Tour De France 2020

Stor.

Great racing at the end.

Loved Sunweb just sending off attack after attack.

Final 10km was ace!

😆

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/sunweb-agree-to-release-michael-matthews-from-contract-at-the-end-of-this-season/

^Rep.

ITV just showed Sunweb's results from yesterday.

They all finished within a couple of minutes of each other, 28-31 minutes down. Little schemers.

I lol'd.

I have to say, I was so wrong about Sunweb's team selection and owe them an apology. They've been superb most days and have really animated the race and two stage wins is a worthy reward.

I liked when they tried to put Cees Bol in the break

Also props to Max Walscheid mentioned on the commentary as being the heaviest TDF rider this year at 92kg

Wow, what a porker (in cycling terms - not meaning to be rude to anyone).
Loved today's stage, Bora steaming Bennet out of it, Alaphilippe having a little go (just wish he had it in the tank to make one stick), Bernal had a little dart (that was never going anywhere), and Sunwebs general strategy overall just makes for fantastic racing/viewing.

Hopefully the race isn’t a victim of this needing to be addressed.

http://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-france-reports-highest-number-of-daily-covid-cases-since-pandemic-began-12070399

Didn’t know this, so Jonas Kochs is even drier humor.

https://www.sportschau.de/tourdefrance/video-deutsche-debuetanten---abenteuer-tour-de-france--100.html

Walscheid momentarily made me feel better about my own weight - until I saw that he is basically 2m tall.

Whenever the commentators mention Kenny Elissonde all I think of is

https://youtu.be/MMHNyNg6Ybw

A friend of mine (knowledgeable on cycling, not prone to doping hysteria, definitely not an Ineos fanboy) has raised some doubts about Roglic and Pogacar and just how dominant they have seemed, especially on climbs that may have been better suited to Colombians, and despite Bernal's "great numbers" (/Trump).

His arguments are:

1. Bernal is an excellent rider but was still getting distanced with some ease
   
2. Overall higher VAM/faster climbing than in previous years (I haven't checked this)
   
3. Coronavirus providing possible lack of testing
   
4. The probability of a relatively small country without a huge cycling history producing two world-class GC contenders at the same time
   
5. Roglic not really looking like a super-lanky skellington like previous riders who've dominated the Tour.
   
   

I replied:

1. Roglic and Pogacar also have form as superb riders
   
2. A long rest rather than riders and support trains with classics/Giro in their legs
   
3. Coronavirus also provided massively varying experiences for the riders - so differing form now is also expected
   
4. Slovenia has mountains. Also Uruguay in World Cup 2010, Wales and Iceland in Euro 2016
   
5. He's lighter (65kg) than Dumoulin (69kg) and Thomas (71kg)
   
   

I don't think he's fully convinced that its dodgy, and I don't think I'm fully convinced that it's not.

Is it?

Top level GC contenders from the UK are fairly recent too.
Froome also has come from nowhere, not part of the British Cycling machine.

Roglic’s weight, TT ability and kick make him extremely well suited to the more ‘exciting’ stage design. As with Pogocar. Also his mental/training strength appears excellent, more so than Thomas for example.

Sagan is a phenom, not many other top level Slovakian cyclists in the pro peleton.

Can you do this tho?

https://youtu.be/NrvuoIDuLKc

I think it’s totally rational to ask questions of any winning riders. The sport has historically been dominated by dopers. Nobody should be surprised or offended - suspicion is baked-in to any achievements. That will only fade with time.

I don’t think it’s necessarily true that Covid meant bypassing anti-doping. SLOADA appear to have continued testing. Riders may even have been easier to keep track of.

Bullshit on the 2800w.

2700w looks like this:

1 Attachment

https://www.wielerflits.nl/nieuws/opinie-raymond-kerckhoffs-het-gelijk-en-ongelijk-van-team-sunweb/

In words of Roglic - we are a small country of only 2 million...but we are all world class athletes.

To name just few current ones in different sports and to make it easier, have not included any winter sports, incl. ski jumping which are by a mile most productive in producing world class champs:
Luka Doncic
Goran Dragic
Anze Kopitar
Jan Oblak
Janja Garnbret

Edit: Pogacar & Roglic are just two of current Slo cyclists, there is a pool of them coming upstream due to increased popularity of the sport in the country. Covid has just accelerated this.

The captains of the Welsh rugby union, league, and football teams and the TdF winner all went to the same school. So what's that about hmmmmm

Welsh sports come with captions for the hard of understanding?

You say exploded from nowhere, but wasn’t Froome riding for years on crappy teams/equipment busy getting noticed, then really started taking off when he moved to a proper pro setup? (Though even then it took him several years to ramp up to TdF-winning form)

Much is reliant on the biological passport, so anyone who has mysterious upticks mid-career should create red flags. I’d be more worried about newcomers who set the passport at a high level.

That said, Jumbo-Visma have already been called out on Ketone use, so I guess we’ll see in time if that’s proven/ruled to be performance-enhancing.

ha!