Tour de France 2021

Qui?

... enquête-t-il ...

Comment of death, considering Roglic & Thomas’ affinity with tarmac.

He’s the wiliest of all of them these days

I’ve watched the last 10 seconds of the sprint again and again, and Cav’s tactical movement was absolutely perfect. Just before the final curve he was in line with Philipsen, barely starting to pull ahead and leaving enough space for Bouhanni to move his front wheel between them, thereby blocking Philipsen from edging Cav to the side. Then he cut right towards Philipsen, I think, to jostle him or crowd him against the barrier because Philipsen stopped pedalling and lost 2nd place if not the race (seems the wall wasn’t an even curve but c’est la vie).

Cav seemed more powerful at the end but those moves really showed a lifetime of embodied practice and honed instinct, really excellent stuff.

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He is a BIG hugger!

Van Aert to feature surely? Really intrigued how MVDP will go. His solo breaks makes me think he should be good but if he hasn't honed his position or practiced much in it might be wasting all that power pushing those shoulders into the wind. At least he's motivated.

really!
I seem to always remember him genuinely thanking his team mates and the team.

DAS

looks pretty technical when theres motos to dodge on the 90 degree wet AF corners.

that is right up there with the commentators or studio lap dogs who insist that this years Wimbledon / Ashes / Lions tour / cup final / insert whatever they are currently screening is the 'best ever'

Proof, if proof be needed, that Cav is Jesus.

Nice to his teammates perhaps, but a bit of a twat in general.

What is more amazing is the roundabout just before the sprint that he someone how squeezed though a non existent gap and stayed upright.

good analysis.

I was impressed at how he maintained his speed while dodging a rapidly slowing Van Moer even though he was either buffeted or at the least had to interrupt his pedalling.

would you prefer it if he was a bland, media trained robot who added nothing to the sport?

Not really, but I would like it if he was a bit nicer/easier guy to work with.

^ Do tell ...

Did he win the stage with a hole in this driveside chainstay?

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Not sure if that's an argument for or against disc brakes on TT bikes.

He always thanked Renshaw.

Yup, as @villa-ru it was more that he was ok with his team but not great with the other riders. That's the way I understand it.

That said, I do think that his team thanking is more sincere now days than it used to be. Could be wrong though.

My point still stands, Cav has gone from being a bit of a cock to being well liked. It's nice to see.

"Well liked" was a turn of phrase that was often used in alpine ski racing in the past to refer to a skier who wasn't very good at skiing. The idea was that if you were a challenger for race wins then people wouldn't be pally with you.

Obviously that was just a shitty convention started by commentators and no actual truth to it in terms of other skiers not liking you because you are a challenger to them. I suppose from the commentary seats if you couldn't say something nice about their skiing then you might as well say something nice about the person.

Public enemy number one is in custody: https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/police-find-and-arrest-spectator-who-caused-mass-tour-de-france-crash/

I like the phrasing of the charge:

"involuntary injury caused by a lack of prudence"

Not sure if riders and teams suing the lady is going to have any sort of positive effect though.

How'd you reach that conclusion?

Soler has already hinted he could look to sue the spectator.

I thought Soler's injuries were sustained during the second crash, not Opi-Omi? Or have I got that completely wrong?

Riders suing spectators does not set a good precedent but if Soler did end up breaking both his arms because of Opi-Omi then you can see where Soler is coming from.