Tour de France 2022

[weeksy]

MvdP for me today, he'll be fed up of WvA getting all the plaudits.

He's been insanely quiet. Thoughts are that he's been waiting for this stage... but considering the potential risk of a puncture/crash/whatever is insane.

[Ditchfinder]

Better in a break if you get a puncture or mechanical as your team car is likely to be closer than if you're in the peloton and it's all strung out with small groups tailing off the back

[weeksy]

WvA averaged 62km/h for the last 10.8km yesterday…..and thats after having to recover from ripping apart the others on the climb.

[weeksy]

Magnus Cort on the attack again lol.... he's mental.

[Ditchfinder]

Magnus Cort on the attack again lol.... he's mental.

Someone forgot to tell him there's no KOM points for the cobbles - he'll be fumin' when he finds out

[Ditchfinder]

He must be up the road for Bettiol or Powless

[weeksy]

He must be up the road for Bettiol

He's been disappointing since his moments of brilliance for a while now.

[Ditchfinder]

Looks like Powless fancies this

[weeksy]

Average for first 10km of 54km/h.... i mean really.. in a bunch of 6 riders.... So not a lot of drafting going on !

[weeksy]

Whoops, WvA crashing into his team-mate and going down.

[weeksy]

Well it won't be VdP or Jakobson.

Both dumped out.

Gerraint Thomas doing great.

[weeksy]

now that's domestique.... going back to help out and likely losing a yellow jersey... wow.

[Count Steer]

It's a bit like a cross between roller derby and mtb racing....with more dust.

[weeksy]

It's a bit like a cross between roller derby and mtb racing....with more dust.

It's gone absolutely bonkers hasn't it... Jumbo guys are blown apart with incidents...their Tour could be over in one day.

[Count Steer]

It's a bit like a cross between roller derby and mtb racing....with more dust.

It's gone absolutely bonkers hasn't it... Jumbo guys are blown apart with incidents...their Tour could be over in one day.

Yes. It's all a bit too random really. At one point they had a load of cars between two of the groups and the second group were riding in a dust storm kicked up by the cars.

Still, Pog managed to stay out of trouble so it can be done...probably if you just ride your own race, clustering as a team is probably risky in the squeezy bits.

PS. Tomorrow looks like it could be interesting. Longest stage and plenty of hilly bits.

[Dodgy69]

Just watched the highlights and really can't understand why they bother with cobbles. Imo, it makes for poor TV coverage. The camera bike's can't get the pic's, all single file. Bikes and riders get shaken to death. For me, it adds nothing. Roll on the mountains.

[weeksy]

Just watched the highlights and really can't understand why they bother with cobbles. Imo, it makes for poor TV coverage. The camera bike's can't get the pic's, all single file. Bikes and riders get shaken to death. For me, it adds nothing. Roll on the mountains.

Then I'm struggling with why you like mountains. They add nothing and only suit the small, light climbers. They add nothing.

The Tour is about the best all round rider. Dlast stages, rolling, cobbles, climbs, descents, wind, rain, snow and sun.

Today's stage brought epic entertainment and showed some riders don't have it like Ben O'Connor, showed some riders have lots, like wvA and Pogacar and showed luck works both ways.

The spring classics and cobble stages bring incredible attitudes, desire and the ability not to quit.

I'd watch today's stage over an Alp any day of the week.

[Ditchfinder]

Just watched the highlights on + 1 how they got that stage into 45 mins of broadcast I've no idea.

Pog was serene amongst the carnage, JV had to do so much damage limitation and GT still not to far away.

Proper race that and MCN must be fuming that Powless couldn't finish that. He probably gave up the Polka dot on the Planche for that effort

[Dodgy69]

I think the mountains shows the ultimate strength, power, bravery of riders on a reasonably safe surface. Great bike coverage, great crowds, great scenery. Cobbles can be lottery, anything can happen. Just too risky for me, plus it's slow. Roll on the descents, 60 mph.

[weeksy]

I think the mountains shows the ultimate strength, power, bravery of riders on a reasonably safe surface. Great bike coverage, great crowds, great scenery. Cobbles can be lottery, anything can happen. Just too risky for me, plus it's slow. Roll on the descents, 60 mph.

Slow? They averaged 53kmh for most of it, on cobbles, on 25mm wide tyres.

Hills show who ate the least this year mostly. Of course that's a harsh extreme comment, but it's not too far from the mark if you read the biographies of riders.