Le Tour

[Biffer]

Starts this weekend. Crowds will be controlled, particularly at departs and finishes but it's difficult to see how they control the crowds on the mountain ascents - and France is in the midst of a significant virus resurgence.

Pandemic to one side though, there are some brutal stages in this year's event. Stage 14 in particular is a beast, 4400m of ascent in 190km, finishing with a 30km ascent of 700m with a cat 1 to the finish line at Puy Mary. Ooyah. Then a day on the flat before the finish into Gran Colombier (1300m in 20km) on stage 15.

One criticism of the set up though - I don't like the time trial on the second last stage. Gives the TT too much importance to have it there, it should be earlier in the tour.

[Hugo]

Did they have to alter the course at all to account for COVID?

[duke]

Starts this weekend. Crowds will be controlled, particularly at departs and finishes but it's difficult to see how they control the crowds on the mountain ascents - and France is in the midst of a significant virus resurgence.

Pandemic to one side though, there are some brutal stages in this year's event. Stage 14 in particular is a beast, 4400m of ascent in 190km, finishing with a 30km ascent of 700m with a cat 1 to the finish line at Puy Mary. Ooyah. Then a day on the flat before the finish into Gran Colombier (1300m in 20km) on stage 15.

One criticism of the set up though - I don't like the time trial on the second last stage. Gives the TT too much importance to have it there, it should be earlier in the tour.

Puy Mary brings back many painful memories of a cycling trip in France when I went up it from the same side as this year's Tour - last few Ks are double digit percentages. I ended up zigzagging up bits of it just to keep upright.

They've had TTs as the penultimate stage a number of times haven't they? I seem to recall both Wiggins and Thomas both having that when they won. No Team TT this year which may help some of the contenders.

[clydecloggie]

Only one TT and it finishes up a mountain.

I'm obvioously a luddite, but a Grand Tour should have a prologue, long flat ITT and a TTT. Not this endless mountain shite exclusively.

My prediction: INEOS will bomb with Bernal out of form and no plan B. Pinot will lead the French GC challenge with Bardet taking the polka dots. Roglic wil lset the early pace but will slowly fade in week 3, ultimately losing the yellow jersey to team mate Dumoulin in the ITT. So final GC will be 1) Dumoulin, 2) Roglic, 3) Pinot.

This is the second-most likely scenario.

Most likely is that the whole carnival will never reach Paris.

[Biffer]

Did they have to alter the course at all to account for COVID?

Think the Grand Depart was meant to be in Copenhagen?

[Marylandolorian]

Did they have to alter the course at all to account for COVID?

Think the Grand Depart was meant to be in Copenhagen?

I think it’s the original 2020 route and Copenhagen was for 21

[dob]

Starts this weekend. Crowds will be controlled, particularly at departs and finishes but it's difficult to see how they control the crowds on the mountain ascents - and France is in the midst of a significant virus resurgence.

Pandemic to one side though, there are some brutal stages in this year's event. Stage 14 in particular is a beast, 4400m of ascent in 190km, finishing with a 30km ascent of 700m with a cat 1 to the finish line at Puy Mary. Ooyah. Then a day on the flat before the finish into Gran Colombier (1300m in 20km) on stage 15.

One criticism of the set up though - I don't like the time trial on the second last stage. Gives the TT too much importance to have it there, it should be earlier in the tour.

Puy Mary brings back many painful memories of a cycling trip in France when I went up it from the same side as this year's Tour - last few Ks are double digit percentages. I ended up zigzagging up bits of it just to keep upright.

They've had TTs as the penultimate stage a number of times haven't they? I seem to recall both Wiggins and Thomas both having that when they won. No Team TT this year which may help some of the contenders.

The importance of the TT in the Tour, and all Grant Tours really, has dropped way off in the past 10 years or so. There was only 17km of ITT in 2015, I think? Compared to 1987 when there was about 200km combined of 1 prologue, a TTT, 2 flat TTs and a mountain TT up Mont Ventoux. In the post-war years up to the 2010s there was traditionally at least 2 long-ish time trials where riders could expect to spend at least a cumulative 2-3 hours in Time Trials of some sort, and one of those was almost always the last GC-stage before Paris (or, as in 1989, it was the last stage into Paris). It more recent years, the 2nd last stage has sometimes been a summit finish or a major mountain stage; this is obviously more feasible in the modern era when the riders can finish a stage in the Alps or Pyrenees on the Saturday, hop on a TGV in Lyon or Toulouse, and be in the suburbs of Paris for the final stage on the Sunday.

So this year's single TT is waaaaay down historically, but is pretty much standard by recent years. It looks more significant by the only TT being the 2nd last stage, whereas in the 1990s there would have been another TT somewhere between stages 7 and 10, and probably a prologue.

[Blackmac]

More and more looking like a highly questionable decision to run the tour. Not a chance they are going to be able to control the crowds on the mountains, unless they close them off completely.

[Un Pilier]

More and more looking like a highly questionable decision to run the tour. Not a chance they are going to be able to control the crowds on the mountains, unless they close them off completely.

Tbf they did not have a background of a steep rise in cases when the “go” decision was taken. I guess I would be in cloud cuckoo land to hope the hoards on the mountains would act responsibly

[Guy Smiley]

More and more looking like a highly questionable decision to run the tour. Not a chance they are going to be able to control the crowds on the mountains, unless they close them off completely.

Tbf they did not have a background of a steep rise in cases when the “go” decision was taken. I guess I would be in cloud cuckoo land to hope the hoards on the mountains would act responsibly

Reading now that Nice has been placed on red alert for COVID... hard to see how the tour could realistically go ahead.

[Marylandolorian]

More and more looking like a highly questionable decision to run the tour. Not a chance they are going to be able to control the crowds on the mountains, unless they close them off completely.

Tbf they did not have a background of a steep rise in cases when the “go” decision was taken. I guess I would be in cloud cuckoo land to hope the hoards on the mountains would act responsibly

Reading now that Nice has been placed on red alert for COVID... hard to see how the tour could realistically go ahead.

They'll do like they did at the Dauphiné, very limited crowd at start and finish, plus today they announced: masks mandatory ( lot of cops , fine at 135euros) no cars at the "cols" mountain pass and more cops.
Let the circus go on.

[Hugo]

Did they have to alter the course at all to account for COVID?

Think the Grand Depart was meant to be in Copenhagen?

I think it’s the original 2020 route and Copenhagen was for 21

Thanks Errugbi & Biffer.

[dob]

Tbf they did not have a background of a steep rise in cases when the “go” decision was taken. I guess I would be in cloud cuckoo land to hope the hoards on the mountains would act responsibly

Reading now that Nice has been placed on red alert for COVID... hard to see how the tour could realistically go ahead.

They'll do like they did at the Dauphiné, very limited crowd at start and finish, plus today they announced: masks mandatory ( lot of cops , fine at 135euros) no cars at the "cols" mountain pass and more cops.
Let the circus go on.

It's going to be a weird Tour. Even the Dauphine crowds seemed a bit big for the Covid era.

I think they're missing a trick if someone in the caravan isn't handing out yellow, green and polka dot facemasks to the small number of people who do show up to watch. This does, of course, presuppose that they do still have even the slightest remnants of the usual publicité.

[Marylandolorian]

^ good idea for the masks but I didn't see any on the official site or the caravane ones.

[Un Pilier]

^ good idea for the masks but I didn't see any on the official site or the caravane ones.

My first reaction was “good luck with that”. But I should keep an open mind. I hope that it all goes fantastically well

[Biffer]

Nearly 7500 new cases in France today

[Un Pilier]

Well, that was a decidedly weird first stage with people sliding off all over the place. Congrats to Kristoff - if you had a punt on today’s top three you will have netted a tidy sum

[laurent]

Verglas d'été is scary....

[Blackmac]

That sets out the stall for the rest of the tour. Even the sprint stages look brutal

[P in VG]

The importance of the TT in the Tour, and all Grant Tours really, has dropped way off in the past 10 years or so. There was only 17km of ITT in 2015, I think? Compared to 1987 when there was about 200km combined of 1 prologue, a TTT, 2 flat TTs and a mountain TT up Mont Ventoux. In the post-war years up to the 2010s there was traditionally at least 2 long-ish time trials where riders could expect to spend at least a cumulative 2-3 hours in Time Trials of some sort, and one of those was almost always the last GC-stage before Paris (or, as in 1989, it was the last stage into Paris). It more recent years, the 2nd last stage has sometimes been a summit finish or a major mountain stage; this is obviously more feasible in the modern era when the riders can finish a stage in the Alps or Pyrenees on the Saturday, hop on a TGV in Lyon or Toulouse, and be in the suburbs of Paris for the final stage on the Sunday.

So this year's single TT is waaaaay down historically, but is pretty much standard by recent years. It looks more significant by the only TT being the 2nd last stage, whereas in the 1990s there would have been another TT somewhere between stages 7 and 10, and probably a prologue.

For the TDF - nothing to do with the fact that the French hopes (Pinot, Bardet a few years ago) are terrible at TTs!

[Biffer]

So there's less of a crowd than usual, but there's still quite a lot of people standing together round this circuit

[laurent]

Good win by Alaphilippe. They knew he was going to and could not do a thing.

[Marylandolorian]

So there's less of a crowd than usual, but there's still quite a lot of people standing together round this circuit

All were wearing masks. Do you?

[Marylandolorian]

Good win by Alaphilippe. They knew he was going to and could not do a thing.

Yep. He announced it yesterday morning, I guess his teammates are pissed of now, they’ll need to do extra work for the next couple of days.

[Hugo]

Is Alaphilippe a serious contender to win the GC?

Read the other day that he was originally going to target the Olympics this year and only cared about targeting certain stages in TDF. With the olympics now cancelled is he going to be in serious contention?

[laurent]

His team is not built to win a tour.

he is strong enough to be a contender but the team is built to win stages and classics

[Un Pilier]

Is Alaphilippe a serious contender to win the GC?

Read the other day that he was originally going to target the Olympics this year and only cared about targeting certain stages in TDF. With the olympics now cancelled is he going to be in serious contention?

He’s an entertainer and one of my favourite riders but he’s not a good enough climber in the mountain stages to win Le Tour.

[Biffer]

So there's less of a crowd than usual, but there's still quite a lot of people standing together round this circuit

All were wearing masks. Do you?

Didn't look like it on the footage I saw, but fair enough I wasn't there.

[clydecloggie]

Verglas d'été is scary....

Aye.

There is a lovely climb just outside of Glasgow called Tak Ma Doon Road - narrow, steep, winding. I descended it once with a small group of riders in verglas d'été conditions. Crashed on the second turn, went over the barrier and lay in the heather for a bit waiting for my colleagues to come and help me out. Turned out they had all crashed on the first turn. It's unbelievably scary riding a bike in conditions like that.

Anyway, enough of the Globus.

Slightly disappointing stage yesterday but the main contenders all came through without too much trouble.

Dumoulin is looking good - mentally very stable judging by the interviews he is giving, and physically near peak condition.

[Un Pilier]

Verglas d'été is scary....

Aye.

There is a lovely climb just outside of Glasgow called Tak Ma Doon Road - narrow, steep, winding. I descended it once with a small group of riders in verglas d'été conditions. Crashed on the second turn, went over the barrier and lay in the heather for a bit waiting for my colleagues to come and help me out. Turned out they had all crashed on the first turn. It's unbelievably scary riding a bike in conditions like that.

Anyway, enough of the Globus.

Slightly disappointing stage yesterday but the main contenders all came through without too much trouble.

Dumoulin is looking good - mentally very stable judging by the interviews he is giving, and physically near peak condition.

I thought Jumbo Visma disappeared from the front of the peloton at key times yesterday. Seemed a bit odd given their omnipresence for most of the stage?

[Slick]

Is today likely to be dull?

[Akkerman]

it was

great sprint though, amazing speed from caleb

[Slick]

it was

great sprint though, amazing speed from caleb

That squeeze up the inside was worth watching

[Un Pilier]

I recorded it. Got everything apart from the last two kilometres

[Marylandolorian]

I recorded it. Got everything apart from the last two kilometres

Lol
Finish widely available but just in case
https://www.letour.fr/en/news/2020/cale ... ss/1284699

[laurent]

good win by Roglic However none of the favourites lost ground

some outsiders did ...

Primož ROGLIC PRIMOŽ ROGLIC 11 TEAM JUMBO - VISMA 04h 07' 47'' - B : 10'' -
2 Tadej POGACAR TADEJ POGACAR 131 UAE TEAM EMIRATES 04h 07' 47'' - B : 6'' -
3 Guillaume MARTIN GUILLAUME MARTIN 121 COFIDIS 04h 07' 47'' - B : 4'' -
4 NAIRO QUINTANA 81 TEAM ARKEA - SAMSIC 04h 07' 47'' - - -
5 JULIAN ALAPHILIPPE 41 DECEUNINCK - QUICK - STEP 04h 07' 47'' - - -
6 MIGUEL ANGEL LOPEZ 141 ASTANA PRO TEAM 04h 07' 47'' - - -
7 EGAN BERNAL 1 INEOS GRENADIERS 04h 07' 47'' - - -
8 THIBAUT PINOT 51 GROUPAMA - FDJ 04h 07' 47'' - - -
9 MIKEL LANDA 61 BAHRAIN - MCLAREN 04h 07' 47'' - - -
10 ADAM YATES 161 MITCHELTON - SCOTT 04h 07' 47'' -

[Un Pilier]

I thought Roglic looked really strong.

[Blackmac]

Superb turn by Sepp Kuss at the end. Future Grand Tour winner that lad.

[clydecloggie]

I vote that we get rid of all those stupid boring mountain stages and just do three weeks of open countryside with strong winds. Superb racing today.

[yermum]

I love the echelons most fun/pain you can have racing