Men's Road Cycling UCI World Tour 2024 (Tour de France)

[Grassmarket 3,403]

40 minutes ago, hckošice said:

Beautiful national champion jersey I want it !

1. Move to Ecuador.

2. 

[hckošice 14,822]

[Grassmarket 3,403]

Long solo run by KoM  Abrahmsen, now we’re heading for the sprint. 

[Grassmarket 3,403]

Going to be a nervous day, we have a gravel stage à la Strade Bianche or Tro Bro Leon.  Comms are saying “This is the first time in TdF history etc” but of course pre WWI some mountain stages were probably ALL gravel.

Edited July 7 by Grassmarket

[mpjmcevoy 362]

13 minutes ago, Grassmarket said:

Going to be a nervous day, we have a gravel stage à la Strade Bianche or Tro Bro Leon.  Comms are saying “This is the first time in TdF history etc” but of course pre WWI some mountain stages were probably ALL gravel.

I always like the quirky "mini Roubaix" or "mini Strade Bianche" stages. It's a different test. Most TdFs have something with a hint of Flanders or Liege, but the pave and gravel are more fun, really.

[Olympicsnell 300]

1 hour ago, mpjmcevoy said:

I always like the quirky "mini Roubaix" or "mini Strade Bianche" stages. It's a different test. Most TdFs have something with a hint of Flanders or Liege, but the pave and gravel are more fun, really.

Am loving the stage, complete chaos, love me some charmin blanc! 

 

Shame ineos decided to chase down a break with pidcock in it 🥴

Edited July 7 by Olympicsnell

[heywoodu 15,135]

This Tour is having some of the most boring stages ever, damn. Exactly as expected when the organizers come up with bullshit like today's super flat stage right after a rest day (avoiding the chance of people with messed up post-rest day legs getting in trouble), but nowadays nobody even wants to go for a useless attack for the sponsor airtime anymore.

 

Can't remember the last year I actually just thought "never mind, I'll tune in with 10k to go"  

 

Such a shame as well, because the start was great and the gravel stage Sunday was fantastic.

Edited July 9 by heywoodu

[mpjmcevoy 362]

33 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

This Tour is having some of the most boring stages ever, damn. Exactly as expected when the organizers come up with bullshit like today's super flat stage right after a rest day (avoiding the chance of people with messed up post-rest day legs getting in trouble), but nowadays nobody even wants to go for a useless attack for the sponsor airtime anymore.

 

Can't remember the last year I actually just thought "never mind, I'll tune in with 10k to go"  

 

Such a shame as well, because the start was great and the gravel stage Sunday was fantastic.

I've known '10k to go' stages for decades - usually a whole batch of them in week 1 - as recently as th mid 2010's the race didn't really start as such until the first firday/saturday. 

 

I think sports evolve as well, and the use of radio and tv and gps has really hammered the classic escapoligists, like Chiapucci of old - part of the old classic trick of a good escape was to go a bit Keyser Soze, so the peloton did not really know for sure who was up in the breakway, and just how far ahead they were - you still get something of that in the deliberately throwback nature of the Olympics, with no team radios - and a bizarre brilliant gold medal for Austria in the women's road race from just such a Soze episode when the dominant dutch team completely forgot she was up ahead. any time UCI or the Tour have tried a radio-free stage, though, the peloton and race directors have rebelled. And the sponsor payoff for a few minutes on television is really not that big now - they get their value in other ways

 

I think the tendency to break up the GC early with hard bumpy classic stages is a reaction to that, but long flat boring stages are going to be long flat stages until the end of time.

[Grassmarket 3,403]

46 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

This Tour is having some of the most boring stages ever, damn. Exactly as expected when the organizers come up with bullshit like today's super flat stage right after a rest day (avoiding the chance of people with messed up post-rest day legs getting in trouble), but nowadays nobody even wants to go for a useless attack for the sponsor airtime anymore.

 

Can't remember the last year I actually just thought "never mind, I'll tune in with 10k to go"  

 

Such a shame as well, because the start was great and the gravel stage Sunday was fantastic.

Think today was supposed to be a crosswind echelon stage.  Well, if you don't get that one thing.....

[heywoodu 15,135]

12 minutes ago, mpjmcevoy said:

I've known '10k to go' stages for decades - usually a whole batch of them in week 1 - as recently as th mid 2010's the race didn't really start as such until the first firday/saturday. 

 

I think sports evolve as well, and the use of radio and tv and gps has really hammered the classic escapoligists, like Chiapucci of old - part of the old classic trick of a good escape was to go a bit Keyser Soze, so the peloton did not really know for sure who was up in the breakway, and just how far ahead they were - you still get something of that in the deliberately throwback nature of the Olympics, with no team radios - and a bizarre brilliant gold medal for Austria in the women's road race from just such a Soze episode when the dominant dutch team completely forgot she was up ahead. any time UCI or the Tour have tried a radio-free stage, though, the peloton and race directors have rebelled. And the sponsor payoff for a few minutes on television is really not that big now - they get their value in other ways

 

I think the tendency to break up the GC early with hard bumpy classic stages is a reaction to that, but long flat boring stages are going to be long flat stages until the end of time.

Thing is, until very recently there were still usually groups riding away in stages like this. Everyone knew that wasn't going to lead anything, but at least a few riders tried. Now they're just riding in a super slow pace without anybody trying anything and it's not even the first time this Tour.

 

There was once a great stage in this region, because of wind and everything, and now the organizers seem to think that automagically means any stage here will be amazing.