I’m a former professional cyclist, though I never became one of the ~45 Americans who have ever started the Tour since Jock Boyer in 1980.
Tonight I’ll be on-air from Hotel Domestique to host a viewing party and fund-rasier for a local nonprofit. We go live at 7p eastern and my bits begin at 7:45.
Everyone is welcome to enjoy.
Pogačar, wow. Well done.
Congrats to Pogacar 2 back to back stage wins…
Still yellow jersey
He was a monster. Won the second mountain stage in a row, has the yellow jersey sowed up, and went from about 20 points behind in the king of the mountain, to 20 points ahead. And has the white jersey. But can he really be considered champion without winning the green jersey as well? What a sham! (Just kidding)
Fingures crossed on his drug tests.
We won’t find out the real truth for a decade or so…
Not in 2006 when it took just weeks to determine after Floyd Landis had some big showings in mountain stages.
If there are shenanigans going on, I’d guess the dopers are even further ahead of the testing than the were before.
Yeah, Floyd really messed up his cheat, didn’t he?
He couldn’t intimidate people as well as Lance.
Too bad Chris Froome suffered an accident 2 years ago on the TDF …
He would have been quite the challenger for Tedej Podgcar…
Chris had an explosive acceleration that would reel in riders way out in front.,
he demonstrated this repeatedly in previous Tours
He is riding again but not at all like he was then…God Bless him
For those lamenting the use of technology like race radios, I’d point out that the reason the Dutch-dominated peloton in the women’s Olympic road race never mounted a pursuit of the race leader was in the absence of radios, they never knew she was out there ahead of them. They could have easily reeled her in, but instead they treated the race like a Sunday social ride until Van Vleuten decided to make a move in the last few kilometers for what she thought was a solo flyer win.
It’s not that I’m particularly sympathetic to Vav Vleuten’s disappointment, but the peloton’s ignorance of an out-of-sight leader led to a pretty dull race and a lot of viewers yelling at their TVs, “why aren’t they chasing?!”
Those regarding Pogacer’s outsize performance with cynicism might do a little research on his development history. When his soon to be cycling coach Hauptman first saw him, he was in a closed circuit race with teenagers several years older than he was. Hauptman saw Pocager trying to catch up to the massed pack of older riders and told the team they should send someone back to help him catch up. He was told “you don’t understand, Pocager is about to lap the group of older riders.” 
He was a precocious talent from the nearly the moment he took up cycling. His career so far has been nothing like other suspect examples such as Lance Armstrong’s sudden reinvention after cancer surgery that he attributed to learning to cycle at a different cadence.
I chuckled over the lack of race radios and resulting win in the women’s road race the other day!
I found it sad.
And it made for a boring race.
I agree completely.
Especially sorry for the Silver medalist who had to be told that that there was someone who was ahead of her, so no, no Gold for you.
It’s sad, indeed, still I chuckled based on the recent forum comments about the detriment of race radios.
I lost interest in the Olympics when they allowed Professionals in. What’s the point anymore for Olympic cycling when you have annual Professional World Championship races in multiple categories.
When I came of age only amateurs competed and were thereby given a chance to be discovered. My older brother won the Vermont State Road back in '89 and was automatically invited to the US Olympic Training Center, became the following year, became a Category 1 racer and went on to the Olympic trials a few times after that. Now, pros from the Tour de France go to the Olympics? Redundant!
The issue of pro vs. amateur in the Olympics is a thorny one indeed. I know I don’t always apply consistent logic to which Olympic sports seem diminished to me by inclusion of pros. It irritated me when Olympic basketball allowed pro players but it doesn’t bother me at all that professional track and field athletes compete in the Olympics. World Cup ski racers earn serious money racing professionally and compete in the Olympics and nobody seems to raise an eyebrow. Pure amateur Olympic disciplines are pretty much nonexistent with the exception of wrestling. Technically pro boxers are allowed to compete in the Olympics now although I’m not aware of any accomplished pros competing.
Part of being a champion ought include not being stupid 
. How hard is it to simply notice when one of the riders goes out in front and to keep track of not seeing them come back? Truly, shouldn’t being a competent cyclist involve noticing the most basic of things? The problem wasn’t the absence of radios. The problem was idiocy. The Dutch didn’t deserve to win, and they certainly didn’t deserve to have their stupidity masked by a radio.
A true race ought to be from the start and not driven by computers. Just get on your bike, start the race, RIDE HARD THE WHOLE WAY, and see who gets to the end fastest by using both their physical and mental skills. Professional racing trains the riders that they don’t really need to use their minds, someone else will do it for them over the radio.
Bravo to the Olympics for doing cycling the right way. The way the ancient Greeks did it
As for Pogacar, I don’t think anyone was lamenting his ability. I personally was commenting more on the obvious back room dealing involved when on two legs the leaders take the day off and lose by 13 and nearly 20 minutes. That one part is an insult to competitive spirit. Beyond that competition structural issue, Pogacar is obviously a stud.