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2021 Tour de France thread


Hornius Emeritus

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I don’t think he was trying to get a selfie. Instead of watching the road behind him for the approaching peloton, he was looking up the road trying the get the television camera on the moto to see his stupid sign shouting out his grandparents. Whatever it was, it put a lot of riders on the ground. About 30 seconds before that happened I was thinking that Jumbo were in a dangerous position on the road - you could feel that something was about to happen.  Crazy start. Glad none of the real GC favorites lost significant time. 

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I want to slap with a sign the airhead producer that insisted on using this stupid gimmick.  Total waste of a segment.  I'm here for the scenery!

 

Edited by clapclapclap
I do appreciate the Tour switching to a NASCAR format, where The Big One happens in the first race....
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37 minutes ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

That was quite the final 5 KMs.  

 Brutal. That last one was all Ewan. I was watching closely to see if Sagan would try to crowd toward the barrier when Caleb took them both out. Not sure if Roglic will be able to recover from that. Even before that crash between Caleb & Peter, I was furious at the spectators holding  their phones way out over the barriers with sprinters approaching at speed. Get your goddamn phone out of the way! Reminds me of when Thor Hosholvd got his arm sliced wide open after a spectator caught him on the arm with one of those green fans on a stick while he was sprinting along the barriers. 

Edited by Whitewater Horn
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1 hour ago, Hornius Emeritus said:

Who the hell designed the course today?  180 riders crowding into a space 6-7 meters wide while in full-on race mode at 40 mph is a recipe for disaster. The organizers should be shot.  

I guess they decided having a bunch of crashes would make up some excitement for only having three uphill finishes in the mountain stages. What an absolute shit show so far. 

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On 6/30/2021 at 11:05 AM, Captain Ron said:


Charges DROPPED.

TOUR DE FRANCE 2021 – TOUR DE FRANCE DROP LAWSUIT THREAT AGAINST SPECTATOR WHO CAUSED CRASH

"We are withdrawing our complaint. This story has been blown out of proportion but we wish to remind everyone of the safety rules on the race," Tour director Christian Prudhomme said. You can watch the Tour de France live and ad-free on the Eurosport app and Eurosport.co.uk. Download the Eurosport app for iOS and Android now.

3161377-64783268-2560-1440.jpg

BY
PUBLISHED 01/07/2021 AT 08:42 GMT-5
 
Tour de France organisers have dropped charges against the supporter who caused a huge crash during the opening stage of the Tour de France on Saturday.
 
Nearly all of the peloton was wiped out on Stage 1 when Tony Martin (Jumbo-Visma) collided with a sign held by the fan, sparking a mass pile-up.

TV replays showed the fan grinning into the camera and holding a sign which read "ALLEZ OPI-OMI!" – which roughly translates as "COME ON GRANDDAD-GRANNY".

Race organisers threatened legal action and the fan turned themselves into police custody on Wednesday.
The woman, 30, was held by Landerneau police overnight and was facing a fine.
 
But Tour organisers have today dropped the charges in an attempt to deescalate the situation.
"We are withdrawing our complaint. This story has been blown out of proportion but we wish to remind everyone of the safety rules on the race," Tour director Christian Prudhomme said.
 
"If you come to the Tour, you hold your kid, you hold your pet and don't cross the road carelessly. And above all, you respect the riders - they're the ones worthy of live TV."
 
3161581-64787348-2560-1440.png
 
Eurosport's Bradley Wiggins was critical of the fan, but acknowledged that spectator influence on the racing is an inevitable element of the sport.
 
"This is nothing new, it’s been happening for years and years," Wiggins said. 
 
"And they are part of the race; the spectators are part of the race and part of the spectacle as well. It’s what makes this sport so beautiful."
 
The Tour peloton held a protest about rider safety on Tuesday after a string of crashes marred the opening three days of the race.

https://www.eurosport.com/cycling/tour-de-france/2021/tour-de-france-2021-tour-de-france-drop-lawsuit-threat-against-spectator-who-caused-crash_sto8399500/story.shtml

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Agreed. I just don’t think any of the contenders are going to make a dent in him. He won’t let them and they are so far behind (5m and counting) it’s too much ground to make up.

And today might be the last of one off attacks that put yellow at risk. The people of no significance (like an O’Connor) within striking distance are starting to dwindle.

This is shaping up to be the most boring tour since 2012 (Wiggins’s win). And honestly it might be along the lines of when Indurain was winning. I’m not even sure if Lance’s “wins” were this boring. 

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Sprinkles to light rain may start soon, but they've got a chance to make it to the finish before that line of thunderstorms hits.  Angle of storm movement is actually to the northeast, parallel to most of the remaining course.

Edited by clapclapclap
But it only takes one person yelling 'Pets de rat' to start chaos.
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4 hours ago, tx ind said:

Cav again, very nice

I was really happy for Cav when he won on Stage 4. I figured it was a great way to cap his career and finish with a stage win in what I assumed is likely his last Tour. 
 

Then he won at Chareauroux for the 3rd time in his career and second stage win of the race, so that seemed like a really magical way to wrap it up and go out like the legend he is. 
 

Now we have a situation. In what is all but certain to be a real laugher of a runaway victory for yellow by Pogacar, we have a chance to witness significant history. One win away from equaling, and two wins away from passing Eddy’s TDF all time stage wins  record. Eddy Merckx has plenty of records that aren’t going to be touched for a long time, if ever. I can’t imagine there are many people rooting against Cav.  Hard to believe that the upcoming sprint stages hold more compelling possibilities than the remaining mountain stages, including the lame double ascent of Mont Ventoux that doesn’t finish on top. 

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Happy for Cav. Yay olds! Hard to believe he wasn’t the man for his team a week before the Tour started.

I love watching all these stage winners cross the line as dead bodies and the emotions that come through. It’s similar to watching gold medal winners figure out that they were the best that day after years of effort.

Watching Cav make the line before the time limit two stages ago after all the fury is over is something most races don’t have.

My bourbon group has a Tour de Fat where we ride from the mopac bridge to various Austin bbq joints and I’ll be sprinting to Micklethwaite in honor of Mark soon.

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Great stage by Cav and his team.

I usually fast forward through the first part of the race, but yesterday I ran it from the beginning (ff through boring middle portion).  Did anyone catch Adam Blythe chatting with Bradley Wiggins on the back of the motorcycles.  Wiggins smoking what appeared to be a joint.  Might have been tobacco, but either way it was odd to see.

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Nothing against Cav and his great story, but I hate seeing the most stage wins title going to a sprinting specialist who needs a lot of help on every mountain stage to keep from being disqualified due to his total time.  Also, he can only race against people who are there, but Ewan crashing out certainly helped his cause.  The sprinting field as a whole seems thinner than any year I can recall.   

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