Tour de France 2021

Hasn’t Cavendish since about 2015 mostly been about using his acceleration over pure watts?

He’s the wiliest of all of them these days and has Morkov dropping him off to perfection. Imagine if he breaks the records on the champs elysees this year.

with the news above about his improved sprint endurance, I'm now predicting ARE CAV will unleash a full 27.2km sprint to take the stage today. I give him three sprockets

He’s got to get through the Alps and the Pyrenees first. That wasn’t a given when he was in his prime.

Don't write off Greipel...

He hasn’t won a GT stage for 4 years. I can’t see that changing now.

They’re comparing against 2015 Cavendish, which was peak Kittel, Greipel, Sagan etc era.

Sprint chains were very well developed then. To be fair, sprint trains in its 2010 form doesn’t show up as it’s much more messy, due to more players.

You're right. I think 2010 in my head feels like it was about 3-4 years ago. It was, wasn't it?

There's a decent documentary to be made about the evolution of sprint trains in the last 15 years. It's gone from the HTC model of using the whole team to deliver the sprinter to the front of the pack at 200 metres to go, to having a three rider train that doesn't hit the front until 700 metres to go at the earliest.

Yesterday's stage was interesting in that respect, as none of the sprint teams wanted to pull back Van Moer, and the GC teams were quite happy to leave him out front, so he was actually increasing his advantage in the final 10 kms.

Are Cav out there vandalising historical monuments #woke

Not often you see him lost for words:

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

Are Cav out there vandalising historical monuments

Great, now every lad on a stag is going to think winning a TdF stage gives him the right to update monuments to himself. Smfh. (Not at you, Dubtap)

MVDP new €3,800.00 tubeless.

https://m.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20210629_96872429?utm_source=t

Wheelset.

ARE CAV

I’m literally buying laminate kitchen flooring this afternoon.

Gotta say, I do like the timing of this TT. It feels like the right day for it, given the carnage and excitement the first 4 stages have provided.

I'm saying Asgreen for the stage, Alaphilippe back in yellow narrowly from MVDP, Thomas and Roglic to lose big time and Pogacar in the GC driving seat by COP.

I'd suggest the Quickstep Livyn LVT for the kitchen.

Dan Bigham just said Wiggins 'made time trials important in Grand Tours'. Has he never heard of Indurain?

Or Anquetil for that matter.

I don’t know if other stage winners/sprinters are like this, but the thing I love about Cavendish is how quick he is to praise his team mates for getting him to a position where he can do what he does, and how genuine that praise is.
It never seems to be about what he’s done or how he’s done it, more how he couldn’t do it without this riders help, or the teams help, or how hard they’ve worked and he couldn’t let them down.

One of the nicest things about Cav iis that he's not always been like that and has become a more gracious person as he grew up and gained more experience.

In many sports, a competitor who was a bit of a cunt in the past is always tarred with the bit of a cunt brush. Cav has become more liked and endearing as his career progressed. Not a common thing in the world of sport imho.

Is anyone else gutted that the coverage on ITV starts at 2 and not 1 today, I understand why (TT) but now i need to find another hour of work to do :(

Anquitil

Qui?

Raining now. Can’t see Roglic or Thomas wanting to take a lot of risks on a wet circuit.

You should be faster in the wet, and today’s course is not very technical at all.

It’s also two hours until they start.