2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Now we have something / quite-a-lot to discuss and celebrate.
Brucey
Posts: 44517
Joined: 4 Jan 2012, 6:25pm

Re: 2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by Brucey »

Julien in yellow? -no; its Giulio….

Giulio Ciccone rode strongly in a breakaway all day, in a move that was clearly planned beforehand, aided by his team. Up for grabs was the polkadot jersey, the stage win and maybe even the yellow jersey. Tim Wellens rode well enough (just) to retain the polkadot jersey, and Ciccone was pipped for the stage win by Dylan Teuns as the group of favourites bore down at speed upon the remains of their breakaway at the stage finish. It was Teuns' first TdF stage win; the culmination of his childhood dreams....

However Ciccone looked gutted as he crossed the finish line in second place, and the commentators hadn't mentioned that he might be virtual race leader as he approached the finish, the GC group was that close. But through the magic of time bonuses, it turns out that Ciccone has the yellow jersey! That cheered him up a bit.

So French hearts must have sunk a little; Alaphillipe out of yellow, Bardet and Pinot each having their problems on a stage where they ought to have shown well.

But G was ominously strong (stronger than Bernal) and has not yet put a foot wrong in his title defence. Alaphillipe may retake yellow in the next few days....and some of the GC contenders have yet to poke their noses into the wind, so anything could happen yet....

Transfer stage tomorrow; the longest in the race. Not expecting any big GC changes.

cheers
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Brucey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
tony_mm
Posts: 49
Joined: 24 Nov 2016, 7:15pm

Re: 2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by tony_mm »

Great show from Alaphilippe!

And Thomas is surely also in form....
Debs
Posts: 1335
Joined: 19 May 2017, 7:05pm
Location: Powys

Re: 2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by Debs »

Giulio Ciccone is a rising star, even tho' he finished that tough mountain stage 2nd he's not only in yellow but also leading the young rider white jersey, has moved up to 2nd place in the climbers polkadot jersey, and Trek-Segafredo are now in 1st team position. An excellent days work! :D

IMO Thomas de Gendt should have won the combative award for his persistently helping his team mate retain, and acquire, more KOM points.
As it happened Tim Wellens does stay in polkadots but also got the combative too.

I think the big power climber teams Movistar and Ineos made the miscalculation of failing to catch the breakaway... LOL! :P
mattheus
Posts: 5044
Joined: 29 Dec 2008, 12:57pm
Location: Western Europe

Re: 2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by mattheus »

Spinners wrote:Nice show of grit by G right at the end.


I see what you've done there.
mattheus
Posts: 5044
Joined: 29 Dec 2008, 12:57pm
Location: Western Europe

Re: 2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by mattheus »

Richard Fairhurst wrote:Meanwhile in ITV4 news I found a screen-capture app which will record video and audio as it plays... so I put the highlights on, set it to record, went to put the little guy to bed, and by the time he was asleep the highlights were ready to watch. Just as well, as at the time of posting (10.15pm) they're still not up officially...


Hmmm. A "Screen-capture app" you say?

We have a new gadget called a Video Recorder which does much the same thing. Have you heard about them? They're the next big thing!

(I usually manage to watch the Highlights prog before *I* fall asleep. Yesterday was TT evening, resulting in a tired mattheus, so I doubt I could have stayed awake through watching a whole dull stage.)
Bonefishblues
Posts: 11010
Joined: 7 Jul 2014, 9:45pm
Location: Near Bicester Oxon

Re: 2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by Bonefishblues »

tony_mm wrote:Great show from Alaphilippe!

And Thomas is surely also in form....

Peaked early, perhaps?

See what I did there?

Suit yourselves!
User avatar
Spinners
Posts: 1678
Joined: 6 Dec 2008, 6:58pm
Location: Port Talbot

Re: 2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by Spinners »

mattheus wrote:
Spinners wrote:Nice show of grit by G right at the end.


I see what you've done there.


Unintended! Honestly.
Cycling UK Life Member
PBP Ancien (2007)
Richard Fairhurst
Posts: 2030
Joined: 2 Mar 2008, 4:57pm
Location: Charlbury, Oxfordshire

Re: 2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by Richard Fairhurst »

mattheus wrote:Hmmm. A "Screen-capture app" you say?

We have a new gadget called a Video Recorder which does much the same thing. Have you heard about them? They're the next big thing!


We'd need to have a TV to be able to use one of those! :D
cycle.travel - maps, journey-planner, route guides and city guides
mattheus
Posts: 5044
Joined: 29 Dec 2008, 12:57pm
Location: Western Europe

Re: 2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by mattheus »

Richard Fairhurst wrote:
mattheus wrote:Hmmm. A "Screen-capture app" you say?

We have a new gadget called a Video Recorder which does much the same thing. Have you heard about them? They're the next big thing!


We'd need to have a TV to be able to use one of those! :D


Oh ... well you mustn't get one of those. Evil invention!
tony_mm
Posts: 49
Joined: 24 Nov 2016, 7:15pm

Re: 2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by tony_mm »

Bonefishblues wrote:
tony_mm wrote:Great show from Alaphilippe!

And Thomas is surely also in form....

Peaked early, perhaps?

See what I did there?

Suit yourselves!


Don’t get it sorry.
Can you elaborate on that?
Brucey
Posts: 44517
Joined: 4 Jan 2012, 6:25pm

Re: 2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by Brucey »

two wheels on the Groenewegen; he's still rolling along.

Despite crashing a few days ago Groenewegen narrowly outsprinted Caleb Ewen for the win today. Groenewegen started his sprint first and unsually it paid off; the others waited just that bit too long and a few of them looked like they were overgeared for the slight ramp in the final two hundred metres too. Sagan placed third so his stranglehold on the Green jersey tightens yet further.

One's hat has to go off to Offredo and Rosetto; despite hovering temptingly in front of the peloton for a few km there were no other takers, so they and they alone were the breakaway for the day and they spent about 220km out front, with the only possible reward on offer one for combativity. Offredo lasted a few hundred yards longer than Rosetto, so probably he'll take the day's award. Both riders have now featured in several breakaways so may be angling for the overall combativity award, which gets you onto a podium in Paris.

Apparently Alaphillipe was somewhat miffed that he lost the yellow Jersey yesterday; not in his plan, that. Tomorrow's stage is lumpy and has a time bonus on the final climb; Alaphillipe may well look to nick the Jersey back again, which he will do if he takes first place on the climb and Ciccone isn't placed; there are eight seconds on offer and he needs six.

The pure sprinters may well not make it to the finish tomorrow, which makes it potentially a stage for the more versatile riders who can also sprint.

cheers
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Brucey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brucey
Posts: 44517
Joined: 4 Jan 2012, 6:25pm

Re: 2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by Brucey »

"When all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail". Thomas de Gendt is something of a hammer of a rider and today he found his nail; stage 8 of the TdF, which is 'lumpy'; more climbing metres than stage 6 in fact, and a road that was largely pretty draggy chip'n'seal, it was going to be hard. An early breakaway (de Gendt, Terpstra, King) was joined by Alessandro de Marchi to make four classy riders; an 'escape of the stars' I think is a literal translation of the phrase in one language .

They worked hard and bunch let them drift out to five minutes, but at 70km to go the break needed to get wriggle on and soon they were down to two, de Gendt and de Marchi. The bunch was soon strung out behind, and de Marchi -who had probably 'gone into the red' having chased for over 20km to get into the breakaway at all- could no longer stand the pace, leaving de Gendt alone. David Millar's commentary suggested that if de Gendt had one minute or more at the foot of the final climb he would have a good chance for the stage win; he had almost exactly one minute so it was too close to call.

DQS had run out of riders but Astana and EF were still chasing, so the gap was still closing to de Gendt.

Alaphillipe -as expected- attacked up the final climb and in the company of Pinot soon got within 15s of de Gendt. Amazingly de Gendt hung on for a fantastic, almost legendary victory (" my legs felt good all day" he said after 200km out front..... :shock: ) and the two Frenchmen pulled twenty-odd seconds on the peloton, propelling them into first and third place on GC.

Chances are that G would have been with Alaphillipe and Pinot but for an unfortunate crash; Michael Woods went down and G got into a tangle as did two other Ineos riders. G was lucky enough to remount his own bike (a team mate's had snapped in half) and with help was able to chase back on but had missed the attack off the front by then, Woods didn't rejoin the Peloton and finished about 15 mins down.

Also showing signs of weakness, Nibali slipped back four minutes, so stage wins may be in his plans, not GC. TJvG was a DNS today; he rode yesterday's stage in a bloodied state after an early crash but overnight it became apparent that riding with broken bones in his hand wouldn't be viable. Wout van Aert also finished well down on todays stage; its is not clear why. Yesterday he was flying; he did 2.5km at the front of the bunch on the lead in to the stage 7 finish during which he averaged nearly 60kph.... but today he must have had a problem of some kind.

There are about 25 riders with 3-1/2 minutes of the lead on GC; no-one has won anything yet but plenty have lost the chance, realistically.

Another rolling stage tomorrow with bonus seconds on offer; you can't call it between the control of the sprint teams, those with GC ambitions and the possibility of a strong breakaway, but one thing is for sure, the prospect of a win on Bastille day will whet the appetite of French riders.

I think this is easily the most interesting first week of the TdF for years. Bring it on!

cheers
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Brucey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
User avatar
Spinners
Posts: 1678
Joined: 6 Dec 2008, 6:58pm
Location: Port Talbot

Re: 2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by Spinners »

Great stage today especially the last 20km. Something for everyone! Pinot has dragged himself into the equation, perhaps temporarily but the French have had a good day and I hope they animate the race tomorrow as well.
Cycling UK Life Member
PBP Ancien (2007)
reohn2
Posts: 45158
Joined: 26 Jun 2009, 8:21pm

Re: 2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by reohn2 »

Spinners wrote:Great stage today especially the last 20km. Something for everyone! Pinot has dragged himself into the equation, perhaps temporarily but the French have had a good day and I hope they animate the race tomorrow as well.

Agreed,and I was very happy to see Thomas de Gent win the stage :D

BTW,today's stage for the second time in this year's TdeF saw a bike in two halves due to a crash.What concerns me about it is the ragged ends causing serious injury to a rider or even a spectator in certain circumstances,I'm aware the same can be said of disc rotors,chainrings or brake levers but CF frames just add to the problem.
I'm also aware that there's a distinct chance I'll be accused of ludditeism and or anti CF and to certain extent I am,but I've never seen a steel or Alu frame break in two in a crash.
-----------------------------------------------------------
"All we are not stares back at what we are"
W H Auden
Brucey
Posts: 44517
Joined: 4 Jan 2012, 6:25pm

Re: 2019 Tour de France: Spoilers!

Post by Brucey »

Image

Gianni Moscon's bike. The TdF seems to be an ill-fated race for him, although last year's problem (getting kicked off the race for being a bit fighty with another rider) was self-inflicted. Moscon finished yesterday's stage over 23 minutes down.

cheers
Last edited by Brucey on 14 Jul 2019, 6:36am, edited 1 time in total.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Brucey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Post Reply