Pro-cycling thread

I also suspect the current time bonus structure has some bearing on this.

It's neither, I think. The way to win the KoM jersey historically was to go on long range attacks in the mountain stages and win as many points as possible, but in recent editions riders who could win it just don't seem to be interested in trying to. Which means the GC riders win it because they consistently score points on the final climb of each mountain stage.

Take this year as an example, no one seems to be targeting the KoM jersey bar Jonas Abrahamson, who mopped up the points in the early stages and established a lead. He's not a climber so once the race arrived in the Pyrenees, he dropped down the rankings. Given how crap a Tour some of the French teams are having, like Groupama-FDJ and Decathlon-AG2R, you'd think they'd be actively trying to win it to get some much needed exposure for their sponsors.

The breakaway is going weird. The four presenters are in some kind of fake bus DS improv theatre sketch and two of them are sitting down backs to the camera asking that short brickshithouse aussie guy pre-prepared questions? As much as it pains me to say I'm sort of pining for the days when it was just orla and wiggo on separate sofas having an awks chat all dressed up for a big night out at the slug & lettuce

Coincidentally wiggo actually works there now

Sleeping in the back of the digital bus :(

@andyp Campanaerts up the road with 10km to go....

yaaassssss. fucking delighted. absolute lad

reposting this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQWvJzrS5Gg

I, for one, didn't think he could outfox Kwiatkowski...

I thought you would be the first to post!

fuck yessss V!

Peloton still have 10 kms to go.

played it perfectly, and had the best legs too, I think

Ahhh this is the tour that keeps on giving

9 weeks at altitude with a new child.

There's a beautiful moment in that video I linked where he talks about his natural talent being following a training plan perfectly. Incredible to see it all come off.

ah man vics interview... think somebody is chopping onions here.

If anyone hasn't seen it, it's on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEJneUH4-ko&ab_channel=EurosportCycling

I watched that the first time you posted, really enjoyed it
So chuffed for him that he got the stage today
You think it's bigger than getting the hour record?

We were going for Kwiato but that was a well played and well deserved win (everybody loves a TTer sprint win)

You think it's bigger than getting the hour record?

Yes.

Everyone knows The Tour. Hour records are basically for cycling fans only.

Wooohooo ! - well done Victor - in work, missed it

Seconds after posting thats exactly what I thought
The confession in his post race interview about pretending how tired he was to avoid being on the front so much, brilliant.
Thats racing!

Campenaerts should be given some stripy bibs and permission to not wear a jersey tomorrow. The bunch’s Victorian strongman finally gets a tour stage on his palmares

If more of the current pros revealed their training details maybe there'd be fewer comparisons with historical performances and less suspicion about doping?

I’ve been away bike packing, what stages of the tour should I watch to catch up. I think the last stage I saw was Cav’s 35th stage win.

As a minimum I'd watch Stage 9 (the gravel stage), stage 11, both stages in the Pyrenees, and yesterday's stage. For stages 10, 12, 13 and 16, just watching the last ten kms is probably enough.