Tour De France 2017 - A Meandering Thread ...

[sunny-dave]

It all got rolling yesterday - an interesting route this year including some new climbs, and a more open than usual race, with Froome looking out of sorts and some of the other 'usual suspects' also not in the best of nick.

I'll add to this thread after I've watched the highlights ...

[gness]

If it gets dull, Dave......I pass your house on my cycle for fun route.....

Last night a red car cut the funny corner by the permanent white van......that would have made an interesting highlight.....my new horn is fantastic!!!!!.... :-)

[sunny-dave]

Did you know that they now x-ray TdF bikes to make sure no-one has hidden a motor in the frame?

http://www.velonews.com/2017/01/news/cbs-news-12-riders-used-motorized-bikes-in-the-2015-tour_429741

[sunny-dave]

Stage 1 :

Well that was unexpected - a Sky rider in yellow, but not Froome (who looked understandably tentative in the vile conditions).

Geraint Thomas was so unfancied that he got round the time-trial course before the cameramen had woken up from their "bierwurst inna bun" lunch, and so we had about 5 seconds of his ride to applaud on TV. Great result for a loyal domestique who could/should have more opportunities to shine - perhaps he can lock Froome in the team bus tomorrow ... :+)

[anker]

Hi Dave long time no see, Have you still got the motor bike that you had when you were a MOD with Talktalk ?

[sunny-dave]

Hi anker - the Varadero from talktalk days was replaced about three years ago by a Kawasaki Z100SX tourer.

I eventually sold that just a few weeks ago - it wasn't getting enough use to justify the running costs and depreciation - a bust ankle and gammy knee (not from biking I hasten to add) had resulted in far too few bike miles in the last twelve months.

So I'm currently bikeless (at least for this summer), but I daresay the itch will strike again soon enough.

Hope you're going along OK.

dave

[anker]

Hi Dave I'm going along fine now that I am Battery operated ( They gave me a pacemaker last year and say it should last for about 9>11 years
Cheers

[sunny-dave]

A ho-hum second stage (apart from the slight drama of Froome and a few others hitting the deck on a wet corner) - the usual stage-managed, fake tension of the "will they / won't they catch the breakaway" routine and a not very interesting bunch sprint at the end.

Onwards to Luxembourg and France ...

[Zacs-Master]

Damn, and I was going to watch that later too!

[sunny-dave]

And you still could watch in innocence - unless you'd deliberately opened this post , as nothing would have been revealed in Latest Posts or even the Sport front page ...

[Zacs-Master]

C'mon Dave. Lighten up for gawd sake.

[sunny-dave]

Pass the Creme de Menthe frappe then ...

[sunny-dave]

Third Stage - totally bland until the last 3km - then some excellent uphill sprinting, with Peter Sagan winning and showing remarkable skill and composure to clip his foot back into his pedal after it slipped out as he started his sprint in the final 300m.

Geraint Thomas still in yellow and still good, wry value in the post race interviews.

A cracking picture of the crash on Stage 2

http://tinyurl.com/y9os87g3

[Garaman]

That was horrible and I didn't expect to see Cavendish getting up quite so quickly. The commentators on ITV are saying it wasn't Sagan's fault, but I am not so sure myself.

[sunny-dave]

Stage 4 : Bad crash for Cav

I agree with garaman - I was amazed to see Cav on his feet at all after the barrier crash - it looked (at best) a dead cert for a broken collar-bone.

The commentators do tend to err on the side of "just a racing incident" in these matters - personally, I'm not so sure that Sagan wasn't culpable - the commissairs will undoubtedly be looking hard at the footage.

[Khandro]

The whole group slid to the left (their right) sadly the only one without fault was Cavendish, he says he's OK though.

[sunny-dave]

Well that's a big surprise - after the commissairs initially punished Sagan by relegating him to last in the stage and docking him a load of points, the race jury considered all the evidence and have now booted him off the Tour - because he “had put several other riders involved in the crash in danger”.

Harsh? Possibly - but it all revolves around intent, and the more often I see the various angles of the footage, the more it seems that Sagan did have a nasty little dig at Cavendish with his elbow (ironically that may actually have been after the point when the crash was already inevitable) and that is always going to attract a heavy punishment.

First mountain-top finish tomorrow - should sort out the pecking order for a while at least.

[Garaman]

Yes, perhaps a little harsh, but he clearly took Cavendish out, and I have no idea why the presenters on ITV thought not.

Speaking of ITV, I miss Phil and Paul. Ned I can listen too, but David Miller could send me to sleep.

[sunny-dave]

I agree - Phil and Paul with a side order of Ned was a better package.

At least we're spared the 'stating the bleeding obvious' comments of Sean Kelly.

[DTCwordfan]

Sagan was a dirty little shyyte and he could play rugby for NZ in that tackle on Anthony Watson. He deserved the disqualification.

[snags]

''He deserved the disqualification''

Did he?