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Re: Tour de France for Dummies [dktxracer] [ In reply to ]
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I believe that indicates I have some sort of issue/I want something and am dropping back to the team car.

I believe the other popular one is a flick of the elbow which indicates get off my ass and take a turn up here.

Yes, water bottles are a good souvenir as well as feed bags with left over goodies in them.
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Re: Tour de France for Dummies [dktxracer] [ In reply to ]
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dktxracer wrote:
Next question: What are the common hand and arm signals? I saw a rider today on the right side of the peloton raise his index finger in the air, clearly trying to signal something.


He's asking if anyone wants to do a second lap.


That signal is usually I need something, as noted above. If you see a bunch of people towards the front of the peloton doing it, it's usually to warn riders behind of road furniture or some other danger.

Earlier this week, there was a good slap at a photog, which needs no explanation.

Tossing the bottles is to make sure they don't end up back on the course, as that can be dangerous. And yes, many people run to pick them up. If you watch during calmer parts of a stage, they will sometimes try to toss them to kids, similar to foul balls in MLB.
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Re: Tour de France for Dummies [dktxracer] [ In reply to ]
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dktxracer wrote:
Next question: What are the common hand and arm signals? I saw a rider today on the right side of the peloton raise his index finger in the air, clearly trying to signal something. I do group rides on the weekends, so I know the basic group hand signals, but I imagine these pros have their own communication system.

And it cracks me up every time the riders fling their used water bottles on the side of the road. I can't imagine doing that on a ride. If I was at the Tour, I'd be picking up those bottles as souvenirs.

They are calling for service support. It is a convoy of at least 22 team cars (lead by the race director's car) so the relevant support vehicle can be a long way back. The RD will call over race radio which team (and often which rider) requires service, which alerts the mechanic - including sometimes neutral service. On narrow mountain roads where the peloton can be scattered by 10-20 minutes, with little visibilty ahead and no opportunity to pass, this can be important.

I think riders are generally supposed under the race rules to fling their bottles when there is a crowd, on the very expectation that they will be "souvenired" by the crowd rather than a litter trail of abandoned bottles along the race route sitting there for months. Both litter control, AND advertising for the team.
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Re: Tour de France for Dummies [dktxracer] [ In reply to ]
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Might be signaling for a water bottle or he has a flat.
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Re: Tour de France for Dummies [H2Owings] [ In reply to ]
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There's also the flick of both elbows at the same time, which indiates a speed bump or other bump in the road
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Re: Tour de France for Dummies [bgoldstein] [ In reply to ]
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Yep, I remember seeing a rider crash on the TdF a few days ago when he looked back right as his bike hit a bottle. Terrible timing.
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Re: Tour de France for Dummies [mcalista] [ In reply to ]
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More newbie questions:

Who provides the various leaders’ jerseys? The teams or the Tour? As a rider, I would want to ride the kit I’ve trained and raced in, not some suit provided by a third party. If the teams provide them, I’m assuming they only prepare leaders’ jerseys they might be able to obtain, and then only for the riders who could get them.

Speaking of kit, it looks like most riders wear a one piece suit with a zippable vest area in front, similar to a lot of tri suits these days?

Finally, what’s the time cutoff where a rider can be dropped from the Tour for finishing too slowly?
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Re: Tour de France for Dummies [dktxracer] [ In reply to ]
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dktxracer wrote:
More newbie questions:

Who provides the various leaders’ jerseys? The teams or the Tour? As a rider, I would want to ride the kit I’ve trained and raced in, not some suit provided by a third party. If the teams provide them, I’m assuming they only prepare leaders’ jerseys they might be able to obtain, and then only for the riders who could get them

Speaking of kit, it looks like most riders wear a one piece suit with a zippable vest area in front, similar to a lot of tri suits these days?

The Tour issues the leader kits. I think most are in skin suits similar to Castelli's Sanremo.


dktxracer wrote:

Finally, what’s the time cutoff where a rider can be dropped from the Tour for finishing too slowly?


It varies. The cut is based on the stage design and the speed of the winner. The rule book linked below goes into 2+ pages (pgs 29-30) of how they calc these times. They also include a clause that allows ASO to keep riders in the race that miss the cut. I can't imagine them time cutting the green jersey.

https://netstorage.lequipe.fr/...eglement-fruk-bd.pdf
Last edited by: ctflower: Sep 14, 20 8:26
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Re: Tour de France for Dummies [dktxracer] [ In reply to ]
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I've always wondered about the different jerseys. If the jerseys are constantly changing, how do they handle this? They have less than 24 hours to make a new jersey with sponsor logos for the new holder.

blog
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Re: Tour de France for Dummies [stevej] [ In reply to ]
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The special jerseys were made before the race started.
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Re: Tour de France for Dummies [jimatbeyond] [ In reply to ]
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Is a jersey made for every possible scenario? No matter how unlikely it is, did they make a yellow, green, polka-dot, and white jersey for every single rider that started stage 1?

blog
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Re: Tour de France for Dummies [stevej] [ In reply to ]
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stevej wrote:
I've always wondered about the different jerseys. If the jerseys are constantly changing, how do they handle this? They have less than 24 hours to make a new jersey with sponsor logos for the new holder.

Here you go

https://www.bicycling.com/...get-made-so-quickly/
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Re: Tour de France for Dummies [FFigawi] [ In reply to ]
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Good stuff! Thanks for posting.
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Re: Tour de France for Dummies [ctflower] [ In reply to ]
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Wow, what a TdF! This was my first time watching it closely (at least as much as I could), and I really enjoyed it. Makes me appreciate how strong these guys are.

Couple more questions:

I understand that the yellow jersey was wrapped up after the TT because, as a practical matter, the second place rider / team cannot overtake the leader on the final stage. However, does the second place rider / team ever try on the last day? Would it be considered disrespectful to do so?

Also, I was looking at the remaining big races, the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta de Espana. They overlap by a few days, so the same riders can't attend both races. It seems strange to schedule the races this way. I'm assuming this is a COVID related scheduling issue?

I imagine the teams will attend both races but just send different riders to each race?
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Re: Tour de France for Dummies [dktxracer] [ In reply to ]
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Giro and Vuelta overlap is a Covid19 2020 issue. They are normally spread apart by 3 months. Teams will send different riders to each location (just like last week several teams had a full squad at Tour de France and Tirreno Adriatico stage race in Italy). There are no attacks initiated by the team who has to the second place rider on GC to beat the first place rider in the final stage. The only racing is for the sprinter stage win. It is the informal world championship of sprinting. That's what Paris is for, except on the race occaission that they ran the final ITT into Paris (not done since 1989 though).
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Re: Tour de France for Dummies [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
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How did Pogacar get a yellow bike so quickly??

blog
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Re: Tour de France for Dummies [stevej] [ In reply to ]
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stevej wrote:
How did Pogacar get a yellow bike so quickly??

All the gc contenders who may have a chance to be in yellow have a yellow bike ready to go if it happens. Not unusual at all.
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Re: Tour de France for Dummies [dktxracer] [ In reply to ]
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In recent years the Giro and Vuelta have been much more interesting to watch compared to the Tour. This Tour was the exception not the norm.
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Re: Tour de France for Dummies [stevej] [ In reply to ]
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stevej wrote:
How did Pogacar get a yellow bike so quickly??

Spray paint and Colnago stickers?
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Re: Tour de France for Dummies [torrey] [ In reply to ]
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I was looking at the recent winners of the Giro and Vuelta, and they’re domestiques for the big TdF teams. No wonder the top teams do so consistently well.
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Re: Tour de France for Dummies [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
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devashish_paul wrote:
stevej wrote:
How did Pogacar get a yellow bike so quickly??

Spray paint and Colnago stickers?

No. Mr. Colnago knew in his heart. Very happy for him. It’s the first time one of his bikes has won the Tour.

https://www.instagram.com/...igshid=12ibmdyngugpy

https://www.instagram.com/...igshid=1ekwkt1ob5ol9

clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com
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Re: Tour de France for Dummies [ironclm] [ In reply to ]
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ironclm wrote:

No. Mr. Colnago knew in his heart. Very happy for him. It’s the first time one of his bikes has won the Tour.

And somewhere a yellow Bianchi frame is being tossed in a heap.
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Re: Tour de France for Dummies [ironclm] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks for sharing. Colnago should do a run of frames in this color scheme, and I'll be surprised if they don't. I bet every single one will sell.

And winning helps with marketing. I never researched Colnago's line of bikes until after the TT, although I had heard of them. Their C line of frames is pretty unique, and they offer a huge selection of color schemes, as they should at that price point.
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Re: Tour de France for Dummies [dktxracer] [ In reply to ]
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dktxracer wrote:
Thanks for sharing. Colnago should do a run of frames in this color scheme, and I'll be surprised if they don't. I bet every single one will sell.

And winning helps with marketing. I never researched Colnago's line of bikes until after the TT, although I had heard of them. Their C line of frames is pretty unique, and they offer a huge selection of color schemes, as they should at that price point.

The connection to Colnago bikes and UAE team Emirates I believe is one of their team managers Giuseppi Saronni. Saronni was director Sportif until he brought in Alan Pieper in early 2019 and from what I understand is on the team board of directors and is an advisor, but stepped back from day to day operations.

Saronni won Milano San Remo, Giro d'Italia in the spring of 1983 wearing the rainbow jersey from winning UCI worlds in 1983 while riding on Colnago.



This is the world championship Colnago (I know because one of my best buddies had a replica in the 80's):





So there you go...the connection between Colnago and team UAE via board member Saronni who won the world's back in 1983 on Colnago and whose Del Tongo team was sponsored by it. Its basically an Italian based team that was previously the various incarnations of Italian team Lampre.
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Re: Tour de France for Dummies [dktxracer] [ In reply to ]
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It’s impossible to gain time in the Paris stage as a GC contender. Maybe if the time gap was 1-2 seconds. Otherwise the whole Peleton would go through together.
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