Tour De France 2018

And I thought hippy was riding in the US at the moment.

Feel sorry for the guy,
but,
it is Bardet we all want to take part,
just so the ITV4 coverage can play the inevitable 'On a Ragga Tip' as the outro music on the stage where he shines.

First 3 stages is the area where i am from, shout if you need advice on locations or anything

Oh right, that’s cool. You had 2nd dibs on the G-One’s I’m selling. The 1st has fallen through, maybe I can drop them off!

ze roadbook pdf is here:

https://t.co/hUjZTN22xl

Who's winning?

http://www.cyclingnews.com/tour-de-france/stage-17/

Formula 1-like start organised on a grid according to the overall ranking

huh?

Weird. Can't really envisage how this will work.
Could lead to clipping in hilarity, as presume they will be from a standing start!?

It’s not quite clear how it’ll work but the concept is interesting - the top 20 on GC will be gridded, then the rest, but it’s the short stage and goes straight up the Peyresourde, so a team with numbers in the top 20 could make it interesting.

I’m going to this stage, so have done a fair bit of reading to try to understand it.

As best I can tell, there will be three groups: top 20 GC, next and last. The top 20 will be on the grid mentioned above.

Standing start or rolling? How far are the groups apart? What numbers in each group? No f... idea.

The way this plays out in my mind is, at this stage of the tour, time gaps will be significant enough to have the GC guys racing for podium/position. So the guys at the pointy end may wait for their cavalry; but if someone goes, whoever is in front of them has to go and so on. And then who is going to back themselves from 65km out over 3 cols?

So the question is:
What gap will allow someone to swing from the fences?

Katusha still think Zakarin is a GC hope so no Nathan Haas

He did finish third, behind the two best active GT riders of this era, in his last GT.

The Dimension Data Tour team announcement video is great.

Arguably better than the team, but that’s being churlish.

I hope that's how they actually found out. Cav get on your bike.

The Dimension Data Tour team announcement video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIr0ACRmA8g
link for completeness

No Steve Cummings? Putting all the eggs in the sprint basket.

He was interviewed at the end of the Giro for ITV4 and said that he had some medical issues that needed sorting of which the subtext was 'I'm not riding the Tour, hopefully the Vuelta'.

He didn't defend his National TT, so thought there might be something going on.

http://media.eurosport.com/pressR/name/Eurosport_signs_Sir_Bradley_Wiggins_for_exclusive_Tour_de_France_digital_series/id/6989/folder/Press%20Releases/folderId/22/;jsessionid=B333297BA4E7EAF6F31DC52A8EA73960.prem1

old Bradders doesn't look too happy about it

A man who looks like he's being delivered bad news on an hourly basis.

ASO have made their move. http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/aso-try-to-block-chris-froome-from-racing-tour-de-france/

Now in 3 threads!

The I Paper quoting comedy Twitter accounts

No Bouhanni for TDF confirmed