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Le Tour 2020 Thread

Last Post 09/24/2020 09:23 AM by Cosmic Kid. 212 Replies.

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79pmooney

Posts:3189

08/29/2020 09:55 PM

Posted By Cosmic Kid on 08/29/2020 08:47 PM

I'm still searching for a "body count" of injured contenders (of all sorts, Yellow, stages, etc.)

https://cyclingtips.com/2020/08/the-tour-de-france-ice-rink-who-crashed-and-whos-hurt/

I counted 29 crashes at that website.

Groupama FDJ - 5 down, 1 very minor

Team Jumbo Visma - 3 down

Isreali Startup Naton - 3 down

Team Lotto Soudal - 3 down, Degenkolb DNS, Gilbert lost 11 minutes, taken to hospital

NTT Pro Cycling - 3 down

Astana - 2 down, Lopez and Sanchez. Both finished

Team Ineos - 2 down, Sivakov crashed twice and lost a lot of time, hit both hips and knee

Sunweb, Bahrain McLaren, Movistar, EF Pro Cycling, UAE Team Emirates, Trek Segafredo, Deceunick-QS (Alaphllippe) and Bora Hansgrohe, all 1 each

So, 16% of 176 riders hit the deck today. An auspicious start.

Orange Crush

Posts:4499

08/29/2020 10:39 PM
I don’t know about their list. Gesink and Martin are totally fine. Of JV only Bennett really had that crash when they were going walking speed. Gilbert said race jury was really harsh for Degenkolb who rode solo for 65k and missed cut by 2 mins.

longslowdistance

Posts:2886

08/30/2020 08:06 AM
This is harsh but the Astana crash was their own darned fault. Violated the truce and bang - instant karma.

Cosmic Kid

Posts:4209

08/30/2020 11:01 AM
I hate seeing J-V burning matches like this....just seems like theyare trying to prove they are the best team, when they should be letting INEOS do the work. Bernal is the defending champion...let them set the pace. J-V needs to save their matches for when it counts....and now isn't it.

Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!

Cosmic Kid

Posts:4209

08/30/2020 11:25 AM
Alliphillippe played that perfectly......great win!

Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!

Orange Crush

Posts:4499

08/30/2020 12:47 PM
Correct on both counts CK

Cosmic Kid

Posts:4209

08/30/2020 04:27 PM
J-V burned through all their riders by the second time up the Col dEze.....and then INEOS took over. Roglic was all alone, except for Dumoulin (who had to chase back on after getting his wheel chopped by Kwiatkowski) I hate it when I’m right.

Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!

Orange Crush

Posts:4499

08/30/2020 04:42 PM
Actually in retrospect it sounds like they were trying to set up van Aert today but then he had to sacrifice his own chances to bring Dumoulin back. Still seems like wasted energy to attempt stage wins.

longslowdistance

Posts:2886

08/30/2020 05:16 PM
Just watched the stage. Very entertaining racing today. The decent off the second big col was incredibly scenic. Great win, too. Doumalin should be po’d. But do watch where you’re going.

Orange Crush

Posts:4499

08/30/2020 05:21 PM
Posted By Frederick Jones on 08/30/2020 05:16 PM The decent off the second big col was incredibly scenic. That was first climb out of Nice in Haute Route Alps in 2015. I touched wheels and crashed hitting my knee much like Dumoulin on descent. Last time I rode a pace line that week. Changed strategy on remaining days.

Cosmic Kid

Posts:4209

08/31/2020 01:19 PM
Man....what an acceleration form Ewan in the closing meters. Holy crap!! Goes from pretty far back to winning by a length. Super impressive...especially after the first 2 days for him.

Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!

Orange Crush

Posts:4499

08/31/2020 02:19 PM
Yes the overhead cam was interesting he had to do a lot of weaving around slower sprinters. Other than that it was a yawn fest. Changed my mind on JV tactic in Stage 2. In retrospect, while it didn't bear fruit, it was perhaps worthwhile expending the effort. Seems they had two objectives, one was to set up van Aert (which didn't happen for a number of reasons including having to pace back Dumoulin), the other might have been an early test of Bernal to see how his back and form really are (he passed that test just fine but OK to try anyway). Now with DQS in yellow, JV can sit back, at least until tomorrow's final climb. Interesting also, read an article about a Belgian outfit having done a desk-top safety analysis of the TDF stages. For them stages 5 and 10 stand out as having unnecessary dangerous finishes (traffic furniture and turns inside final couple kms). This is the type of stuff that needs to be done going forward as its pretty easy to run through and can lead to timely changes.

Dale

Posts:1767

08/31/2020 03:22 PM
Good gravy! Ewen's acceleration is surreal. Boring as could be until the final 500 meters. Thank you NBCGold for allowing me to watch or not watch the entire stage. Spent about 3 hours messing around on the road bike, got home, and watched the final 5k.

longslowdistance

Posts:2886

08/31/2020 08:00 PM
The NBCSN Gold analysis of Ewan's storming win was helpful to me. He hid relatively deep in the front of field in a headwind finale and didn't see the wind before the last meters. I like OC's description of Ewan blowing by "slower sprinters". Those slower sprinters were flying given the headwind and effort to be there, but Ewan's 69 kph made them look like they were standing still! Sagan is in green again after just three stages. Did not think he would not get it back today. Chapeau. Nerd stuff: Is there a stat for most number of days in green? Have any stat pros retro analyzed Tours before the green jersey was introduced to find retro equivalents? Just observing that if the Emerald City of Oz sponsored the nascent Tour rather than the old L'Equipe, yellow might be second banana. Green is the gold standard in many sports like soccer, baseball, golf tournaments, F1 and Nascar.