I was watching with my 15 year old daughter and she was asking how the teams work, who signs the riders etc , long winded but anyway I said the teams rely on sponsors 
“Ah ,so it’s like hunger games “

eloy said:

actually Colombia in all the groups, while I get no Colombian looks like they could win the whole thing. There are 4 Colombians in the top 6! w/ 2 Slovenians in the top 2!

btw, sidenote, Simon Yates kinda destroyed at Tirreno.

@eloy no cross race talk on this channel. You spoiled my Tirreno replay. 

Jeff Condon said:

eloy said:

actually Colombia in all the groups, while I get no Colombian looks like they could win the whole thing. There are 4 Colombians in the top 6! w/ 2 Slovenians in the top 2!

btw, sidenote, Simon Yates kinda destroyed at Tirreno.

@eloy no cross race talk on this channel. You spoiled my Tirreno replay. 

hahaha you can’t come to a cycling forum... and  love ❤️ 

is there a tirreno thread 

eloy said:

is there a tirreno thread 

there is now

This is one interesting TDF. 

Jules said:

Definitely seems like Sky went a little too light on the jiffy bags this year.

It was hard during Covid to get toilet roll and “Jiffy bags” 
not in Slovenia ,apparently

ian ellis said:

i don't mean quitting the race. I mean ending his career earlier than one would expect.

He has been a different rider since his divorce

It has been fun to watch some of the teams that don't seem like a super cohesive unit on paper pull it off. Sunweb has been hitting it out to make it work for their strongmen and Cofidis (?!) even appears to have provided some genuine team support for Martin (though he had some bad luck today).

Also, TdF Mom texts are coming in big this year. P hot take from mom on that status of Sagan. She is a Sagan fan based on that Paris Roubaix Specialized commercial he did a few years back so this might be a biased view  

Mark Taylor said:

Jules said:

Definitely seems like Sky went a little too light on the jiffy bags this year.

It was hard during Covid to get toilet roll and “Jiffy bags” 
not in Slovenia ,apparently

Got a text from my mate Dave B earlier today asking if I could cook up some of the good stuff and have it delivered to France via a convoluted series of hand offs, plus a couple of team tracksuits. Not sure what the lads need the trackies for.

RichFreeman said:

Mark Taylor said:

Jules said:

Definitely seems like Sky went a little too light on the jiffy bags this year.

It was hard during Covid to get toilet roll and “Jiffy bags” 
not in Slovenia ,apparently

Got a text from my mate Dave B earlier today asking if I could cook up some of the good stuff and have it delivered to France via a convoluted series of hand offs, plus a couple of team tracksuits. Not sure what the lads need the trackies for.

Should have left the hair clippers out 

That is not a haircut of a man who is confident about his chances of winning this tour. It looks more like one of someone who has been watching A Clockwork Orange at 3 AM

today’s stage finish was balls to the wall some of the hardest best bike racing hotness. 

Sunweb have been next level awesome every stage 

I find Bora’s tactics strange , yeah I get that they dropped Bennett , but they did so much work again but then they had  Sagan chasing down Hirschi ,Kamna attaching late on and Sagan going backwards in the sprint , 

Mark Taylor said:

I find Bora’s tactics strange , yeah I get that they dropped Bennett , but they did so much work again but then they had  Sagan chasing down Hirschi ,Kamna attaching late on and Sagan going backwards in the sprint , 

What was it all for

20 points, I believe.

PatrickGrehan said:

That is not a haircut of a man who is confident about his chances of winning this tour. It looks more like one of someone who has been watching A Clockwork Orange at 3 AM

It’s easy to forget sometimes that he’s a kid

Mark Taylor said:

I find Bora’s tactics strange , yeah I get that they dropped Bennett , but they did so much work again but then they had  Sagan chasing down Hirschi ,Kamna attaching late on and Sagan going backwards in the sprint , 

What was it all for

They totally lost control of the few kilometers, and ultimately, as good as Sagan is still, he doesn't look as good as other years, and well, Bennet and others are totally gunning for green.

On that note, reports are that Bernal yesterday hit his best powah numbers up that climb, and wasn't close to enough. Which explains why he looked so dejected, worse than not hitting your numbers, besting them and still getting dropped. Makes me wonder if Sagan is going thru something similar. 

-- totally skipping the rabbit hole of implications 

Jules said:

Mark Taylor said:

I find Bora’s tactics strange , yeah I get that they dropped Bennett , but they did so much work again but then they had  Sagan chasing down Hirschi ,Kamna attaching late on and Sagan going backwards in the sprint , 

What was it all for

20 points, I believe.

Woo hoo , still the team hasn’t won a stage !

Mark Taylor said:

Jules said:

Mark Taylor said:

I find Bora’s tactics strange , yeah I get that they dropped Bennett , but they did so much work again but then they had  Sagan chasing down Hirschi ,Kamna attaching late on and Sagan going backwards in the sprint , 

What was it all for

20 points, I believe.

Woo hoo , still the team hasn’t won a stage !

JP will correct me if I’m wrong but hasn’t Sagan won green before without a single stage win?

Jules said:

Mark Taylor said:

Jules said:

Mark Taylor said:

I find Bora’s tactics strange , yeah I get that they dropped Bennett , but they did so much work again but then they had  Sagan chasing down Hirschi ,Kamna attaching late on and Sagan going backwards in the sprint , 

What was it all for

20 points, I believe.

Woo hoo , still the team hasn’t won a stage !

JP will correct me if I’m wrong but hasn’t Sagan won green before without a single stage win?

correct.

I understand that , but they are using tons of energy to dismiss Bennett
when it would appear smarter to win the stage ,50 points , credit to Sagan for battling on , it’s clear he’s not at the top in the final , but maybe Oss or postilberger would of brought back Hirschi is attack , leaving Sagan 1more match at the finale
Buchmanns hopes of a podium are gone , Schachmann and Kamna want a stage win ,

basically, you think that for some at bora a stage win is more important than green? that would match the riding on those last km yesterday, but also today’s beginning where Sagan had to chase everything himself — eventually resulting in Trentin making the break and Sagan staying in the pack.

I wondered why Bora wasn’t closing things until the sprint (58km in) I figured they were tired from yesterday, but prioritizing stages, tied to a some tacitly thinking Sagan is not getting green could explain it too.

I'm curious if they're really banking on Bennet not making it to Paris. It doesn't seem like Sagan can beat him when Bennet makes it to the finale in the front group, but I would bet that Sagan can hang on in the high mountains. I also wonder how Bora drilling it at the front so often affects the GC riders. 

Exciting GC stage today. Only 42 seconds separate guys in 3rd to 7th place. Plus Pog is still gonna take on Rog for the overall. 

PatrickGrehan said:

Exciting GC stage today. Only 42 seconds separate guys in 3rd to 7th place. Plus Pog is still gonna take on Rog for the overall. 

Lots of good storylines in this year’s tour. Sorry to see Higuita taken out by Cat 4 Park race antics. 

https://twitter.com/jjakubv/status/1305109569316761600?s=10

That is the perfect description for that zigzag.
#thingsIdon'tmiss

that was 100% a cat 4 move.

if they are counting on bennett not making the time cut, they will be disappointed.

I wonder if there will even be a stage in Paris. COVID cases are increasing dramatically in France and while they can do a decent job at keeping crowds to a minimum on mountains they will not be able to do that on the streets of Paris.
I am not talking about ASO making this decision - the national/city health dept can make it for them - as this could be a super-spreader event for spectators.

you are right the stage in paris will be tricky. 

also, I no longer believe Bernal saw his best numbers up puy mary... no way.