Ship of Fools: Re::Cycling - Two wheels and Lycra, what's not to like?

Thread: Re::Cycling - Two wheels and Lycra, what's not to like? Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

To visit this thread, use this URL:
http://forum.ship-of-fools.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=70;t=030061

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :

The cycle sport thread. The last one seems to have died.

The Tour de France 2016 has just rolled off the causeway from Mont-Saint-Michel. As ever I am finding just about everything hard to predict.

I have no predictions for GC or KoM, but fancy André Greipel for the maillot vert.

(Translation: green jersey, the points classification for best overall finisher.)

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :

The last thing I expected was a Cavendish stage win. What with winning the World Championship in the Madison (in partnership with Wiggins) and with the Olympics in his sight I thought a road win was unlikely.

I was wrong.

Despite being behind Cav, Kittel and Sagan, I am still going for Greipel for green.

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

quote:
Originally posted by balaam:
The last thing I expected was a Cavendish stage win. What with winning the World Championship in the Madison (in partnership with Wiggins) and with the Olympics in his sight I thought a road win was unlikely.

I was wrong.

Despite being behind Cav, Kittel and Sagan, I am still going for Greipel for green.

And another one! Cavendish now has 28 stage wins, equal with Bernard Hinault and behind only Eddy Merckx.

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :

And a third.

If you eliminate time trial wins of Merckx and Hinalt, then Cavendish is by far the greatest sprinter ever in le Tour.

As for Greipel, never put money on people I tip.

Posted by Imaginary Friend (# 186) on :

Anyone else see Chris Froome's descent this afternoon? I can only assume he doesn't have testicles!

Posted by Barnabas62 (# 9110) on :

Great stage win, by unexpected means. Chris Froome says it was a spontaneous try. What a descent - it wasn't just his testicles which were in danger. The "off the saddle" aerodynamic crouch is pretty standard, high speed pedaling in that position not so much! Some of cornering was right on the limit. And Froomey described it as "fun".

Posted by Barnabas62 (# 9110) on :

Much needed rest day today. After 9 wonderful (in different ways) stages, this is building up to be a classic Tour.

Shame about Contador. But it was genuinely exciting at the end of the stage to see the current top favourites testing each other out, in atrocious weather, at the end of a long tough climb, at the end of a really tough day. Froome covered all breakaway attempts by his immediate competitors and lost no time to any of them. After his Stage 8 heroics, that was some performance, and without Sky Team help in the last few kilometres. He's looking strong.

Quintana is yet to show his hand. I thought Yates also looked very good. Stage 12, Mont Ventoux, on Bastille day (!), looks like being important again.

Definitely a climber's Tour this year. One of the time trials is basically a short hill climb. If they keep fit, I think it will be between Froome and Quintana.

Posted by Tukai (# 12960) on :

Sagan certainly rides like the World Champion that he is. Unafraid to have a go in any circumstances. Witness his breakaway bids on both the last 2 stages st 10 and 11). He was worked over by the Orica group of 3 in the closing stages of st 11, but still managed second, and in stage 11 was a deserved winner.

The big surprise on stage 11 was that Froome went with Sagan on his breakaway, and they (and the 2 team mates that they took with them) worked together to take time out of the chasers. It's hard to catch a breakaway when it's working well together at 60+ km/h for more than 10 km.

As a still racing cyclist myself (though at a level far below the pros!) I know first-hand just how important it is to be sharing the work around a group (and to stay in the group) especially on a windy day.

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

What the hell was going on today? I know the unusual is normal on the Tour but today was yet another instance of the organisers having to override the events on the track.

I think the riders should be armed.

Posted by Barnabas62 (# 9110) on :

If Froome's bike hadn't been totalled by another motorcycle I think they would have let it go. As it was I think they made a good, fair call. But I reckon Froome would have gained more in the GC without the crash. He looked really strong today.

It is proving increasingly difficult to control the crowds on mountain climbs. The time trials and the sprint stages will be fine. But they really need a new script for the mountains.

Posted by Imaginary Friend (# 186) on :

Any ideas what they could do? It doesn't seem practical to put barriers up on many kilometers of climbs.

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :

One of the problems was moving the finishing line, so the mountain was more crowded than usual. Those from higher up the slope had come down.

An alcohol ban above a certain elevation is needed, but who is going to police it?

Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :

quote:
Originally posted by balaam:

An alcohol ban above a certain elevation is needed, but who is going to police it?

You don't need an alcohol ban - you need an arsehole ban.

Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :

Corks provided?

Posted by Barnabas62 (# 9110) on :

quote:
Originally posted by balaam:
One of the problems was moving the finishing line, so the mountain was more crowded than usual. Those from higher up the slope had come down.

Absolutely right - but foreseeable as well. Difficult though it would have been, the organisers needed to ration the road space and disappoint some of the spectators. My guess is they just didn't have the means or the manpower to make that stick, so they hoped for the best.

A good job there wasn't someone up there with really malevolent intent,

Still, it was followed by a really good time trial, with a brilliant ride by Tom Dumoulin and an excellent second best from Chris Froome.

And then Cav won yet another sprinters' stage today!

Barring a collapse of form in the Alps, or some external nastiness, Froome now looks odds on to win again.

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :

Cav pulls out, with a chain of mountain stges over the next 4 days.

With the Olympics coming up, the one thing he has not got is an Olympic Gold, I am surprised he lasted this long.

Posted by Imaginary Friend (# 186) on :

So, I was wondering about that. Is this accepted cycling etiquette? Win a few stages then "so long, suckers, I've got places to be!"? Personally I can't imagine starting a race unless I honestly planned to finish it.

Posted by Mr Clingford (# 7961) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Imaginary Friend:
So, I was wondering about that. Is this accepted cycling etiquette? Win a few stages then "so long, suckers, I've got places to be!"? Personally I can't imagine starting a race unless I honestly planned to finish it.

My understanding is that it is etiquette in an Olympic year.

I enjoyed reading the comments on the BBC article about this. One guy wrote that only those aiming to win the race should start it - so the TdF would have only about 20 riders then!

Posted by Imaginary Friend (# 186) on :

Well, I think that's a slightly short-sighted point of view. It takes a team to win the Tour, so you need those twenty plus their domestiques and so on. And there are riders chasing the green and polka-dot jerseys which are also completely legitimate targets. It's just the stage wins thing that I find a bit hard to grasp as a concept.

Posted by Marama (# 330) on :

A pity that the weather on the last 2 Alpes stages prevented anyone from making a real challenge to Froome. Lucky for him that when he crashed on a wet downhill (no disgrace in that!) he had a teammate of about his size nearby to give him a bike. Though the presence of nearby teammates has been a strength of Team Sky and one of the main reasons Froome has stayed in yellow.

And as Tukai (an older, slower and more cautious rider) pointed out the bloke who screamed down the wet descent to win stage 20 is still young enough to be fearless (not to mention fit enough to get near the front going up to the descent).

Posted by Barnabas62 (# 9110) on :

Missed posting this on Sunday, but better late than never. Chris Froome proved that he is an outstanding cyclist. He climbed well throughout, time trialled brilliantly, showed he could compete where necessary in sprint finishes, demonstrated that he is an improved descender, and overcame adversity. The Sky team were also outstanding in their support.

It will be interesting to see how he gets on in Rio. It looks as though the time trial course will suit him.

Posted by Tukai (# 12960) on :

The Olympic men's road race was full of drama. Worth getting up at 2am our time to watch the last couple of hours.

It had length (250 km) along with a cobbled section (twice) and a big hill (8km) done 3 times. The big climb sorted out quite a few contenders, but the very tricky descent sorted out even more. Nibali led over the top for the last time , with 10km to go, and as a known fast descender looked set to win (from a group of 3). But he crashed pushing it too hard,as did Henao, which left Majka alone in front, with a group of about 6 some 20 seconds behind. The eventual winner, Greg Van Avamaet of Belgium, who had gamely stuck in on the uphills, broke away from that group on the flat run-in along with Fulsang; they caught Majka with less than 2 km to go, and Van A duly won the final sprint.

Of the pre-race favourites, Geraint Thomas was in the main breakaway until he crashed (also on the downhill); Richie Porte also crashed on the downhill; and Froome never got up to the front group (perhaps understandably not wanting to chase down his teammate Thomas). The whole Spanish and French teams (both very strong on paper) hung back until too late. Sagan, who might have been a contender being a similar rider to Van A, rated his chances as low against the pure climbers and has opted to contest the mountain bike race instead.

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

The Olympic road race was truly Olympic standard: look at a tough one race and make it 10% tougher. I'm not surprised there were falls, those descents after five hours in the saddle must have been hard.

My congratulations to everyone who competed. Hope you're all OK.

Posted by Mr Clingford (# 7961) on :

It's such a relief that the Dutch cyclist is alright in the women's race - I truly feared the worst yesterday, I really did.

Posted by Barnabas62 (# 9110) on :

Chris Boardman was right. That descent wasn't just technically difficult. it was both dangerous and inadequately safeguarded with barriers. Anna van Vleuten's crash was horrific.

Posted by Tukai (# 12960) on :

The light rain that fell during the women's race made it even trickier on the descent. It looked to me that Van Vleuten (the leader who crashed) came unstuck when she hit the painted white line in the middle of the road'; those painted lines are very slippery when wet - far more than the rest of the road. (The same happened to Froome when he crashed in the TdF.) Her somersaults over the handlebars looked like she may have put the front brake on too hard to compensate. And there was no soft landing space at the side of the road, so broken bones (at least) were a certainty.

Posted by Tukai (# 12960) on :

The Vuelta Espana is certainly livening up in the last week, as they go through the Pyrenees.

Stage 14: saw Quintana (at that point the overall leader by only 54 seconds) go head to head with Froome (second on GC) up the last climb (the Aubisque, 16 km , and that's after two substantial hills earlier in the stage. And an "ambush" move by Orica-Bike Exchange , which saw Yates rocketing up the Aubisque ahead of both of them. Gesink (surviving from the early breakaway) beat all three of them to the stage win.

Stage 15: Contador (always willing to have a go) led a breakaway only 5km from the start. Quintana oaboard with 2 teammates, but Froome's teammates were at the back of the peleton at the time, so he got left behind. By the finish Froome sits 3-1/2 minutes behind Q, but Q will need all that margin , as there is a tough individual time trial stage still to come.

Posted by Ariston (# 10894) on :

It's still road season? Okay, fine, the VdE is pretty durn exciting (if we're allowed to still have unpredictable road races after the spring ends), and Il Lombardia has sentimental value, but #crossiscoming. It's almost time to dust off those cowbells and go play in the mud again.

Stoked. So stoked. New city, new courses, new club, new dirt. It's coming, y'all. 'Cross. It's almost here. #beerhandups, #sockdoping, and everything.

[ 07. September 2016, 03:45: Message edited by: Ariston ]

UBB.classic^TM 6.5.0