Men's Road Cycling UCI World Tour 2023 (Tour de France)

[Grassmarket 3,409]

Woohoo breakaway win in teeth of sprint chase!

[hckošice 14,835]

you rarely see a result in which is Philipsen 4th at same time with Asgreen as stage winner

[heywoodu 15,145]

As expected, nothing for Philipsen. Abrahamsen gets a fine because he peed in public though. Because that's much worse.

 

[Olympian1010 7,977]

7 hours ago, heywoodu said:

Philipsen is literally trying to block attackers with 80k to go, because he doesn't want another attacker. Like, going in front of the attacker, pulling the brakes, trying to push him out of the road, etc. The umpteenth dick move by Philipsen.

 

Probably he'll get away with 200 CHF fine or so, but he should easily get 100 points docked for the green jersey or so. Won't make a difference, but still it means a bit more than a tiny monetary fine.

Watching the footage that I could find…that seems like the only questionable offense to me. You definitely can’t be slamming the breaks in front of someone for tactical purposes.

 

He does force the other ride move around the road, but I suppose he leaves enough room for the most part. Odd tactics either way, and duly rewarded with how the stage player out I suppose 

[heywoodu 15,145]

7 hours ago, Olympian1010 said:

Watching the footage that I could find…that seems like the only questionable offense to me. You definitely can’t be slamming the breaks in front of someone for tactical purposes.

 

He does force the other ride move around the road, but I suppose he leaves enough room for the most part. Odd tactics either way, and duly rewarded with how the stage player out I suppose 

Absolutely  

 

Although yesterday was also a perfect example of how stupid sprint teams can be. Most of them waited with putting some manpower in front until it was way too late, some of them didn't even put anyone at the front at all. Besides, the lead group was tactically brilliant, very clearly going at something like 60% most of the time, knowing that the peloton didn't want to catch them immediately and keep them at around a minute. That came back to bite the peloton in the ass badly, because when they started moving, the lead group - and especially super engines Campenaerts and Asgreen - still had enough left in the tank to hold their ground  

 

Today can be interesting, there's a whole bunch of riders for whom today's stage would be perfect in theory, but all of them have a 'but'. Van der Poel, but 1) his team might be odd enough to go for Philipsen and 2) he'll need a teammate since everyone will constantly react to whatever he does, Cort Nielsen, but he has been nearly entirely invisible this Tour, Aranburu, but even in his Basque Country he was barely able to do anything, etc. Curious about the stage, in theory it is perfect for attackers, especially after the failure of the sprint teams yesterday it should give a lot of riders hope..

[Federer91 2,797]

Have you seen this person?

 

 

Name: Peter Sagan

Country:  Slovakia

Palmares: Multiple times World Champion,

                    Tour de France Legend,

                    One of the most versatile and talented riders of the past 30 years,

                    Cycling Hall of Famer.

 

Missing since 2021 ...

[hckošice 14,835]

7 minutes ago, Federer91 said:

Have you seen this person?

 

 

Name: Peter Sagan

Country:  Slovakia

Palmares: Multiple times World Champion,

                    Tour de France Legend,

                    One of the most versatile and talented riders of the past 30 years,

                    Cycling Hall of Famer.

 

Missing since 2021 ...

The guy tried to attack literally today, but none wanted to follow... so

 

but, yeah, what you want, he is already mentally retired since last year, if not because of the contract with TE, he would already left the Pro Cycling last winter.

 

He hope to have a last dance (and fun) with his beloved MTB at the Paris Olympics, but since Slovakia is currently miles away from even thinking about eventual quota, it is very likely this sunday we will see this legend of our sport last time ever in a competition

[Federer91 2,797]

4 minutes ago, hckošice said:

The guy tried to attack literally today, but none wanted to follow... so

 

but, yeah, what you want, he is already mentally retired since last year, if not because of the contract with TE, he would already left the Pro Cycling last winter.

 

He hope to have a last dance (and fun) with his beloved MTB at the Paris Olympics, but since Slovakia is currently miles away from even thinking about eventual quota, it is very likely this sunday we will see this legend of our sport last time ever in a competition

Nonetheless, i don't know if i have ever seen another elite athlete have such an instant, rapid decline, as Sagan has had. It's like he went to bed and woke up the next day, as a completely different person, like in a Latino telenovela... The closest one to compare is probably Gregor Schlierenzauer.

[hckošice 14,835]

2 minutes ago, Federer91 said:

Nonetheless, i don't know if i have ever seen another elite athlete have such an instant, rapid decline, as Sagan has had. It's like he went to bed and woke up the next day, as a completely different person, like in a Latino telenovela... The closest one to compare is probably Gregor Schlierenzauer.

Not wanting to enter the gossip and tabloides conspiracies, but I personally suspect the main reason - his divorce.

 

Since then he literally completely changed from one day to another like you said, as a athlete (and I observes also as generally a person), When you think about it, it was exactly at the time before his sudden decline.. since then there was only news in tabloides about him getting caught drunk in a car, in a motobike, clashes with police and blahblahblah...

 

so who knows

[heywoodu 15,145]

50 minutes ago, Federer91 said:

Have you seen this person?

 

 

Name: Peter Sagan

Country:  Slovakia

Palmares: Multiple times World Champion,

                    Tour de France Legend,

                    One of the most versatile and talented riders of the past 30 years,

                    Cycling Hall of Famer.

 

Missing since 2021 ...

I just came here to post that today I learned he is apparently in the Tour de France, he was one of the 1500 riders who tried an attack in the early stage, but missed the timing entirely  

 

Oh well, even legendary cyclists eventually go towards their 40's and other than Valverde and Chris Horner, one generally doesn't see them often anymore by then, no shame in that