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Posted (edited)

What a wild stage. Great route and a chaotic start. 
 

Gutty performance by Alaphilippe today after the crash, dislocating his shoulder, popping it back in and sprinting for third. Some reports say he thought he was first as he celebrated, but I find that hard to believe as Campanaerts was just in front of them. Anyone see that median that the peloton crashed over? They are often cobbled but this one was like round baby-head river rocks embedded in cement. Why the peloton was taken through there at speed is a mystery. 
 

JV’s tactics looked suspect. Letting Jonas fend for him self to rejoin after the crash is one thing. Two guys up in the break working for 2nd and sprinting for 3rd when it seems to me they might want to save some energy for what’s to come, no?

Edited by Txzen
Posted
7 minutes ago, Txzen said:

JV’s tactics looked suspect. Letting Jonas fend for him self to rejoin after the crash is one thing. Two guys up in the break working for 2nd and sprinting for 3rd when it seems to me they might want to save some energy for what’s to come, no?

JV’s.  No more Jumbo.  It's now Visma - Lease a Bike.  

As for Visma's tactics, tomorrow is a rest day.  Let the guys who have been working for Jonas have a little fun.  UAE did the same with Wellens.  

  • Fuck Around and Find Out 1
Posted

I’m in Montpellier to watch the Tour start out on Tuesday. 

Staying with friends, but a negative first impression of the city, will refrain from spending money here and will likely leave town after the race departs on Tuesday.

Will scout out the Tour plans after I wake up.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted

No experience there but plenty in Avignon,  Bedoin, Sault, Vaison-le-Romaine, Gigondas… 

in the other direction, Toulouse seemed lovely and a totally different city style for France. Hope you find your place! Had heard similar grumblings about Marseille. 

Posted
24 minutes ago, Napoleon said:

I’m in Montpellier to watch the Tour start out on Tuesday. 

Staying with friends, but a negative first impression of the city, will refrain from spending money here and will likely leave town after the race departs on Tuesday.

Will scout out the Tour plans after I wake up.

Fucking username. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Haha 3
  • Fuck Around and Find Out 1
Posted
9 hours ago, Txzen said:

Old habits die hard. But Wout was pushing from the third group 2 min behind the winning move 12k out. Lunacy. 

It was his kid's birthday.  He wanted screen time.  

Posted
12 hours ago, Txzen said:

Some reports say he thought he was first as he celebrated, but I find that hard to believe as Campanaerts was just in front of them

He definitely thought he won, he even said so.

Posted

I know of a few of your have watched the Tour in-person and ridden over there some.  Sounds like Napoleon is there now.  Has anyone ever done one of the TDF group tours?  Combination of riding and spectating?   I'm looking at doing this next summer with my 18 year old son.  

I've been to France quite a few times and driven there a few times.  I'm comfortable navigating around over there, but I've never ridden a bike over there.  I know you can accomplish the same type of trip on your own but I'm at the age where paying for the convenience of someone else doing all the planning and taking care of all the logistics is appealing to me.  I could do without all the finish-line VIP area stuff and would be just as happy watching the peloton roll through from the side of a country road.  But on the riding days, being dropped off at the bottom of Ventoux with a bike and picked up at the top and shuttled to a hotel sounds way better than he and I winging it on our own.  

I used to hate the idea of guided trips but my son and I did a mountain bike across Scotland trip with a guided group a couple years ago and it was amazing.  The group was small and I enjoyed everyone in it and we definitely went to some spots, riding, exploring, eating, etc.., that we would not have known about on our own.

Anyway, pros and cons of any live Tour experiences you've had?  

I've looked into Thomson Bike Tours and Custom Getaways.  

I'd be interested to read about your experiences watching the Tour live and riding over there whether on your own or with a group.

Posted

👆

Went to the Fan Fest shit today and talked to a couple of Canadian retirees. Probably in their late 60s

They went to 4 or 5 different starts in the Pyrenees and would watch the starts and then go back to their hotel and watch the rest of the race. 

I don’t which tour group they are with, but they said that after tomorrow they are heading to Oaris and then waiting to watch the final day in the stands on the Champs, so they are locked into something.

Here is a Time Lapse from today. I start behind the stage where they will likely introduce the riders and then I walk straight on a walkway that bisects the half circle of buildings that is a lot like the Royal something or another in Bath, England, then I walk to the Fan Fest thing. 

 

More photos later. 👆 Click link.

 

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
1 hour ago, Your Mom said:

I know of a few of your have watched the Tour in-person and ridden over there some.  Sounds like Napoleon is there now.  Has anyone ever done one of the TDF group tours?  Combination of riding and spectating?   I'm looking at doing this next summer with my 18 year old son.  

I've been to France quite a few times and driven there a few times.  I'm comfortable navigating around over there, but I've never ridden a bike over there.  I know you can accomplish the same type of trip on your own but I'm at the age where paying for the convenience of someone else doing all the planning and taking care of all the logistics is appealing to me.  I could do without all the finish-line VIP area stuff and would be just as happy watching the peloton roll through from the side of a country road.  But on the riding days, being dropped off at the bottom of Ventoux with a bike and picked up at the top and shuttled to a hotel sounds way better than he and I winging it on our own.  

I used to hate the idea of guided trips but my son and I did a mountain bike across Scotland trip with a guided group a couple years ago and it was amazing.  The group was small and I enjoyed everyone in it and we definitely went to some spots, riding, exploring, eating, etc.., that we would not have known about on our own.

Anyway, pros and cons of any live Tour experiences you've had?  

I've looked into Thomson Bike Tours and Custom Getaways.  

I'd be interested to read about your experiences watching the Tour live and riding over there whether on your own or with a group.

 

I've always gone unguided, but I have a good friend that just did a guided tour in France last month, I'll ask which outfit. He spoke very highly of it.

Posted (edited)
59 minutes ago, Your Mom said:

That's pretty cool.  Is Fan Fest something they have at every stage?

Short answer: YES

Longer Answer: Frequently the Tour starts out from the same town that they ended at the day before. 

Other times it ends in one town and then starts close by the next morning. 

This year in Montpellier, the day before the start (Today, Monday July 21st) is a rest day. 

I didn’t know for sure what was going on today, but so knew for sure that there would at least be people building shit up for tomorrow’s pre-start festivities. The Tour always starts off in the 12 o’clock hour, so that leaves hours of shit to see and doing the morning, but it has to get set up in advance. 

This kind of shit:

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Was still being set up today, but was only for sponsors later this evening before being open to the public tomorrow, the morning of the start. 

REMEMBER:

1) Professional sports are really Entertainment & a Platform for Advertisers.

2) The Tour de France is basically a traveling carnival brought to you by major corporations.

It is the NASCAR of Europe. It is all about the brands and connecting with the customers.

I tried a Lay’s chips knockoff, a Nutella knockoff…

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…some ready-made pasta sauce

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Gave my email out to som VIP events & travel company (CENTURY 21) to get a couple of plastic shopping bags for my friends’ kids, chatted with a guy who didn’t speak English about Pétanque, and what makes OBUT brand Pétanque Balls so special (an official Tour sponsor with Pétanque setups in Lille & Montpellier this year)

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There were free yellow hats, I got a blue & white bucket cap from some company named “Krys”

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for waiting in line and having an eye exam. (My distance vision is till “perfect”, but my reading vision is “complicated”. (A.K.A. “It sucks.”)

Saw a few different Poloce stands, depending on whether you wanted to be an investigator or a general police officer, and then the fire department had helmets and an obstacle course for little kids..

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…and tons more. 

My hope is that tomorrow we will be able to see team bikes on stands from a close distance. 

If you have watched the Tour on TV, you can tell that the national board of tourism has its fingers into the overall route of the race, the individual daily routes, and even the camera shots and the information provided the commentators, at least the English speaking ones for the USA.

This is the first time that the Tour has passed through Montpellier in 9 years, so it’s a special thing here. 

Also, I asked the girl giving me my eye exam and a person at another stand and they both told me that they live locally and are only working this Fan Fest, they are not traveling with the Tour. There are likely some who do, and then there are people with a company like the Pétanque ball company who likely will only show up to Lille and Montpellier this year and skip the rest of the tour and not hire anyone for other stops either. 
 

NOTE: I am tired of and may have made mistakes. I don’t feel like rereading this post either, so if I made mistakes… fuck it. 

 

Edited by Napoleon

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