Just thought might be worth opening a thread for this years Tour De France which starts today , actually watching Stage 1 before the football, as I know there are a lot of cycle fans on here
21 stages, to quote ...
“Today, edition 105 of the Tour de France sets out on Île de Noirmoutier, a small island off the Atlantic coast of France. Straight after the start the peloton travels to the mainland for three weeks of compelling racing. The route is interesting enough, taking in everything that makes cycling such an exciting sport. Cobbles, punchy arrivals, sprints, dust roads, high mountains, an explosive 65 kilometres race through the Pyrenees, a hilly time trial on the penultimate day – and more. On the 29th of July, La Grande Boucle comes to a halt on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.”
They are actually having a formula 1 style grid start on the short 65 km but mountainous Stage 17, based on GC , not sure that will make any difference but interesting .
I’m looking forward to the mountain stages, and the cobbled sections ( stage 9) in one of the stages ,
Hope it’s as enjoyable and as exciting as the Giro was.
I’m a big fan of Vincenzo Nibali so hoping he does well, and interesting to see how Moviestar get on with Quintana, Landa, and Valverde.
Stages below
Sa 7-7 Noirmoutier-en-l’Île – Fontenay-le-Comte 201.0 km flat
2 Su 8-7 Mouilleron-Saint-Germain – La-Roche-sur-Yon 182.5 km flat
3 Mo 9-7 Cholet – Cholet 35.5 km TTT
4 Tu 10-7 La Baule – Sarzeau 195.0 km flat
5 We 11-7 Lorient – Quimper 204.5 km hills
6 Th 12-7 Brest – Mûr-de-Bretagne 181.0 km hills
7 Fr 13-7 Fougères – Chartres 231.0 km flat
8 Sa 14-7 Dreux – Amiens 181.0 km flat
9 Su 15-7 Arras – Roubaix 156.5 km cobbles
Mo 16-7 Rest day
10 Tu 17-7 Annecy – Le Grand-Bornand 158.5 km mountains
11 We 18-7 Albertville – La Rosière 108.5 km mountains
12 Th 19-7 Bourg-Saint-Maurice – Alpe d’Huez 175.5 km mountains
13 Fr 20-7 Bourg d’Oisans – Valence 169.5 km flat
14 Sa 21-7 Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux – Mende 188.0 km hilly, flat start
15 Su 22-7 Millau – Carcassonne 181.5 km hilly
Mo 23-7 Rest day
16 Tu 24-7 Carcassonne – Bagnères-de-Luchon 218.0 km mountains, flat start
17 We 25-7 Bagnères-de-Luchon – Col du Portet 65.0 km mountains
18 Th 26-7 Trie-sur-Baïse – Pau 171.0 km flat
19 Fr 27-7 Lourdes – Laruns 200.5 km mountains
20 Sa 28-7 Saint-Pée-sur-Nivelle – Espelette 31.0 km ITT (hills)
21 Su 29-7 Houilles – Champs-Élysées (Paris) 116.0 km flat
Tour De France 2018
Another day of crashes , Adam Yates down again ( just a cut elbow hopefully ) And crashes late on, Michael Mathews and yesterday’s winner down .
SAGAN wins the stage and takes Yellow. Hopefully crash free tomorrow with the TT Trial, which should see some GC contenders making decent time gains, and some losing out
SAGAN wins the stage and takes Yellow. Hopefully crash free tomorrow with the TT Trial, which should see some GC contenders making decent time gains, and some losing out
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sionascaig
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- Joined: Fri Nov 20, 2015 9:38 am
Will spend the evening catching up - still recovering from the last week!
Plenty more to look forward in the the weeks ahead, and especially the cobbles in stage 9 and the mountain stages .sionascaig wrote: ↑Sun Jul 08, 2018 5:52 pmWill spend the evening catching up - still recovering from the last week!
Yes I’m settling down to watch it .. think there are 15 sections of cobbles .. so should be a few crashes and punctures along the way.. and sure luck will play a big part .. Famous last words but think Froome will be ok on the cobbled sectors , given his background racing in Kenya, but he is prone to crashing
And even as I speak and a long way before the cobbles there’s already been a crash and Ritchie Porte is already down along with many others.
Porte is one of the favs and looks like it could be all over for him this year .. and they haven’t even covered 10km yet
Can't remember the number but sure the total was 22km and certainly more than any previous toursHalliday wrote: ↑Sun Jul 15, 2018 12:02 pmYes I’m settling down to watch it .. think there are 15 sections of cobbles .. so should be a few crashes and punctures along the way.. and sure luck will play a big part .. Famous last words but think Froome will be ok on the cobbled sectors , given his background racing in Kenya, but he is prone to crashing
And even as I speak and a long way before the cobbles there’s already been a crash and Ritchie Porte is already down along with many others.
Porte is one of the favs and looks like it could be all over for him this year .. and they haven’t even covered 10km yet
Im recording it so will settle down to watch it this evening so won't be looking at this thread till later in case of any spoilers
Apparently there have been four previous stages over the cobbles in the Tour .. and each one has been won by a previous Paris -Roubaix winner.
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sionascaig
- Posts: 1621
- Joined: Fri Nov 20, 2015 9:38 am
On list of things to do after the footy )
Just thinking Dallas's price spike alert bot could be pretty handy for this event!
Just thinking Dallas's price spike alert bot could be pretty handy for this event!
Geirant Thomas wins stage 11 and it’s a 1-2 for Sky in the GC, with Thomas leading Froome by 1m 25 secs .Which will make things interesting within the Sky Team .
Both are decent time trialists, and in Individual TT in the 2016 there was less then a minute between them , tho this years TT course is totally different . Still a long way to go tho, and 4 big of mountain stages left
Tomorrow,s stage includes 3 HC mountains.
Looks like Mark Cavendish and many others face elimination after not coming in under the time limit
Both are decent time trialists, and in Individual TT in the 2016 there was less then a minute between them , tho this years TT course is totally different . Still a long way to go tho, and 4 big of mountain stages left
Tomorrow,s stage includes 3 HC mountains.
Looks like Mark Cavendish and many others face elimination after not coming in under the time limit
Going from memory alone, doesn't Thomas have at least one really bad day in the mountains on a 3 week tour? I seem to remember him blowing up in the 3rd week on more than one occasion in the past. Unless things are different this time, I think Froome is probably more likely to win out at the end.
just come down from trading & missus is watching the TDF, fair enough she enjoys watching it but for me it’s one of the most boring sports to watch ever, ok it’s hard work to participate but what’s there to watch?, you see one cyclist over take another you’ve seen them all, ditto with collisions