The Official 101st Tour de France, thread.

[Deleted member 22389]

http://www.letour.com/le-tour/2014/us/pre-home.html

Thanks for the link. I found the rider numbers, just need to do a bit of copying and pasting so I can fit it on a couple of A4s

 

[Hamilton]

Just back from the pave. Will post again later, but for now, I can't express clearly enough have bad the conditions were on the cobbles. Like riding over blocks of ice. Immense riding from those that survived.

Mrs H didn't take up the challenge of having a go, and I gave it a miss too. In the dry was one thing, but today? No thanks.

 

[1066familyman]

Wow!, the stage of carnage certainly delivered!

First up is obviously a Chapeau to Boom on a great stage win.

Fantastic ride by Nibs and Astana as a team - Westra in particular did a superb job.

Not sure what happened to Mollema with all his apparent pre stage posturing about gaining GC time. Lost out to Nibs big time (like everyone), and time to Talansky, Porte & TJVG too. Only gained time on Bert, and that was only 10 seconds! poor effort when he had Vanmarcke there to help him. The stage win will no doubt soothe the disappointment, but it's an opportunity missed for when he fades in one of the last mountain stages.

Surprised TJVG didn't profit today as well. Strong team for the cobbles and should really have made it pay. Not sure if the team had any fallers?

Contador will accept this loss and think it could have been a whole lot worse I suppose. He'll be pleased that Nibs was the only one to take serious time on him, but it's time he can take back and it's really made a race of it. Mouthwatering GC now.

The Froome exit, as shocking as it, in some ways wasn't completely out of the blue. The Dauphine crash and performance after it, the wrist injury from yesterday, and the rain today, all conspired to a sense of inevitability. The irony is that he didn't even reach the cobbles. Real shame for the race, and gutted for Froome, but the race goes on and as Tyrone says, it'll be interesting to see how Porte now handles the leadership responsibilty.



The above is a quick reaction to having just watched the stage back as live. I'll be interested to read the post stage interviews etc to see who crashed/mechanicals off camera and how everyone was affected.

 

[1066familyman]

Just back from the pave. Will post again later, but for now, I can't express clearly enough have bad the conditions were on the cobbles. Like riding over blocks of ice. Immense riding from those that survived.

Mrs H didn't take up the challenge of having a go, and I gave it a miss too. In the dry was one thing, but today? No thanks.

Hope you had a great day. Wise move not getting the bikes out on those cobbles today. Strange how most of the crashes today though were on the wet roads rather than the cobbles themselves.

 

[1066familyman]

Cough cough.

He only won because I didn't bet on him!!

What odds was Boom? Can't have been anything more than 20 - 30/1 surely?

Haussler was looking good for me until he went over with Iglinsky, only to go over again and put him right out of contention just a few kms later.
Demare must have crashed early because he was already off the back when live ITV coverage started.
Pleased I got 80/1 Keukeleire in the Top Ten, but a miss is still as good as a mile.

 

[Stat Brother]

What odds was Boom? Can't have been anything more than 20 - 30/1 surely?

Haussler was looking good for me until he went over with Iglinsky, only to go over again and put him right out of contention just a few kms later.
Demare must have crashed early because he was already off the back when live ITV coverage started.
Pleased I got 80/1 Keukeleire in the Top Ten, but a miss is still as good as a mile.

A few bookies had him around 40/1.

I think Skybet had him comparatively low, so I enabled the win by not betting.

Yet another kudos for the Tour of Britain.
I've got a great photo of jnr with Boom from a couple of years back.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Just back from the pave. Will post again later, but for now, I can't express clearly enough have bad the conditions were on the cobbles. Like riding over blocks of ice. Immense riding from those that survived.

Mrs H didn't take up the challenge of having a go, and I gave it a miss too. In the dry was one thing, but today? No thanks.

Glad you are both okay, a fair few spectators got taken out along the way!

 

[Motogull]

Cobbles + me + rain = book the ambulance in advance.

 

[Stat Brother]

Stage 6

Arras - Reims, 194kms

Having battled the roads, cobbles and weather, the peloton is now heading towards the Vosges mountains, via champagne country.
Battered and bruised from previous day, the riders will be reminded of true suffering as the race will be passing through the Somme along the Chemin des Dames, where the Second Battle of Aisne took place in 1917.

Having dispatched Chris Froome from the race, the remaining favourites will be keen to take a backseat today.
Although losing time on the cobbles Alberto Contador has the most to gain from Chris Froome's bad luck.
The race would appear to be heading towards a straight 'fight' between Contador and Nibali, who doesn't have history on his side. The last rider to lead from stage 2 through to Paris was Jacques Anquetil way back in 1961.

Anyone with anything left in the tank after yesterdays stage will be hoping the Cat 4 climb, 35kms from the finish, followed by an undulating ride into Reims will assist the break away.

After racking up yet another fourth place, in Arenberg Porte du Hainaut, Peter Sagan and his Cannondale squad might have other ideas.
A false flat final km sprint may well be just the pick me up the prodigious Slovak star is looking for to keep his detractors at bay. Although Giant Fishing Tackle might just spoil his party yet again, this time in the guise of John Degenkolb.

 

[wakeytom]

Right I have been enjoying the tour and I often enjoy the racing, this is not a fishing question but how does the scoring and timing work? Kittel had been winning all the days from what I could work out but when I liked yesterday after he had won 3 he was no where to be seen, I am very confused! I think I get the king of mountains as is that simply points scored from first to the top of a set hill or mountain?

 

[Stat Brother]

Right I have been enjoying the tour and I often enjoy the racing, this is not a fishing question but how does the scoring and timing work? Kittel had been winning all the days from what I could work out but when I liked yesterday after he had won 3 he was no where to be seen, I am very confused! I think I get the king of mountains as is that simply points scored from first to the top of a set hill or mountain?

Basically its all down to Sundays stage which was pretty brutal with 9 King of the Mountains climbs.
Paula Radcliffe will lose considerably less time to Usan Bolt in a 100m race, than he would lose to her in a snickers.

So Kittel has won 3 of the 5 stages so far but finished 15 minutes back on Sunday.
The King of the Mountains is a straight forward points battle, the harder the climb the more points available.
Just the 1 point for a fourth Cat 4 climb (of which Ditchling Beacon is one).
Up to 20 (I think) points for a H/C climb.

The climbs were graded by which gear a car needed to ascend.

The Green jersey was traditionally the sprinters jersey based on points gained at the finish and a set 'sprint point' within the stage.
Peter Sagan is making a bit of a mockery of that by being good at everything.
So far he's finished something like 2, 4, 3, 4 & 4, irrespective of the terrain he's collected big points each day.

On sprint stages, for safety reasons, the race is ridden out to 3kms and provisional times are taken then, so the sprinters are battling each other, not the entire field.

 

[Hamilton]

Hope you had a great day. Wise move not getting the bikes out on those cobbles today. Strange how most of the crashes today though were on the wet roads rather than the cobbles themselves.

I think it was the weight of rain that suddenly came down and sat on the surface. It really did flood down and on saturated the tarmac leaving it very greasy.

On the cobbles it was suicide and the field was so spread out even by the first sector. I'm not surprised spectators got caught out. Riders seemed to come down the sectors sporadically and seemingly out of nowhere.

Mrs H and I got soaked.

Her quote of the day - "Really enjoyed it. Next year, can we go back to the Champs Élysées?"

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

Loved that stage to bits. Wish there were more stages like that than time trials which personally I find a tad dull.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

The Green jersey was traditionally the sprinters jersey based on points gained at the finish and a set 'sprint point' within the stage.
Peter Sagan is making a bit of a mockery of that by being good at everything.
So far he's finished something like 2, 4, 3, 4 & 4, irrespective of the terrain he's collected big points each day.

Thor Hushovd was doing what Sagan does now before Sagan arrived on the scene in a big way. His 2011 stage win on a mountain stage was fantastic to watch.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Loved that stage to bits. Wish there were more stages like that than time trials which personally I find a tad dull.

You're not about to start your campaign against time trials again are you? There is only 1 this year!

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

You're not about to start your campaign against time trials again are you? There is only 1 this year!

Which is brilliant!

I'd rather the race was decided on a stage like yesterday than a time trial.

The drama and racing was incredibly entertaining. Unlike most stages yesterday you look away and you potentially miss something exciting.

 

[teaboy]

Loved that stage to bits. Wish there were more stages like that than time trials which personally I find a tad dull.

Or just combine the 2....

 

[teaboy]

Right I have been enjoying the tour and I often enjoy the racing, this is not a fishing question but how does the scoring and timing work? Kittel had been winning all the days from what I could work out but when I liked yesterday after he had won 3 he was no where to be seen, I am very confused! I think I get the king of mountains as is that simply points scored from first to the top of a set hill or mountain?

General Classification (Yellow Jersey) is simple. The person who has taken the shortest amount of time so far overall is the leader of the race. When everyone finishes together (like stages 1,3 and 4) there aren't time gaps, so even if you win (like Kittel has) you won't be in front of everyone else by any margin of time. When there are gaps (like in stage 2 and 5) there is a big time difference. This is why winning stages doesn't win you the overall race. It's quite possible to win the Tour without winning a single stage.

Points (Green Jersey) is more complicated. On every stage there will be set places where the first 15 riders are awarded points. One of these will be the finish line, the other is decided by the race organisers depending on the route. The rider with the most points overall wears the green jersey. It awards consistency rather than pure sprinting. There are more points available on flat stages than in the mountains.

Mountains (Polka dot Jersey) works in pretty much the same way as the green jersey. Points are awarded at the summits of categorised climbs (the harder the climb the more points available) to the first riders past the point. The number of points and the number of riders who score varies depending on the climb category.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

Or just combine the 2....

Sounds like smashing fun!

 

[Stat Brother]

I make this the third 'transitional' stage out of four.