The Official 101st Tour de France, thread.

[Pogue Mahone]

What time does it start on the telly and what channel? I'm going to watch it with an open mind and see if I'm genuinely missing out on something great.

EDIT: or should I start with the highlights later tonight?

EDIT 2: ..and basic tactics, what should I be looking out for so I understand whats happening?

Highlights, ITV4 at 7pm would be a far better intro.

Tactically, some riders will attack early on and the sprinters' teams will control the pace of the peloton, and will catch the breakaway riders inside the last 10km. Then 'trains' will form, with the team's specialist sprinter at the back of a line of riders from his team. The pace will gradually increase, with lead riders dropping off as they exhaust their energy supplies until the sprinter is unleashed with 200 odd metres to go.

Again, team tactics are more complicated and entertaining in the mountains.

 

[Bladders]

Sprinter at the back of the train, is this some kind of slip streaming for him?

 

[Bold Seagull]

Sprinter at the back of the train, is this some kind of slip streaming for him?

Yes, the sprinter basically hides for as long as possible, and his team protect him for most of the race. Being behind someone you're using anything from 15 to 30% less energy to maintain the speed of the person cutting through clean air. The sprint teams on a flat stage generally do a fair amount of work on the front of the peloton to keep it going at decent speed so that no one fancies forming a big break. As it was yesterday, they controlled the gap to the 2 man break so that it was manageable but didn't catch it too early as otherwise you'd get other attacks happening off the front.

Forming a good train like Giant did yesterday can be difficult if you don't time the effort of each person right, or the train breaks and some other ride gets in-between. Sagan for example latched onto the Giant train in the end and got a tow from them but didn't have the legs to get round Kittel.

 

[Stat Brother]

[MENTION=24838]Bladders[/MENTION] & [MENTION=23454]HawkTheSeagull[/MENTION]

I can't really think of a football analogy to describe Wednesdays stage, but in horse racing terms it goes something like this:-

Everybody knows and love the Tour de France (The Grand National)
But cycling aficionados love Paris - Roubaix (The Cheltenham Gold Cup)

Paris-Roubaix is 'The Hell of the North', a 1 day race basically through WWI country.
It's raced on a mixture roads, farm tracks and cobbled paths.

Riders can either do it or they can't.
There's some luck involved, p******** are common, as are falls, and broken bones.
Paris-Roubaix is a hard mans race, esp as it's raced in early April.

Tomorrows stage is paying homage to WWI by racing over some cobbled sections starting in Ypres.

There are some cobbled specialists in the Tour, Fabian Cancellara will be a hot favourite for the win.
But all of the Tour favourites and the lightweight mountain riders have avoided cobbles all their careers, and are plopping themselves at the prospect of tomorrows stage.

The last time the Tour had a similar stage it was carnage, spectacular, and totally absorbing.

 

[Pantani]

Only one bet for today Coquard £1 at 20-1 e/w and on the nose. I don't think anyone else believes that they can beat Kittel, I don't really think Coquard can, but at least he thinks he can do it.

It is probably heart ruling head though, he is my new favourite sprinter.

 

[Sussax]

£1 on Kittel 1st, Coquard 2nd at 8/1.
50p on Kittel 1st Sagan 2nd at 10/3.
10p on Fabian Cancellara at 100/1.

 

[Jeep]

This is some GoPro footage I took earlier.. Ahem.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2...am-lampre-merida-stage-2-york-sheffield_sport

 

[Triggaaar]

What time does it start on the telly and what channel? I'm going to watch it with an open mind and see if I'm genuinely missing out on something great.

EDIT: or should I start with the highlights later tonight?

EDIT 2: ..and basic tactics, what should I be looking out for so I understand whats happening?

When there's a good stage, it's good to have on in the background (like test cricket) - dip in and out to keep an eye on what's happening. For a lot of it, nothing at all happens, except the scenery, then watch when the commentators get your attention - maybe it's a big climb, or there's a breakaway etc.

Sprinter at the back of the train, is this some kind of slip streaming for him?

Cycling is all about slip streaming. All of it.

So flat stages are generally won by a sprinter. There will be a few breakaways, where a group try to break away so that the winner is between them. The less rider the breakaway, the harder it is, as they have to take it in turns at the front (which is hard work). And breakaways consist of people who are in it for themselves, not working as a team, so you get some ******* at the back doing no work, knowing he'll sprint past the others at the end. If a breakaway had more riders, or riders from one team, they'd be more of a threat, and the peloton would try harder to catch them. But often there's only a few in the peloton willing to sacrifice themselves (working hard at the front) to catch the breakaway.

Climbs help break the peloton, as you go slow up hills, and slip-streaming suddenly doesn't help so much. Sprinters aren't built for mountains, so they don't win the whole tour, they just get a few stage wins. And on the stages they win, they're only a couple of seconds ahead of the rest of the pack, which is not much good for the overall tour, but it's good for the odd stage win.

You also get time-trial stages, where each rider is on their own. These are also important for the overall tour, as you can gain/lose minutes against your rivals.

It's interesting to see breakaways trying to build a big enough lead to win a stage. It's exciting to watch the favourites trying to break the others in a climb (those that are doping are brilliant at this). And sprint finishes are great when Cavandish is winning them.

 

[Pantani]

£1 on Kittel 1st, Coquard 2nd at 8/1.
50p on Kittel 1st Sagan 2nd at 10/3.
10p on Fabian Cancellara at 100/1.

No chance for Spartacus today, he will be trundling along in the peloton expending as little energy as possible. Tomorrow is his day, and should be the highlight of the first week.

 

[Pantani]

Small chute for Froome, it doesn't look too bad. Kirby is talking like his Tour is over though.

 

[Pantani]

Why are Lotto helping control the break? It is like they do not learn, Greipel has finished 18th and 23rd on the two sprint stages. They have to make Giant do all the work, it really is a no brainer.

 

[strings]

Small chute for Froome, it doesn't look too bad. Kirby is talking like his Tour is over though.

If that were me, I'd be milking it for days. It seriously looks painful!

[tweet]486481168754573312[/tweet]

 

[Bold Seagull]

Small chute for Froome, it doesn't look too bad. Kirby is talking like his Tour is over though.

That's what you want, a sore wrist in preparation for tomorrow's stage!

 

[Indurain's Lungs]

Why are Lotto helping control the break? It is like they do not learn, Greipel has finished 18th and 23rd on the two sprint stages. They have to make Giant do all the work, it really is a no brainer.

Exactly! Kittel is now like Cav a few years ago - the other teams need to sit up and do nothing. Let Giant do it all in the hope of leaving Kittel isolated - he can get out of position when that happens and that's their only slim chance of beating him. That and trying to eliminate him on one of the mountain stages!

 

[Pantani]

That's what you want, a sore wrist in preparation for tomorrow's stage!

True, enough. Can't wait for tomorrow, it is going to be great.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Exactly! Kittel is now like Cav a few years ago - the other teams need to sit up and do nothing. Let Giant do it all in the hope of leaving Kittel isolated - he can get out of position when that happens and that's their only slim chance of beating him. That and trying to eliminate him on one of the mountain stages!

Is there anywhere to see the stats for who is on the front? I thought Giant were mostly on the front yesterday, and from about 10km out. Astana are obviously in there today, but yes, I suppose why don't Lotto just leave it to Giant and sit back...

 

[manintheblackpajamas]

I wont bore everyone with my Yorkshire tales, but suffice to say it was a magnificent weekend.

The highlight being riding the route from Greeton to the top of Holme Moss on Sunday.
we then descended about 900 metres and grabbed a vantage point. Here is a screen grab from a video I took as the peloton passed.

 

[Pantani]

Is there anywhere to see the stats for who is on the front? I thought Giant were mostly on the front yesterday, and from about 10km out. Astana are obviously in there today, but yes, I suppose why don't Lotto just leave it to Giant and sit back...

Just re-watched the final 10km from yesterday. The leaders of the peloton were:

10-7.5km Lotto
7.5-5km Taxo Sinkoff
5-3.5km OPQS
3.5-finish line Giant

Giant like to take it up with 2-3km to go, and the others seem to be letting them. It is most peculiar.

Interesting that Saxo have been working that hard to keep Contador safe. I have a feeling that they led for quite a while on the first stage too.

 

[Stat Brother]

P&P were reporting Mr Lotto saying Griepel lost his bottle yesterday, touching his brakes a couple of times, in the last corners.

Kittel clearly has no peers at this race, now and probably didn't even with Cav.
The train is super smooth, and probably contains 3 of the top 5 sprinters left.

If Demare backs out of it today he might be worth a punt tomorrow.

 

[strings]

If Demare backs out of it today he might be worth a punt tomorrow.

You have to be ruddy kidding - I've just taken him out of my fantasy team! He did so well at the Giro, I thought he was certain to score big at le Tour.