Tour de France 2016

It's either dolly birds or showing off your prowess at game of heterosexualism. The podium is still a cold place for gay riders.

I kinda feel it's your podium at that point do what you want with it. If you wanT to bring on husband, wife, child, dog - go for it. You did win the tour

Major rep to Froome on his bike and kit detailing on Sunday.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIPpEEKhmDr/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BIP5OpbBPBn/

Did anyone else feel Millar was being a bit of a tart this year whenever someone had to ride a teammate's bike?

"Oooooh even five millimetres will make a difference. This is incredible. He's not used to those o-shared rings! WOW! You just can't appreciate how hard this is."

Yes, fair enough when Froome was on the yellow Mavic bike with the wrong pedals, but I'm not convinced about the rest.

I think he got a bit caught up in the moment, but he made the point that moving back to standard rings from the oval ones does feel very strange. I'm sure Froome was just like "don't care lol"

It's the first thing I would do

I suppose that if a gay rider had a child (biological, adopted or otherwise) there could be no objection to them bringing them on to the podium. Of course if would be awesome if the rider in question refused to take to the stage until they came up with some handsome men instead of the pretty women.

Perhaps there should be a podium preference form.

Who would you like at any podium presentations during this race?

a) partner and/or children
b) 2 beautiful models MM, FF, MF (delete as appropriate)
c) representatives of a local cycling club
d) beloved family pet (No Komodo Dragons cf: The Deux Alpes Incident)
e) a local dignitary
f) the rider you beat in a sprint dressed as a clown
g) Other ____________________________________

still can't think of Froome, even New Froome, as a charging Rhino though ;-)

Gold on this and the Brexit thread #rep

I think Froome should have had Wout Poels up there, cradled in his arms, considering the amount of work he did for him!

Tom Dumoulin to start in after TdF crit '8 van Chaam' (NL) this Wednesday(!) with an arm brace. Unsure if this is the smart thing to do :-/ but hey there's € € € to be earned...

@The_Seldom_Killer @owl #podiumrep

Froome Rhino does seem very forced.

The rhino isn't supposed to be a personification of the rider anyway, unlike Griepel's gorilla. It's an expression of support for a rhino charriddee, IIRC.

It's still a very ugly bike, that Pinarello.

Just a heads up to chris boardman and his family . Tradegy striking on the nicest people .

I hope Froome/Sky at some point make a serious dig at winning one of the other GTs. Conventional wisdom seems to preclude winning two Gts in a year these days, lessons learnt from Contador failed double tilt at Giro and Tour perhaps. I just his and their palmares need something else than TdF wins. So either Froome attempts perhaps the Tour/Vuelta double or they develop Poels/Landa into a serious GC contender. I read a comment in the Guardian about how Sky don't bother with the Giro and I was thinking actually they do, big part of their sponsorship is Sky Italia, they just don't send their very best their, well at least since Wiggo's disastrous tilt at it in 2013.

The rhino graphics were specifically chosen as a nod to the British rider’s African heritage, and to show his commitment to the conservation of these animals and excitement at becoming an ambassador for the United for Wildlife, a partnership that unites seven of the world’s leading wildlife organisations in the battle against the illegal wildlife trade including poaching of rhinos.

Froome has joined a star-studded list of ambassadors, including David Beckham, Andy Murray and Lewis Hamilton, and hopes his new bike will help raise awareness about the many animals being poached to near-extinction around the world.

Thoroughly enjoyable Tour this year, don't think I've ever made as much noise at a TV as when Cav won the first stage, and I've enjoyed every stage since.

Wasn't Froome looking super strong before he rode into a wall at the beginning of the Andora stage last year ("the hardest single stage EVA!")?

He still finished that stage as well. Jerk.

Maybe he would have weakened...

I hope he has a go again. And if he does well I'll only hate him more. My hate is fed by his success.

Something to tide you over till next year

https://youtu.be/zVESBA7VeQA

wonderful tour. chapeau all round but especially to froome, sagan, bardet, alaphilipe, cav, pantano, griepel, poel, mollema, porte, dumoulin, curvers and @andyp

I would love to see Froome at the Vuelta. Unlike the Giro and the Tour you usually don't have a clue who will be racing it until a couple of weeks before. Usually it's for GC riders who messed up trying to win the other ones. but it would be great if Froome goes again with a strong line up i.e. the Tour team sans anyone with too long a season in their legs or someone that rode the Giro.

Chances are they'll send their B-team with Poels leading.

with Poels leading.

ah, that would be their 'A minus' team ;-) hope so too, of course

I'd imagine Landa before Poels. But what do I know.

edit: I forgot Landa led the Giro team this year. Everything is one big blur.