2020 Tour de France

Now we have something / quite-a-lot to discuss and celebrate.
thirdcrank
Posts: 36764
Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 2:44pm

Re: 2020 Tour de France

Post by thirdcrank »

I wonder how much the sudden death of Nico Portal has affected Ineos. He was obviously a key member of the team and not easily replaced without notice.
Postboxer
Posts: 1929
Joined: 24 Jul 2013, 5:19pm

Re: 2020 Tour de France

Post by Postboxer »

Either something hasn't worked with whatever training they did during lockdown, or they have some secret master plan for the last week, but it doesn't look like it. We will have to see how Geraint Thomas does. Could be an interesting last week of the tour, as it looks like Pogacar will try to attack at every opportunity.
Brucey
Posts: 44455
Joined: 4 Jan 2012, 6:25pm

Re: 2020 Tour de France

Post by Brucey »

interestingly Bernal said of the recent stage where he lost more time 'my numbers were good, but they were still going away from me'. Lets hope that the difference isn't something chemical....

Still, there is a way to go in this race yet. Roglic's form into a race of this length, as a leader, is unknown; can his team hold up...?. Pogacar has looked strong but is likewise unproven at this level. And there are plenty of other riders still within striking distance, so anything could yet happen on GC.

And we also have a real fight on for the Green jersey. If Sagan wins it, it will have been one of the more hard-fought victories; can Bennett hang on?

cheers
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thirdcrank
Posts: 36764
Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 2:44pm

Re: 2020 Tour de France

Post by thirdcrank »

I see Sean Yates is querying the Ineos set-up without Nico Portal, but he may have an axe to grind.

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/sean-y ... e-tactics/
Postboxer
Posts: 1929
Joined: 24 Jul 2013, 5:19pm

Re: 2020 Tour de France

Post by Postboxer »

Covid test day on Monday must mean a lot of stress for the teams and riders.
Brucey
Posts: 44455
Joined: 4 Jan 2012, 6:25pm

Re: 2020 Tour de France

Post by Brucey »

interesting rest day show on ITV4. In fact the rest day shows have been at least as interesting as the other shows. Good Froome interview.

I must say I was once again pleased and impressed by the inclusion of a cycle advocacy piece by Chris Boardman in the show.

Back to the Rog vs Pog clash today, assuming they are all clear on the Covid testing....

cheers
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Brucey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Postboxer
Posts: 1929
Joined: 24 Jul 2013, 5:19pm

Re: 2020 Tour de France

Post by Postboxer »

Bernal has now dropped out of the Tour, not surprising really.

Surprised at the tactics yesterday, once Kamna went clear over the top of the penultimate climb, leading by a few seconds over Carapaz, as soon as the gap was growing on the descent, wouldn't it have made sense for Carapaz to wait for Reichenbach to catch him up so they could work together to catch Kamna, hopefully then giving each of them a chance of winning the stage rather than settling for second? The commentators assumed it would happen.

Hoping everyone will try to win it today.
Brucey
Posts: 44455
Joined: 4 Jan 2012, 6:25pm

Re: 2020 Tour de France

Post by Brucey »

Ritchie Porte; unlucky or responsible for his own ills?

Many serious GC contenders still ride rim brakes because this means quicker wheel changes, and they can take advantage of neutral service etc. Ritchie Porte is (was) riding his best tour for years and of course he gets a puncture when riding on discs, and is left trying to close a +30s gap because he has disc brakes and has to wait for a bike change. Unlucky, or hoist on his own wossisname?

cheers
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Syd
Posts: 1230
Joined: 23 Sep 2018, 2:27pm

Re: 2020 Tour de France

Post by Syd »

Brucey wrote:Ritchie Porte; unlucky or responsible for his own ills?

Many serious GC contenders still ride rim brakes because this means quicker wheel changes, and they can take advantage of neutral service etc. Ritchie Porte is (was) riding his best tour for years and of course he gets a puncture when riding on discs, and is left trying to close a +30s gap because he has disc brakes and has to wait for a bike change. Unlucky, or hoist on his own wossisname?

cheers

It would seem that “neutral service” are not in fact so, but biased towards rim brake riders instead. [emoji57]
Jamesh
Posts: 2963
Joined: 2 Jan 2017, 5:56pm

Re: 2020 Tour de France

Post by Jamesh »

Poor Richie Porte a magnet for bad luck!

Shows that discs aren't the best thing since sliced bread!

Ineos finaly recover a small degree of compensation for a poor tour.

Cheers James

Ps who do itv have individual 20k prizes?

They could give away 40 £500 or 100 £200 (cost price) bikes and really increase the viewing numbers as well as promote cycling to a larger audience?????
Postboxer
Posts: 1929
Joined: 24 Jul 2013, 5:19pm

Re: 2020 Tour de France

Post by Postboxer »

Jumbo Visma's Director thrown off the race for intimidating behaviour towards an official.

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/raci ... ial-468958

Woet Van Aert has also been fined and docked points and time for littering and pushing off a team car on today's stage. Only seems fair any team-mates he may have helped as a result of pushing off a car should also lose time. Looking at the results, he still gets 4 bonus seconds for finishing third.

https://twitter.com/laflammerouge16/sta ... 9380499456

Scrolling down that one, Hugh Carthy got fined for micturating in public!

List of all of the fines here

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/raci ... 020-465227

And if you want a measure of how brutal the race is, especially stage one,

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/raci ... nce-338353

Interesting reading.

Also, the 10 KOM points for the Individual Time Trial on Saturday are awarded for the fastest climb, from the second checkpoint to the finish, so perhaps lots of riders who aren't positioned for anything on the GC will take it easy up to that point then really go for it, which helps Carapaz (74) as it increases the chances that someone other than Roglic (67) or Pogacar (72) will win the points. Although looking at the standings, other than those two, only Hirschi (62) is close enough to pull level if he can win all of the remaining 12 points, including the 1 on Friday. Some of the Ineos riders will probably do it though. (KOM points after stage 18 in brackets)
Postboxer
Posts: 1929
Joined: 24 Jul 2013, 5:19pm

Re: 2020 Tour de France

Post by Postboxer »

Jamesh wrote:Poor Richie Porte a magnet for bad luck!

Shows that discs aren't the best thing since sliced bread!

Ineos finaly recover a small degree of compensation for a poor tour.

Cheers James

Ps who do itv have individual 20k prizes?

They could give away 40 £500 or 100 £200 (cost price) bikes and really increase the viewing numbers as well as promote cycling to a larger audience?????


I don't know what's gone wrong at Ineos, I assume Coronavirus has messed up their preparations, maybe everyone's apart from Jumbo Visma's. At least next year they have Richie Porte returning and Adam Yates joining, so next year's riders aren't doing bad on GC.

I assume ITV make money as unless you enter via post, it costs £2 to enter, people aren't going to pay to try to win a small prize, they could enter the lottery instead. I wish I had bought loads of stamps before the prices rocketed.
Brucey
Posts: 44455
Joined: 4 Jan 2012, 6:25pm

Re: 2020 Tour de France

Post by Brucey »

Syd wrote:It would seem that “neutral service” are not in fact so, but biased towards rim brake riders instead.


what, you think they should carry spare wheels using dozen or so different types of disc setup in use, on the back of a motorbike...? Yeah, right.... :lol:

Once the team car arrived the bike swap didn't take long (apparently wheel changes are so slow with disc brakes a bike swap is 'normal' and key riders have bikes which are already numbered up ready for them (new for this year?)) but was of course slow coming. In truth it may not matter if the neutral service have disc brake wheels or not; you can't expect to change one in much less that 20s whilst stationary and under most circumstances the team car (with a spare bike) is a similar length of time away. So either way Porte was doomed to have a gap of twenty or thirty seconds to close, (vs about half that had he taken a rim brake wheel from neutral service ). He was lucky he managed to get back on at all (he found motivated riders to ride with), but he nearly turned himself inside out doing it.

Presumably this is all because sponsors Trek want to sell bikes with disc brakes more than they do bikes with rim brakes...? Yeah, seeing someone's chances scuppered is such a good advertisement for them... :roll:

cheers
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Brucey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Syd
Posts: 1230
Joined: 23 Sep 2018, 2:27pm

Re: 2020 Tour de France

Post by Syd »

Brucey wrote:
Syd wrote:It would seem that “neutral service” are not in fact so, but biased towards rim brake riders instead.


what, you think they should carry spare wheels using dozen or so different types of disc setup in use, on the back of a motorbike...? Yeah, right.... :lol:


You obviously don’t get things said in jest.
thirdcrank
Posts: 36764
Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 2:44pm

Re: 2020 Tour de France

Post by thirdcrank »

Re Ritchie P, in the interview on ITV4 highlights programme, they asked him about his perpetual bad luck but didn't query his choice of equipment, which is a pity because it's the only thing a viewer couldn't know from watching the footage of the race. We saw the gravel, we saw him puncture, we saw him ride a bit on a flat tyre, we saw him stood waiting for assistance, we saw him riding to get back on, but we weren't privy to the choice of equipment.
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