Reply With QuoteEven if the times are equal I think the places are calculated on best finishing positions.Originally Posted by Loramski
Bonkers though that there's been no bonus seconds awarded, a TT, or a second climbing day to split the field.
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That would've been sensible, yes. After five stages van Aert is three seconds ahead of fifty-four riders. It's going to be a busy podium on Sunday if Caerphilly Mountain doesn't sort them out.
Even if the times are equal I think the places are calculated on best finishing positions.
Bonkers though that there's been no bonus seconds awarded, a TT, or a second climbing day to split the field.
They are, yes. I was misunderstanding for comic effect there, I had an image of 54 cyclists trying to get on the second step of the podium and ran with it. The joke doesn't work so well today, there are only 52 on the same time behind van Aert and cyclists are so skinny they'd probably fit on comfortably.
The stage profile they put up for tomorrow on the highlights show looks quite promising but they may have put the profile up for today's stage in the Vuelta by mistake.
Talking of close finishes I just finished and enjoyed an audiobook called 'Three Weeks, Eight Seconds' about the 1989 Tour, which came up as a free bonus on audible. I can see why they made the book free because I imagine it has limited appeal in documenting the entire race from the start in great detail, culminating in the infamous final stage time trial and the showdown between LeMond and Fignon.
A time trial to finish next year's Tour too, in Nice. 1989 will be a hard act to follow.
Wout van Aert won the Tour of Britain today, I didn't see the presentations but I assume someone had to show him how to open a bottle of champagne. He did well the last two days to be fair, he was put under a lot of pressure but handled it well. If Ineos had Pidcock today (and if Rodriguez hadn't crashed yesterday) they may have won it but van Aert deserved it over the week as a whole.
A proper stage today, surely Wales and Scotland have got more to offer the race than some of the nonsense English stages seen earlier in the week. Southend to Harlow, what's that about? Looked like good crowds in Caerphilly for the finish, it should have a regular spot in the race.
Mark Cavendish Never Enough on Netflix is a great watch
Gutted I couldn't make it but a mate of mine was at Margam Park and then shot off to Rhigos Mountain. He had a great day.
Thanks for the reminder, finally got round to watching it last night. Very good. I'm familiar with a lot of it but I wasn't aware of Patrick Lefevere's role in 'rescuing' Cav, nor the coach at Quick-Step who got him back to his best. Interesting stuff.
Cavendish has signed a contract extension giving him one more Tour de France.
Top program . Respect for his ability to bring himself back to the top . It did cross my mind , I wonder if he "used" anything..
Van Aert could be going for the Giro next year
https://cyclinguptodate.com/cycling/...italia-in-2024
Looks like Jumbo Visma have been following this thread and it's dawned on them what an underachieving, overpaid, waste of space van Aert has been recently. With Roglic moving on, they're finally going to tell Wout to get his big boy pants on and start fulfilling his potential. Or something like that.
Personally i think Cav is the least likely of any rider on tour to dope.
That documentary told us that his desire to ride isnt for the wins (he wont have many more, but i'll be in Turin next year hoping he gets #35 in le Tour,) he doesn't do it for the money (he paid to ride for Quickstep in 2021), he rides cos he is clearly passionate about riding a bike. You don't dope if that is true.
Did you see the finish this morning on the mountain in Fethiye, Turkey. Absolutely brutal.
Sorry I missed that, some highlights here.
https://www.google.com/search?q=tour...g_JZplGGg,st:0
To think ITV4 were trying to get us interested in the Southend to Harlow stage of the Tour of Britain last month.
To link Mike's post to the ones about Cav, he's been making his comeback in the Tour of Turkey this week (Cav, not Mike). He finished 150th out of 151 finishers on the mountain stage and probably wished he was doping when he got to the final climb. He did make the cut off time though and finished 141st in today's stage. It's going to be interesting to follow his progress through to next year's Tour from here.
I'm sure we'll get to see that on the next Netflix docu!
Good point. This one will be like the Blues Brothers by the look of things, Cav's getting the band back together. His coach and lead out man from 2021 (Anastopoulos and Morkov) are signing for Astana. Maybe he'll be trying to talk Bernie Eisel out of retirement as well.
Next year's Tour will finish in Nice (to avoid the Paris Olympics), and with a time trial.
The full route was announced today and I managed to book accommodation not far from where stages 8 finishes and where stage passes in a loop from Troyes.
I'm heading down for stages 1-3 at least, hoping Cav might get the 35th win in Bologna or Turin.
Looks like Boasson Hagen is looking for a team next year too!
Getting Mark Renshaw in to headbutt van der Poel might be a plan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya5wNG2ELzg
tbf, Cav in that era could have coasted in. During that time he must have been hot favourite to win about 5 stages then either got kicked out or fell for about 5 others. Cav is a top man but I think that his equal record with Merxck should just respect their different talents.
If Cav hadn't crashed out on day 1 in Yorkshire and missed years due to injury or not selection he'd have over 40 wins by now, might even have reached 50.
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