Egan Bernals ride was so impressive , his awareness and the surge to go to the front after the Kruiswick attack #future

I cannot remember or think of another tour that had this level of carnage from combined sources - crashes, time cuts, etc. obv there have been worse accidents but this one just seems to be brimming with injury

Jules said:

I cannot remember or think of another tour that had this level of carnage from combined sources - crashes, time cuts, etc. obv there have been worse accidents but this one just seems to be brimming with injury

Go back one year, and you'll find the same comment, go back two years, etc, etc... It is always brutal, and it always looks like "this one" is the most brutal ever.

Stats to back it up...
2017 Saw 84% of starters finish in Paris (167/198)
2015 80% of starters finished (160/198)
2012 77% (153/198)
So far in 2018, 83% of starters are still in the race w/ 3 days to go (146/176)

Grand tours are the definition of epic.

Ok then. I stand corrected.

Fewer Americans apparently (and American flags):

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/25/sports/cycling/tour-de-france-americans.html

(though the South American's seem to be doing OK)

Replaced by the welsh flag🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

today's stage was fire.

I think Jonathan Castroviejo sort of represents how sky are so different from any other team .
he was kind of a rudderless rider at Movistar but at sky he has been irreplaceable 

An official Quick-Step photographer took this image 

Why are they so obsessed about Team Sky , why don't they figure out how to , first
1) get more womens cycling televised
2) Figure out a better business model that the teams get to share the money from the WT

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/lappartient-keen-to-curb-team-skys-tour-de-france-dominance/

Mark Taylor said:

Why are they so obsessed about Team Sky , why don't they figure out how to , first
1) get more womens cycling televised
2) Figure out a better business model that the teams get to share the money from the WT

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/lappartient-keen-to-curb-team-skys-tour-de-france-dominance/

Because it’s a corrupt organization and personal grudges and influence pedaling drive policy. “Oh, Sagan won too many worlds” so we’ll CREATE A RACE HE CANT WIN

 

Hell yeah

Lotto Soudal's Thomas De Gendt was rather more sardonic in his take.

"Only 65km stages, no training camps allowed, no dinners, no feedzones, only 2 bottles per day, max 2000 calories per day. Cyclists can't draft for longer than 20 seconds. Only 4 gears allowed. No brakes, F1 starts every day and pepper spray before each start."

Mark Taylor said:

Hell yeah

Lotto Soudal's Thomas De Gendt was rather more sardonic in his take.

"Only 65km stages, no training camps allowed, no dinners, no feedzones, only 2 bottles per day, max 2000 calories per day. Cyclists can't draft for longer than 20 seconds. Only 4 gears allowed. No brakes, F1 starts every day and pepper spray before each start."

I was delighted with this one too. It’s wonderful to think these guys can also be world class sardonists.

Jules said:

Because it’s a corrupt organization and personal grudges and influence pedaling drive policy. “Oh, Sagan won too many worlds” so we’ll CREATE A RACE HE CANT WIN

 

While I'm not going to defend the UCI on most counts, I'm glad they created this 2018 Worlds course.  While I think Richmond was surprisingly balanced, Qatar was for sprinters, and even Norway's worlds was tilted strongly toward sprinters.  They do need a mix of courses so that every kind of rider has a chance eventually.  At Qatar, one of the reason's Cav was so despondent was he thought he'd never get to race such a course suited to his talents again.  I want to see a worlds for the climbers every so often.  
  

mugwump said:

Jules said:

Because it’s a corrupt organization and personal grudges and influence pedaling drive policy. “Oh, Sagan won too many worlds” so we’ll CREATE A RACE HE CANT WIN

 

While I'm not going to defend the UCI on most counts, I'm glad they created this 2018 Worlds course.  While I think Richmond was surprisingly balanced, Qatar was for sprinters, and even Norway's worlds was tilted strongly toward sprinters.  They do need a mix of courses so that every kind of rider has a chance eventually.  At Qatar, one of the reason's Cav was so despondent was he thought he'd never get to race such a course suited to his talents again.  I want to see a worlds for the climbers every so often.  
  

I don't have a beef with courses that favour different abilities it's the blatant attempt to fix results that offends me. 

Jules said:

I don't have a beef with courses that favour different abilities it's the blatant attempt to fix results that offends me. 

I don't see this worlds doing that.  

Moscon will win it ...and then everybody will be happy

^paging the Zingbot!

Froome confirmed to miss the Tour after he crashed during recon at the Dauphiné

Wout won the Dauphine TT. That is all. Cheers.

eloy said:

Wout won the Dauphine TT. That is all. Cheers.

He's got a 2nd in a sprint and holds green & white Jerseys too

Cyclocross is everything you want cycling to be.
-Eloy

Matt Budofsky said:

Froome confirmed to miss the Tour after he crashed during recon at the Dauphiné

That’s crazy. 
Didn’t he crash during recon at the tour last year too? 

Crashed in the Giro recon for the TT in Israel and then again on an early small mountain stage. Going to be interesting to see how the Tour De Suisse goes for Thomas and Bernal...

eloy said:

Wout won the Dauphine TT. That is all. Cheers.

Damn ! he just won again !! #cxisboss!

he was so well positioned on those last 1500ish meters, trying to think to the last time I heard of a cyclist winning a TT and a sprint stage on the same race.

(it also screams of maybe awesome form too early for the tour, but I think it is all just bonus peaches for Wout)