Cycling 2023

[Wolford6]

Sprinters' day today. I've gone for:

Team Leader: Vingegaard

Attacker: Degengolb

Sprinter: Philipsen

Wildcard: Van Poppel

Motivation: Anybody but Cavendish ... nothing against him but nothing should allow him to beat Eddie Merckx's number of stage wins.

Merckx is the greatest rider of all time. Once won all three jerseys in the TdF. In my opinion Cavendish  isn't necessarily the greatest sprinter of all time ... he's the one with the longest career.
 

[corvusxiii]

2 hours ago, Wolford6 said:

Sprinters' day today. I've gone for:

Team Leader: Vingegaard

Attacker: Degengolb

Sprinter: Philipsen

Wildcard: Van Poppel

Motivation: Anybody but Cavendish ... nothing against him but nothing should allow him to beat Eddie Merckx's number of stage wins.

Merckx is the greatest rider of all time. Once won all three jerseys in the TdF. In my opinion Cavendish  isn't necessarily the greatest sprinter of all time ... he's the one with the longest career.
 

I sort of know what you mean but no one is saying that Cav is an equal or better rider than Merckx. In fact this whole saga just demonstrates what an absolute monster the Cannibal was.

[Wolford6]

Well I got Philpsen right ... so long as he doesn't get disqualified for obstructing Van Aert.

Cavendish sixth.

Best thing about the result is that Caleb Ewan (3rd) is back in form after a very poor season last year.

23 minutes ago, corvusxiii said:

I sort of know what you mean but no one is saying that Cav is an equal or better rider than Merckx. In fact this whole saga just demonstrates what an absolute monster the Cannibal was.

The great thing about Merckx is that, even when he was untouchable, he always looked a bit chunky.

[MattSantos]

13 minutes ago, Wolford6 said:

Well I got Philpsen right ... so long as he doesn't get disqualified for obstructing Van Aert.

Cavendish sixth.

Best thing about the result is that Caleb Ewan (3rd) is back in form after a very poor season last year.

The great thing about Merckx is that, even when he was untouchable, he always looked a bit chunky.

I'm watching on a slight delay. Philipsen has done nowt wrong, but i hope he's demoted somehow as i had Bahaus at 40/1 who finished second.

 

 

[Wolford6]

32 minutes ago, MattSantos said:

I'm watching on a slight delay. Philipsen has done nowt wrong, but i hope he's demoted somehow as i had Bahaus at 40/1 who finished second.

 

 

I think you're Gropiusing in the dark with that one.

Edited July 3, 2023 by Wolford6

[Wolford6]

Tour is expected to be won by UAE or Jumbo Vista so I'm still trying to gauge which team is on form and going for particular types of stage win.

Another flat stage on Tuesday.

I think some teams will try to go on a long breakaway to make UAE and Jumbo Vista chase hard. They'll get no help in the chase and that will hopefully tire their sprinters, giving sprinters from other teams a chance. Hardest man amongst the sprinters is Van Aert. However, I've always had a penchant for Ewan. If Van Aert wins, I'll still get some points for Vingegaard

 Team Leader: Vingegaard

Attacker: Allaphillipe

Sprinter: Ewan

Wildcard: Peters

 

NB: My suppositions can generally be relied on to be hopelessly wide of the mark.

 

 

Edited July 3, 2023 by Wolford6

[Ullman]

The made the poor kid sweat but it would have been a travesty if they'd relegated Philipsen. He didn't deviate from his line. He even looked anxious when they told him he was in the clear.

[MattSantos]

They need to have a buffer zone between the barriers and the racing surface.

Just 1m will do.

Otherwise, there'll be a mega crash and when they're going nearly 70odd kmh, it could be a very nasty one.

[Ullman]

20 hours ago, Wolford6 said:

Tour is expected to be won by UAE or Jumbo Vista so I'm still trying to gauge which team is on form and going for particular types of stage win.

Another flat stage on Tuesday.

I think some teams will try to go on a long breakaway to make UAE and Jumbo Vista chase hard. They'll get no help in the chase and that will hopefully tire their sprinters, giving sprinters from other teams a chance. Hardest man amongst the sprinters is Van Aert. However, I've always had a penchant for Ewan. If Van Aert wins, I'll still get some points for Vingegaard

 Team Leader: Vingegaard

Attacker: Allaphillipe

Sprinter: Ewan

Wildcard: Peters

 

NB: My suppositions can generally be relied on to be hopelessly wide of the mark.

 

 

Haven't caught up with today's action yet but you could see from the overhead camera how strongly Ewan finished yesterday. There was quite a gap between him and Jakobsen although Jakobsen might have just eased off at that point rather than waste energy.

[Wolford6]

25 minutes ago, Ullman said:

Haven't caught up with today's action yet but you could see from the overhead camera how strongly Ewan finished yesterday. There was quite a gap between him and Jakobsen although Jakobsen might have just eased off at that point rather than waste energy.

Bit of a disaster actually. Today's picks haven't registered on the system.  Good job it's another sprint stage because I'm stuck with my picks from yesterday.

[Ullman]

32 minutes ago, Wolford6 said:

Bit of a disaster actually. Today's picks haven't registered on the system.  Good job it's another sprint stage because I'm stuck with my picks from yesterday.

Might not turn out too bad if you've got to stick with Philipsen.

[MattSantos]

1 hour ago, Ullman said:

Haven't caught up with today's action yet but you could see from the overhead camera how strongly Ewan finished yesterday. There was quite a gap between him and Jakobsen although Jakobsen might have just eased off at that point rather than waste energy.

Extremely dull stage.

Will be a frantic finish. I've money on Cav given the long straight run in.

[Wolford6]

Philipsen by half a wheel from Ewan. Very wide road for the finish ... expected to allow a cleaner sprint than yesterday. Forget that, there were riders crashing all through the last kilometre.

Luis Len Sanchez, team-mate of Mark Cavendish and previous stage-winner, went down ... broke his collarbone and out of the race. That will diminish Cavendish's lead-out train in the sprints.

As Matt Santos said, a boring race. And, as he predicted, a frenetic finish.

Edited July 5, 2023 by Wolford6

[graveyard johnny]

55 minutes ago, MattSantos said:

Extremely dull stage.

extremely dull sport (is it a sport?) a load of sweaty blokes going past in Lycra who all look the same  on bikes 

[Wolford6]

Superbru have changed the rules andso I scored zero points. Never mind, at least there's no money on thisgame.

Tomorrow is fairly hilly so my selelections are:

 Team Leader: Martin

Climber: Allaphillipe

Attacker: Teuns

Wildcard: Peters

 

[Wolford6]

Hills today, mountains tomorrow .. Stage 6.

Major mistake by the favourites. They allowed Jai Hindley ... former Giro d'Italia winner ... to join the break and he put over a minute into Pogacar and nearly as much into Vingegaard.

The interesting one was Wout Van Aert ... an animal in one day races and a fantastic sprinter. He's been disapointed with his lead-out team in the sprints so far but would be expected to help shield his team leader ... Vingegaard ... in the peloton today. Instead, he joined the break, blew up and finished 8 minutes down. The time doesn't matter because he was always going to end the race way down the field on overall time; however, it might indicate a bit of friction in the camp.

My useless picks for Stage 6. They all took it relatively easy today, in preparation for the brutal day tomorrow.:

Team Leader: Pogacar

Climber: Pidcock

Attacker: Guerreiro

Wildcard: Pedersen

 

 

Edited July 5, 2023 by Wolford6

[Ullman]

Terrific battle in a classic TdF Pyrenean battleground today. Vingegaard takes the overall lead from Hindley but Pogacar bounces back in superb fashion, winning the stage and taking back a big chunk of time.

Honourable mention to Britain's James Shaw who finished a creditable fifth on an extremely hard day.

[JohnM]

Doing my best to follow the live coverage of the race on ITV but David Millar making that difficult. Personally, I'd like him to pause for breath occasionally. Les is more, David; Less is more. His incessant natter is getting on my nerves.

[corvusxiii]

Cav out with broken collar bone? 

Very very disappointing. 

Le Cannibal 34-

Cav 34.

[Ullman]

Well half way through today and the GC is still a two horse race.

Still expecting Mattias Skjelmose to do something at some point. He was in great form coming into the Tour.

[Wolford6]

Back in the mountains today. Hard to say who is on form because the General Clasification conntenders have been sending out  domestiques in breaks and keeping their climbers to guard them in the peleton.

Realistically, without a crash, only 3 riders can win the race. All of Pogacar, Hindley and Vingegaard are on form and today might be the day when the other teams might start going for a stage win.

My useless choices:

Team Leader: Pogacar

Climber: Pinot

Attacker: Jungels

Wildcard: Kiatowski

Edited July 13, 2023 by Wolford6

[Stirlin]

Nice tribute on the highlights last night for Peter Sagan who is on his last tour , a real character who always seemed to be in Green in his prime pulling the Hulk pose as he won stages or popping wheelies. An all round entertainer at the greatest cycle who will be sorely missed.

 

[Wolford6]

1 hour ago, Stirlin said:

Nice tribute on the highlights last night for Peter Sagan who is on his last tour , a real character who always seemed to be in Green in his prime pulling the Hulk pose as he won stages or popping wheelies. An all round entertainer at the greatest cycle who will be sorely missed.

 

12 stage wins and seven green jerseys. A modern-day legend.

[Ullman]

20 hours ago, Stirlin said:

Nice tribute on the highlights last night for Peter Sagan who is on his last tour , a real character who always seemed to be in Green in his prime pulling the Hulk pose as he won stages or popping wheelies. An all round entertainer at the greatest cycle who will be sorely missed.

 

A huge personality and one of the greatest bike handlers I've ever seen.

[Ullman]

Spectacular day's racing yesterday on the stunning setting of Grand Colombier. Outstanding effort by Kwiatkowski, never saw that coming.

In the Alps from today where the battle between Vingegaard and Pogacar should really warm up.