Le Tour 2023

[Baz]

The 2023 Tour de France will be the 110th edition of the Tour de France.

It will start in Bilbao, Spain on 1 July and end with the final stage at Champs-Élysées, Paris on 23 July.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Tour_de_France

[Baz]

In the meantime - on Netflix:

[flatbutt]

Wow is it that time already? Cool.

[herr_oberst]

https://www.bicycling.com/racing/a44086815/tadej-pogacar-out-of-tour-of-slovenia-set-to-race-tour-de-france-in-wrist-brace/

Pogacar will race with a brace on his wrist. I hope he can put it to Roglic and the rest of the GC contenders. Two Americans to look out for, Sepp Kuss and Matteo Jorgenson (he lives in my hometown!) may do well this time around fingers crossed. USA USA!

And, sentimental favorite Cavendish may have a shot at breaking The Cannibals' record 34 wins (he's currently tied) if he's given a spot on the roster as is expected. .

[jyl]

I think Jumbo is bringing only Vingegaard, not Roglic. Vingegaard is destroying rival climbers in the Dauphine right now, and came in second in the TT, he’s looking good. Roglic was not good in the early weeks of the Giro, then came alive and crushed the TT. In both cases their competition wasn’t a match, but actually it was the best of the rest - those guys are so far above other GC riders.

Jumbo’s team in the Giro was heads stronger than UAE’s, and Jumbo will bring Van Aert to the Tour. Pogacar doesn’t have the same team support.

I am rooting for Cav like crazy. Astana’s leadout in the Giro was non-existent. Sometimes you’d see Cav in 10th place at 2 km, with one or two teammates *behind* him, then the teammates would get sucked backwards and Cav had to start the sprint from 20th wheel. As the race went on, the other sprinters got tired while Cav seemed to hold up better. On Stage 21, Ineos basically did a sprint train for Cav to 3 km, then Thomas alone gave Cav a leadout to 1 km - all for friendship - and when the sprint kicked off, the other sprinters had tired legs and Cav killed them. Four bike lengths! The thought is that Astana will do its best to have a leadout train at the Tour, and Cav’s chances might be better later in the race. Cav is a match for the best young guns if they jump together from 150 m, but if he’s starting from 10-20th wheel he can’t win.

I was super pissed when Quickstep didn’t take Cav to the Tour last year. Cav was in great shape and the team could have had the glory of breaking Mercx’s record. Instead they took their hot young sprinter, Jakobsen, with the best sprint train and the best leadout man in cycling, and won just one sprint stage. Now Quickstep is focused on Evenepoel as a GC rider and Jakobsen will probably be on the market in 2024.

[CurtEgerer]

3 stages in the Alpes left on the Dauphine for those who need an early fix. Vingegaard's race to lose at this point. On Peacock.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by jyl

I think Jumbo is bringing only Vingegaard, not Roglic. Vingegaard is destroying rival climbers in the Dauphine right now, and came in second in the TT, he’s looking good. Roglic was not good in the early weeks of the Giro, then came alive and crushed the TT. In both cases their competition wasn’t a match, but actually it was the best of the rest - those guys are so far above other GC riders.

I did not think for even a second that Primo wouldn't have been on the TdF squad after his win at the Giro. (I've got a problem sometimes jumping to conclusions where I make a connection and don't even consider a different outcome.)

[Baz]

This will be Peter Sagan's last Tour. I would love to see him win a couple sprint finishes/stage wins and complete the race intact. I hope that's not asking for too much. I think if he gets just 1 stage win, it would make him very happy.

[Baz]

Peter Sagan said 2023 will be his final year as a professional road cyclist and that he will target the 2024 Olympics in mountain bike.

The Slovakian made the announcement on his 33rd birthday in a social media video. He said he made the decision “quite some time ago.”

“I always said I would like to finish my career on the mountain bike, because I started my career on the mountain bike,” Sagan said in a press conference, according to Cyclingnews.com. “It gives me some pleasure at the end of my career because I’m doing something I really enjoy.

“It’s important for me to spend time with my son Marlon and to see life from different angles, and not just as a cyclist. It was never my dream to race or to be a professional rider until 40 or 50. I think it’s time now. And if I am going to be able to finish my career in Paris at the Olympics Games, that’s going to be something nice for me.”

Sagan is a record seven-time Tour de France green jersey champion as best sprinter. He has 12 individual stage wins (the last in 2019), second-most among active riders behind Mark Cavendish‘s record-tying 34.

At the Olympics, Sagan was 34th in the road race in 2012 and 35th in the mountain bike in 2016. He missed the Tokyo Games after surgery to treat an infection in his right knee stemming from a 2021 Tour de France crash.

Sagan won the world junior title in mountain biking at age 18 in 2008 before his road racing career, which included three consecutive world road race titles from 2015-17.

Of qualifying for Paris in the mountain bike, he said, “We’ll see whether it is even possible, but I think it can be another nice adventure.”

https://olympics.nbcsports.com/2023/01/26/peter-sagan-retire-mountain-bike/

[jyl]

Originally Posted by Baz

This will be Peter Sagan's last Tour. I would love to see him win a couple sprint finishes/stage wins and complete the race intact. I hope that's not asking for too much. I think if he gets just 1 stage win, it would make him very happy.

One last wheelie over the line! Sagan will be very missed.

[jyl]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

I did not think for even a second that Primo wouldn't have been on the TdF squad after his win at the Giro. (I've got a problem sometimes jumping to conclusions where I make a connection and don't even consider a different outcome.)

Yeah, I'd have thought Jumbo will want Roglic at the Tour, but maybe he figures if he tries to do the Giro-Tour double he'll end up supporting Vingegaard. Talk is Roglic will target the Vuelta.

Jumbo (the grocery chain) is leaving cycling after 2024. Maybe Roglic or his agent is thinking the team then won't be able to afford the same roster, and he wants Grand Tour wins now to land a GC leader spot at a big-budget team.

[sc_rufctr]

Yes and as always I will be glued to my TV for close to a month.

Originally Posted by flatbutt

Wow is it that time already? Cool.

The years keep rolling over Brother. Stay strong!

[CurtEgerer]

[Baz]

In Theaters June 23. This looks GOOD!

The heroic true story of American cyclist Greg LeMond, considered to be one of the greatest cyclists of all time, who defied the odds for one of the most triumphant comeback stories in sporting history.
The first, and only, American to win the Tour de France, LeMond came back from the brink of death to beat his famed rivals in the historic and nail-biting race at the 1989 Tour de France.
Directed by Alex Holmes and featuring exclusive interviews with LeMond and his wife Kathy as well as, never before seen footage, The Last Rider is an exhilarating portrait of one of the greatest athletes of our time.

[rwest]

Hello Baz,

Thanks for the Tour reminder. Good news for me this year as I already subscribe to Peacock and am now conveniently retired!

I can watch the stage and then go for a ride extra motivated.

Best,
Rutager

[CurtEgerer]

^^^ One of my favorite times of the year. Watch the stage live in the morning and go for a ride. Or if it's too hot, go for a ride in the morning and watch the tape delay in the afternoon.

I've been a LeMond fan since he came on the international scene. Can't wait to see the movie even though I already know the plot and ending!

[CurtEgerer]

LeMond at Mid-Ohio in the 90's.

[jyl]

herr-o and I are watching the Netflix TdF program, and some tech questions come to mind.

Why don’t bicycle teams have rain tires? For a TT in the rain, say. A strip of hard material down the center and gum on the sides.

Why don’t they run sealant in tires on flat-plagued cobbles stages? Yes it’s some extra grams but if you’re a GC rider, you aren’t trying to win the cobble stage but you can’t afford to flat and lose minutes.

Why don’t they have protective features in jerseys and shorts? Like panels of Kevlar on jersey backs and short hips, the key places that get shredded and where riders lose big swaths of skin in crashes.

There must be a reason. Bike racing is hardly short of tech.

[jyl]

startlist so far

https://www.rouleur.cc/blogs/the-rouleur-journal/tour-de-france-start-list

[Baz]

No Froomie this year....

Four-time champion Chris Froome left off Tour de France team