Tour de France

[DavidM]

1 hour ago, Wiltshire Rhino said:

Chapeau Cav!  

 

I don’t understand the Tour de France . Does winning a day have any meaning in terms of winning the race 

[Ullman]

8 minutes ago, DavidM said:

I don’t understand the Tour de France . Does winning a day have any meaning in terms of winning the race 

Not on a day like today or the other sprint days that Cavendish has won because the race winner is the bloke who gets round France in the shortest aggregate time and the time gaps between the leading contenders are usually non-existent in a sprint stage. It's perfectly possible to win the race without winning a stage and the men who win it are almost invariably those who put the most time into their rivals in the mountains and the time trials, the days were significant time gains can be made. What Cavendish has achieved today is remarkable but a rider like him could never win a Tour because he can't climb. He's an out and out specialist sprinter and the greatest of all time.

[Wiltshire Rhino]

31 minutes ago, DavidM said:

I don’t understand the Tour de France . Does winning a day have any meaning in terms of winning the race 

Lots of "little" races and competitions within the main race. Cav could never win the Tour but his achievement is still amazing. 

[Ullman]

5 hours ago, Wiltshire Rhino said:

Chapeau Cav!  

 

The way he and his teammates managed what was a very tricky looking finish was utterly brilliant. All his skill and experience came to the fore and I'm absolutely delighted for him. Fingers crossed for one more win to take the record outright.

[Stirlin]

I like the way the youngsters are starting to dominate the GC part of the race , Pogacar last year and this , Bernal in 2019 . Good bit in todays prog from a Prof in america about Pogacars metabolism as to why he can distance his rivals. Bernal will hopefully do the Vuelta and come back for the Tour next year , if Roglic is fit he may do the Vuelta too.

[Bleep1673]

23 hours ago, DavidM said:

I don’t understand the Tour de France . Does winning a day have any meaning in terms of winning the race 

No. Now go away/

The race winner is the guy who completes the 21 days of race cycling in the shortest time, over mountains and Time Trials, he usually wears the yellow jersey, as the race leader, however there are other jerseys to look out for.

There are usually 20ish teams of 9 riders competing, although very few eventually finish on the traditional finish in Paris, on the Champs Eleeyses (Nearly), they compete over 21 "Stages" over three weeks, some stages are over mountains, some stages are fltter than others, some are longer than others, there is usually a team time trial, where the remaining cycle teams race against the clock to get the 4th team member over the line, there is also an individual time trial, where cyclists race against the clock, on their own, normally this just splits times, but last year it declared the winner.

A days win can make a difference, if the times are close, but not this year.

There are also other Jerseys:

Red Polka for best mountain climber, and mountains are classified from 4, relativly easy to HC, which is the most difficult

Green for best "Points", there are points at sprints, finishes &Mountain tops

White for best U-25 cyclist

Yellow hats for best team

Le Tour de France is a great spectacle, I have followed it for 40 years, I only lost interest during the Armstrong years/

[Stirlin]

19 hours ago, Bleep1673 said:

No. Now go away/

The race winner is the guy who completes the 21 days of race cycling in the shortest time, over mountains and Time Trials, he usually wears the yellow jersey, as the race leader, however there are other jerseys to look out for.

There are usually 20ish teams of 9 riders competing, although very few eventually finish on the traditional finish in Paris, on the Champs Eleeyses (Nearly), they compete over 21 "Stages" over three weeks, some stages are over mountains, some stages are fltter than others, some are longer than others, there is usually a team time trial, where the remaining cycle teams race against the clock to get the 4th team member over the line, there is also an individual time trial, where cyclists race against the clock, on their own, normally this just splits times, but last year it declared the winner.

A days win can make a difference, if the times are close, but not this year.

There are also other Jerseys:

Red Polka for best mountain climber, and mountains are classified from 4, relativly easy to HC, which is the most difficult

Green for best "Points", there are points at sprints, finishes &Mountain tops

White for best U-25 cyclist

Yellow hats for best team

Le Tour de France is a great spectacle, I have followed it for 40 years, I only lost interest during the Armstrong years/

Why was that then ? 

[Irish Saint]

Nice to see a Catalan Dragons flag help by a spectator during the stage.

A correction to the above there are 8 riders per team.

[Bleep1673]

23 hours ago, Stirlin said:

Why was that then ? 

That was when the winner was taking more drugs than you.

[Bleep1673]

18 hours ago, Irish Saint said:

Nice to see a Catalan Dragons flag help by a spectator during the stage.

A correction to the above there are 8 riders per team.

Was it a Dragons Flag? I saw many more Catalan in general flags

[Bleep1673]

Frenchmen at the front group of the stage on Bastille Day! Allez!!

[Ullman]

Pogacar tightens his grip on the race after two successive dominant stage wins in the Pyrenees, taking the lead in the King of the Mountains classification just for good measure.

Mission accomplished for Mark Cavendish's Deceuninck team getting him over the mountains inside the elimination times. Today is a great chance for him to take the stage wins record outright before the race gets to Paris on Sunday.

[Ullman]

Great to see Eddy Merckx embracing Cav at the start this morning. Must have felt like some kind of divine blessing.

[Ullman]

Procession into Paris done with now the race is on.

C'mon Cav.

[Ullman]

Cavendish looking extremely strong at the intermediate sprint with 40km to go.

[Ullman]

Wout van Aert stronger in the sprint that mattered though. That's the Mont Ventoux stage, a time trial and a sprint he's won. Doesn't seem to be anything he can't do.

Still been a brilliant Tour for Mark Cavendish, four stage wins and winning the green jersey competition would have been beyond his wildest dreams a year ago.