TDF.......As No Ones Started A Post.

[ed.lazda]

I've thought for a while that a lot of the pros would benefit from learning how to corner properly. Pidcock gave them an excellent demonstration yesterday on how it should be done.

[foxyrider]

I was glued to the screen last night watching our Tom hand out a master class in descending, surely one of the finest displays of alround riding skills i can recall ever watching. I've never been a great Froome fan but it was good to see him rounding out the podium.

Then today, young Fred Wright nearly made it 2 in a row for UK riders with a gutsy ride, admitedly helped by a 'resting' peloton, 2nd behind Pederson.

Somehow its the UK that are the only nation with more than one rider in the top ten, in fact Ineos, luv em or hate em, are the only team in that situation with Thomas at 3rd, Yates 5th and young Tom there in 8th. In my youth we had Barry Hoban as the sole Brit taking part, how times have changed, there are 8 this year across 5 teams! It really is heartening to see 'our' lads in the there mixing it with and coming out on top with the worlds top riders.

[thirdcrank]

Bon courage to Caleb Ewan who limped to the finish yesterday after a fall. Worst possible start for him today when the serious racing started from the start. When I looked before I started typing this he was already 10+ minutes down with 150kms to go.
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I see he's now 18 mins down with 100 kms left (for the front of the race) Three Lotto riders have dropped back so there must be a plan to nurse him to the finish.
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I see that at the current speed, the time limit is likely to be about 30 mins. I fancy it's not hilly enough for a bus to form so it will be a struggle for three riders + an injured one

[Postboxer]

Cavendish plans to return, hoping he gets a chance next year, only a couple of stages possible for Fabio Jakobsen to justify his selection, one win so far doesn't really do it I don't think. I assume he'll move teams to someone who will more or less guarantee his selection.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/62207492

He'll be racing in the Commonwealth Games, 7th August in Warwick.

https://resources.cwg-qbr.pulselive.com ... Map-v4.png

[PedallingSquares]

I've thought for a while that a lot of the pros would benefit from learning how to corner properly. Pidcock gave them an excellent demonstration yesterday on how it should be done.

I've been away for the weekend so watched the Alp D'Huez stage in full yesterday.Pidcock has shown his class once again.It's the CX/MTB back ground.
I find a lot of club riders can't descend,or are scared to.Those of us who came over from MTB are always quicker.It's a skill you just pick up off road.There's many a club rider who panics above 30mph and I think the ratio is probably the same for the pros.I'm mid-50s and still get the same buzz going fast downhill as I did 30 years ago Haven't quite managed the speed Pidcock and Co hit but have seen 50mph on more than a few occasions

[reohn2]

Squares
I think you're right,off road riding teaches you things roadies never get the opportunity to experience.
I've ridden with club riders who can't even ride no hands let alone decend at speed.
Also many of them have waayyy to much air in their tyres,in the belief they'll go faster when all it does is makes the bike far more jittery and unstable at speed,especially on UK minor roads where the crapmac is very substandard.

[PedallingSquares]

Squares
I think you're right,off road riding teaches you things roadies never get the opportunity to experience.
I've ridden with club riders who can't even ride no hands let alone decend at speed.
Also many of them have waayyy to much air in their tyres,in the belief they'll go faster when all it does is makes the bike far more jittery and unstable at speed,especially on UK minor roads where the crapmac is very substandard.

Tom showed perfect cornering and road/rider positioning.The amount of riders I see trying to corner with the bike virtually upright The last time we we in Mallorca many of our group complained about sore forearms.'Armpump'.Common when riders are dragging the brakes all the way down long descents.It's a confidence/fear thing and can spoil a descent.

[mattheus]

Although there IS a lot of technique to descending, I'm pretty sure that at the higher speeds (and on more exposed mountain roads) confidence is the much bigger factor.
I've dabbled off-road all my life (starting with BMXes back in their hey-day), but never loved fast descents. On the road I love it though
(until it rains, then I have a lot less faith in my tyres and back off considerably).
I descend faster than most on tarmac, but am not a BRAVE rider. I just don't feel many tarmac descents are dangerous - whereas off-road it's very easy to do yourself a mischief. Hence the magazines with their "Scar of the Week" pictures.

It may be that lack-of-fear is a self-selecting attribute in off-roading - certainly in the downhillers realm. So it's not really the off-roading that "makes" a better descender. Just my theory!

p.s. CX is not a great school for fast descending - the courses are super-sanitised by commisars, and there's rarely enough altitude gain to pick up serious speed. MTB is rather different

[ed.lazda]

Riding a motorcycle can be helpful too. Things happen quite a bit faster, and you have to use the cornering skills all the time, not just going downhill.

[Pendodave]

There's a rather wonderful translation of an article from a Belgian website describing Pog's super domestique rafal majka as a "luxury henchman".

Not so much lost in Translation as substantially augmented.

[Manc33]

I started watching it on ITV4 and there was 6 mins of TDF footage then 5 mins of adverts. I tolerated it for about 20 mins, realized the 60 min show is just going to be peppered with 25 mins of adverts and stopped watching it. A shame because I wanted to see it.

[Paulatic]

@Manc33 Thanks for the reminder GCN+ is worth every penny.
No adverts is bliss.

[djnotts]

Festina, USPS.... TJV.

[Pendodave]

Festina, USPS.... TJV.

Indeed.
I guess that at least we realise that this is likely enough and won't all be shocked this time around.
My main surprise with this whole area is that in some sports (cycling, athletics, swimmimg) there is a certain amount of cynicism amongst pretty much any half educated fan, but others (rugby, football, tennis) seem to get a completely free pass despite the certainty that it is just as prevalent.

[Postboxer]

I started watching it on ITV4 and there was 6 mins of TDF footage then 5 mins of adverts. I tolerated it for about 20 mins, realized the 60 min show is just going to be peppered with 25 mins of adverts and stopped watching it. A shame because I wanted to see it.

There are rules about lengths of adverts allowed, each hour of the day, 25 minutes would not be allowed even if the program used two hours full allocations (12 minutes) by running from say, 7.30pm to 8.30pm.

On the live broadcasts they move the adverts around to fit around the live action happening. Though one of the advert breaks was around 4 minutes in, I can't remember if that was a live show or highlights. In any case, I just watch them either pre-recorded, or slightly behind, so that I can skip all the adverts to catch up.