Pro Cycling - Tour de France 2022

[Sidewaysbob]

I do wonder why Ewan is paid quite so much. 

[metallicfrodo]

Love Pog trying to attack off the front with 6km to go.

[Sidewaysbob]

There we go then. Despite winning by over 2 minutes I never felt this race was done untill it crossed the line in Paris. 

 

I think this year has been an absolute classic. The old guard has been changed and we have a new generation that are writing a new road book. 

 

And the likes of Pidcock and Wright show the brits are still in the mix.

 

Gone are the days of rides grinding up the hills to a tempo and Watts readings. 

 

Roll on the Vuelta. 

[metallicfrodo]

Was indeed an excellent tour, and certainly one of the best GTs I can remember watching. I'm going to go out on a limb (hahahaha) and say that WvA was certainly the MVP, just for keeping the tour alive on stage 5. I do wonder how much time the rest of the GC would have lost if it wasn't for him pulling them all back to within 15 seconds of Pog. If you had told me Pog was going to finish the tour but wasn't going to win at the point that Rog has crashed and Jonas is jumping between bikes while Pog rides off into the distance then I would not have believed you. Of all the things that WvA did in this tour I think that ride was the best and most important.

 

What's also great is usually we get that really big post tour comedown, but we now get to watch the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (which is the stupidest name for a race ever), which should be brilliant as well.

[Graham S]

As well as the Femmes I'm treating my comedown with checking out some of the past tours in Daniel Friebe's tweet

 

 

on youtube and here:

 

https://tiz-cycling.io/home

 

Although I've started with 2003 and I'm reading David Millar's book, and as much as I remember enjoying that year at the time it stank to high heaven so it's leaving a nasty taste in my mouth as I remember what a sucker for a big old fraud I was.

[krenzler]

How long before WvA is a GT GC contender I wonder? 

[Graham S]

2003 did turn out to be a spectacular Tour, basically had almost all of the big incidents I remember from the Lance years. Tyler's collarbone, Beloki having a career-ending crash so Lance had to go through a field, Vinokorouv looking good for a while, a couple of orange Esukatel Euskadi riders doing well on some big climbs, Lance getting his handlebar in a bag strap and coming off, Ullrich waiting for him, Tyler doing a big lone escape, David Millar winning a wet time trial, Ullrich coming off in the final ITT. Tense right to the end even knowing the result. Such a shame this was all so soured when all the dirt poured out, as if it wasn't a total fraud it was an amazing bike race. Not sure if it's the outfits or the bikes, I assume it's the drugs, but the physique of a lot of riders looked different than they look like today. It has made me appreciate stabilised cameras and high def TV. I quite enjoy Ned interviewing Millar. I do not miss Phil Ligget endlessly harping on what a great, popular, wonderful, inspiring champion Lance is.

 

 

[krenzler]

[metallicfrodo]

19 hours ago, krenzler said:

How long before WvA is a GT GC contender I wonder? 

 

I would hope never to be honest. He'd have to lose an amount of weight to do it (he said himself at least 4kg), and it would seriously affect the way that he is allowed to ride. He tried targetting stage racing a bit last year, losing weight and targetting Tirenno, however this year he put it back on and concentrated on the classics and time trialling. Not every rider had to be a GT GC contender, and personally I'd prefer him to race with the power and strength that he has shown all through his career in those one day races that he animates, or as a stage hunter and super domestique in the tour.

 

It's something that worried me when Pidcock joined Ineos that they would instantly start molding him into a GC rider, but at least for now they seem happy to let him be their classics lead, and continue to race on cross and MTB.

[metallicfrodo]

Been really enjoying the Tour De France Femmes, lots of exciting racing, and it feels so right to see Vos take a stage and ride round it yellow. Been marred by a few pretty terrible crashes, especially the one that took Marta Cavalli out. The stage yesterday was exciting across the gravel, but I'm one who really doesn't think stages like that should be in a big stage race.

 

Literally just written about the crashes and there has been an absolutely massive one, I don't think I've ever seen so many riders go down.

[Sidewaysbob]

As long as bike manufacturers want to sell gravel bikes, these stages are going to be part of the tour I'm afraid. 

[sprite]

Did anybody listen to the Never Strays Car (usually Far) podcast?

 

I hardly watched the Tour this year but I loved the podcast!  Ned Boulting, David Millar and Pete Kennaugh with special guest Lizzie Deignan for part of it.  Basically them chatting about the race and all manner of nonsense as they made their way from the end of the stage to the next… in the car.

[Sidewaysbob]

Yes, I think they finally found their stride with this. Just Ned and David chatting was fine, but it needed Pete to join and bring his puppy dog enthusiasm. 

 

[Graham S]

I enjoy the dynamic where Ned and David take it for granted that they're cleverer and better educated than Pete, and then they were completely wrong about Quebec City.

 

I also liked the Universal Language silliness.

 

I ended up buying some of David's chpt3 cycling clothing, so selling stuff via parasocial relationships clearly works on me.

 

I've always liked David, I'm clearly a sucker for nicely spoken sportsmen who've read a few books. I've just finished his autobiography, and he does come across as a bit of an asshole tbh. I was also surprised quite how quickly he succumbed to the pressure to dope after being strongly determined not to. I'd kind of assumed it was a desperate phase in his career.

[Sidewaysbob]

He's sort of like David Gower, a posh lad slumming it with the proles. 

To be honest, i think most top line elite sports people are mostly assholes whilst they're at the top of their game. Wiggins for instance is very vocal now about what a tosser he was to lots of people and how sorry he is about it. He's talked about how much he hated the sport and himself by the end and desperately wanted to get out. 

How he didn't stop and enjoy the high points it was just about keeping in the zone and moving on to the achievement, victory, milestone etc. it was all about the focus to win and beat everyone. 

[metallicfrodo]

Chapeau to Van Vleuten, incredible display in the mountains, especially her long range attack yesterday, and backing it up today winning the final stage in yellow. Especially impressive as she was so sick early in the tour and almost abandoned. I can’t imagine how it’s possible to race at that level if for two days you can basically not eat! Backs up her Giro Donne to give her the coveted Giro/tour double. She’s quite the rider.

 

Overall it’s been a great race bar a few pretty awful crashes, with decent TV coverage which is obviously very important. Long may it continue.

[Ste_S]

Anyone watching La Vuelta? Envelope riding away from Rog and the rest of the Peleton was quite impressive, and I’m not sure I can take much more of sad Fred Wright. Hopefully his day will come! 

[Sidewaysbob]

Fred needs to move to tier one team ASAP. Imagine him at quickstep he'd thrive there 

[Sidewaysbob]

And Pidcock gets 4th at the mountain bike worlds, which I think is still bloody amazing given the year he's had. 

[Graham S]

I see there’s a new season of the Movistar doc up on Netflix

[Sidewaysbob]

Cav in an Astana shirt , just feels wrong. 

[JessieJim]

Why is it wrong? 

[Sidewaysbob]

Astana we're always a questionable team when it comes to the drugs.  Lance rode for them and that's usually enough for me to dislike them. 

And it's kind of a shame that one of the big teams didn't want to take Cav, this feels a bit like they're hired him for the PR. I don't think they have a team to take a sprint at the tour, which is all Cav is there for. I don't want to see him bury himself day after day to get 8th on a sprint day.

 

And as much as i love to see him ride, i think the last tour with Quickstep was glorious and he should have ended it there. 

 

But he may surprise us all and get the green jersey this year. who knows. 

[jonamok]

Great to see Cav get his final Giro stage win in Rome, especially lovely that Thomas put in a brutal shift in the closing stages to stretch out the field for his old mate.

 

Just need Cav to win an early sprint in the Tour and get it done, without it dragging all the way to Paris.

[Sidewaysbob]

Maybe not a classic Giro, but I really enjoyed it and who can begrudge Roglic winning a grand tour. Especially with a trade mark mechanical problem within sight of the line. 

And well done Cav. I think everyone in the peloton took a turn leading him out there and he delivered emphatically.