Tour de France 2023 ***spoilers*** Warning in OP

Nice summary of his career here from William fotheringham

I will miss Cav as I liked the way he sprinted... wont miss the OTT Eurosport stuff though even making allowances for a reasonable sense of national partisanship. But it seems like detached commentary is old fashioned these days in sport in general.

I'll bite, but since your first post about the Tour, most of them have been nonsense:

Others have said that they saw Cavendish's chain post-race.

Everyother cyclist had a chance on those sprints, but this year there is one sprinter head and shoulders above others. There would have been other chances and there's a decent chance that something small will go wrong for Philipsen on one of those days.

Who cares about the Intermediate sprints?

He's not currently rated as best or even close to been best by anyone. So I don't know what you mean by him being "overrated". He's rated as being good enough to possibly win a stage.

"Easier for Cav" - have some respect for the sheer amount of hard work needed for him to get to his current level.

Coverage on TG4 not starting until 14:50 cos of the GAA.

Really hard to predict todays' stage. Will Pogacar and Vingegaard be conservative as they've both had their asses handed to them. Pogacar is the one though who has the most to be afraid of, fitness-wise. It doesn't mean that he'll play safe though. For once I hope he does ride conservatively, until the end at least.

I think though that Jumbo will ramp up the pressure while keeping Vingegaard in his comfort zone and hope that Pogacar will crack. I fear that it will work as well.

That makes sense from Astana's perspective. The deal has worked out great for them so far and given cycling is essentially marketing (or sportswashing whatever you want to call it), keeping their brand up there for another 12 months in will be won't he greatest of all time discussions is well worth it

Gonna be interesting to see how much time the breakaway gets, they have numbers and some strong riders in the group.

Today's front page of L'Equipe that's been referenced a few times on commentary:

And here's the original - Anquetil vs Poulidor dueling on Puy de Dome.

Jonas is a bit far back in the peloton considering jumbo are pacing on the front, although Pog is closer to him, just seems like a bit of a strange position leading into the climb

Wow... what a ride up the final climb by Woods for his first TDF stage win at 36!

Shame we’re probably not going to see any GC action again until next Friday

Doesn't bode well for Vingegaard if he lost Pogacar's wheel so quickly on a stage that didn't favour Pogacar. Jumbo lost everyone quite quickly as well.

2-1 to Pogacar with the momentum with Pogacar.