Le Tour de France 2014

[sjclaeys]

Today was an amazing stage. If you missed it, you must watch the recap tonight.

[consularrider]

@CaseyKane50 89785 wrote:

I tried it once too. I was glad the pavers were dry.

Here is a shot of Prince Street

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Alexandria has another block of cobblestone on Princess Street. Unlike Prince, it is a two-way block. It is also not as steep as Prince.

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My problem with Princess is that there is way to much broken glass among the cobblestones.

[PotomacCyclist]

I think spoilers should be OK, although I won’t give away the big spoiler from today, for now. I was watching some of the race live, but I completely missed the news. I just wanted to see the craziness of the cobblestones and rain and mud. Plenty of that. I’d hate to ride on that but it’s great to watch.

I looked at the results and didn’t see the usual names. The course blew up the peloton completely. It was only later that someone told me what happened.

[PotomacCyclist]

Well, the evening repeat broadcast is over, so time to discuss the big news openly, namely, Chris Froome crashing twice today and being forced to abandon the Tour de France. He was already injured from his crash yesterday. After the second crash today, he later said that with his injured wrist and other injuries, he could no longer handle his bike with any level of safety. In that case, it’s best to leave and heal up. He had a tough time walking to the team car and also walking through the hotel later in the day.

The thing is that it didn’t even happen on the cobblestones. Several other key riders also crashed on the wet roads. Fabian Cancellara said in the post-race program that even if the crashes didn’t take place on the cobblestones, the riders had to alter their equipment (tire pressure, etc.) in preparation for the rough stretches, which might have affected them. The rain didn’t help either.

This is why I mentioned early in the thread that Froome was merely trying to defend his title. I didn’t say that “anything could happen” for fear of jinxing Froome (if you believe in sports superstitions). But anything can happen, and it did today.

Team Sky chose not to bring Bradley Wiggins to the Tour. I don’t know if he would have been in peak fitness or not. But if he was in top shape, the team could have fallen back on him as their GC contender. Richie Porte is a great rider, but Bob Roll mentioned that Porte may not have mentally prepared himself to lead the team yet. Roll said the mental aspect would pose a lot of challenges for Porte.

The post-race crew also spoke about whether cobblestones belong in the Tour de France. Both Cancellara and Christian Vande Velde (now a commentator for NBCSN) said that they didn’t like having cobblestones and seemed to say that they thought the organizers (ASO) should move away from cobblestone stages in the future. But they didn’t say this forcefully. Cancellara might be concerned about repercussions for such statements.

On the other hand, Bob Roll pointed out that most of the crashes today occurred on the paved roads, and were largely caused by the wet conditions, not the cobblestones.

In either case, Froome is out and the Tour is up for grabs. (Nibali is in a good position. We’ll see if he can hang on. He has won the Giro and the Vuelta in the past, so it’s not just by luck that he’s in the yellow jersey.)

[PotomacCyclist]

“Recapping Stage 5” from NBCSN:

[video]http://www.nbcsports.com/cycling/tour-de-france/road-hazard-sign-causes-chris-froomes-crash[/video]

With Todd Harris, Bob Roll, Christian Vande Velde and Fabian Cancellara.

[Steve]

@PotomacCyclist 89877 wrote:

This is why I mentioned early in the thread that Froome was merely trying to defend his title. I didn’t say that “anything could happen” for fear of jinxing Froome (if you believe in sports superstitions).

I wasn’t as nice as you….

@Steve 89437 wrote:

FTFY, unless he crashes out or something.

[PotomacCyclist]

@Steve 89884 wrote:

I wasn’t as nice as you….

Historical revisionism… ?

[PotomacCyclist]

Maybe ASO (the race organizers) jinxed Froome, and Cavendish. They moved the Tour to England for the first time in, a long time. They had a stage finish in Cavendish’s mother’s home town. So what happens? Cavendish crashes out, in his mother’s home town. Froome crashes multiple times over two days and abandons the Tour.

So much for the celebration of the recent dominance of British cyclists. (The last two overall winners have been British, Froome and Bradley Wiggins, and Cavendish has racked up multiple stage wins over the past few years, although he hasn’t been as dominant over the past year or two.)

[Steve]

Indeed they were jinxed.

You think Movistar doesn’t wish Quintana was in the race now?

[PotomacCyclist]

Quintana would be a serious threat. But I think he wouldn’t be in peak shape, not after winning the Giro last month. It seems that in the biological passport era, it’s extremely difficult to win two stage race championships in the same year. Each one takes so much out of them, that it seems to be almost impossible to be competitive in more than one a year. At best, a rider can compete in one, and ride as a supporting teammate in another.

But next year, Quintana will focus on the Tour.

[KayakCyndi]

@PotomacCyclist 89912 wrote:

Quintana would be a serious threat. …

But next year, Quintana will focus on the Tour.

I can’t wait!

[PotomacCyclist]

Bobke is hilarious. They had a brief segment about cool downs. Christian Vande Velde said cool downs are vital for recovery. Bob Roll said they didn’t have team buses and bike trainers in the old days. But they did ride back to the hotel after the stage. That served as a perfect cool down. Only problem is that they sometimes got lost on the way back to the hotel.

[cyclingfool]

Yesterdy’s stage was “EPIC”. And I’m not quoting a teen; I’m quoting one of the TdF’s “golden voices”, Paul Sherwen. I think he actually called it epic at least three times. But that’s probably because other words fall short. I get the sentiments of those who have reservation about cobble stages. By the same token, the Tour is designed to be a test of riders’ abilities in varied road and climatic conditions. While Cancellara seemed to come out against the idea of future cobble stages in his comments on air last night, I think he also made a comment to the effect of how taking out the mountain stages would improve his chances of winning the Tour, which was either him playing devil’s advocate with himself or at least partially rebutting those who were railing against the cobbles.

It is what it is. Like Milloy’s column, the cobbles generated a lot more buzz about the Tour than a flat stage through northern France normally would, so ASO is bound to be happy about that. Whether that means that there’ll be cobbles again, who knows. All I do know is I thoroughly enjoyed watching yesterday’s stage.

[APKhaos]

Epic? Epic enough to cause a recalibration of what these guys can do.
Consider this: Almost constant heavy rain, wind, and low temperatures. A 97 mile stage including 15km of brutal cobbles. Lars Boom rides this in 3:18 for an average speed just a tick under 30mph and the majority of the peleton were close behind. That’s bloody awesome!

[PotomacCyclist]

Another day of rain, and more rain, at the Tour de France. Plus the first big mountain climbs of this year’s Tour.

Live coverage on NBC right now, not NBCSN. The live program continues to 12 noon, although the stage will finish well before noon.

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