Tour De France Final Stage -First ITT since Fignon vs Lemond 1989 - Monaco-Nice via Eze

Triathlon Forum
1

So because of the Paris Olympics, the Tour won’t be finishing in Paris, but in Nice, with today’s start in Florence Italy.

Five years before the internet existed I packed my bike and camping gear, headed over to southern Germany, rode through Switzerland with a plan to interecept the Tour de France in Grenoble on the stage to Alpe d’Huez in 1984. My plan was to ride 150-220km per day (because I was 18 years old and i heard that’s what the rider did, so I figure I should ride a Tour Stage equivalent daily for 21 days…amazing what you can do when you are 18). In any case, that started a 40 year journey following the Tour De France,

In the 80’s I would have to go to the newspaper store in Montreal called “Maison de La Presse Internationale” which is “house of international press” where you could buy “day old” newspapers from around the world, where I would buy L’Equipe and catch up on two day old racing news from France. I can’t remember the year it started but around the time LeMond became a contender there was weekly recap on Wide World of Sports.

I think literally the 2020 TdF during August of the pandemic was one of my highlights of my life, just because the world was upside down, and with the TdF on, it seemed to provide “hope” that the rest of us would get on to do normal things.

In any case great to see Jonas back in one piece. Will hope he can give his title a good defence after his horrific crash this year.

Here is the route

The first two stages are tough and not the normal format (today form Florence to Rimini). The first part today was a neutralized procession but it is still a 206km stage on a hot day in Italy.

https://img.aso.fr/core_app/img-cycling-tdf-jpg/tdf24-profils-web-e-tape-1/55155/0:0,1005:603-960-0-90/436fa
I hope Cav can sneak in for a stage win some time during this TdF. Great to see him on the start line although as I post this his group is 8 min back.

In Canada, I am watching on flobikes.com. It has been worth every cent of the subscription. Sure beats buying newspapers two days late in the 80’s.

Too many things going on for me…Tour De France, Coppa America, Euro, Wimbledon, Cricket World Cup (finals today).

Anyway glad to hear your thoughts on the TdF daily. No one in my office nor at home follow this craziness. Maybe I just need to get on a plane and head to France, but the internet has to do as I am heading to France for Olympics later

2

What’s the time period that Cav must finish in unless he is eliminated today?

3

Glad to see a single purpose thread here on the TdF. I hope that the conversation is not diluted too much among other threads - but I find those annoying to read and with incomprehensible nicknames that makes the whole thing some cryptography challenge that I’m not willing to devote time to crack. I’m in the US and will watch on Peacock. I listened a bit earlier today - family stuff prevents watching live, so I’ll catch the replay later, but I noted that we have Phil and Bob for commentary. Ugh.

4

Depends how fast they finish. Right now it’s about +49 minutes.

5

Depends how fast they finish. Right now it’s about +49 minutes.

I see Jacobsen back with Cav now. I hope these boys make the time cut. They are only halfway thru the stage and it is already plus 14 min. We still have half of the climbing to go and it is pretty hot so that 14 minutes can easily get to 40 or 50 min depending on how hot EF pushes pace for Bettiol

6

Will be brutal if Cav doesn’t make the cut on the FIRST day. Not great that his teammate was the first to abandon a couple hours in.

7

Put my money on Van Aert to win today’s stage, decent odds.

8

Will be brutal if Cav doesn’t make the cut on the FIRST day. Not great that his teammate was the first to abandon a couple hours in.

I see the weather in Rimini is 30C but with a 25 kph easterly wind. Cav is going to be fighting heat and a headwind to today’s finish.

https://www.accuweather.com/en/it/rimini/212990/weather-forecast/212990#google_vignette

On the second last climb Cav is 16+ min back. There are people blowing up all over the place on day one.

9

Carnage, I tell ya.

Williams, Martinez, van der Poel all dropped. Plus Cav and Jacobsen but looks like they’ll make the time cut.

Doesn’t look fun. More tough guys will fall out of GC shortly. 3 more climbs…

10

In Canada, I am watching on flobikes.com. It has been worth every cent of the subscription. Sure beats buying newspapers two days late in the 80’s.

For other Canadians here, Flobikes is showing a free preview of stage 1 without a subscription - watching on YouTube.

@Kid

11

Put my money on Van Aert to win today’s stage, decent odds.

What a finish!

Buggered up all my bets they did.

12

Put my money on Van Aert to win today’s stage, decent odds.

What a finish!

Buggered up all my bets they did.

Shed a little tear with that finish. Emotional stuff.
And Tadej beating all sprinters but Van Aert - insane.

13

And it’s BARDET!! From my city in France-.Clermont-Ferrand. We’re so happy for him.

14

And it’s BARDET!! From my city in France-.Clermont-Ferrand. We’re so happy for him.

Wow what a day for Vandebrouck (sp?). Riding off the front for 180km + and now a yellow for Bardet to open things up. I went for a swim workout and was trying to avoid the internet to watch it on replay, and hit the replay at the wrong point and saw the two teammates across the finish line hugging each other !!!

15

And it’s BARDET!! From my city in France-.Clermont-Ferrand. We’re so happy for him.

Isn’t that where the Bank was in Kelly’s Heroes?

16

What a great finish to stage 1. Le tour is indeed on!

17

I just looked at this article:

https://velo.outsideonline.com/road/road-racing/tour-de-france/tour-de-france-stage-1-the-hilliest-ever-opening-stage-of-the-tour/

and it says it was 3800m of climbing today on day one. 5000m is often the threshold for a Queen Stage and keep in mind today was 206km long. Not sure if Cav was in distress out of the gate or if he was just pacing himself, but he looked like in distress today early.

Interesting Pogacar beat everyone else other than Van Aert in the peloton. I am really happy for Bardet!

Van Den Broek wins green and white jersey today:

https://www.letour.fr/en/rider/187/team-dsm-firmenich-postnl/frank-van-den-broek

18

Cav said it was all under control, but I’m not buying it.

Pog can’t help himself in a race. He burned too many matches early last year and here he is again. However, this year I’m all for it as it may just even the playing field a bit.

https://youtu.be/_sWvnrTFTrA?feature=shared

19

Cav definitely did not look “under control” halfway into the stage. If he was really that much “under control”, I think he would have sent his teammates up the road and just hung out with other sprinters and just marked them. I think Fabio’s team left him alone because he was cruising and under control. In fairness Astana needs Cav to not get “cut” because largely he is what they have for publicity at this event!

20

Cav definitely did not look “under control” halfway into the stage. If he was really that much “under control”, I think he would have sent his teammates up the road and just hung out with other sprinters and just marked them. I think Fabio’s team left him alone because he was cruising and under control. In fairness Astana needs Cav to not get “cut” because largely he is what they have for publicity at this event!
The timing aspect may have been under control, but Cav puked up his breakfast so that means it was not nice out there.