bazermc wrote: » Starting tomorrow. Doesn’t feel like it though. Usually I’m more excited as the first stage approach, for a race I grow up watching every summer. Doesn’t feel like it this year, strange.
Panrich wrote: » I think that Sam and his quest for the green jersey brought a whole new dimension to the tour last year. Looking at stage maps and where the intermediate sprints were and working out how many points for the places in the sprint finish etc. was great.
Shedite27 wrote: » Is there a boards velogames setup?
breezy1985 wrote: » I think the Ineos 4 leader this is BS. Ineos have never been able to break the programming and will fall in behind the strongest rider who I think will be Carapaz or at a stretch Porte. Hart won a poor Giro and Thomas isnt the rider he was or I suppose gone back to the rider he was depending on how you look at it
MPFGLB wrote: » Seems the secret pro shared my views on Sam Bennet not riding the Tour no matter the unfounded conspiracies on here "you want stage wins; you take the world’s fastest rider. But you don’t take him if he’s injured. You have to think about the team, and a rider who could more than likely leave the race after a few stages due to an injury you know about would be bad management. You take a guy who A: has a pretty good track record at the race, and B: has had five wins this season. " Also he doesn't like Sagan muchhttps://cyclingtips.com/2021/06/the-secret-pro-tour-de-france-sagan/
at1withmyself wrote: » As much as I dislike Ineos and the power they have, they have always declared the strategy of the others falling in whoever is leading and not having 4 different riders attacking as such. Second on the road will be the last on the front of the train before the leader is left alone is what they are saying.
MPFGLB wrote: » That is when they have had the strongest rider They dont anymore
So another Tour done. Hard to know how it rates overall to others.
Some things I liked:
Pogacar was supreme. I enjoy seeing someone win who will more than likely be remembered for a long time. If he had got knocked out, the Tour would have been won by someone who probably won't be considered "great". Hopefully he will have more competition in future Tours.
No Sky etc train up the mountains.
The relative failure of Inios. Not just because I dislike them, but because it meant that it wasn't a 1 team dominated Tour.
The Polka dot jersey battle, until the end. Usually it's something that I couldn't care less about. It was won in the end by the best climber, so on one hand it was won by the right man, but on the other hand it was won by someone almost accidentally. It still needs a bit of tweaking.
Disliked:
The green jersey battle. It was a lot more boring this year. Without Sagan/Bora competing for it, Deceuninck–Quickstep had it too easy.
Didn't mind seeing Cavendish win a few stages, but again Deceuninck–Quickstep had no one pushing them in the last few kms.
Crashes
Not enough mountain top finishes.
I'm not as despondent as others about the future of the Tour. I think that Pogacar is a potential great, but a lot of things fell his way this year. Without the crashes and the cold weather, I think that he would found it a lot harder to win. Of course, he will probably get better every year for the next 5 years or so and Roglic has already probably peaked. So next year will need the likes of Bernal to step up. We could be in for a great few years - Pogacar, Bernal, Remco, Vingegaard, Roglic, Almeida.
Great watching it this year on Champs-Elysées all relaxed not worrying about Sam.
Crap watching it this year n Champs-Elysées all relaxed not worrying about Sam.
WVA is simply the best all round cyclist on the planet
TT stage victory
The hardest mountain stage victory
The biggest sprint stage victory
All after surgery just before the tour .
Prett good tour to watch apart from all the abandons especially sprinters.
Looks like my velogames team took the lantern rouge -- not that I set out to achieve such ignominy.
On a different note-- Ineos were brutal, or overall they seemed clueless or out of form, crashes aside. Did Porte fall off a cliff? Did Tao actually win the Giro 9 months ago? If Thomas was so injured he should have abandoned, or was his head wrecked by stage 9? Very poor overall
is that an ineos Jersey on the podium . not what we expect obviously .
yeh Porte and thomas who were 1 and 2 at the dauphine disappeared. think Porte crashed early on as well and thomas was riding round
Pretty boring Tour in fairness. No real fight for any jersey and from a personal point of view I don't really care about any of the jersey or stage winners bar Ala way back at the start.
The only saving grace was it was someone not riding for Ineos who was boring the arse off me with his dominance
The Gorilla 5th on his last ever Tour stage on Champs Elysse, enjoyed that!
Yeah dull tour, the mountains are really only fun if there's a GC battle going on
In with my granny this evening, she's watched the tour for decades. She gave a it a 6/10 she's no time for Pog and even less for Cav so was pretty chuffed he didn't beat Merckx record.
Strangely, Carapaz being a bit of a d1ck that day on the Col de Portet made me shout for him momentarily, it was as if we needed a bit of old-school drama or Italian style 'polemica' as an antidote to the inevitable conclusion most days. He is actually good for Ineos, I wonder if his rural Ecuadorean attitude and adventurous spirit sits well with the genteel Sir Dave and marginal gains... and of all the Ineos team I was happy to see him do best.
Team selection from Ineos for the Tour was seriously questionable. Dunbar being left out despite only having one GT in him and taking off my green jersey here was a no brainer given his support for Carapaz a few weeks prior to the Tour. Kwiatkowski hasn't been at his best for 2 years now imo, and Castroviejo had the Giro in him despite him being an absolute beast he wasn't his best either. When you look at who they did take and didn't to the tour it's shocking.
Like we know Richie Porte is going to crash at some point so why bother?
EDIT: If they wanted to win the tour they would have had to have sent a different team to the Giro and maybe lost it.
Castroviejo provided more support for Carapaz in the mountains than Porte, Tao or Thomas did, even with the Giro in his legs.
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