Tour de France 2021

Exactly. He would have the Merckx record by now without EB.

Or his crash in Harrogate or being pushed into the barriers by Sagan… it’s been bloody tough for him.

Just heard his voicemail reply to Prudhomme welcome message, where he sounded beyond happy to be able to come back to the race.

I think it says a lot about him that he would make an effort to call back in such a heartfelt way.

Can we get an interview of @MarcosCavendish ? Maybe a celebratory highroad pic ?

If Ewan wants to establish himself as the top sprinter of the current era, he shouldn't have crashed himself out.

Ewan just seems to get in the way half the time, like Bryan Coquard who is actually racing believe it or not. As has been said up thread, I miss Kittel. What’s happened to Gaviria? I think he had Covid twice. He seemed to be a contender at one point. Sagan seems long for today at 16. Dan Martin at 50/1 🤔

Edit: not hard enough

I wonder if any GC teams will look at today's stage and try and race it like a classic to isolate Pogacar in the finale.

Also not convinced the break away will succeed as won't MVDP want Alpecin to ride for him for the win today?

He probably wants a little break before the mountain stages, and I'm sure the rest of the peloton wouldn't mind an easier day.

If a good break gets away with no GC threat that would suit Alpecin Fenix well I would have thought.

How far is MVDP going to stay into the race? I suspect he might be gone after the first rest day.

He’s got a stage win and is in yellow (which he’ll probably lose tomorrow). One part of me thinks it’s ‘mission complete’ for him and they’ll let the break go. The other part of me says, he’ll want to nick a final win before he bows out.

Van Moer is my pick from the break at 125/1.

If he’s not completing it, which it seems highly likely that he won’t, then he’ll probably leave before the first proper mountain stage(s) – tonight or rest day. I suspect he’ll walk into a side table, injuring his knee at the hotel. It’ll be a great shame.

It’d be refreshing if they were straight about it.

What’s the deal with cavendish, old man just gets a legs transplant?

I think like @dubtap said the Epstein Barr is a huge factor. A bad viral illness - especially left undiagnosed - can have a long tail. I reckon he's just fit and well again. A lot of people seem to have underestimated the potential effect of that.

And if he's happy in his team and enjoying it as he says, I'm sure that does make a big difference.

What’s happened to Gaviria?

He's just retired I think. Escobar never managed to get him.

Seriously though he did the Giro and apparently the Tour was never on the cards, but his Giro performance was below middling.
https://colombia.as.com/colombia/2021/06/25/masdeporte/1624623329_434636.html

Don't understand why the analogy of drag racing gets used when talking about sprints, it's nothing like drag racing. Smart racing from Cavendish meant he didn't have to be the fastest.

He did have to be the fastest, but he didn’t need to expend as much energy or deliver as much power.

The point is that it’s not all about top speed for Cav and probably wasn’t even when he was winning stages for fun. The timing of his acceleration is what sets him apart.

I’d like to have seen him go up against Ewan but I’m also glad he’s got a clear tilt at the record.

You could tell from his cadence and position that he had it before he did.

I think you're right, right now Caleb is pretty special. I don't think we'd be having the Cav story we're having now if Caleb was still in the race.

But you can only race against who's still left.

In other interesting observations, did you know water is wet?

what are the odds for him in paris, pretty high huh ?
is there another sprint stage in between, or is he already making plans for next year ?

There are a few

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Kind of dissapointed that the ITV coverage doesn't start until 2 today.

thanks, these will be more exciting to watch than your average sprint stage

Not according to LeTourData.

With @ballero_94 & @MichaelMorkov leading @MarkCavendish inside the final km, @deceuninck_qst delivered another masterclass in the sprint 💯#TDF2021 #TDFdata pic.twitter.com/bDaquTQRNo

— letourdata (@letourdata) July 1, 2021

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I see what you mean. Good illustration. Depends on distances chosen for the analysis.

"Fastest" doesn't mean just top speed but also how long they can stay there. A few years ago the Tour had some really good sprint breakdown graphics for each sprinters speed x time. I remember Kittel having the highest top end but couldn't keep it for as long as others.