2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

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

Post by Bonefishblues »

Brucey wrote:G rode brilliantly but Alaphillipe was even better; I don't think many people saw that coming!


It's sad when one's thoughts turn to what mine turned to, but reasonably understandable given history.
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Re: 2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by Brucey »

WvA apparently has a flesh wound to his upper leg; out of the race but not as seriously injured as he might have been.

cheers
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NATURAL ANKLING
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Re: 2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
Brucey wrote:WvA apparently has a flesh wound to his upper leg; out of the race but not as seriously injured as he might have been.

cheers

In the slo-mo it looks like it's handlebars caught on the barrier, even the advertising curtains that were hanging off on the outside?
You'de think they could come up with better barriers.
Looking at it again I reckon it's definitely the flappy advert curtains that caught On his outer tri bars.
Not those stupid sticky out feet which I thought they got rid of.
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reohn2
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Re: 2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by reohn2 »

Bonefishblues wrote:
Brucey wrote:G rode brilliantly but Alaphillipe was even better; I don't think many people saw that coming!


It's sad when one's thoughts turn to what mine turned to, but reasonably understandable given history.

I must admit......


We'll see what happens tomorrow........
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Spinners
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Re: 2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by Spinners »

Brucey wrote:G rode brilliantly but Alaphillipe was even better; I don't think many people saw that coming!



Well I thought G would edge it by a handful of seconds but it's hardly a shock though. Alaphillipe is the UCI world No.1 and today's TT was almost tailored for him - short and lumpy (the course, not him). Add in the legend of the golden fleece and the screaming French fans so perhaps it was inevitable.

I'll stick my neck out and predict he'll still be in yellow tomorrow and that the truly decisive stages will happen after the rest day.
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Re: 2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by Postboxer »

I think the smooth barriers are only used at the end of stages, where sprints might be occurring.
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NATURAL ANKLING
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Re: 2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
Ouch that Parachutist :P

Yeah....The winner definitely looked like superman......
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100%JR
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Re: 2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by 100%JR »

Had that been Froome no doubt the French would be throwing urine at him and shouting Doper :roll:
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Re: 2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by Brucey »

AFAICT there were three significant crashes in the stage 13 TT

Stefan Kung - who remounted swiftly and finished the stage; he looked to have some gravel rash, maybe not enough to keep him from riding the next stage.
Wout van Aert - who is out of the race
Maximilian Schachmann - who crashed heavily (off camera), finished the stage, but is presently listed as DNS for stage 14 so has presumably packed.

Was the course dangerous? Its difficult to say; WvA cut the corner too much for sure but paid an absurd price for it. The steering didn't turn on his bike until he was coming off it; I don't think his arms or handlebars hit the barrier, I think his hip did. I suspect that his hip hit a bracket that joins one section of the barrier to the next; in some designs of barrier when they are assembled in a curve the brackets stick out a little, and (unlike the handlebars) his hip would have been at the right height and distance from the barriers to make contact. He'd have been committed to his line before he would have had a chance to see that part of the turn, I think, i.e. the part of the barrier which he struck would have been unsighted.


They have right angled corners with barriers like that at very many TT and road events, so it isn't unusual to have a corner laid out like that. But if you subscribe to a policy of continuous improvement then doing things differently in future on corners like that wouldn't be a bad idea; the idea of the barriers is to improve safety, not cause worse accidents.....

cheers
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Cyril Haearn
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Re: 2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by Cyril Haearn »

What about brakes, I read a while ago about disc and rim brakes performing differently, discs were more powerful I think
There was a crash where someone's leg was badly cut when he hit a disc, is that still a concern?
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Re: 2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
The assumption I made was based on the fact That either rider or bike dragged the advert curtain off the barrier first, Followed quickly by the barrier being dragged?
Looking at a TT bike the handlebars have the brake levers perched right on the end like a hook.

There appears to be only one camera of the accident so it's a bit difficult to determine what is actually happening.
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Re: 2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by Brucey »

Cyril Haearn wrote:What about brakes, I read a while ago about disc and rim brakes performing differently, discs were more powerful I think
There was a crash where someone's leg was badly cut when he hit a disc, is that still a concern?


still a concern. The bike manufacturers have pressurised the UCI into allowing disc brakes in racing; however it is notable that even at the highest level they have not been widely taken up on a voluntary basis. Wheel changes with through axles seem slow and awkward; not very racing-friendly.

Looking at the teams that are using them in the TdF, it seems most likely that this is at the behest of the equipment sponsor, not the team per se, in most cases. It doesn't matter if they are 'better' or 'worse' (and BTW it could be either at different times), just 'different' could be good enough to cause problems in the peloton. It could yet go one of three ways;

- both in use
- disc brakes may yet become the norm (although I can't think why)
- there could yet be some nasty accidents and disc brakes could be banned.

cheers
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Re: 2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by Cyril Haearn »

I guess our TdF heroes do a lot of hard braking into curves etc
Not my sort of cycling
It is a wonder there are not many more 'accidents' as no-one may know the whole route
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Re: 2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by Brucey »

in most cases they are following a motorbike; this gives them very good clues as to which way the road goes and how tight the next corner is, even if they can't see round it.

cheers
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Re: 2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by Si »

If disc brakes caused the outcome of crashes to be worse (e.g. rotors causing gashes) then one would suspect that we'd have seen a lot more of this in MTBing where both disc brakes and crashes are a lot more common.
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