Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 06/18/2019 03:08 PM |
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Figured we could start this thread early as there is a lot going on impacting the 2020 Tour. Froome out, Thomas crashes at the Tour Suise and now Dumoulin has delayed his trip up to altitude.
I see very little chance Dumoulin can challenge in July now...same with Thomas.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/dumoulins-tour-de-france-altitude-camp-postponed/ |
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 06/20/2019 11:19 AM |
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Official - Dumoulin is out of the TdF.
Based on what happened today in the Tour de Suise (admitedly against a pretty weak field), this may well indeed be a processional GC for Bernal. |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 06/24/2019 12:22 PM |
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Thomas finally getting some respect from someone at Team SKY / Ineos.....and it is from the guy who will arguably challenge him in July. Kudos to Bernal.
“He will be our leader and I will try to help him,” Bernal said after his Tour de Suisse win. “I don’t have any problems to help him. I’m just 22 years old, so I think I have a lot of Tours in front of me.
“I don’t choose to say I’m the [Tour] favorite,” Bernal said. “In any case I’ll go with G. He will be our leader and I will try to help him.”
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 06/24/2019 04:02 PM |
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| This tour is looking like it is for Ineos to pocket. Unless Fugslang outperforms himself or unless Movistar can do something with their numbers. |
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longslowdistance
Posts:2886
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| 06/24/2019 09:21 PM |
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So sad it takes career ending or career modifying crashes to make this beautiful event more interesting. But Skybots are still anointed, even if one is out, one is tired, and one is mediocre. Even with 8, a single team can still dominate.
Ban the radios (beyond safety warnings). Ban the power meters. Reduce teams to 6 or 7. Keep the stage lengths mostly short.
That will give us some real cage fighting, entertaining, raise the revenues (for you corporate whores who own everything and run everything) racing. Bring that on, and expand your markets and make even more money, you corporate whores who own and run everything.
PS F U corporate whores. |
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Dale
Posts:1767
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| 06/25/2019 07:26 AM |
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+1 on the shorter stages. Those really destroy the formulaic racing that's boring, predictable and tedious.
One of my favorites was... was it 1996 stage 9? Yeah, thanks google, it was shortened due to snow from 176k to 46! They went full gas from the drop of the flag, it blew the race apart.
Not suggesting every stage be 46k but holy crud, was that day amazing. It was just a street brawl on two wheels |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 06/25/2019 07:39 AM |
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What race organizers have never realized is that making epic stages doesn’t make the racing more open, it just ensures the the strongest guys solidify their spots.
Huge weeks with tons of climbing doesn’t open up the racing, it shuts it down.
It is so basic, but they keep doing the same dumb stuff. “Oh, we’ll make it a big climbing route this year to make it more even.” No, you just handed the race to Froome (or whoever the favorite may be).
It is so basic, but they keep making the same mistakes. It was like when gold tried to “Tiger proof” course by making them longer....they actually just made it harder for the other guys to win. |
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 07/02/2019 11:19 AM |
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Alright, I will go out on a giant limb and put Valverde down as winner.
He's back in form and looking lean. While he doesn't have the recovery anymore to be properly competitive over three weeks I think I am seeing enough ambush staged that he may be able to pull a surprise.
Wishful thinking, I know. |
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thinline
Posts:325
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| 07/02/2019 12:49 PM |
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Heck,
I am rooting for Michael Woods on Education First! My across the road neighbors in Vermont are long-time friends of his family. I met his parents a couple weeks ago when they were in Vermont visiting. My neighbors are heading over for the final week of racing and may be attending the post-race dinner with the team. Pretty cool.
Go Michael! |
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79pmooney
Posts:3189
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| 07/02/2019 05:28 PM |
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Aren't we getting a little antsy? Froome, Dumoulin and Thomas have rougholy 52 weeks to get to their best. (Le Tour 2020.) Am I missing something (other than I didn't catch this earlier? 
Ben |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 07/02/2019 09:34 PM |
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 07/08/2019 10:18 AM |
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I have to say that this tour has been much more interesting than many of the past tours, so far...Classic sprint stage to open it, TTT and a punchy stage today have kept things active.
I would have expected Movistar to be more active today...a perfect stage for Valverde and they obviously need to make up time. Aliphalippe rode a great race and marched away on a move that Alejandro should have done.
Smart move by Ineos to not chase too hard...Deceunick will work to keep yellow the next two days and Aliphalippe isn't a threat overall. Bernal is in the pole position for Thursday. |
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 07/08/2019 11:21 AM |
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If Movistar is indeed here for GC and if Valverde is indeed here as support then he was better off doing what he did today (just follow). Thursday will be a good indicator of where everyone is at. I liked LeMond's commentary about Valverde LOL.
Really lousy TTT for Movistar. As noted elsewhere, this is because they brought a team solely focused on mountains and left home some of their rouleurs. Time will tell if this was wise or foolish.
Good weekend for the orange 2nd place on the pitch against USA notwithstanding...two JV wins in LeTour and two wins by Vos in Giro Rosa. Good to see Vos back in particular after some tough years and good to see that as a veteran she can still hold her own against a women's field that has gotten much stronger and more competitive in recent years. |
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79pmooney
Posts:3189
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| 07/08/2019 12:09 PM |
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Movistar blew it in the TTT. My opinion. Yes, they didn't feature the rouleurs needed, but ... they needed to put in the super effort Jumbo-Visma did. Felt to me they had neither the practice or the will. For a huge, really disciplined effort, they might have shaved 30 seconds off. Still nowhere near a podium, but that isn't what they need. Giving Ineus a cushion just isn't smart Tour riding. Instead they penalized all three of their GC men. (And they are deep enough and strong enough to have survived today's stage totally wasted and get the magic s.t. Recover tomorrow and survive Thursday)
Edit: I'm taking note re: Lemond's comment re: Valverde. He's right way too often!
Yeah, good to see that Vos is back!
Ben |
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BuffFan
Posts:53
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| 07/08/2019 12:24 PM |
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| i miss Paul in the booth.... |
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