Le Tour 2025

[herr_oberst]

Understandably, Pogacar was proud to wear the rainbow jersey as current champion when he wasn't in yellow, but I just read that he is the first current road world champion to win the Tour since LeMond in '90.

[CurtEgerer]

^^^ hmmm, that's pretty amazing. I thought my boy Lance would have pulled that off but he was only WC in 1993 at age 21 (and before he hooked up with Dr. 'Blood Bags in the Fridge' Ferrari to start his TdF win streak).

[jyl]

Certainly no curse for Pogacar.

Recent media angle is that he is musing about retiring after 2028 Olympics. He does sound tired. Cavendish is praying. If Pogacar only rides two more Tours, he can conceivably get 6 TdFs but not break 36 stage wins.

[CurtEgerer]

This has been discussed at least a few times on The Move, but - wow - the TdF really needs to update their payouts. It's almost a joke as far as professional sports go. The TdF winner gets only 500,000 Euros ($580,000) 2nd is 200k, 3rd is 100k!! Stage winners get less than the cost of a pro bike - 11,000 Euros. I realize Tadej and many others make far more in endorsements but I'm just talking prize money.

** Alex Palou won $3.8 million for the Indy 500 this year.
** The PGA Masters Champion wins $4.2 million.
** The Wimbledon Champion wins $4 million.

[jyl]

Originally Posted by CurtEgerer

This has been discussed at least a few times on The Move, but - wow - the TdF really needs to update their payouts. It's almost a joke as far as professional sports go. The TdF winner gets only 500,000 Euros ($580,000) 2nd is 200k, 3rd is 100k!! Stage winners get less than the cost of a pro bike - 11,000 Euros. I realize Tadej and many others make far more in endorsements but I'm just talking prize money.

** Alex Palou won $3.8 million for the Indy 500 this year.
** The PGA Masters Champion wins $4.2 million.
** The Wimbledon Champion wins $4 million.

I think prize money is split with the team, so each UAE rider got about $70K?

The economics of pro road cycling is so shaky. ASO are the only ones who make money

Here is an interesting article. https://thehustle.co/the-economics-of-the-tour-de-france

[herr_oberst]

Tadej's custom Richard Mille watch (worn every day on the tour) is reportedly worth 300,000.

I wonder if Marianne Vos has ever made that much in a single year? (I sure as hell do hope she has)

[jyl]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

Tadej's custom Richard Mille watch (worn every day on the tour) is reportedly worth 300,000.

I wonder if Marianne Vos has ever made that much in a single year? (I sure as hell do hope she has)

https://www.welovecycling.com/wide/2025/04/04/salaries-in-the-womens-peloton-how-much-money-are-we-talking/

I think she has - but she also probably spent the peak of her career racing for peanuts.

[jyl]

https://cyclinguptodate.com/cycling/eur2-million-buyout-staff-and-a-ds-as-more-details-are-reported-remco-evenepoels-move-to-bora-looks-inevitable

Remco to BORA chatter picking up. Hmm, not Ineos?

[rwest]

Well, finally got to see the finish...

Internet went down Saturday night and they didn’t get it fixed until about 3:00 pm on Sunday. Then before I got down to business a big storm came through and took out my power!

Power is still out, but in a strange turn of events, when I started up my small generator and plugged in the router, it actually worked. The last bunch of power outages seemed to affect the internet providers equipment too.

Another great race. Thanks again Baz for starting the thread.

[CurtEgerer]

Originally Posted by jyl

I think prize money is split with the team, so each UAE rider got about $70K?

The economics of pro road cycling is so shaky. ASO are the only ones who make money

Here is an interesting article. https://thehustle.co/the-economics-of-the-tour-de-france

That's an interesting article and estimates the ASO takes in up to $150 million none of which is shared with the teams. That makes the payouts even more pathetic. So yeah, the teams are often on shaky grounds. The ASO? Not so much

[CurtEgerer]

Quinn Simmons comments regarding motorpacing by Tim Wellens on Stage 15 were perceived by most as sour grapes. This was not a personal attack on Tim Wellens but a commentary on a known racing tactic that is 'allowed' by the Tour. This insightful piece on the Roadman Podcast lays a pretty solid foundation for Quinn's complaint. In fact, I don't recall seeing as many incidents as this year of racers angrily trying to signal motorcycles to get further away. For any of us who ride, you know the affects of pacing. In 'my younger years' it was almost a sport for us to pace closely behind traffic. I miss that, but am slightly more wise now. What is amazing from the studies sited in Walsh's podcast is that even at 50 meters (over 1/2 a football field) there is a significant affect.

Edit: It's also interesting to me to learn of the practice of teams cars following behind that essentially 'push' the cyclist along and that is often the reason you'll see a team car loaded down with 10 bikes on the roof - way more than what might be needed - but great for pushing!

[herr_oberst]

It's the Italians' fault! They started it!

[CurtEgerer]

or ..................

[jyl]

Baz, you gonna start a thread for the Vuelta when the time comes?

Vingegaard needs a win. He has not won a stage in a significant race all year. He normally doesn’t go to Giro or Vuelta but he has to.

I think he’ll stomp it. UAE sending Ayuso and Almeida, first guy is leaving the team and second guy crashed out of the Tour and they won’t work together. Visma will go 100% for Jonas and while he was comprehensively beaten by Pogacar, he and his team thrashed everyone else. In fact, that was Visma’s mistake - by the end of week one, there was no threat on GC left except Vingegaard, so all Pogacar had to do was take advantage of Vingegaard’s bad days and then sit on him all around France, ignoring any other attacks.

[Baz]

Originally Posted by jyl

Baz, you gonna start a thread for the Vuelta when the time comes?
-snip-

Had not planned on it, John.

Feel free to start one yourself, if you'd like.

Am interested to see how it works out.

Thanks!

[herr_oberst]

Post Le Tour news. Forms are signed.

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

It's the Italians' fault! They started it!

Waaaay back in time my friends and I would ride our 10 speeds behind trucks like that when they came through a relatively short section of low speed, four lane "highway" that came through our neighborhood. Trucks had a 25 mph posted limit for about 3 miles and it was so easy to draft. We loved drafting them.

[rwest]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

Waaaay back in time my friends and I would ride our 10 speeds behind trucks like that when they came through a relatively short section of low speed, four lane "highway" that came through our neighborhood. Trucks had a 25 mph posted limit for about 3 miles and it was so easy to draft. We loved drafting them.

Similar experience here, except that we were inspired by the movie “Breaking Away” and would draft at ridiculous speeds.

I was right behind a semi pulling away from a red light and I got behind him and went to the big ring and pedaled my little heart out and must have been going almost 50mph. The car behind me gave me a huge gap, probably figuring I would crash at any time.

Didn’t work for school buses though, they must have been instructed to slow down if a stupid kid tried to draft them!