Tour de France

[Loramski]

Great tour so far, every stage has offered some action to a degree and the Pyrenees yesterday and Wednesday were a sight to behold.

I hope there's still a lot of swash buckling to go on stage 14, I'll be in Morzine for that one.

My boys were telling me earlier they know a local lad who completed l'Etape du Tour yesterday, an annual event where thousands of amateur cyclists get the chance to ride a stage route from that year's Tour. I mention it here because this year it was the Annemasse-Morzine route of the stage that you (and Taffy Blue) will be attending this weekend. There's a profile of it in this article, looks absolutely brutal.

https://www.sportive.com/cycling/543...3-route-reveal

It took the lad nine hours apparently and I'm sure he wouldn't have been the last one in by a long way. I can't find a report on it yet but there's one here about the 2014 one which explains the suffering involved. 2 hours in the cold and wet getting up the Tourmalet, incredible. I probably need to stop punching the air when I get to the top of Leckwith Hill, it's undignified.

https://www.welovecycling.com/wide/2...average-rider/

[Loramski]

One day classics are where WVA and MVFP shine. Pidcock is becoming a similar rider- a great team member in the tours, but will have more success earlier in the season in the cyclo-cross and one day races.
Remco Evenepol is the Belgian who seems capable of success in both classics and tours.

Surprised to see in this article that van Aert has only won one race all year.

https://www.rouleur.cc/blogs/the-rou...-wout-van-aert

I take HL's point that maybe we underestimate the classics over here but I tend to look at them like I look at limited overs cricket, great entertainment but not quite the real thing. I always feel it's slightly damning with faint praise to call someone a one-day specialist at either sport and I look at van Aert like a Buttler rather the Stokes he should be. I might be talking bollocks there though.

I can't take one-day cycling too lightly as the World Championships and Olympics are both examples of it and there's plenty of Kudos attached to them. Both should be well within van Aert's reach but the problem he's got there is that not only is Evenepoel Belgian but Philipsen too so he may end up being a plan B at best for them for the foreseeable future.

[Harry Lime]

Some time trial there by Vingegaard. Incredible how often it is the decisive factor

[Undercoverinwurzelland]

Some time trial there by Vingegaard. Incredible how often it is the decisive factor

Wow. Game over.

[Harry Lime]

Wow. Game over.

Yep, would take some serious drama or an accident from here. Pogacar's TT would have been considered very good on any other day

[SuisseBluebird]

My boys were telling me earlier they know a local lad who completed l'Etape du Tour yesterday, an annual event where thousands of amateur cyclists get the chance to ride a stage route from that year's Tour. I mention it here because this year it was the Annemasse-Morzine route of the stage that you (and Taffy Blue) will be attending this weekend. There's a profile of it in this article, looks absolutely brutal.

https://www.sportive.com/cycling/543...3-route-reveal

It took the lad nine hours apparently and I'm sure he wouldn't have been the last one in by a long way. I can't find a report on it yet but there's one here about the 2014 one which explains the suffering involved. 2 hours in the cold and wet getting up the Tourmalet, incredible. I probably need to stop punching the air when I get to the top of Leckwith Hill, it's undignified.

https://www.welovecycling.com/wide/2...average-rider/

I was at the top of the final climb after the HC before the descent into Morzine. Many an amateur trying their luck out on that climb and credit to them there were a few powering their way up that hill at a decent rate.

Great atmosphere up on that mountain and a shame that the crowd/moto interrupted the attack from Pogacar ahead of the HC on that day. I'll add that we were largely behaved where we were. But had that attack been successful it might of made for some interesting antics once they got to the point I was at on the final rise.

But all a formality because Vindegaard absolutely destroyed the race this afternoon. Incredible TT, I was in awe watching it on the screens at the office. Just a different level.

[Harry Lime]

My boys were telling me earlier they know a local lad who completed l'Etape du Tour yesterday, an annual event where thousands of amateur cyclists get the chance to ride a stage route from that year's Tour. I mention it here because this year it was the Annemasse-Morzine route of the stage that you (and Taffy Blue) will be attending this weekend. There's a profile of it in this article, looks absolutely brutal.

https://www.sportive.com/cycling/543...3-route-reveal

It took the lad nine hours apparently and I'm sure he wouldn't have been the last one in by a long way. I can't find a report on it yet but there's one here about the 2014 one which explains the suffering involved. 2 hours in the cold and wet getting up the Tourmalet, incredible. I probably need to stop punching the air when I get to the top of Leckwith Hill, it's undignified.

https://www.welovecycling.com/wide/2...average-rider/

Enjoyed those articles 👍

Never been up Leckwith Hill. Stared at it from the Bob Bank often enough trying to take my mind off the disaster on the pitch.

[Loramski]

Enjoyed those articles ��

Never been up Leckwith Hill. Stared at it from the Bob Bank often enough trying to take my mind off the disaster on the pitch.

Horrible roundabout at the bottom but it's a nice ride up there and then taking a right soon after towards Dinas Powys. Cardiff's a good place to live if you enjoy cycling, so many scenic routes you can take even if you've only got an hour or so to spare.

Some testing climbs around too if you want to push yourself. Talking of which, the Tour of Britain is finishing at the top of Caerphilly Mountain in September after going up there twice. Not exactly the Stelvio Pass, of course, but should be worth a watch.

[Loramski]

I was at the top of the final climb after the HC before the descent into Morzine. Many an amateur trying their luck out on that climb and credit to them there were a few powering their way up that hill at a decent rate.

Great atmosphere up on that mountain and a shame that the crowd/moto interrupted the attack from Pogacar ahead of the HC on that day. I'll add that we were largely behaved where we were. But had that attack been successful it might of made for some interesting antics once they got to the point I was at on the final rise.

But all a formality because Vindegaard absolutely destroyed the race this afternoon. Incredible TT, I was in awe watching it on the screens at the office. Just a different level.

The cameramen seemed to get the blame for that incident but, obviously, if the crowd weren't letting them through then they have to take some of the blame.

The idiot who knocked Kuss off the next day caused more problems though, put his arm out to take a selfie and wiped out half the peloton in the process. Which reminded me of this incident from 1994 when a policeman decides to take a close-up of a sprint finish and finds himself closer up than he expected.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h5k1Zu9O4k

[Undercoverinwurzelland]

Interesting article for those of you who remember Marco Pantani https://www.bbc.com/sport/cycling/66373364

[Harry Lime]

Interesting article for those of you who remember Marco Pantani https://www.bbc.com/sport/cycling/66373364

The podcast is worth a listen too.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0fscfk8

[Taunton Blue Genie]

The podcast is worth a listen too.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0fscfk8

I thought the podcast was, as the yanks say, "a nothingburger". It was eked out and repetitive and, in my opinion, without much real substance.
However, give a listen to Tyler Hamilton's audiobook entitled "The Secret Race". It's basically about how decent cyclists were being left behind in races by their historically weaker peers who were doping and how it was a matter of joining them or being left behind. It's not written as an excuse though. It's a fascinating listen.

[Harry Lime]

I thought the podcast was, as the yanks say, "a nothingburger". It was eked out and repetitive and, in my opinion, without much real substance.
However, give a listen to Tyler Hamilton's audiobook entitled "The Secret Race". It's basically about how decent cyclists were being left behind in races by their historically weaker peers who were doping and how it was a matter of joining them or being left behind. It's not written as an excuse though. It's a fascinating listen.

Listened a couple of years ago, great book

[fugsyphil]

I thought the podcast was, as the yanks say, "a nothingburger". It was eked out and repetitive and, in my opinion, without much real substance.
However, give a listen to Tyler Hamilton's audiobook entitled "The Secret Race". It's basically about how decent cyclists were being left behind in races by their historically weaker peers who were doping and how it was a matter of joining them or being left behind. It's not written as an excuse though. It's a fascinating listen.

Just finished the podcast and thought exactly the same. How they made that into ten episodes I'll never understand. About five minutes of unknown material

[Harry Lime]

Just finished the podcast and thought exactly the same. How they made that into ten episodes I'll never understand. About five minutes of unknown material

They definitely padded it out but there was a lot of content I wasn't aware of, especially the aftermath. I followed him and read about his death but haven't seen much since so the potential criminal element was news to me

[Rjk]

Just finished the podcast and thought exactly the same. How they made that into ten episodes I'll never understand. About five minutes of unknown material

someone recently recommended a podcast to me on whether the scorpion's song the winds of change was secretly written by the CIA.
despite hating the song it sounded pretty interesting, until I checked the podcast and apparently it's like 8 hour long episodes.
mental.

[Taunton Blue Genie]

Just finished the podcast and thought exactly the same. How they made that into ten episodes I'll never understand. About five minutes of unknown material

I've just had the opposite experience with a podcast called "Unfollow: A Journey from Hatred to Hope, leaving the Westboro Baptist Church". I listened to the author's podcast that was abridged from the book and thought that the story was glossed over due to its brevity. The author is an extremely articulate young lady who was interviewed on Louis Theroux's programme about the church and when she was still part of fit. Her grandfather was the driving force in picketing the funerals of US soldiers as he saw their deaths as being punishment by God for the tolerance of gays in the country. The author was just five years old when she was handed placards and signs that read "God hates fags", "God loves dead soldiers" and the like. She obviously escaped the indoctrination eventually but, like many extreme religious sects, she is now ostracised from the community in which she was raged. I ordered the book and just started reading it last night.

[Loramski]

Just a reminder for anyone who's interested that the Tour of Britain finishes on Caerphilly Mountain this Sunday. I'll be the one shouting 'loser' at van Aert (unless he's winning, of course. I'm not mental). Ridiculous race so far; four bunch finishes, four lead outs by van Aert and four wins for his sprinter. Olav Kooij. No time bonuses so after four stages there are fifty-six riders on the same time. Surely Britain can come up with some kind of hilly course somewhere? They went over a speed bump the other day and were handing out King of the Mountain points for it.

An interesting couple of days coming up in the Vuelta. Going up the Aubisque and the Tourmalet tomorrow, another brutal stage on Saturday. Roglic and Vingegaard in there for Jumbo Visma but their domestique, Sepp Kuss, has a decent lead for now so they've got three cards to play. I'm expecting them to make a complete mess of Evenepoel at some point but hopefully not. Geraint Thomas needs snookers already, he's down in 18th place.

[The Bloop]

Think Sundays stage finishes at Caerphilly Castle after climbing the mountain twice. I'm undecided where to watch atm, probably somewhere on the mountain . As you say though, it's a bit dull so far.

[BLUETIT]

Will they be going 20mph on our roads

[Loramski]

Will they be going 20mph on our roads

Ha, you'll soon be telling us about it if they don't. And moaning because they're riding ten abreast and not using the cycle lanes.

[cyril evans awaydays]

Just a reminder for anyone who's interested that the Tour of Britain finishes on Caerphilly Mountain this Sunday. I'll be the one shouting 'loser' at van Aert (unless he's winning, of course. I'm not mental). Ridiculous race so far; four bunch finishes, four lead outs by van Aert and four wins for his sprinter. Olav Kooij. No time bonuses so after four stages there are fifty-six riders on the same time. Surely Britain can come up with some kind of hilly course somewhere? They went over a speed bump the other day and were handing out King of the Mountain points for it.

An interesting couple of days coming up in the Vuelta. Going up the Aubisque and the Tourmalet tomorrow, another brutal stage on Saturday. Roglic and Vingegaard in there for Jumbo Visma but their domestique, Sepp Kuss, has a decent lead for now so they've got three cards to play. I'm expecting them to make a complete mess of Evenepoel at some point but hopefully not. Geraint Thomas needs snookers already, he's down in 18th place.

Jumbo Visma masterclass today. Van Aert led out...... Van Aert

[Loramski]

Jumbo Visma masterclass today. Van Aert led out...... Van Aert

The guy's an absolute phenomenon, don't get me wrong, but I still wouldn't bother buying him a trophy cabinet for Xmas.

[Loramski]

Think Sundays stage finishes at Caerphilly Castle after climbing the mountain twice. I'm undecided where to watch atm, probably somewhere on the mountain . As you say though, it's a bit dull so far.

Yes, sorry, you're right. I'm sure the original plan was to finish at the top but there is a descent now. I guess the climb will be rammed, I might try and catch a glimpse of Pidcock descending somewhere if so.

[Undercoverinwurzelland]

Ridiculous race so far; four bunch finishes, four lead outs by van Aert and four wins for his sprinter. Olav Kooij. No time bonuses so after four stages there are fifty-six riders on the same time. Surely Britain can come up with some kind of hilly course somewhere? They went over a speed bump the other day and were handing out King of the Mountain points for it.

Stick a time trial in at least to separate the riders.