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Dominique, did you see today's stage in the Tour de France?

Cazzie

Cazzie

SOH-CM-2024
Brutal, n'est pas?

That one mountain crossing was on a very rough road no wider than the Riverwalk Trail I ride in Danville. Not to mention, it was raining. It was an exciting stage to watch.

I purchased the Versus HD Internet package with no commercial interruptions, but the rain caused some breakup in the coverage today. So I watch it in HD on a wide-screen 24-inch monitor. Sweet.

Caz
 
Cazzie said:
Brutal, n'est pas?

That one mountain crossing was on a very rough road no wider than the Riverwalk Trail I ride in Danville. Not to mention, it was raining. It was an exciting stage to watch.

I purchased the Versus HD Internet package with no commercial interruptions, but the rain caused some breakup in the coverage today. So I watch it in HD on a wide-screen 24-inch monitor. Sweet.

Caz
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I was not able to watch it live. Just saw few minutes on the evening news. Brutal it was. They say the road was so slippery,it was like it was iced. They thought about neutralizing the race if not for the "échappée".

As you know I like when the little guy wins (and as he was French, it was even sweeter :)) !
 
Tomorrow they will have to cross an awful lot of cobble stones. When it is as wet as today it might be even more interesting than today! :eek:

Huub
 
huub vink said:
Tomorrow they will have to cross an awful lot of cobble stones. When it is as wet as today it might be even more interesting than today! :eek:

Huub
Click to expand...

Without a doubt I sha;; be online for the stage tomorrow Huub. If it is raining as today, there will be more riders out by the end of the day. My fingers are crossed for the main contenders, in cycling all are fair game on the cobbles.

Oui Dominique, Sylvain a fait une échappée très bonne. Il mérite le maillot jaune.

Caz
 
You won't believe this!

Last year the talented Dutch cyclist Robert Geesink had to leave the Tour after 5 days with a broken wrist. After a fall in today's stage he has a crack in one of the bones in his arm!

He will start tomorrow, but when I look at the roads they have to cross. I'm not sure he will finish!

As Cazzie already said, Chavanel is a nice rider and I think he deserves the yellow jersey.

Cheers,
Huub
 
Yeah they're tough cookies, the Tour de France riders !

Sylvain Chavanel was thrown out of his bicycle by a car end of April, had a concussion and fractured skull and wins yesterday !

Now let's wait for the infamous "pavés du Nord" !
 
Lucky for some the teams/riders did "neutralize" the race. There was some big chance riders in the crash and bang. Have started watching to , runs from about 10pm to 2 am our time...it's so tiring just to watch their effort.
 
dominique said:
Recumbents have been banned from races since 1934 ! Never tried one myself as one (wrongly) associates these bikes with handicapped people or overweight couch potatoes in search of some exercising :)

I've to try one someday !
Click to expand...

ROFL!

I rode one back on the 90s, hated every aspect of it, a wreck waiting to happen, evil to control, too low for traffic to see you. No way.

Oh and geeks (One who is perceived to be overly obsessed with one or more things including those of intellectuality) Dominique, around here all the geeks ride them. :icon_lol:

Caz
 
That was tough ! if it rains, "les pavés du Nord" get slippery, if it does not, you choke in the dust.Today was dustville.

Evans and Schleck (A) win some, Contador is ahead of Amstrong but looked awfully tired on the finishing line, Amstrong loses some. Chavanel was cooked and very unlucky. That fellow Thomas needs to be watched. Game still open.

A fair recap of the day ?
 
dominique said:
That was tough ! if it rains, "les pavés du Nord" get slippery, if it does not, you choke in the dust.Today was dust day.

Evans and Schleck (A) win some, Contador is ahead of Amstrong but looked awfully tired on the finishing line, Amstrong loses some. That fellow Thomas needs to be watched. Game still open.

A fair recap of the day ?
Click to expand...

Armstrong punctured in a bad place, Contador does so at the finish line. But I am afraid the time Lance lost to Alberto today will be his 'mal jour'. Poor Frank Schleck, his tour is over. I hate that, I like for all of the combatants to be able to ride it to the finish. Alas, a 'mal jour' for Chavanel too, he loses his maillot jaune after two punctures and exchanges for bikes.

Contador will be hungry in the Alps now that he has nearly a minute over Armstong. I don't think Andy Schleck has it in his legs without his brother. Cancellara will hold the golden fleece until this coming weekend, when I look for the flying Spaniard to cement his control over this year's Tour de France on Sunday.

Caz
 
dominique said:
A fair recap of the day ?
Click to expand...

Yep, that was about it. But the Tour has not really started yet. As always the mountains and time trials will make the difference!

Today some lost time and some didn't, but I din't think the differences are already decisive.

Cheers,
Huub
 
huub vink said:
Yep, that was about it. But the Tour has not really started yet. As always the mountains and time trials will make the difference!

Today some lost time and some didn't, but I din't think the differences are already decisive.

Cheers,
Huub
Click to expand...

The field is wide open with the loss of Frank Schleck Huub, that alone takes Saxo Bank out of the equation, Andy Schleck is nothing without his brother. The only thing that was in the others favor is that Comntador does not have a full team of great mountain men, only he and Vinokourov, but the other teams have been decimated this past week, Levi Leiphammer has a cracked wrist, so he is not going to be 100% for Lance. Kloden has looked spotty at best. Watch Sunday when the stage finishes on s mountain top finish at Morzine-Avoriaz, The Spaniard will have stayed with all his competitors and them drop them one by one on the way up Morzine-Avoriaz.

BTW, go Oranje! Good show today for the men in orange.

Caz
 
What a goat track some of that was. I think the organizers should have a think about these surfaces some more. Some of that cobblestone stage was only suited to mountain bike really. Those that finished high up in the placings had a lot of luck on there side. Our man Evans made up some good time.:mixedsmi::australia:
 
demorier said:
What a goat track some of that was. I think the organizers should have a think about these surfaces some more. Some of that cobblestone stage was only suited to mountain bike really. Those that finished high up in the placings had a lot of luck on there side. Our man Evans made up some good time.:mixedsmi::australia:
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Are you a wimp or what (just teasing :icon_lol:)?

The cobblestones are a tradition in the French and Belgium cycling almost as old as racing itself. There even is a special race called Paris-Roubaix (a city in Northern France - click on it) in which they are the main feature. It was won by Stuart O'Grady in 2007. See the Australians can also master the dreadful pavé du nord.

Along the years, they disapperead from the landscape (the cobblestones not the AUstralians :)) under the asphalt but some portions are preserved just that purpose !

Now, I'd hate to ride on them, racing would out of question for me. Too dangerous !
 
It is not quite light yet, I am up to feed the pets and then off for about 20 mile around 6:00. But I must miss seeing today's stage live. I have to help my brother mover some furniture this morning before it gets oppressively hot. I shall catch the VERSUS replay, but must miss sitting back and watching the stage without commercial interruption on the steaming Tour Tracker in HD. It is a relatively flat stage for the sprinters today. But all of them are battered and bruised also.

We have several sections of pave in old downtown Danville, but if you wish to train for pave, the hardest surface to ride over are railroad bed rocks sans rails. It will battered your shoulders and hands relentlessly. You must pedal constantly and keep up at least a speed of 15 - 20 km. We once had a five mile stretch of this, that has not been turned into a legitimate trail with packed small crushed run stone. Once you have conquered bed rock, pave is an easy A. :d The largest trouble I have with pave is that it will puncture a tube in a heart breath.

Paris-Roubaix , The Hell of the North, is older than the Tour de France, it is a traditional ritual. Just as there are course for small cyclists in the mountains and flat courses for the sprinter, so too there are course over the cobbles that are made for the big men of cycling. The big men ride over these rough stones better than the little guys. Cancellara looked magnificent yesterday and who on Earth would not want Jens Voight as a domestique. One of my biking friends has a T-shirt that says "Jens Voight is on my team". He will take a boring bike race and make it interesting, a total workhorse, I shall miss his retirement from cycling when it comes.

Cadel was bloody awesome. he looked very good in the Giro for a while but faded in the end. The big mountains will be the tell-tale for Cadel. Though the time trial is long, I think he is good enough this year to limit his losses over a depleted field of leaders. But that mountain top finish on the Tourmalet, after having had to climb the Tourmalet other way just a day before, now that is going to be a test on the riders, all of them.

Caz
 
Cazzie said:
It is not quite light yet, I am up to feed the pets and then off for about 20 mile around 6:00. But I must miss seeing today's stage live. I have to help my brother mover some furniture this morning before it gets oppressively hot. I shall catch the VERSUS replay, but must miss sitting back and watching the stage without commercial interruption on the steaming Tour Tracker in HD. It is a relatively flat stage for the sprinters today. But all of them are battered and bruised also.

We have several sections of pave in old downtown Danville, but if you wish to train for pave, the hardest surface to ride over are railroad bed rocks sans rails. It will battered your shoulders and hands relentlessly. You must pedal constantly and keep up at least a speed of 15 - 20 km. We once had a five mile stretch of this, that has not been turned into a legitimate trail with packed small crushed run stone. Once you have conquered bed rock, pave is an easy A. :d The largest trouble I have with pave is that it will puncture a tube in a heart breath.

Paris-Roubaix , The Hell of the North, is older than the Tour de France, it is a traditional ritual. Just as there are course for small cyclists in the mountains and flat courses for the sprinter, so too there are course over the cobbles that are made for the big men of cycling. The big men ride over these rough stones better than the little guys. Cancellara looked magnificent yesterday and who on Earth would not want Jens Voight as a domestique. One of my biking friends has a T-shirt that says "Jens Voight is on my team". He will take a boring bike race and make it interesting, a total workhorse, I shall miss his retirement from cycling when it comes.

Cadel was bloody awesome. he looked very good in the Giro for a while but faded in the end. The big mountains will be the tell-tale for Cadel. Though the time trial is long, I think he is good enough this year to limit his losses over a depleted field of leaders. But that mountain top finish on the Tourmalet, after having had to climb the Tourmalet other way just a day before, now that is going to be a test on the riders, all of them.

Caz
Click to expand...

The pavés are irregular in shape and the road is not well maintained, so the riders trajectories have to be thought of meter after meter, in the dust or in the rain. Rough riding.
 
Only saw a little of the stage last night....quite mundane after the rough surface stages. Need to catch up on some sleep...recommence watching when insomnia sets in or the mountain stages start this weekend (whichever comes first). :wavey:
 
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