Tour de France 2017

Seems to have gone viral via Antoine Vayer (@festinaboy) on Twitter.
I picked it up from Ashley House..

Thanks

A credible source then. Not.

Seems similar to G's 2015 incident with a telegraph pole, where his main concern was the lose of his Oakleys and that they were no longer made. Cue hoo-ha about Oakley getting him replacements.

Remember who took him out? Not quite the darling now is he?

Barguil!! The swine.

But, only G could crash from bumping off someone as diminutive as that.

Mardi 17 juillet: SUPERBANGERS

gotta be fake news.

How did I miss the Sunweb Youtube channel? KOM and Green Jersey as roomies must be another TDF first?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRat1EcX3yI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpcYwULJfUs

So Dan Martin fractured his L2 and L3 vertebrae in the Porte crash on stage 9, rode the remaining 12 stages and finished 6th on GC.

Fuck.

Fair play to him, but I always think this kind of story illustrates the stupidity rather than the bravery of cycling. I really hope he hasn't done any long term damage as a result of continuing to ride the rest of the tour.

Bloody hell!

My favourite rider of the tour, even before this. Boy just kept on going and kept on attacking. With zero team.

That might be taking it a bit far. I get it if people continue riding with broken bones, but a damaged spine is something else.

Impressive though

Amazed again. These guys are hard beyond words. That might just tops G's ride in 2013 with a broken pelvis for the whole 3 weeks. The thing i found amazing about that was that he struggled through agony in the blind hope it would ease up enough for him to be of any small help to the team. Uber domestique.

Having checked the pixels - the spelling mistake in Carpentras suggests this is FAKE NEWS! Sad!

Here's the actual route confirmed so far:

Saturday 7th July, Stage 1: Noirmoutier-en-l'Ile - Fontenay-le-Comte, 195 km
Sunday 8th July, Stage 2: Mouilleron-Saint Germain - La Roche-sur-Yon, 185 km
Monday 9th July, Stage 3: Cholet - Cholet, 35 km (TTT)
Tuesday 10th July, Stage 4: La Baule - TBC

Source: http://www.cyclist.co.uk/news/1755/tour-de-france-route-live-tv-guide-startlist-stage-by-stage

Confirmed by whom? I'd be very surprised if they include a team time trial.

Eurgh, TTT

What's wrong with a good TTT?

I love a TTT, it's a thing of beauty.

They're so rare?

Well it's on the Tour website so that's good enough for me:
http://www.letour.fr/le-tour/2017/us/grand-depart-2018.html

CHOLET > CHOLET
35 KM Team time-trial

Elected by daily newspaper L’Équipe “Most sporting town in France” on three occasions (1972, 2007 and 2014), Cholet deserves to welcome an athletic and esthetic discipline of such high level. The course of the team time-trial with a start and finish in the city center indeed offers all the aspects so that the most well prepared teams, the most meticulous ones, make the best of the day. In a first part, there will be several changes in pace that will trouble the teams in their quest for fluidity and consistency. Eventually in the last quarter of the course, a tough 800m climb will certainly become a nightmare for squads that might not have a solid enough rooster, or that might have opted for a slightly too risky strategic bet!

35km TTT as Cyclist reported.

first stage arrival town is my hometown.
If anyone wants a place to crash (put up a tent) :)

TTT could play into the hands of a 2 pronged Yates' quest for yellow? Hardly plays into the hands of the French though.

Blimey, normally they keep details like that under wraps. Thanks for clarifying, I wasn't doubting you, just the source as you see a lot of rumours and speculation that turns out to be false.

They are going to have to make the rest of the route very Sky unfriendly if they don't want them to dominate again.

What are you thinking of as Sky unfriendly? Moving the race to May in Italy initially springs to mind..

Minimal individual time trials, if any, and no mountain top finishes. Lots of medium mountain stages on roads rarely used by the Tour.