Road Cycling
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TdF should be cobblestones and mountain goat paths up fucking steep mountains. No rests, nor flat stages. Survive and climb bitch!
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@mariner4life said in Road Cycling:
why do we have an early rest day?
is this the price of the Denmark start? well i don't like it
It's a transition day more than a rest day. And yes, a price for taking things to Denmark (have to then get back)
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@gt12 said in Road Cycling:
Bennett crashes on the cobbles. Not sure how bad it is yet.
I love July - end of semester so classes are winding down and its Tour de France time.
The French can't make decent hay bales, so they just spilled out into the track. What a fuck up! Roglic appeared to put his own dislocated shoulder back in.
Any way, crazy stuff is over, real racing starts now
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Yeah - really disappointing to see Roglic probably out of the frame - not irretrievably, but it's hard to think a dislocated shoulder is going to help him in the mountains..
Yesterday Wout Van Aert pulled a superb solo move to win the stage.
I've got a feeling it's going to be Pog vs Vingegaard, so I hope George is fine to play a decent part.
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@Chris-B said in Road Cycling:
Yeah - really disappointing to see Roglic probably out of the frame - not irretrievably, but it's hard to think a dislocated shoulder is going to help him in the mountains..
Yesterday Wout Van Aert pulled a superb solo move to win the stage.
I've got a feeling it's going to be Pog vs Vingegaard, so I hope George is fine to play a decent part.
Is Vinegaard that good? It looks like its going to be a procession for Pog to me which will make the whole (remaining) thing a fucking bore-fest.
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@gt12 All the smart money was on Pogacar long before it started. The previous winner and easily the best rider in the world, in good form, is likely to win. Shock!
Do you think the Tour was in any doubt during the high points of Indurain or Armstrong? It was before my time, but it was even worse when Merckx was riding. Nothing has changed. The best rider is going to win! Shock!
If tight competition is why you watch then you need to recalibrate. Watching the Tour is about enjoying just how good the leader really is.
Until he does a Bjarne Riis and is bound to win, then suddenly collapses and doesn't. And you didn't watch because it is a "bore fest".
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@dogmeat said in Road Cycling:
@gt12 TdF is therapy for the soul. Watching the peloton glide past summer fields is zen like. Then the mountain stages illustrate that the true road to enlightenment is through suffering
pass me a beer....
First Cat 1 climb tonight. Not a real killer but may do some re-ordering.
The real pain comes next week with 5 HCs in two days -
@gt12 Yeah - Pog's to lose, really.
If anyone is going to challenge him I think it would be Roglic or Vingegaard. And with his crash, Roglic is already 2.5 minutes down.
But, the only time Pog was in any sort of trouble last year was when Vingegaard dropped him climbing Mont Ventoux, so he's certainly good - and come in with good form.
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It's shitty how Roglic has lost so much time already, but from the moment Pogucar beat him in the initial time trial I didn't give him much chance. Roglic won't climb much better, if at all, so he needed to make good time on the TTs.
Vingegaard might at least make up time in the climbs.
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If it was 15 years ago what would we.be saying about Pogacar being a fucking rock star every single day no matter what the profile of the stage
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@mariner4life I'm suspending disbelief.
Anyway, further down the hill George put in a very good ride as Pog's second-to-last man. I think he must have done something 3kms on the front from about 5.5kms from the finish, with enough tempo to send the likes of Vlasov and Pinot out the back. Majka took over and did a bit more shredding and then the big boys went to it.
I thought poor old Kamna from the breakaway was going to grab the stage win, but in the end the ramp and the gravel at the finish were too much and Vingegaard and Pog sprinted past him and buried him.
Looked like Jonas had it in the bag, but Pog did his rock-star bit and came again.
Vingegaard came to a grinding halt and nearly fell over on the line as he finished and Pog looked like he could go another round if he had to.
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@Chris-B yeah I was devastated for the German. What, less than 100m to go and he just couldn't get there. Huge effort
Pogacar getting towed up that hill by two guys who killed themselves was the difference
And his uncanny ability to just have more there than anyone else, at any time.
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@mariner4life Yeah - it's not so surprising to see Kamna get buried at the end by guys who've been in an armchair. Devastating though! (Cycling is a a sh*t of a sport in the way it promotes these injustices
).Reminded me of a stage in last year's Giro, when George had been in a breakaway - ended on the gravel and not a particularly steep bit of uphill. I'm pretty sure it was Koen Bouwman who looked like he had it won from the breakway, and suddenly Bernal just blasted past him like it was me riding Bouwman's bike.
Edit: Here it is! Bouwman and Bouchard.
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@Chris-B said in Road Cycling:
@mariner4life I'm suspending disbelief.
Vingegaard came to a grinding halt and nearly fell over on the line as he finished and Pog looked like he could go another round if he had to.
Watch again. Pogucar nearly vomited straight afterwards. He was utterly spent.
What sets him apart is not that he is miles faster than everyone else. He's barely made time on Vingegaard, after all. It's that unusually for a climber he has a decent sprint. So he keeps winning stages that usually the GC winner would come second or third in.
Meanwhile Wout van Aert is just as dominant in Green, because he's a sprinter who can climb well.
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George picked up 21 places in the GC last night as we start to get into the mountains. Did nothing much but the pack is starting to sort itself out now.
I expect he has a big job to do in stages 11 and 12 so will welcome the rest day tonight and the 'hilly' stage 10.
The route goes up the Col du Galibier twice (equivalent of riding up to crater lake of Mt Ruapehu) so if you didn't like it first time you'll hate it coming back in the opposite direction the next day.
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