You seem to know more about this than is perhaps healthy 
1 Like
The cynic in me would ask how many are not.
A more likely scenario for sure.
In addition to removing radios, cell connections, and support cars, we can create a strict bubble beginning one month prior to, and during the race, in which riders are segregated from the entire world thus preventing doping. Just dudes in a secure facility, with their bikes, tools, and spare parts. The facility can be in a forested area in which their only food is what they can hunt. They’ll come out riding like animals!
I’ll draft a letter to the Tour post haste.
Anyway, back to the race…I’m happy to see some North Americans in the hunt this year.
1 Like
I’m glad they outlawed the top tube tuck though I’ve seen a couple guys ‘forget’ a time or two. I guess they are time penalized if ‘caught’.
Can Pogacar be stopped with a 5 minute lead? Last year had that dramatic finish, hard to imagine a repeat.
Spots 2 - 6 are close though.
Unless Pogacar crashes, there is no way he can lose 5 minutes on a flat 31 km ITT. If his rivals have a chance it is that he has a bad day in the mountains. His team is not as strong as the others, but that didn’t stop him last year.
Still, as you say, the battle for the remaining podium spots is incredibly close and should make the final week exciting.
1 Like
I have been amazed by the energy of a 5’9" 110 lb. rider going at 85% of his max heart rate for 6 to 8 hours a day over 3 weeks. Yes, I do wonder what they eat, ingest after a race. Of course, you might counter with, well lack of energy didn’t stop Lemond, a gun shot did, in the off season. (Ugh that was in bad taste)
I have given up on regulating performance enhancements, if it works for baseballers, then go cyclists. Don’t worship rules, some work, some work for some athletes and some work against others. I rather worship athletes than rules. Just musing …
I disagree with everything you said.
Regardless of strategic advantages provided by technology, the “strategists” must understand how to interpret the information available to them and make intelligent tactical decisions; not often the case.
And knowing the time/positions on the course is certainly tactically helpful, but only if the rider has the legs to make it an “advantage”.
And if some sociopath throws carpet tacks in their path, should the best rider lose because he was unlucky enough to puncture?
Finally, in “1903”, they were utilizing every state of the art tactic and technology available in 1903, or they didn’t win.
1 Like
While I would never doubt that the hunting accident caused long-term issues for him, he still managed three great victories ('89 and '90 Tour wins and the '89 World Championship) in the aftermath of the shooting.
1 Like
And then there was Lachlan Morton. . . . He finished his Alt Tour today. No support, sleeping outside, and subsisting on cider, melon and prosciutto. Oh and finishing in sandals and not bike shoes.
3 Likes
What Ron said. Been watching the Tour since '85. Riders, bikes, safety and tech have changed but the race remains to the same. You either bring the talent & fitness level or you don’t.
1 Like
I’ve been riding since I was a kid and have never stopped. One of my favorite memories is the Coors Classic in the early 80s that passed through/near where I grew up. Lemond, Hampsten, Hinault. Heroes.
I hope it’s still the same for the kids of France (and Italy and Spain) when they see their heroes ride by in a Grand Tour.
Much of what I wrote is tongue in cheek and knowingly impossible or silly. One of my other ideas is to allow spectators to shoot arrows at the riders
But I do think knowing exactly how far who is ahead, and precisely at what pace one needs to go to catch up takes away from the cycling element of the race and tilts it more in the direction of a video game. And it greatly reduces the drama.
Cycling has long suffered from being too synthetic. On more levels than one.
I knew you knew it all was a pipe dream. I do miss the days when a solo break away could/did succeed because the chasers lose sight of the soloist and don’t know how much effort it takes to catch.
Nowadays, they can see the precise watt output required and the time it will take at a given output. Not that they can always catch the flyer but it certainly makes it far more calculated and less to chance.
1 Like
I found today’s stage to be rather pathetic. Congrats to Konrad for winning, he deserved it. But please explain why in a certified mountain stage none of the contenders for King of Mountains seemed to break a sweat? None of them put an ounce of energy into competing for King of the Mountain points. The only contender that seemed to try was Matthews who fought a bit for SPRINT points, in a mountain stage.
And can it possibly be true that the best riders in the world, the creme de la creme, can only manage to finish over 13 minutes behind Konrad??? And why did none of the top yellow jersey contenders, some of which are separated by a few seconds, not even try to move up in the standings?
The whole thing seems a bit rigged. Perhaps it’s simply in the cycling culture DNA. They prefer to cheat and make back room deals rather than have an honest race and see who is truly the best cyclist in the world.
Le Tour De Idiots 
I think the man in the yellow jersey has been reading this thread and got tired of the criticism. Today he decided to show who is boss.
3 Likes
And he’s threatening to take the polka dot jersey again too.
2 Likes