Tour De France 2018

"No one uses disc brakes in mountain stages"?  What about Peter Sagan then - see photo above?

Disc brakes make descending a lot quicker and safer - you can brake harder and later. There is no weight penalty as the bike has to be over 6.8 kg anyway.

Being a Trek-Segafredo fan i was hoping to see a John Degenkolb victory sprint finish of Stage 18, but it didn't happen. It's not easy to see what actually happened to John on the last 400 meters but i looks like he found the wheel of Peter Sagan assumably expecting the green jersey champ to give him the advantageous lead in, however, Sagan is obvious 'out of sorts' from his crash yesterday and was probably gunning for the line on his innate sprinter killer instincts but unable to follow up as normal due to not yet recovered  injuries - and Degenkolb got foolishly stuck behind him too long, and could only struggle to get past Sagan into 7th place 

With so many top sprinters out of this years tour it's become difficult to predict the outcome, but Degenkolb and Sagan will have one last chance for a sprint win on the Champs-Elysées on Sunday, and what a sprint finish win that will be : )

Results Stage 18

Friday 27th July

Stage 19

Let's hope we have a good clean cycle race with plenty of action,

and may the best Welshman win  : )

Debs

naim_nymph posted:

Friday 27th July

Stage 19

Let's hope we have a good clean cycle race with plenty of action,

and may the best Welshman win  : )

Debs

Agree with your first sentence - while I would like to see the best Dutchman win...

Another massive day for Thomas to get threw.Barring a crash and being able to stay with Tom Dumoulin I hope Thomas can seal the G.C.Hope so as its a breath of fresh air not having Froome dominate.I do like Froome though and I think he's been very gracious with the situation with Thomas.Looking forward to watching the ITV 4 highlights tonight

Last throw of the dice for Dumoulin. I wonder how much time he thinks he can get back over Thomas on the TT stage? It is only 31km so much over 30sec would seem ambitious.

It will be interesting to see if Froome will really work for Thomas today-and maybe put his own podium place in jeopardy. I suspect he will if required.

Bruce

decision day for just ...I've ridden all the climbs they traverse today ,...scenic highlight of today's route IMHO, is the road between the Soulor & the Aubisque . (not that they will be interested).
I also remember G in a break up the Tourmalet in that direction from Campan a few years ago, when they finished up at Luz Ardien ...he was very strong on the upper slopes beyond the ski station.

I think the biggest risks to G now are either the weather ...we did the decent off the Aubisque in very wet conditions and it was pretty scary
or
an idiot spectator intervening and affecting the result. But with the french contenders now distanced I hope that's less likely .

On the Today programme just now:

Sports reporter: So what has Geraint Thomas got to do today to get that podium finish on Sunday?

Former pro-cyclist pundit: Basically he has got to keep his tyres on the road.....

Looking at the high speed descending today it was lucky the rain threat never happened.

The earlier and mid part of the race saw a few breaks out front, and my Trek-Segafredo stage win hope man 'Bauke Mollema' looked well placed ...until he ran out of puff half way up the Cul du Tourmalet and got dropped, and then got caught by the following yellow jersey peloton, and then got dropped by them, he eventually arrived at the finish in a peloton over 32 minutes down : /

At the sharp-end of the race, and to finish with much extremely fast descending, a slight change to GC with Primož Rogli? winning the stage just 19 seconds ahead of seven aggressive chasers.

General Classification after Stage 19

I'd be happy to see the top four GC results remain in present position tomorrow, and Sunday.

Cycling's coming home [ To Wales ]  

Nothing against CF, but finishing 4th would at least save him from what he's not accustomed to; the lowest podium step at Paris [and not to mention the booing]

Meanwhile, Rogli? is a fresh & plucky future TdF hopeful who i'm sure would far more appreciate the honour of a 3rd Podium on what is only his 2nd TdF tour [would be well deserved too]

Meanwhile, i expect CF will probably go all out in tomorrows time trail to get back on the podium, but will be interesting who can actually time trail on fast form after such a hard day over three mountains.

Debs 

<>

Saturday 28th July 

Stage 20 

Dozey posted:

"No one uses disc brakes in mountain stages"?  What about Peter Sagan then - see photo above?

Disc brakes make descending a lot quicker and safer - you can brake harder and later. There is no weight penalty as the bike has to be over 6.8 kg anyway.

You're right, I guess someone does use disc brakes. I missed Sagan's individual bike pics from among the vast majority of peloton riders using calipers. Maybe I missed it because Peter crashed using disc brakes and had to limp home threatened with elimination time. Certainly throws your "disc brakes make descending a lot quicker and safer" premise into question.

Roglic? A breath of fresh air. Much promise from his stage win last year to now. A guy easy for me (with Slovenian heritage) to root for. Plus he has a ski jumper's pedigree - no fear or respect. I'd love to see him squeeze out a podium.

Froome? Fading. Showing the toll of all this year's riding. Nice enough guy and all that, but he's played on the bike right now.

Thomas? Getting his long overdue due. Sky's road marshal finally allowed to advance himself to commander. 

Can't see any problems for Thomas in today individual Time Trial with 2.05 on Tom Dumoulin.I am sure with the power meter on his bike and the radio time splits he will be aware the whole TT where he is.As Joe says its refreshing having Thomas delivering day after day.I did enjoy seeing Nairo Quintana win on the short mountain stage as he's had a pretty average tour by his past standards.It will be interesting if Froome can make the podium.

joerand posted:

Dozey posted:

"No one uses disc brakes in mountain stages"?  What about Peter Sagan then - see photo above?

Disc brakes make descending a lot quicker and safer - you can brake harder and later. There is no weight penalty as the bike has to be over 6.8 kg anyway.

You're right, I guess someone does use disc brakes. I missed Sagan's individual bike pics from among the vast majority of peloton riders using calipers. Maybe I missed it because Peter crashed using disc brakes and had to limp home threatened with elimination time. Certainly throws your "disc brakes make descending a lot quicker and safer" premise into question.

Plenty of riders have crashed without disc brakes during descending. Adam Yates, and Philippe Gilbert crashed horribly during stage 16 and neither had disc-brakes fitted. These down hill crashes are not caused by whichever type of brake they have, and like Sagan's crash it comes down to human error. These guys are human after all, [or superhuman]

Discs vs Rim brakes = swings and roundabouts, disc brakes require more careful set-up, are more expensive to buy, heavier [but not really an issue with IUC 6.8 kilo bike weight limit], wheel changing takes longer, but in practise disc brakes have far better modulation, feel, and control when braking on descents. Generally disc-brakes are safer and nicer to use, but do have the disadvantages listed above ^

Debs

Stage 20 results

General Classification after stage 20

And the question burning on everyones lips:

will Sagan be recovered enough tomorrow to win the final stage sprint on the Champs-Elysées? 

I think Thomas could have won the stage. He rode the last 1Km very slowly, presumably to let Froome take the victory. Dumoulin crossed the line in a time of 40’ 52. Froome’s time was shown as 40’ 50 indicating he was winning. Froome’s time was later amended to 40’ 53.

Thomas admitted to backing off significantly in the second half; his DS (Nico) had advised him to take it easy and finish without any risks.

Froome's clock stopped before he hit the line; if you watch it back it's very clear that he's a few yards short when the clock stops. TD initially shows as being behind CF (his timer bar has turned red) as he finishes but it quickly corrects to green. ITV suggested a Gendarme had stood on the timer bar as Froome approached and stopped his timer prematurely. 

Some rather useless trivia....

I also attended Whitchurch High School, unfortunately for me I can't ride a bike like Geraint, I can't play rugby like Sam Warburton and neither can I play football like Gareth Bale.

However, I can play music on my Naim system!

Well done Geraint, the Principality is very proud of you.

Well pleased for Geraint Thomas for winning his first tour.It was very poignant yesterday after the Time Trail and getting tearful on post race interview as I think it started to sink in just what he'd achieved.

Thank you Geraint Thomas, I'm very proud of you for what you have done. Bloody fantastic mate!

He had a bit of luck (or others had bad luck) early on and then was absolutely rock solid. Never looked like he'd crack in the mountains with two stage wins plus squeezing out extra seconds at other times. I think he'd probably have won the TT if he'd not been backing off in the last section. Thoroughly deserved as the best rider in the best team. I do like his dry humour, and he's clearly been a loyal, committed and brave rider for many years who has dedicated himself to the team before himself but has now seized his chance. Double Olympic gold medal winner too. Few in the sport seems to have anything bad to say about him, although I guess the Sky-haters will manage something.

I really enjoyed the style (and sportsmanship) of Julien Alaphillippe, and I'm sad that Richie Porte again lost a chance to compete by crashing out. Dan Martin always tries to animate races but needs a decent team? Dumoulin impressive but just lacking that extra spark to break away. Quintana a disappointment; anonymous until one stage win, and then next day he's exhausted and loses time. Froome dignified in defeat and I'm not so sure he is 'done'. He's had an amazing year. I suspect he'll miss the Giro next year to concentrate on the Tour. Might be two leaders for Sky again?

All in all a good race route (I liked the short climbing day although the grid start looked a bit pointless) and good racing but the anti-Sky mood and crowd issues were unpleasantly obvious watching the TV. Putting personalities aside I think there is a bit of a danger of an F1 style situation here where being on the right team becomes almost as important as the performance of the rider. Sky also seem able to scoop up really good emerging talent (Bernal is surely a future winner). Having one dominant team winning 5 out of the last 6 TdF, and now picking up other Grand Tour titles too is not so healthy for the sport maybe. I can only think of a few minutes when Thomas was actually 1 on 1 with a challenger and not surrounded by at least one, and often more, Sky teammates,

2019 World Champs to be held in Yorkshire by the way.

Bruce

A fantastic end to a great Tour and, for me, the perfect podium. The only glitch was the elimination of the main sprinters which made the Champs Elysee sprint less compelling as there were fewer proper lead out trains engaged. The organisers seem to schedule the route to keep the GC close but if this continues they should possibly relax the time allowance which would have rewarded Cav's brave final effort and maybe motivated some other sprinters to hang in there.

Also, this has been a great thread so thanks to all, especially Tabby Cat who started it and Naim Nymph (Debs) for her results service .

BTW isn't it time the Tour got rid of the podium girls? Totally unnecessary.

Bruce

It’s tradition.

I don’t think the French will bow down to the feminist PC brigade, although the French sports minister looks a tough cookie and probably is judging by Thomas’s immediate complience when she told him to get rid of the flag.

Cav’s days as a top sprinter are probably over. He admitted he couldn’t even keep up with the other teams lead out trains. I’m glad Kristoff won, nice to see somebody who hasn’t previously won on the Champ get the pleasure from doing so.

fatcat posted:

It’s tradition.

I don’t think the French will bow down to the feminist PC brigade, although the French sports minister looks a tough cookie and probably is judging by Thomas’s immediate complience when she told him to get rid of the flag.

Cav’s days as a top sprinter are probably over. He admitted he couldn’t even keep up with the other teams lead out trains. I’m glad Kristoff won, nice to see somebody who hasn’t previously won on the Champ get the pleasure from doing so.

 

 

Well lots of things are 'traditional' but become out dated and relegated to history.

Agree re Cav. Great career but others have taken over.

Bruce