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Tour de France 2019

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1Tour de France 2019 Empty Tour de France 2019 Mon Jul 22 2019, 14:23

Sluffy

Sluffy
Admin

I wasn't going to do a thread this year as there only seemed to be me much interested in the race on here but once again what a thriller the Tour is turning out to be!

It's a sort of watershed race, where the old guard where expected to just about hold on for another year whilst the new pretenders found their feet but it's been fireworks so far!

Before the race even started those who finished 2, 3 and 4 in last years race where not competing (Froome out injured) so the thinking (including mine) was a straight forward win for last years winner Geraint Thomas - but that's not what's been happening so far!

A great 'one day' French rider called Alaphilippe has been an absolute revelation and been riding out of his skin and has been leading the Tour easily, winning the Time Trial and up in the mountains - he isn't supposed to be capable of that!

Yesterday though was his first sign of weakness but he still leads the race.

Thomas is in second and his team mate Bernal is in firth, but two riders who have been around for ages but have never really looked like doing anything in previous tours split them with Kruijswijk in third and Frenchman Pinot in fourth - Pinot looking very strong at the moment.

A young gun Emmanuel Buchmann (German) is in 6th and really apart from perhaps Landa (Spain) who is in seventh, I doubt anyone else is close enough to win in Paris.

The question really is Alaphilippe got the strength to get over the Alps without losing the lead he's got, he's certainly shown the courage and determination to do so.

As it stands today (a rest day) I think Thomas will still do it but he has already shown weakness himself on the Tour already.  I think Alaphillipe needs to crack though rather than Thomas out ride him and I wonder if he will enough to lose the time cushion he already has?

Should be a thrilling last week though.

I'm looking forward to it if no one else is!


One to watch for the future is Belgium Wout van Aert.  He's already won a stage this Tour (against the best sprinters in the world) but crashed out and withdrawn from the rest of the Tour.

2Tour de France 2019 Empty Re: Tour de France 2019 Mon Jul 22 2019, 21:35

sunlight

sunlight
Andy Walker
Andy Walker

Some of the scenery is simply stunning. France is a beautiful country.

3Tour de France 2019 Empty Re: Tour de France 2019 Mon Jul 22 2019, 21:50

boltonbonce

boltonbonce
Nat Lofthouse
Nat Lofthouse

sunlight wrote:Some of the scenery is simply stunning. France is a beautiful country.
Indeed. They need to slow down a bit and take in the view. They should also take a picnic hamper.

Fresh air, beautiful scenery, and a little wine and cheese.

4Tour de France 2019 Empty Re: Tour de France 2019 Mon Jul 22 2019, 22:17

sunlight

sunlight
Andy Walker
Andy Walker

boltonbonce wrote:They need to slow down a bit and take in the view.
THIS.


Not to be exactly like these with the Breton shirts et Onions around leur cou, but theres something with much more treasure in observing the light on a stream and the smell of the trees than a winning medal and le maillot jaune.

5Tour de France 2019 Empty Re: Tour de France 2019 Mon Jul 22 2019, 22:45

boltonbonce

boltonbonce
Nat Lofthouse
Nat Lofthouse

sunlight wrote:
boltonbonce wrote:They need to slow down a bit and take in the view.
THIS.


Not to be exactly like these with the Breton shirts et Onions around leur cou, but theres something with much more treasure in observing the light on a stream and the smell of the trees than a winning medal and le maillot jaune.
Footballers should try it too.

Mo Salah bears down on goal. Suddenly, he comes to a dead stop, as he see's a Red Headed Cardinal beetle walking across the penalty spot. He beckons to the opposition keeper and defenders to gather round, and marvel at the natural world around them. The other players join in.
Virgil van Dijk takes out his magnifying glass and offers some advice on planting a beetle friendly garden.
What a marvellous sport football would be. 
Happily, Bolton players have been doing this for some time.

6Tour de France 2019 Empty Re: Tour de France 2019 Mon Jul 22 2019, 22:50

sunlight

sunlight
Andy Walker
Andy Walker

boltonbonce wrote:Footballers should try it too.

Mo Salah bears down on goal. Suddenly, he comes to a dead stop, as he see's a Red Headed Cardinal beetle walking across the penalty spot. He beckons to the opposition keeper and defenders to gather round, and marvel at the natural world around them. The other players join in.
Virgil van Dijk takes out his magnifying glass and offers some advice on planting a beetle friendly garden.
What a marvellous sport football would be.
Happily, Bolton players have been doing this for some time.

 That is great perspective, and goes towards being a master of reality.

7Tour de France 2019 Empty Re: Tour de France 2019 Mon Jul 22 2019, 23:14

boltonbonce

boltonbonce
Nat Lofthouse
Nat Lofthouse

Beetles and bugs are a big part of the Wanderers history. Who can forget Gnat Lofthouse?

8Tour de France 2019 Empty Re: Tour de France 2019 Tue Jul 23 2019, 10:17

rammywhite

rammywhite
Frank Worthington
Frank Worthington

boltonbonce wrote:Beetles and bugs are a big part of the Wanderers history. Who can forget Gnat Lofthouse?

(Here we go!!)
Or Sammy Flee

9Tour de France 2019 Empty Re: Tour de France 2019 Tue Jul 23 2019, 11:11

boltonbonce

boltonbonce
Nat Lofthouse
Nat Lofthouse

rammywhite wrote:
boltonbonce wrote:Beetles and bugs are a big part of the Wanderers history. Who can forget Gnat Lofthouse?

(Here we go!!)
Or Sammy Flee
Smile

10Tour de France 2019 Empty Re: Tour de France 2019 Tue Jul 23 2019, 11:19

rammywhite

rammywhite
Frank Worthington
Frank Worthington

Apologies Sluffy- we've hijacked your thread.
 Simon Yates-  a Bury lad ,certainly not disgracing himself on this year's Tour

11Tour de France 2019 Empty Re: Tour de France 2019 Tue Jul 23 2019, 11:56

Sluffy

Sluffy
Admin

rammywhite wrote:Apologies Sluffy- we've hijacked your thread.
 Simon Yates-  a Bury lad ,certainly not disgracing himself on this year's Tour

I don't mind, at least people are posting and having fun and that's what we need to get back to again - that's why we started Nuts in the first place.

Both Yates twins are extremely talented riders and Adam the slightly older one was expected to be the better of the two although results have worked out that way yet.

Adam is the Team Leader on the Tour and Simon is here really to condition himself for the upcoming Tour of Spain (The Vuelta de Espana) of which he is the defending champion.

His job on this Tour was really to help/guard/protect his brother but Adam is way off the pace which has meant that Simon has fallen back too on the leaders of the race and therefore is no longer a threat to him winning the overall race.

This has given him a free hand to hunt for stage wins, knowing that he won't be a marked man by those fighting amongst themselves to win the Tour, and he's got the skill and ability to win in the high mountains - which he has.

He's got every chance of another stage win as there are three days in the Alps to come.

Anyway back to Bolton players with insect names!

Frank Wormington perhaps?

Very Happy

12Tour de France 2019 Empty Re: Tour de France 2019 Tue Jul 23 2019, 12:01

boltonbonce

boltonbonce
Nat Lofthouse
Nat Lofthouse

Sluffy, as you well know, I'm not interested in the sport, but might I ask the procedure if a bike is written off?
Does the rider have one or two back ups, or is there an unlimited number he can always rely on?

13Tour de France 2019 Empty Re: Tour de France 2019 Tue Jul 23 2019, 12:30

Sluffy

Sluffy
Admin

boltonbonce wrote:Sluffy, as you well know, I'm not interested in the sport, but might I ask the procedure if a bike is written off?
Does the rider have one or two back ups, or is there an unlimited number he can always rely on?

There are a number of cars following the Tour around, with spare bikes on their roofs.

Team cars have bikes set up specifically to their various riders specification - riders can and do come in all shapes and sizes and a 'one size fits all' set up doesn't really work.

Saying that though, at times Team Cars can't always be close to their riders and there are 'neutral' service cars, again with bikes on their roofs that will support any rider irrespective of which team they are on, to at least carry on the race until their team car can catch up to them and swop it for one more specifically set up to the riders requirements.

Finally, even support riders on the same team will surrender their bikes to their Team Leader if there is no other option, and they will know who has a similar build and bike set up as the team leader, for him to take the one best suited to him.

Seconds count you see.

Anyway a few funnies mainly in respect of when bikes have gone wrong!

14Tour de France 2019 Empty Re: Tour de France 2019 Tue Jul 23 2019, 12:35

boltonbonce

boltonbonce
Nat Lofthouse
Nat Lofthouse

Thanks Sluffy. I've always wondered about the back up systems but never really looked into it.

15Tour de France 2019 Empty Re: Tour de France 2019 Tue Jul 23 2019, 13:37

karlypants

karlypants
Nat Lofthouse
Nat Lofthouse

Loved how Bradley Wiggins knocked the camera off the guys shoulder in that vid! Very Happy

16Tour de France 2019 Empty Re: Tour de France 2019 Sun Jul 28 2019, 15:42

Sluffy

Sluffy
Admin

Another spectacular Tour ends today packed full of pure theatre - I honestly can't understand why so many people don't seem to like the Tour - it is up there with the great events that grow over a period of days such as The Ryder Cup and Test Matches.

You never now what is around the corner in the Tour though, as the unexpected always happens.

In this Tour - which the French haven't won for nearly 40 years - they were besides themselves with hope as they had not one but two riders looking odds on to win it.  The leader for nearly all of the race (Alaphillipe) being a wonderful one day rider and certainly not expected to be half as good as he did until the last two days of the race where he basically ran out of steam, and one who could climb mountains like an angel (Pinot) but has been known to be mentally fragile in the past - he again suddenly and expectantly pulled out of the race with a bad leg, again with just two days to go!

The French population were in tears again and have to wait yet another year to win - but with Alaphillipe they have hope.

However a young Columbian rider (Egan Bernal) won the race from his team mate (Geraint Thomas) who finished second, so another British one, two for Team Sky, now known as Ineos.

Bernal who really was there to help Thomas win on one day in the mountains was riding slightly better than him and allowed to attack - meaning the other serious contenders had to ride after him - and thus allow Thomas to sit at the back of this bunch, doing no work and taking in effect a rest.  The others couldn't catch him though - and after doing the same again two days ago - more or less sealed the win for him.

Bernal at 22 years old is the youngest winner in over 100 years, so he seems to have a great future for himself.  As he and Thomas (who is 33) have contracts longer to go than Froome (34) has then it's looking less likely that Chris will ever be number one at Team Sky again.

Chuck in to the theatre of the Tour that two key riders Luke Rowe for Sky who finished one and two and a rider for the team whose leader finished third - were kicked off the Tour for a slight clash between themselves - an everyday thing really - but by being kicked off and a man down each (both the 'road captains' (the ones who control the teams minute by minute racing on the road itself)) and handed a really massive advantage to the two French riders in their attempt to win the Tour!!!

Very home town decision everyone thought!

Part of the fun and intrigue that goes on before, during and after the race.

Watch out for next years Tour to have far less big mountains and plenty more short, sharp, steep incline finishes instead - which coincidently Alaphillipe is the master off!

Tour of Spain up next - watch for Bury's Simon Yates to retain his title.

Au revoir.

17Tour de France 2019 Empty Re: Tour de France 2019 Sun Jul 28 2019, 17:00

sunlight

sunlight
Andy Walker
Andy Walker

I am regarder the race live maintenant.

18Tour de France 2019 Empty Re: Tour de France 2019 Mon Jul 29 2019, 15:19

boltonbonce

boltonbonce
Nat Lofthouse
Nat Lofthouse

Sluffy, I've been reading a bit about the race, and noted that, due to incidents with the weather, some parts of the route had to be changed, or shortened.
Did this have any effect on the outcome of the race, or would the Colombian have won regardless?

19Tour de France 2019 Empty Re: Tour de France 2019 Mon Jul 29 2019, 17:36

Sluffy

Sluffy
Admin

boltonbonce wrote:Sluffy, I've been reading a bit about the race, and noted that, due to incidents with the weather, some parts of the route had to be changed, or shortened.
Did this have any effect on the outcome of the race, or would the Colombian have won regardless?

It made the event extremely dramatic at the time but the cyclist it probably most effected was Geraint Thomas and his chance of retaining his title.

There are a great number of things going on in a race, particularly a Tour race like this, than simply first man past the post wins.

Leading up to the Friday the last but one race day, Saturday being the last and Sunday the leader in yellow is never challenged - a fantastic French rider (Allaphillipe), was cycling out of his skin to lead the race by around a minute and a half - but there were big question marks about his ability in the high Alps (and the altitude of them).  Not only that but his Team is a 'sprinters' team - one with riders whose focus and skills are to win 'sprinters' stages on the Tour (the ones that are generally flatish from start to finish) and not a GC (General Contender) team, who are staffed with people who can climb very well, time trial very well (pedal for long distances in front of everyone else at a very fast speed - so no other team can overtake you and control the race instead of you).  The best can even TT and climb mountains as well - and the Team leader is basically carried by his team for the last possible moment, then he has to earn his money by converting all their effort into a win.

Anyway back to that Friday.

The stage had two big mountains in it towards the end, the last being a huge one - and the plan was to go up the next to last mountain as quickly as possible to crack the French lad.

There where 5 real contenders behind Alaphillipe all of them known and proven GC's (General Contenders - think overall winners) but one of the, another French lad - and perhaps France's real hope of winning - pulled out in tears with a bad leg - so we were down to one pretender to the crown and four realistic ones.

As Bernal and Thomas were team mates (Bernal being in second at the time with Thomas just 5 seconds behind in third) the plan was for one of them to attack on the mountain, forcing the others to chase him - otherwise their GC hopes were at risk, with the other team rider, riding at the back of the chase basically having a rest (the effort is in a rider facing wind resistance and the gain from others is slipstreaming him).

Thomas attacked first, Alaphillipe fell back, but the other 3 plus Bernal at the rear caught up with him.  As soon as they did Bernal attacked with Thomas having a rest instead.  This one-two attacking would have carried on until one of the broke free.

It happened to be Bernal from his first attack.

Alaphillipe lost his lead - in fact slipped back to fifth behind the other 4 known GC riders by the top of the mountain, with Bernal in the lead and Thomas second as it stood at that point.

As the riders cycled down the hill to the foot of the monster climb, Bernal retained his lead but Alaphillipe with brilliant technique caught up to the other three riders.

Just about that time pictures started coming in of lower down the mountain of a flash hailstorm that flooded the road and made the stage unsafe to continue any further.

Tour de France 2019 59f406a6e242e852bb51854a664e950d?width=1024

So the race was called and the times taken for the riders at the top of the mountain they just climbed - putting the Columbian in first and Thomas second.

If the weather had not intervened it was now certain that Alaphillipe would have been in trouble and lost considerable time on the massive mountain - so he's probably lucky to end up in fifth position overall at the end of the race - to be honest he was the real star of the Tour and I guess he must now consider changing himself from an outstanding one day racer, and see if he can turn himself into a GC contender - I'm sure he will because France is desperate for a Tour winner of its own race.

So would Bernal increase his lead on the big mountain or get caught by the other 3?

Well Bernal was riding with Simon Yates at the front when the race was called off - Yates was no threat to GC, he was too far back on time to be involved - but he is an excellent rider in the mountains (and is currently the reigning Tour of Spain holder), so I have no doubt that they would have road together, taking turns at the front, with a deal basically that Yates would be allowed to win the stage as a reward for helping to put/keep Bernal in yellow on the road/at the intended stage end.

It would be hard to imagine that the other two GC riders would have closed down and passed Bernal and Yates, and even if they did they would then have a rested Thomas (and one of Thomas and Bernal's team mates) then to sprint ahead of them, and have to catch them too. The team mate would bury himself with Thomas following, and once he had nothing left to give the Thomas would bury himself all the way to the win and the yellow jersey at the top.

The short Saturday race (because of landslides) also raced up a shorter mountain, the big one of that day was cancelled - and even with there being a gap of just 20 seconds from Thomas to third place, the other two GC didn't have it in them to attack him - in fact they both ended up losing a handful of seconds more to him.

I think how things ended at the top of the smaller mountain on Friday more or less would be how things ended up in Paris.

I think Thomas would have cut the time difference to Bernal but still ended up second and I think Alaphillipe probably would have lost a few more minutes and drop him down from firth place to lower down the top ten - possibly even out of it - which he certainly would not have deserved.

Bernal comes across as a really decent young man and their seemed genuine warmth from Thomas to him for his win.

I know cycling has its shittier moments but this was the closest race in ages in respect of who might win it, in got the French hopes up - only to be dashed - and brought a number of the new wave of riders to the non cycling publics attention (a shout out to Emanuel Buchmann from Germany, who finished fourth, who is yet another new face to many).

The Tour of Spain (Vuelta) starts in a months time (24th Aug) and should be fun with a separate set of riders (most GC cyclist either just ride the TdF or the Tour of Italy and Spain that are either side of the TdF, in order to give them time to physically recover from them.

Simon Yates (who did ride the TdF, but only as a helper (domestique) for his brother Adam) will be there and probably too Tom Dumoulin who crashed out of the Italian Tour (Giro) and was still injured for the TdF.

I expect Sky to put some of their young riders into their team more for experience than as a serious attempt to win it.

No doubt all sorts of unexpecting things will happen - it usually does.

Should be fun anyway!

20Tour de France 2019 Empty Re: Tour de France 2019 Mon Jul 29 2019, 17:47

boltonbonce

boltonbonce
Nat Lofthouse
Nat Lofthouse

Thanks. That weather looked horrific.

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