Le Tour 2024

[jyl]

Wow Girmay pulling out the green jersey lead.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by jyl

Wow Girmay pulling out the green jersey lead.

His power looked effortless on two sprints today! Chapeau! To the green jersey for a great ride!

[jyl]

Get up early tomorrow. Gravel Day!

[jyl]

What a stage.

I thought Girmay’s group would catch and he’d outsprint MVP for his third win, then I thought Evenepol would TT away, then I thought Pogacar would drop Vingegaard and Evenepol, then for a long time I thought Stuyven would pull off a solo win.

Great Tour for the French!

Pleasantly few crashes, they handled the gravel well. Visma’s rouleurs did better for Vingegaard than UAE’s climbers did for Pogacar. Without his domestiques closing the gap, Vingegaard would have lost Pogacar I think. UAE’s guys burned themselves out before they were able to burn out Visma’s guys, so Vingegaard (almost) always had a man to send after Pogacar.

Kind of disappointing to see no change in the top GC gaps after such a hard fought stage, but it was good defensive riding by Vingegaard on a parcours on which his goal would been to not lose too much time to Pogacar, who has won Strade Bianchi x2. After flatting and continuing on a teammate’s bike, Vingegaard could have been in real trouble, but he managed to lose no time and Pogacar can’t be thrilled about that. When the race heads into the mountains, Vingegaard will have his chances.

[flatbutt]

I think the gravel sections are just mean. Especially with the MCs kicking up all of that nice breathable dust.

[herr_oberst]

I think Jorgernsen said it best in his post race interview - the Tour isn't the place for a stage where luck plays such a huge part. I'm just happy all the GC contenders made it through so we can watch a good race for the next two weeks.

But it was sure fun to watch!

[jyl]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

I think the gravel sections are just mean. Especially with the MCs kicking up all of that nice breathable dust.

I was thinking the riders could whip on disposable masks for the gravel sectors. It can't be helpful to inhale so much dust. Then again, you don't see them coughing in post-race interviews. Maybe the dust looks worse in the camera shots than in reality?

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by jyl

I was thinking the riders could whip on disposable masks for the gravel sectors. It can't be helpful to inhale so much dust. Then again, you don't see them coughing in post-race interviews. Maybe the dust looks worse in the camera shots than in reality?

Maybe but I've also wondered about the flares people ignite. That smoke can't be good for the lungs either.

There were some real cross up moments in the soft gravel.

edit: I have today's stage on in the background. I thought to myself "hmmmm would I bother setting up a camp in order to watch the whole parade go by in in a minute?"

I don't think I would. Would you?

[jyl]

Does anyone know how the riders' radios work? I see them having to take their hand off the bars to transmit, and there's often comments that the radios didn't work well that day. It seems like there could be voice activation or handlebar controls, and the radios could operate in a mesh network and point-to-point so at least the team members in the bunch can talk to each other even if they can't reach the team cars. Today at 3 km Morkov and Bol lost Cav on a bend and didn't realize it until the 2 km point - a costly snafu which suggests they didn't have radio communication. Rider radio in the Tour appears to function more like glitchy group text chat than the seamless realtime radio we see in F1.

[herr_oberst]

jyl, Steve Porino did a segment on the equipment NBC uses too keep in touch on the road with the riders, and with all their high tech gear, he said that they only have contact 30% of the time with the mother ship - and that includes using a Starlink connection mounted on the top of the car. His plea to Elon to provide better gear was pretty funny.

It was then implied that rider radios are no better than 30% contact - and I suspect that it is probably less than that and a source of frustration.

(An aside, one of the teams, can't remember which, maybe Uno-X, is experimenting with radios mounted in their TT helmets, with a button on the handlebar to open the channel.)

[jyl]

You’d think riders in the bunch would always be able to communicate point to point, even if they can’t reach the DS car.

[greglepore]

You'll see them reach down to below jersey collar for PTT. Its archaic, but anything else would require a tether. No room for a voice activated mic in the helmet.

[jyl]

I found this article

https://cyclingbeginner.com/the-secrets-of-cycling-communication/

It says the car radio only reaches cyclists 4-5 minutes ahead of the car. That’s about 2-3 miles, makes sense for line of sight radio.

[flatbutt]

van Aert hits the curb and wipes out. Not a big ouch but the breakaway is running at such an insane pace today that I think his day is pretty much done.

Watching Pogacar give another master class on how to descend I noted another impressive performance thhat seems to have gone unheralded.

The helicopter was giving a wide shot of Pogacar on the descent which included the camera MC behind him. The camera operator was standing up on the pegs as the driver leaned the bike thru the curves. Dude kept the camera steady despite the bike's lean. Impressive.

[herr_oberst]

That whole stage was a thing of beauty. Good stuff.

(and I was thinking the same thing when I was watching that camera operator. There is so much bravery to be seen at these races)

[Baz]

Replay of the finish.......

�� Just 2 champions doing champions things
Relive the last KM of that electrifying stage

�� Deux champions à leur apogée
Revivez le dernier KM de cette arrivée exceptionnelle #TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/DZpUgonZkm

— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 10, 2024

[flatbutt]

So far this has been one of if not the most entreating Tour I have ever seen.

[Baz]

Romain Bardet in his last TDF......this is very cool.......and remember he won this year's first stage too!

https://twitter.com/LeTour/status/1811038552865558615

[flatbutt]

Yeah man that was a special moment.

[jyl]

So when Pogacar and Vingegaard crest the last climb, Vingegaard takes the lead for the entire descent. He did that to control the speed of the descent and nullify Pogacar’s ability to take time with his descending skills. Pogacar knows that, so why did Pogacar let himself be led down the technical, difficult descent by a rider that he could have gapped? Either Pogacar was tired and no longer thought he could beat Vingegaard by much, so he chose to rest and try to pip Vingegaard at the line. Or because his rear wheel slip on the last descent, and knowing this descent was more technical and even wet in spots (surely the team reconnoiters the route every morning?), he didn’t want to descend like a demon?

UAE must be pleased that they were able to burn off Visma’s domestiques and isolate Vingegaard. Pogacar may be wishing he’d attacked one climb later, then he might have reiterated the gains of the Galibier stage (3? I can’t recall). It seems like he can gap Vingegaard on a climb, but Vingegaard can catch him if the climb is long enough. Roglic was saved by the 3 km rule, but it feels like Evenepol is the better bet for third podium spot. Rodriguez descends like an F1 driver!

Curious - when was the last time before the attack we saw Pogacar take on food, gel, drink? Attacking from 30+ km out, he’d want to have loaded up on fuel in preparation, no?

That’s another technology thing I wonder about cycling. Right now, the riders can’t easily take on fuel when they are riding hard. At least, it’s probably difficult enough to reach, get the bottle, drink, and replace the bottle while pushing hard, that they are unlikely to do it much. But ideally, you’d want to be regularly dosing fuel (sugar) during the hard riding, wouldn’t you? Is there some way to make fueling easier?