The Tour de France 2016

Not being up on all this Sluffy,what happens next?

Why is he running up the mountain?

Shouldn't he have to be on a bicycle?

One of the camera bikes brake because of crowd encroachment. Froome and another couple of riders crashed into the back of the motorbike. He ran for a bit before getting another bike.
 
https://twitter.com/ITV4?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

I definitely think someone should have pointed out that he'd forgot something, joking aside what the fuck are the crowd and cameraman doing so close, why is no one pushing them back to make room.
A good journalist should never be the story,

whatsgoingon wrote:I definitely think someone should have pointed out that he'd forgot something, joking aside what the fuck are the crowd and cameraman doing so close, why is no one pushing them back to make room.
A good journalist should never be the story,

It's tradition.

Not saying it's right and it'd get on my tits but it's always been like that.

Froome got in bother last week for elbowing a Colombian fan out of the way.

Boris Johnson's offered him a job in his office.

boltonbonce wrote:Not being up on all this Sluffy,what happens next?

Why is he running up the mountain?

Shouldn't he have to be on a bicycle?

Basically on mountain stages towards the top the crowds encroach on to the road to leave just a narrow gap for the cyclists to get through.

Usually a police bike and camera bikes lead the way to part the crowds.

Froome, Porte and one other had broken away from the main contenders aiming to win the overall Tour (General Classification or GC for short) - note not todays stage itself (there were nine other riders in front of them racing to win todays stage but with no real chance of being in contention come Paris).

A race within a race if you like.

It was about gaining time on their main rivals - which Froome was in the process of doing.

Clearly something happened suddenly on the road to stop the camera motorbike which the three riders being so close behind it, simply rode into the back of.

Porte and the other riders bikes were ok so they peddled on but Froome bike was fucked.

He (or anyone else for that matter) is allowed to use a spare bike but his team simply could not get through the crowds and other cyclists to get one to him.

There is a neutral service team that gives support to any rider and they did get a bike to him eventually but he could not ride it because his shoe cleats were different than the pedal slits.

It is also not unusual for team mates to sacrifice their bikes to the team leader but by this time his only team mate close by was a small chap whose bike was to small for Froome to ride.

He had therefore two options - stay where he was until his team car with spare bike got to him or run as far up the hill he could again until his team car got there - but he had less to go to the finish line - and the clock was ticking.

Seems as I've been typing this the race organisers have accepted that the problem was theirs (crowd safety and all that I would imagine) and not Froome and the others effected and come up with a sensible result - presumably on the time gaps at the time of the incident or similar (I've not had time to check myself yet).

All very embarrassing for the Tour but as I keep banging on about the race is pure theatre and anything and everything happens in it.




EDIT - It now seems that the time the rider who was brought down with Froome and Porte (a Dutch lad called Mollema) finally finished on after picking himself up and riding to the finish line as also been given to Porte (who finished a number of seconds later and Frome who eventual finished over a minute behind him.

Probably as fair as the organisers were able to make it although it did look at the time that Froome could well have gained even more of a time gap over his main rival Quintana if the crash had not happened.

Fourth win on this years Tour for Cav!

Fair play to him as I for one had thought his best days were behind him.

Proved me wrong though.



Will he get an Olympic gold in Rio though?

Hope so.

Very, very sad news.

Olympic cyclist Chris Boardman's mother Carol has died after a collision with a pick up truck as she was cycling in north Wales, police have said.

Mrs Boardman, who competed in cycling races in her youth, was taken to hospital with serious injuries following the collision in Connah's Quay, near Deeside, on Saturday.

She later died in hospital.

Chris Boardman said she was "the most positive outgoing person you could ever hope to meet".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-east-wales-36819791


Chris Boardman won an Olympic gold medal in cycling in 1992, set the fastest ever hour record mark - so fast in fact the governing body changed its rules and 'scrubbed' the record from its books because no one was capable of beating it!

He went on to become only the second Brit to ever wear yellow in the Tour (after the late great Tommy Simpson) and set the fastest stage speed time, which stood even through all of the 'drug years' until it recently was bettered.

He is the founder of the top of the range 'Boardman Bikes', influences Government policy on cycling and is an extremely well respected expert cycling programme summariser and is currently the key summariser on ITV4's coverage of the Tour.

I normally try to bring you upbeat and sometimes zany cycling news but today the world of cycling is mourning Boardman's tragic loss.

RIP Mrs B.

Very sad news indeed. Let's hope the media gives Chris the space he needs.

RIP.

Froome wins the Tour for the third time - well not officially but no one attacks the leader on the last day so unless he gets hit by a bus or something he will be on the top step of the podium in Paris tomorrow.

To be honest it has been the dullest Tour in years because Froome's team Sky was simply so dominant and nobody else were stronger enough to challenge them - so everything was controlled and nobody attacked and took chances.

Fair play to Froome though, he still had to survive and he crashed yesterday and ended up riding one of his team mates bike to the finish - which at this sort of level is like wearing someone's made to measure suit - as everything on a bike is designed exactly for that particular rider (height, length, seat as well as all the technical stuff and settings) - so it wasn't as easy as you may think.

He also did his famous run up the hill too!

I was a bit surprised Quintana didn't challenge - he seemed off the pace this Tour for some reason.

It looks from the gossip that Sky will be strengthening their squad for next season too - so Froome to win again next year seems a good probability right now also.

Lots of twist and turns in cycling though, so who knows.

The Olympics in three weeks with Wiggins going for gold on the track and Froome on the road in something called a Time Trial - you race against the clock and not an opponent.

Froomes main rival for the gold - a Dutch rider fell also yesterday and seems to have badly hurt his wrist and might even be out of the Olympics.

It is a real shame if that was the case because the Dutch lad was probably the favourite for the gold.

Anyway the Tour of Spain to come after the Olympics so no doubt I'll be boring you more about cycling in weeks to come yet!

You know you love it really!

Quintana's poor performance surprised me too.

Kept a weather eye on events via German Eurosport in the hotel this week and he's been truly awful when you consider how strong he looked in last year's Tour.

He looked like me going up some of those climbs.

Summat very wrong.

A bit of a cold (which has lasted almost 3 weeks) or something more sinister.....?

Good to hear from you mate, you've been missed.

You're lucky to see German coverage of the Tour as I think it is only their first year back covering it again because they pulled out a few years back because viewing figures had fallen for them over all the drug shame they had (Ullrich and Zabel).

Funnily enough once their public though their sprinters Kittel and Greipel would be winning everything this Tour they started to cover it again!

I dare say one of them will win in Paris though although I hope Sagan does.

As for Quintana, well who knows - it is cycling after all!

Whatever it is/was though he's certainly not the same rider as per last years Tour where arguably he should have won it but for dropping time in the cross winds on stage two (out of 20!).

I got talking with a (loud) German bloke in the bar who said he was a Tour fan and who "vas tellink me how fantastisch  der Marcel Kittel vos" und how "Andrei Grepel vos das future der Europeische Cycling und so weiter..." so I asked him about Jan Ullrich and "vot was he vos doink zese days?"

Und he shut der fuck up und buggered off.

(Mit die grosse Fraue und die nervige kinde.......)

Sluffy wrote:Froome wins the Tour for the third time - well not officially but no one attacks the leader on the last day

What a mental rule. It's like saying you're not allowed to score against the potential champions in the last football match of the season.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

Sluffy wrote:Froome wins the Tour for the third time - well not officially but no one attacks the leader on the last day

What a mental rule. It's like saying you're not allowed to score against the potential champions in the last football match of the season.

Shit I agree with Nat, I'm just going for a lie down.

I've not checked the history of the tradition but I would suspect even if they did attack the leader it wouldn't make any difference to them winning as by the end of 20 days stage races (and bearing in mind the last day always ends in Paris which is as flat as a pancake in cycling terms) they could not claw back enough of a time difference to be meaningful.

The Paris stage is really more like a lap of honour for the winner and the blue ribbon event of the season for the 'sprint' cyclists.

Froome has a four minute lead over second, on a flat stage, with the full eight of his team left to help get him to the line. Even if someone did attack him on the final day it is inconceivable that he could lose from that position of strength unless some act of God occurs.

The tradition I guess is a throw back to old fashioned gamesmanship and respect - you've had 19 other days to try to beat him and failed so he deserves to savour his moment of victory.

I keep likening cycling and more specifically the Tours as theatre, as it is unique in sport, there is nothing else quite like it in how it is organised, where it takes place, how there are competitions within competitions, the scandal, the unexpected, the colours and the spectacle and much, much more.

I love it and it is a bit of a pity to me that most other people in this country at least don't seem to even want to give it a try to enjoy it, they seem to have a closed mind about it.

Each to their own I guess.

What I don't get is that the leader, Froome, is about 4 minutes ahead of the second place rider - surely that sort of lead is easily chased down over the course of a 'stage'?

About half way through Froome had a lead of around 2 minutes but that seems like nothing when a stage can last several hours.

Cycling in the Tour is really a 'team' event, although it's aim is to get one of their individuals to win it.

In the stage races a number of competitions take place 'within' the main race itself, so although a winner of a particular stage may win by four or more minutes in front of the leader, it generally doesn't effect the overall race itself (It is known as GC - General Classification).

In reality there are only a few people capable of winning a Tour because the race encompasses several disciplines within in it and very few are good at them all.

There really are two key disciplines where a rider can make time on his main rivals - peddling up huge mountains, or riding a Time Trial (a race against the clock on not the individual - so tactics don't come into play - you have to simply give it your all on the day).

To go up mountains you need to be as light as a feather because you don't want to carry massive body weight up hills if you want to be quick.  On time Trials however you need raw power and strength, so muscle power is key.

Only a few people (free from drugs anyway) can be competitive in both and they are the main contenders for GC.

On flat stages - such as Paris, the top riders are all pretty equal and the race is really for the sprinters - the strong powerful athletes who shoot it out for victory.

These sprinters carry to much muscle to do well in the mountains and simply lose too much time to the GC riders to ever get close to winning a Tour.

So even if the last stage went full pelt from the start, Froome's team will simply mark the rider who is in second place (or anyone else threatening to take the lead) and 'slipstream' Froome along with them to the finish line - and no one will be gaining anything like four minutes over their rivals.

That is why there is usually a key mountain stage or a lengthy Time Trial on the day before the stage in to Paris as a last attempt for anyone to seize the race lead or go down fighting.

Sadly Sky (Froome's team) was so dominant over the course of the race that nobody high in the GC 'race' even bothered to attack in this penultimate stage (they were beaten men before the stage even started) and the only excitement was from riders trying to get into the top ten positions come Paris (it is a big thing on their CV's when it comes to future contracts and what teams want them in the transfer window).

Not a classic Tour really for the general spectator like me but it did have its moments now and again including a revitalised Cavendish (will he win his Olympic medal - I hope so and that it is gold), Yates being brought down spectacularly with the banner and Froome running up the hill!

Roll on the Olympics to see Froome, Wiggins and Cavendish go for gold!

Breadman wrote:I got talking with a (loud) German bloke in the bar who said he was a Tour fan and who "vas tellink me how fantastisch  der Marcel Kittel vos" und how "Andrei Grepel vos das future der Europeische Cycling und so weiter..." so I asked him about Jan Ullrich and "vot was he vos doink zese days?"

Und he shut der fuck up und buggered off.

(Mit die grosse Fraue und die nervige kinde.......)

All sounds a bit racist that mate, you're clearly a leave voter.

Sluffy wrote:Cycling in the Tour is really a 'team' event, although it's aim is to get one of their individuals to win it.

In the stage races a number of competitions take place 'within' the main race itself, so although a winner of a particular stage may win by four or more minutes in front of the leader, it generally doesn't effect the overall race itself (It is known as GC - General Classification).

In reality there are only a few people capable of winning a Tour because the race encompasses several disciplines within in it and very few are good at them all.

There really are two key disciplines where a rider can make time on his main rivals - peddling up huge mountains, or riding a Time Trial (a race against the clock on not the individual - so tactics don't come into play - you have to simply give it your all on the day).

To go up mountains you need to be as light as a feather because you don't want to carry massive body weight up hills if you want to be quick.  On time Trials however you need raw power and strength, so muscle power is key.

Only a few people (free from drugs anyway) can be competitive in both and they are the main contenders for GC.

On flat stages - such as Paris, the top riders are all pretty equal and the race is really for the sprinters - the strong powerful athletes who shoot it out for victory.

These sprinters carry to much muscle to do well in the mountains and simply lose too much time to the GC riders to ever get close to winning a Tour.

So even if the last stage went full pelt from the start, Froome's team will simply mark the rider who is in second place (or anyone else threatening to take the lead) and 'slipstream' Froome along with them to the finish line - and no one will be gaining anything like four minutes over their rivals.

That is why there is usually a key mountain stage or a lengthy Time Trial on the day before the stage in to Paris as a last attempt for anyone to seize the race lead or go down fighting.

Sadly Sky (Froome's team) was so dominant over the course of the race that nobody high in the GC 'race' even bothered to attack in this penultimate stage (they were beaten men before the stage even started) and the only excitement was from riders trying to get into the top ten positions come Paris (it is a big thing on their CV's when it comes to future contracts and what teams want them in the transfer window).

Not a classic Tour really for the general spectator like me but it did have its moments now and again including a revitalised Cavendish (will he win his Olympic medal - I hope so and that it is gold), Yates being brought down spectacularly with the banner and Froome running up the hill!

Roll on the Olympics to see Froome, Wiggins and Cavendish go for gold!

Jesus, what happened to just racing to see who's the fastest bike rider.