Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine

Off Topic => Sports Arena => Topic started by: Jon Crofts on July 07, 2019, 02:39:48 PM

Title: Le Tour 2019
Post by: Jon Crofts on July 07, 2019, 02:39:48 PM
And they’re off.

Thomas might struggle without Froome this time around, would love him to win it again.
Yates and Bardet can’t be ruled out, hopefully that wheel sucker Quintana is nowhere.

Ineos settting the pace at the TTT today as expected.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: SteveN on July 07, 2019, 03:47:23 PM
Off to a lively start yesterday, would love Thomas to win, think his biggest threat comes from his own team, again, Bernal.  Outside of Ineos think Pinot might do well.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: UK Redsox on July 07, 2019, 08:21:14 PM
I’d not paid any attention to the build up and only found out today that Cav has been left out by his team.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: SteveN on July 07, 2019, 09:32:34 PM
I’d not paid any attention to the build up and only found out today that Cav has been left out by his team.

Left out by the Team Manager when the Performance Manager wanted him in the team.  Dimension Data are a bit of a shambles leaving him out was a big decision and probably the wrong one. 
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: UK Redsox on July 08, 2019, 10:54:39 AM
I thought maybe that the mountains came early this year and that might be a reason for dropping Cav. However, with only one mountain and a couple of hilly stages in the first ten days, it does seem a strange move

https://www.letour.fr/en/overall-route
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: Jon Crofts on July 12, 2019, 02:05:50 PM
I've enjoyed Sir Jolly Naughty Wiggins commentary so far, he's very entertaining and very knowledgable.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: SteveN on July 12, 2019, 02:52:45 PM
Mr Thomas was very strong yesterday, early days but looking good.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: SteveN on July 13, 2019, 08:02:29 PM
Tremendous ride by De Gendt today.  Thomas unlucky, he did well to get back in with fellow GC contenders other than Pinot.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: Jon Crofts on July 14, 2019, 02:44:49 PM
The way that £12,000 bike frame snapped in a fairly innocuous collision would have me very worried.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: Somniloquism on July 16, 2019, 04:03:07 PM
The way that £12,000 bike frame snapped in a fairly innocuous collision would have me very worried.

Might have been one of the superlights that they have produced specifically for the tour. Not commercially available but probably has less layups in some areas which decreases impact strength.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: Jon Crofts on July 18, 2019, 11:52:34 AM
Not Le Tour but Froome has just been awarded 2011 Vuelta win overall as Cobo stripped of the win for doping.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: UK Redsox on July 18, 2019, 03:38:11 PM
The way that £12,000 bike frame snapped in a fairly innocuous collision would have me very worried.

Might have been one of the superlights that they have produced specifically for the tour. Not commercially available but probably has less layups in some areas which decreases impact strength.

The first full size bicycle I ever rode was a 1940s Met Police bike that my uncle left with my mother when he emigrated to Aus in 1950.

No way was the frame ever snapping on that thing. It weighed a fecking ton. It was later used as makeshift rebar in the concrete base for our shed.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: Jon Crofts on July 19, 2019, 01:53:40 PM
The way that £12,000 bike frame snapped in a fairly innocuous collision would have me very worried.

Might have been one of the superlights that they have produced specifically for the tour. Not commercially available but probably has less layups in some areas which decreases impact strength.

When I worked for Sky we used to get offered the team bikes at the end of the season to buy, they were all just regular bikes with a weird mix of components, you'd get a Dogma frame set with Duraace cranks, Q Rings, Quark power meter, Shimano wheel set, Ultegra shifters & quite often a riders personal saddle that was rebadged and made to look like a Fizik saddle when clearly it was a Selle or a 3T stem and bars with sticky labels stuck on them to make them look like Pro, the team supplier. I bought Ian Stannard's old Dogma, rode it about twice before realising it was too small and traded it in for a Watt Bike Pro from the team.
If I remember rightly Froome rides a 54cm sometimes a 56, he's my height & build and I ride a 61, I rode Cavs Dimension Data Cervelo round a car park a few years ago, it was like a childs bike.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: simon ward 50 on July 19, 2019, 02:08:47 PM
I see Vos smashed the women's race!
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: Jon Crofts on July 19, 2019, 03:31:13 PM
ITT favourite Van Aert abandons after a nasty crash in the ITT, conscious and talking in ambulance apparently.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: SteveN on July 19, 2019, 08:20:01 PM
If Alaphilippe is still in yellow after tomorrow's stage then he might become a most unlikely GC contender.  The man has been brilliant to date.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: Jon Crofts on July 20, 2019, 08:33:42 AM
If Alaphilippe is still in yellow after tomorrow's stage then he might become a most unlikely GC contender.  The man has been brilliant to date.

Off his tits more like.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: SteveN on July 20, 2019, 12:57:10 PM
If Alaphilippe is still in yellow after tomorrow's stage then he might become a most unlikely GC contender.  The man has been brilliant to date.

Off his tits more like.

I do hope not, it would be a crushing blow to, what in my opinion, is a great sport only bettered by football, and possibly baseball.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: Somniloquism on July 20, 2019, 01:48:10 PM
ITT favourite Van Aert abandons after a nasty crash in the ITT, conscious and talking in ambulance apparently.

Surprised they were using the legs in the road barriers at such a pinch point. The bigger races seem to have gone to using the leaning ones which keep the spectators further back and avoid the sticky out bits.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: Somniloquism on July 20, 2019, 01:52:49 PM
If Alaphilippe is still in yellow after tomorrow's stage then he might become a most unlikely GC contender.  The man has been brilliant to date.

Off his tits more like.

I’ve seen a lot of these comments aimed at him over the last few days. Is there an obvious reasoning for these or just the jaded view point of fans who have been burned too much over the years?
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: Jon Crofts on July 20, 2019, 02:19:52 PM
If Alaphilippe is still in yellow after tomorrow's stage then he might become a most unlikely GC contender.  The man has been brilliant to date.

Off his tits more like.

I’ve seen a lot of these comments aimed at him over the last few days. Is there an obvious reasoning for these or just the jaded view point of fans who have been burned too much over the years?

A few things, a nobody going nowhere in 2017 to winning classics and stages overnight but also yesterday his behaviour post TT was bizarre. From jumping for joy one second to oh shit look tired in a nanosecond. I have my doubts and I’d love to be proven wrong for the sake of the sport.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: Somniloquism on July 20, 2019, 10:33:07 PM
I'm hoping you are wrong but he podiumed in some big races before 2017 and has held young rider classifications as well. He was injured for a big chunk of 2017 so missed all the classics and the tour that year.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: Jon Crofts on July 22, 2019, 03:40:07 PM
G can still win this, I’d rather have Ineos team supporting me than Quickstep any day, should be an interesting week.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: AV82EC on July 22, 2019, 10:13:11 PM
G can still win this, I’d rather have Ineos team supporting me than Quickstep any day, should be an interesting week.

I’m assuming whilst he still leads Bernal on GC he retains team support? Going to be a tough old week in the Alps.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: SteveN on July 22, 2019, 10:49:16 PM
Quote from: AV82EC link=topic=59911.msg3620933#msg3620933 sdate=1563829991
G can still win this, I’d rather have Ineos team supporting me than Quickstep any day, should be an interesting week.

I’m assuming whilst he still leads Bernal on GC he retains team support? Going to be a tough old week in the Alps.

I'm sure G will be leader until such time that winning the tour is beyond him.  He will have far better support than Alaphilippe but not necessarily Pinot and Kruijswijk.  Should be a good last week.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: Somniloquism on July 22, 2019, 10:50:33 PM
G can still win this, I’d rather have Ineos team supporting me than Quickstep any day, should be an interesting week.

I think Alan said the same after the TT about his own team. Pinot is interesting but again probably doesn't have the team around him as well.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: Jon Crofts on July 23, 2019, 10:15:03 PM
Oh dear, Quikstep trotting out the same guff USPS team did at press conferences re Alaphilippe and doubts about doping.
He’s a great climber as his record shows but that TT performance is way off the scale.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: Jon Crofts on July 24, 2019, 09:01:22 PM
Luke Rowe and Tony Martin DQ’d from the tour pending an appeal.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: SteveN on July 24, 2019, 09:22:31 PM
Luke Rowe and Tony Martin DQ’d from the tour pending an appeal.

Seems harsh and well I never, gives an advantage to the teo French hoprfils.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: SteveN on July 24, 2019, 09:27:06 PM
Two French hopefuls.

Don't post when you are not wearing glasses.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: Gareth on July 24, 2019, 10:48:09 PM
Nothing to do with Alaphilippe & Pinot being in contention & this being an attempt to derail Ineos & Jumbo to get a home win? Of course not......not

Next thing the French press will be saying that there is nothing out of the ordinary that Alaphilippe is suddenly a contender unlike all the non French winners of the past that have been found guilty by press of being non-French druggies
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: Jon Crofts on July 26, 2019, 03:39:24 PM
This is quite a stage, Alaphilippe getting smashed.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: Meanwood Villa on July 26, 2019, 03:53:50 PM
Weather intervenes. First stage I've watched live, clearly I'm a curse.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: UK Redsox on July 26, 2019, 03:58:22 PM
Right decision. Diggers being used to clear snow/hailstones and other bit of the road are a river
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: Jon Crofts on July 26, 2019, 04:06:34 PM
What a day.
France loses the yellow and Pinot, Alaphilippe got smashed and the hail arrived. Bizarre.
Tomorrow is going to be some day.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: simon ward 50 on July 26, 2019, 04:24:19 PM
The scenes on twitter look unreal!
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: Gareth on July 26, 2019, 10:49:49 PM
Shortened stage tomorrow...will be all about who finishes on the other two steps of podium?  Way Bernal & Yates were going have to think they’d have pulled a good deal of time into chasing pack had they had opportunity to go up the last climb today
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: Jon Crofts on July 27, 2019, 07:04:51 AM
Shame about today would have been good to see how Ineos handled it, team orders or no team orders, now it’s going to be down to if Alaphilippe can get on a breakaway and if anyone is willing to help him I’d imagine.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: UK Redsox on July 27, 2019, 07:40:54 PM
G looked genuinely chuffed for Bernal today

The French wait goes on
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: Jon Crofts on July 27, 2019, 08:36:12 PM
G looked genuinely chuffed for Bernal today

The French wait goes on

Didn't he just. Teams must have thought, this is our year, no Froome and the enigma that is G leading Ineos, but no.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: SteveN on July 27, 2019, 09:57:06 PM
G wss undercooked for the tour it was pretty impressive to finish second. He comes across as a really decent bloke who has no ego and was genuinely pleased for Bernal.
A fully fit Froome, Thomas and Bernal could need careful managing next year.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: Gareth on July 30, 2019, 03:08:09 PM
G wss undercooked for the tour it was pretty impressive to finish second. He comes across as a really decent bloke who has no ego and was genuinely pleased for Bernal.
A fully fit Froome, Thomas and Bernal could need careful managing next year.
Throw Carapaz into that mix - 4 Grand Tour winners in one squad
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: Jon Crofts on August 02, 2019, 09:37:26 AM
G wss undercooked for the tour it was pretty impressive to finish second. He comes across as a really decent bloke who has no ego and was genuinely pleased for Bernal.
A fully fit Froome, Thomas and Bernal could need careful managing next year.
Throw Carapaz into that mix - 4 Grand Tour winners in one squad

Froome's recovery is ahead of schedule apparently.
Title: Re: Le Tour 2019
Post by: usav on August 02, 2019, 02:19:16 PM
G wss undercooked for the tour it was pretty impressive to finish second. He comes across as a really decent bloke who has no ego and was genuinely pleased for Bernal.
A fully fit Froome, Thomas and Bernal could need careful managing next year.
Throw Carapaz into that mix - 4 Grand Tour winners in one squad

Froome's recovery is ahead of schedule apparently.

By virtue of the fact he is still alive?
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