Well, he hasn t done too bad today, has he?

I've only seen the NBC Sports broadcast from Stage One

How's Bobke doing with the chateaux, abbeys, etc?

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Sagan rarely has the flat-out speed to take on pure sprinters. Finishing 2-5th in field sprint stages is typical for him, then waiting & winning days like today; there has even been one or two years he didn't win a stage at all. Consistency is why he's such a threat for points jersey.

Definitely true. But he also has an uncanny ability to position himself well.

First TDF in a long time from I can remember, there has been no abandons after Stage 5 and less crashes in the sprint. Is it a coincidence? Looking at past TDF threads, I always said Cavendish forced himself into situations he should not be in; for example Sagan's DQ .
No Cavendish= Less crashes/abandons. Just a thought!

Everything will change tomorrow and standings will sort itself out. Bernal will be 2nd. I think LFF (haha my favorite highlight from 2019 Classics Thread) will keep yellow.

Good coverage on NBC today. Even better racing!

The green jersey competition seems to be as keen as the yellow this year. Sunweb/Matthews would like to win it as Tom Dumoulin isn't in the race as their GC rider. That DQ's Viviani went full gas for the intermediate sprint was revealing. Perhaps Viviani is going to finish this year's TdeF and not just win stages. When Viviani won the intermediate, I thought that Alaphillipe (if his legs felt good) might be sprinting hard in the finale to deny Sagan/Matthews some poinst (wrong again).

Sagan/Bora are in control. It is better marketing for Bora to have Sagan winning stages and the green jersey rather than a rider finishing fifth through tenth in the GC. Like Ineos rides, the Bora team goes at a pace that favors Sagan. That's a huge advantage for the race pace to be good when you are feeling good. The smile on Sagan's face when he was presented the medal for the stage win was Peter happier than I've seen him in the last year. It was good to see. That Sagan had enough time at the line to strike the Incredible Hulk pose in his green jersey was great theater.

Wout Van Aert deserves a line here for his final sprint and tremendous year. All he needs to do tomorrow is finish with the GC men and we could be talking about Bernal/Van Aert for the next ten years.

Glad to see so many EF jerseys in the first group. Ineos in fine, of course, Fuglsang seems OK but we won't know until tomorrow.

The GC race will reveal itself tomorrow. Ineos has a history of making the first mountain day hard and with days to recover afterwards, let's plan on it. Besides Egan and hopefully Thomas who else? Anyone who wants to beat those two better stake out their claim tomorrow. Given the way Thomas/Bernal can TT, everyone (except maybe Fuglsang) is behind them at this point. Uran could use Woods up that last climb. I'd like to add more riders to this paragraph; yet, it just doesn't seem like anyone else is at the level this year.

I hope Alaphillipe retains the yellow jersey.

Tejay/Steve Porino did a great interview after Tejay's massage segment lol. Tejay appears to be a changed man, for the better. More honest about his chances and comfortable in his skin. I could see him riding another ten years as a team's second or third man with occasional podiums. Very happy for him as he was following American legends and the spotlight was on him early in his career.

Phil and Bob are almost funny. Phil is probably wondering what Bob might say next that Phil will have to help him with. Phil might also have been given the duty of pronouncing the names in French first. I'm actually liking Bob better in this role this year.

Steve S/Christian/Chris are great. Professional.

Can't wait for tomorrow. Thrilled that so many riders (all?) are still racing at this point.

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Indoor Triathlete - I thought I was right, until I realized I was wrong.

I was thinking the same thing regarding the lack of abandons and fewer crashes.

Didn't think about the Cavendish connection, but who knows?

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

Not following that race closely, just at the headline level. 5.7 w/kg would be good for me for 30 seconds. Kudos to her.

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Indoor Triathlete - I thought I was right, until I realized I was wrong.

Great story. Tejay was asked in an NBC segment this year if he could beat Woods in a mile race with a one minute head start. Tejay said "No!"

Woods is an exceptional talent. He'll do well tomorrow IMO.

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Indoor Triathlete - I thought I was right, until I realized I was wrong.

And of course dave, the doctor having a breakdown and the rest of British cycling never used TUE's, never used needles and tracked all their controlled medications and their distributions......

What's ridiculous about this thread is that there is no such thing as a spoiler anymore.
We're way too connected as a society to not know the results immediately.

Also, research has shown that we enjoy the race MORE when we know the outcome.
So how about we end this whole silly spoiler bullshit and just discuss the race openly?

Huh?

Are you suggesting that this thread end and we simply allow people to start random new threads everyday (like 5 per day because people never check to see if one already started) with spoilers in the subject line? What exactly would that accomplish?

Good question and I think that this thread works just fine. The OP confused me as well mate.

Yes, he called me after my post, thanked me, and said he would correct the acceleration problem immediately 😄

lol

Hey, ski boy, you keep up this aggressive attitude we're going to send our enforcer Moscon after you.

But Bobke trying to fill in for Paul Sherwen and giving the history of French landmarks is stretching his scholarly credibility!

Dude, you catch an edge and bump yo head?
It’s wide open here. One big hug. Cmon, bring it in.....

No. Let's just stop pretending.

His puches/kg are peaking right about now.

I’m confused as hell as to what’s going on here, or trying to be expressed. Sure do miss the Spring Classics thread, just 9 months until March.

Speak for yourself. I enjoy coming to this thread after watching the race on replay without it being spoiled. You may be too connected to not know the results immediately, but I somehow manage it. Also, why do you care?

Anyway, good to see Sagan get the result yesterday. Looking forward to see if anyone implodes today (LFF?). Normally not a Sky/Ineos fan, but I think I could learn to like Bernal. Still would be more fun to see someone else take it to them today. Would be especially cool if Wout hangs on, but not holding my breath on that front.

Agreed. I don't really root for Skyneos, but its hard not to like Bernal.

I am a bit late to the thread but regarding the French and doping, come one, with Jalabart and Virenque were very much known dopers, Virneque was on Festina and JaJa on Once and they seem very much loved and in the spotlight in France.