Le Tour 2021

[herr_oberst]

I'm surprised that Ineos isn't trying to get Carapaz closer to a safe overall podium. I would've thought that yesterday would have been a perfect chance. Ineos seems risk-averse right now. Sure, Taddy is comfortable with a 5.5 minute lead, his team is still well represented and unless something awful happens Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday, he should be safe till Paris. God knows he's riding like a grizzled 23-or even 24-year old veteran these days, and there have been no tactical missteps, but Ineos should at least put in an effort. I know they're pretty toothless after all the abuse they've taken this year, but there should at least be a flash of the past strength.

Certainly been an interesting TdF. Hard not to wonder what would might have been without the first stage carnage.

Glad to see Sepp win a stage. I'm super happy for Cav and I hope that Peter Sagan can see what Cav did after so many years in the weeds and that it's possible to come back and show us some of that old form again...

[jyl]

"Cavendish has won all four bunch sprints he has contested on this Tour and on most of those occasions, his chain unshipped beyond the finish line. The fault, it appears, lay not in his equipment but in his own style of riding.

"The chain thing has happened my whole career, it's not to do with equipment. It's more to do with how I ride a bike. I just stop pedalling very quickly when I cross the line, and it's just physics," he said. "Specialized in the past did testing on how I ride a bike and I ride it very differently to a lot of other bike riders. It's not something I worry about it." "

[jyl]

Sagan had knee surgery, ouch. Chainring laceration in knee got infected.

I've always wondered if bike racers couldn't wear something protective beyond just a helmet.

[Baz]

Chris Froome has his own channel on YT. Worth checking out. Some good stuff there - especially the training video from May was pretty good.

Here's one from the start of this year's race. He's tough bloke is all I can say!

[jyl]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

I'm surprised that Ineos isn't trying to get Carapaz closer to a safe overall podium. I would've thought that yesterday would have been a perfect chance. Ineos seems risk-averse right now. Sure, Taddy is comfortable with a 5.5 minute lead, his team is still well represented and unless something awful happens Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday, he should be safe till Paris. God knows he's riding like a grizzled 23-or even 24-year old veteran these days, and there have been no tactical missteps, but Ineos should at least put in an effort. I know they're pretty toothless after all the abuse they've taken this year, but there should at least be a flash of the past strength.

Certainly been an interesting TdF. Hard not to wonder what would might have been without the first stage carnage.

Glad to see Sepp win a stage. I'm super happy for Cav and I hope that Peter Sagan can see what Cav did after so many years in the weeds and that it's possible to come back and show us some of that old form again...

With a fit Roglic and others, this would have been an epic GC battle. Hard to imagine anyone being stronger than Pogacar but there would have been teams motivated and able to attack him harder than a hobbling Ineos has been able to. Jumbo never seemed too focused on their GC guy, Movistar just does inexplicable stuff.

[jyl]

Pogacar is so much better than the other GC, or rather podium, contenders. Ineos or Jumbo burn up guys for hours, drop all of Pog's domestiques, spring their trap, and Pogacar casually slaps them silly. Its like watching Ali v Wegner.

Cav survived the last mountain stage, so may have two more sprint chances, tomorrow and then Paris. I imagine everyone is pretty beat but tomorrow looks pretty flat (biggest climb 100 m) although long.

[herr_oberst]

Today's stage was incredible.

The podium celebration was almost comical. Talk about loot!

[flatbutt]

I'm surprised at how many guys get caught up in peloton crashes, stage 19 crashes were silly. This is one scary crash from the d'Italia race

[Baz]

Watching right now.....couple laps left...they are FLYIN'!

This could be a very wild finish!!!

[Baz]

Man what a finish! WVA with the big win! The finish line was moved UP 300 yards? Or back? I think back.

Cav in his interview said his lead out didn't position him to get the win. You could see his disappointment but he didn't hesitate to offer congratulations to the Australian, Matthews.

And Podacar wins by over 5 minutes! Domination!

[jyl]

150 m farther. I didn’t watch the race, but had been hoping for a Cav 35th. Well, he’ll have a reason to return.