The Official 104th Tour de France thread

[1066familyman]

I think that's a decent summary 1066.

I'd add Yates to Dan Martin.

Boohoo coming 8th on stage 2.

Nobody seems to mention Mathews piling serious pressure on Kittel prior to his crash.
Sure it may well have been 'just one of those things', but Bling did have him on the ropes.

The jury was awful but hopefully bad enough to be reviewed going forward.

The last week karma was a nice touch for Eddie & Bodnar, Data & Bora.


I don't agree with the negativity about the parcours.
Those flat stages are needed and as I've said before, at least the race and peloton made it clear almost instantly when it wasn't a race day.
The Giro, now that was an awful parcour, which everybody forgot about because of the last 4 days.

As for flat run offs, I guess that's a nod to safety, and still provided some of the best action.

Once I realised Cannondale were doing nothing, they pee'd me off.



As usual I enjoyed my listening, The Cycling Podcast and ITV's shambles.
I do like Ned and Dave, but Ned's still a way off from calling a finish well.

Some good add ins.

I didn't include Simon Yates myself because I thought the White jersey competition was pretty weak. Meintjes is a naturally defensive rider and his TT isn't up to much. Had Buchmann and Latour been in top form we might have had a better competition.

I agree on Cannondale. Uran is a wheel sucker by and large and despite the climbing talent his team had they did nothing to offer him a chance to do anything different anyway.

Ned and Dave I really like. Millar's race analysis is superb and he's better than anything Eurosport have to offer (Brian Smith is pretty good over there though). Ned got me a bit fed up with his Aru musings near the end. He didn't seem to understand that Aru was spent due to lack of race miles and was about as likely to attack in the Alps as you and me were. Astana were up the road to offer help when he was off the back, not as a bridge for attacks. Ned also seems to believe Dan Martin is a bettter TT'er than Aru... Bizarre, even with the British rose tinted specs on

P.S. I forgot to add in the lows about the Fugslang and Cataldo crash and DNF. Although ultimately it wouldn't have made a difference to Aru's chances anyway.

 

[Stat Brother]

Yates popped off the front a few times, with some intent.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

You raise a good point - I subscribe to Sky, as I have for many years, so this victory is in part thanks to me. As Chris and the team celebrate tonight, I am part of that celebration. I shall raise a glass and toast them in reciprocation

Chapeau, I suppose.

Each to his own!

 

[Stat Brother]

 

[BNthree]

Well thankfully it's just under a month until the Vuelta starts!

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

View attachment 87507

How did FDJ get more than other teams with only between 1 and 3 riders

 

[Stat Brother]

How did FDJ get more than other teams with only between 1 and 3 riders

I guess because Demare won a stage, they certainly didn't do much else.

At the end they had 20+ staff working for 3 riders, 2 of which insisted on still sharing a room, for the last x days.

 

[CP 0 3 BHA]

View attachment 87507

To Movistar had a bad tour doesn't begin to describe it!

 

[Bold Seagull]

The Bikes that won...look at those celeste numbers...

http://road.cc/content/feature/226344-winning-bikes-2017-tour-de-france-which-bike-brand-has-won-most-stages

 

[RandyWanger]

The Bikes that won...look at those celeste numbers...

http://road.cc/content/feature/226344-winning-bikes-2017-tour-de-france-which-bike-brand-has-won-most-stages

Bianchi Oltre XR4

 

[pb21]

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

View attachment 87521

Superb - just sent this to my lovely wife who suffers badly this time of July

 

[Stat Brother]

He's another article we've jointly written, with the added bonus of a couple of fun videos on calories and questions:-

https://www.wsj.com/articles/tour-de-france-or-snore-de-france-1500924635?tesla=y