower order teams like Dimension Data do that - it was the same when Slipstream, equally c̶r̶a̶p̶ low ranking, omitted David Millar in his last year. Your team isn't going to win a jersey, you'll be very lucky to win a stage, so why not send along an entertaining rider who'll make headlines and get TV interviews - even if their form is below par? At least you'll get some exposure for your sponsors.

Because with the almost total lack of surprises among the other team selections, they've already made headlines by not sending him = headlines and interviews got, job done?

It's also a bit unfair in two ways: firstly, Cummings has won Tour stages more recently than Cavendish IIRC.

I'm more agreeing with Mr Fairhurst here - Cav will get you coverage day-after-day (for good or bad!). Look at the coverage riders get on their final tour in the Champs Elysees! david Millar was guaranteed a few minutes of TV time that year, no matter what.


On balance Cummings IS more likely to grab a stage win; but he's hardly nailed on, and Cav would have quite a good chance of grabbing a win too (despite not being able to compete on pure speed any more). We'll never know now.

Interesting tour; Yellow AND Green Jerseys both quite unpredictable ...
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Re: 2019 Tour de France

Post by Cyril Haearn »

God shave Baron Eddy! He still cycles a lot, but he did not quite win everything

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Re: 2019 Tour de France

Post by Brucey »

re Cav vs Cummings; it will be Cummings' last TdF so to deprive such a well respected rider would be a big shame. Both Cav and Cummings have not had good form this year because they have had various evil viruses and it may very simply be the case that Cav is still suffering; some viruses have incredibly long-lasting effects. Whatever the background it can't have been an easy decision though.

cheers
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Re: 2019 Tour de France

Post by Brucey »

just seen an interview with Rolf Aldag (team DS) and he says he chose Cavendish to be in the team (not clear if he also included Cummings or not). He also says that he was overruled by the team owners. He seemed pretty upset about it, and was at pains to point out that he'd been working with Cav and knew very well what his condition was, presumably in contrast to those who chose otherwise....

There is clearly more to this than meets the eye.

Interview reported here

https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/sport/national/17753901.rolf-aldag-confirms-overruled-decision-include-mark-cavendish-tour-de-france/

cheers
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Re: 2019 Tour de France

Post by Postboxer »

A couple of interviews in the ITV coverage today during the race coverage, from 61.4 km to go if you're watching the full coverage. Starting with an interview with Doug Ryder, Team Principal of Dimension Data, who said it was a performance team decision, based on the difficulty of the route, the whole team agreed, with him, Doug Ryder making the final decision, then Rolf Aldag, Head of Performance, who said it's his job to pick the 8 names, he did, Cav included, the team owner overruled him. David Millar added he didn't think it was a performance decision and he thinks there is something else going on.


SPOILERS?? Are we allowing spoilers on this thread and adding a warning? Are we having two threads, with and without spoilers? What time, after the ITV4 highlights? They seem a pretty regular 7-8pm as far as my guide will show me.
Brucey
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Re: 2019 Tour de France

Post by Brucey »

I vote for spoilers in this thread, but if others want to do something different to that then that is OK too...?

cheers
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reohn2
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Re: 2019 Tour de France

Post by reohn2 »

Brucey
Brian Smith today on Eurosport broke his silence about leaving DT saying the "amicable arrangement" was just a front for the press indicating it was a serious disagreement with the owner,and how he's as miffed as Rolf Aldag about Cav being drop for the tour.He said Aldag said Cav is as fit and fast as he was in 2016 if not better!
It's the first time I've ever heard Smithy to ever mention make derogatory about anyone in the sport.
The brown stuff is all about to hit the fan at DT shortly me thinks :?
Last edited by reohn2 on 6 Jul 2019, 7:56pm, edited 1 time in total.
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