Reply With QuotePello Bilbao or Mikel Lander are my longshots for todays stage 2
It's that time of year again and that magical music is playing through the house! Exciting first stage and fantastic to see the Yates brothers holding the peloton off to the finish. Sign of what will hopefully be another fantastic race!
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Pello Bilbao or Mikel Lander are my longshots for todays stage 2
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Summer is now officially on. TdF, Ashes, absolutely love July.
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Seen Powless is off the front and looking good!Originally Posted by 100thmonkey
Cav's first real chance tomorrow, let's see what he and his team have got
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Two cracking stages so far with great finishes.
Cav for stage 3 ?
Pete
Cav showing he can be up there at the finish but starting to doubt that final stage is possible with the competition around. Maybe a but if fatigue after the mountains will work in his favour?
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Looked like Cav had to ease off the gas just at the wrong moment yesterday. Hopefully he can get on Philipsen or Ewen's wheel on one of the sprint stages still to come.
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What a stage today. 🌶️ I will hold off on discussing it in case others haven’t seen the highlights yet.
I thought that he looked like he paused on a wheel at the wrong time to find a gap and at the same time the others went so just bad ‘ unlucky timing. Like you said let’s get a few hills done then see what he has. Week 3 was always his party line but could have been a bluff as it the opportunity arises he will go
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With Jasper Phillipsen being led out by Van der Pol its a tough ask. One of the riders described MVDP as currently the fastest rider in the world. His winter season is a fierce competition with Wout Van Aert and Tom Pidcock so he has explosive power when called on.
Re todays stage as stated above the Pyrenees are living up to their reputation with a challenging day.
Absolutely 100% the sporting highlight of my year ,
Who will win this year ,still very early days but it's very hard to see past the usual suspects , Pogacar , Vingegard ,Van Aert . Maybe Jai Hindley could pull a surprise . all in all a good quality field of brilliantly talented riders .
Great stage today.
We are off to the alps at the end of next week to watch a few stages.
Indeed, such a good state and awesome to see the norm shaken up so much!
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We watched it in 2018 at Pau and the surrounding areas. I had seen the “ caravan” when the TDF started in Yorkshire, I was not prepared for the sheer length and variety of vehicles. We were sat opposite a french couple , we traded throwaway freebies eg we had cotton buffs and KOM bags they kept sachets of dishwasher liquid……..
I’m off to the Alpes on Friday. To ride a stage. 😳
Anybody else got a fantasy tdf team on Velogames?
What a stage today. Incredible.
A complete turn around from yesterday for the 3 major combatants. It bodes well for the rest of the Tour and we aren’t even at the end of the first week yet!
This is turning out to be another vintage edition.
Cav out, suspected broken collar bone after crash, No record :-(
Enjoyed the documentary on Netflix, watching highlights most evenings and enjoying it. Unbelievable endurance and team work
Absolutely gutted for him!
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So disappointed for Mark Cavendish. He'd have won yesterday's stage if he hadn't had gear change issues and surely he'd have got a stage this year. That said, it's somehow fitting that he shares the record with Eddy Merckx.
yes a bad way to end his Tour de France participation, real shame especially as he looked fast yesterday..
I was pleased to see Mads Pedersen take the sprint win at the finish though..
Puy de Dôme today. Last time they went uphill on this privately owned mountain was in 1988!!!
Vingegaard has my money today at 3/1
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One of the moments it's a shame you guys cannot see and understand the Dutch language on the Flemish TV: 'Sporza'.
Some highlights:
A fantastic oral story about the history of the Tour and the Puy de Dôme. Including the story of a cycling team boss who goes to the 'doping check' instead of the 'coureur' who took a white pill before cycling uphill! Frederico Bahamontes, a big name in relation to the PdD is 95 y/o today. And, the biggest story: MdvP's granddad Raymond Poulidor was a big name on the road to the top of the PdD. And he used to live near the mountain after his career.
MvdP told on Flemish TV that he knows the area very well. The PdD was closed for everybody. No cyclists allowed (only some with a special permit). However... Raymond Poulidor was not 'everybody'. He was allowed every time he wanted to go 'up'. Poulidor is buried in a cemetery at near the PdD. The Flemish TV commentators are swept off their feet how popular MvdP is in the area. Locals know him since he was a baby!
Eddie Merckx lost his 6th Tour victory on the PdD. He got beaten by a spectator when going uphill that day. Merckx later told: "The PdD was the only mountain I was unable to tackle with 42x21"
Anquetil and Poulidor (right) battling for the best position in 1964.
I knew Mike Wood’s business was offering some amazing vintage watches but I never suspected he was also such a great cyclist.
Take a bow!
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
A superb climb and attack by Pogačar. Vingegaard did well to limit his losses.
OMG
That was incredible. A moment in history.
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I thought he was going to catch Pog near the end!
Good time to win your first WT TT by a country mile …
Certainly impressive, although only in recent past questions would be asked about such a performance!
Tom Dumoulin, former WC time trial and winner of the Giro said on Dutch TV: "I couldn't have done this - not even in my best year!"
They are two of the most exciting riders for a long time. There are 4 more meaningful stages and I expect fireworks.
Not been this engaged in the tour since the days of Indurain et al.
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Plenty of speculation along that line going on in various places. To win by such a margin will always bring out the mud slingers.
I remember when David Walsh was considered a 'mud slinger'.
Granted, but I hope we are in a different and better era of cycle sports now. 🤞
I'm sure that Jumbo Visma is very intensely scruitinized by the anti doping agency. So are the other teams for that matter. And the #1 always has to come to the doping check after he has finished.
And I don't think that it's wise to create a time-gap this wide when you're using something. P's bike was heavier, he changed bikes (add at least 15secs even more when you add braking and getting back up to speed to the bike change itself). Besides that: both V. and P. were a lot faster than WvA who's an incredible guy on a bike as well!
I really want to believe, but only 5 riders today within 3 minutes of Viners, the closest being Pog at +1.38 and on a 22km TT! and previously he's won only 1 minor TT, superhuman indeed.
When you know that you cant get close you ride at 90% and when you know it matters you ride at 110%
Pog wasnt at his best and a bike change. Lets watch the next 4 stages and not be cynical. Jonas is a diesel machine and his strength lies in holding the numbers. Pog is a interval machine, a attacker and mind motivator.
Understand that the tour has been 3 races for a while. One for GC 1&2 and one for GC 3,4,& 5. And then one for any individual stage. Plus many today rode steady with a tactic or goal of a stage win for money and glory this week.
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Last edited by 100thmonkey; 18th July 2023 at 22:41.
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I will go out on a limb and favour Pog to beat Jonas tomorrow but Pello Bilboa or Ciccone are both worth a watch if they have the beans on the day for a stage win
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Got to agree with Kerry above, Cycling weekly produced a Tour guide in its edition three weeks ago. They described today as a “ second rest day” for most of the riders. They suggested only a handful of riders would have a go today since tomorrow is the most brutal in terms of climbing stage of this years event.
Interesting chart, and if you took Pog out of the equation the time gap to 3rd placed WvA would be 7.6 seconds per km!
On the last down hill part of today’s etappe…
One can only imagine what's the other side of those barriers that they organisers felt the need to put them there.
On the last down hill part of today’s etappe…
Oh btw, the Jumbo squad is tested for doping (blood and urine samples) 4x in 48hrs.
Imho there should be more spots where they could put them...
Well that could have gone anyway but another great stage. It wont surprise me Pog isnt coming down with a virus as he was off form yesterday and today. Hope he can make it to Sunday.
Ciccone and Bilbao rode well and Pello managed a 3rd. Close but not enough for a few quid win today.
Jasper The Master (Ex Jasper The Disaster) for me tomorrow.
Last edited by 100thmonkey; 19th July 2023 at 17:46.
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That in itself means very little. If you were doping during a race you'd have to be pretty stupid or ahead of the testing game.
I am sure that the professionals of ITA do not agree with you. Otherwise they would not done this.
Apart from that, most teams and testing agencies are not telling when and where tests are done.
With first-hand experience (TeamNL sailing) I can tell you that tests are done often, during inconvienent moments and all over the world. Those ‘whereabouts’ are a reason to stop persuing a career as athlete. ‘Annoying, inconvinient and privacy invading’ are only mild terms.
If your position is that cycling is clean, that's fair enough.
I can't say I agree but I certainly admit I don't know for sure. For what it's worth I don't believe we are still in the unrestrained mega-doping Mr 60% days of yore, but I absolutely believe doping goes on to some extent still, and I believe also that it will be during training periods rather than racing.
The fact that cyclists still get popped for doping and using odd, hard to explain (TUEs for example) but not yet banned drugs would kind of back me up here.
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