Most boring sport ever cycling wrote:
the final sprint! wrote:And the peloton catching the breakaway guy in the final 400m? Thrilling. You had to feel for the breakaway guy.
Not thrilling at all ~ just freaking stupid.
A bunch of gay guys, decked out, riding around patting each other on their butts.
Don't worry, some people are just too simple to appreciate certain sports.
pop_pop!_v2.2.1 wrote:
i chose D2 wrote:If anything, the race has become more exciting.
99% of the modern editions come down to one or two days where there's a huge ramp test. Everyone knows who/how TTs will go, so watch two days of 26 and you've seen the whole show. You even know which days are the huge ramp tests.
TvG: will fall apart. Always does.
Froome is guaranteed a win baring disaster. ASO manufactured one 7x win streak, they can manufacture another.
Rolland: Entertaining, but no hope.
Thomas should podium. His transition to grand tour podium is as suspicious as Froome. So, whatever.
Quintana should podium.
i chose D2 wrote:
Also, what happened to the German sprinters?
They are there in the finale. That's as good as it gets if they don't win. It's early too. Let's see how hot the Manxman's sprint is in the third week.
You haven't seen the whole show. Maybe the battle for GC, but not the show. Either you don't watch much bike racing, or just outright have no appreciation for all the other days to make a statement like that.
Each flat stage is a different sprint contest, with each one being quite different due to finishes, corners, positioning in the moment, etc. Granted you only need to watch the last 15 minutes of the typical flat stage to get everything worth seeing, but those still have their merit.
Hilly stages are often the most interesting of all the days. Not hard enough for a GC punchup, but varied enough to get some people trying moves at the end.
Disagree as well about the 1-2 "ramp stages" (I assume you mean the especially brutal summit finishes?) deciding everything. Obviously, they can be significant. But looking back we can see last year that stage 9 was only decisive because Quintana raced stupidly on stage 2. If he hadn't lost that time, stage 9 would have been anything but decisive. In 2014 the only decisive factor was that Nibali was ridiculously better than all of his remaining competition. 2013 you could argue Ventoux was decisive, but Froome was pretty dominant that whole Tour. He built on his lead almost every day, and only gained 30s on Quintana on Ventoux. 2012, no ramp issues causing massive separation.
So looking back the last 4 editions I can't think of a single tour that was decided by a very difficult HC summit finish, aside from the possible exception of 2013 Ventoux, but even that would be a stretch in my book.
As for GC stuff:
TJVG: Probably 5th-8th. Strong, but not at the level of the top names and has consistency issues. Probably in a respectable spot until he has a bad day and isn't.
Rolland: Shouldn't even be in this conversation
Aru: Maybe will podium, but my sense is he is a little overhyped. He looks pretty good on his best days, but doesn't seem to deliver that consistently.
Pinot: His TTing seems to be much better. Doubt he can challenge in the mountains with the top guns, but could podium if he can keep it together.
Thomas: Hasn't looked that great and is working for Froome. Top 5 would be an excellent result for him. He's on a similar, but slightly weaker level to someone like Porte, but working for Froome will take it's toll. Podium contender leading his own team.
Porte: At the start I thought he might be the most likely candidate with Alberto to fight for third. He's quite good, but always seems to either get horrible luck or fall apart in 3 week events. He's not that far off the level of Froome and Quintana, but not good enough to beat them either...and of course at 1:45 down has no GC shot unless both crash.
Contador: Looked like he might be able to play with Froome/Quintana, but with the crashes, like Porte he is out of the jersey running unless both of the top favorite suffer mishaps. If his injuries are superficial/minimal he still has a chance to play for podium and/or a stage win or two. If they are much worse than letting on he is going to lose huge time this weekend.
Quintana: Good so far. Last year was really boneheaded by him and cost him victory. He was vastly better than Froome in the mountains. The difference this year is that Froome has some TTs to play with, which could be Quintana's death knell. There are indications his TTing is continuing to improve, but if Froome puts 2-3 minutes into him in the first ITT that could end his chances.
Froome: The favorite, especially with his team. The idea that he is guaranteed to win is one of the most ridiculous things I've read all week however. Quintana is an extremely serious threat to Froome and is without question the better of the two in the mountains. If Froome doesn't deliver an excellent ITT he will likely lose the tour to Quintana.
Alex Zulle wrote:
Alberto Contador and Richie Porte have already lost time to favorite Chris Froome (Kenyan).
Quintana will give a spirited effort in the Mountains.
Nothing to see here. Save your recording space for Rio.
How is it over? The two most prominent contenders as still tied. It's a little like saying the WC/Olympic 400m is over if Makwala, Santos, and Niekerk were to be out.
Yft wrote:
pop_pop!_v2.2.1 wrote:99% of the modern editions come down to one or two days where there's a huge ramp test. Everyone knows who/how TTs will go, so watch two days of 26 and you've seen the whole show. You even know which days are the huge ramp tests.
TvG: will fall apart. Always does.
Froome is guaranteed a win baring disaster. ASO manufactured one 7x win streak, they can manufacture another.
Rolland: Entertaining, but no hope.
Thomas should podium. His transition to grand tour podium is as suspicious as Froome. So, whatever.
Quintana should podium.
They are there in the finale. That's as good as it gets if they don't win. It's early too. Let's see how hot the Manxman's sprint is in the third week.
Same thing when People call Porte a contender-no way, even without that mechanical.
I think he will surprise you. He wasn't a yellow jersey contender, but once you get past Froome/Quintana, then Porte is best of the rest, with the possible exception of Contador. I still give Porte a chance at podium, even with his loss.
More like saying the 400m is over only 50m into the race. A lot can still happen.
AW Pharmacy wrote:
More like saying the 400m is over only 50m into the race. A lot can still happen.
Some level of this too, without a doubt. However, just like proposed hypothetical 400, it's very unlikely to have a non Merrit/Kirani winner barring some accident/injury. Which, admittedly, is the kind of thing that can happen in both sprinting and bike racing.
Real Le Tour has not even started yet. The mountains and dumb luck can change one's course in an instant. They are probably all doping, but damn those guys leave it all out there. I'm glued.
...and of course at 1:45 down has no GC shot unless both crash.
If he were a contender, 1:45 could be overcome. Since he can't, he wasn't really that much of a contender, right. Would Pantani, Lemond or Indurain have no shot down 1:45 this early? No way! They'd make up that time like a fork through butter.
porte is overrated then wrote:
...and of course at 1:45 down has no GC shot unless both crash.
If he were a contender, 1:45 could be overcome. Since he can't, he wasn't really that much of a contender, right. Would Pantani, Lemond or Indurain have no shot down 1:45 this early? No way! They'd make up that time like a fork through butter.
Absolutely. He isn't that much of a contender for yellow. He hasn't shown anything to make me believe he is at the level of Froome/Quintana.
I do think he is a podium contender though, and will make up much of that 1:45 on all but the two major favorites.
Porte isn't overrated as far as I can tell. I don't see many people suggesting he is going to take down Froome. If anything he seems underrated as most of the conversations and mentions I see suggest he is more at the level of a TJVG, Bardet, Rodriguez, or Pinot.
A bit dramatic today, might have been staged for the sake of television.
Mr Mapei wrote:
A bit dramatic today, might have been staged for the sake of television.
Ok, what the hell happened with he getting his time back after a crash caused by a motorcycle. Gentlemen rules to slow down and let him catch hell no everybody is out for themselves.
Then he starts to run without a bike, a clear violation go the rules, black and white on camera and no penalty? Yes he was running up the mountain bike less!There is no excuse for this.
This sport lives in corruption and made up excuses.
What do they do? Give him his time back as nothing had happened.
the final sprint! wrote:
And the peloton catching the breakaway guy in the final 400m? Thrilling. You had to feel for the breakaway guy.
Most boring sport ever cycling wrote:
Not thrilling at all ~ just freaking stupid.
A bunch of gay guys, decked out, riding around patting each other on their butts.
Just hang with the group for 5 hours, pick up the pace the last 10 minutes, still in the group, then do a short psychopathic sprint at the end, STILL IN THE GROUP.
Maybe not drugs but still wrote:
Mr Mapei wrote:A bit dramatic today, might have been staged for the sake of television.
Ok, what the hell happened with he getting his time back after a crash caused by a motorcycle. Gentlemen rules to slow down and let him catch hell no everybody is out for themselves.
Then he starts to run without a bike, a clear violation go the rules, black and white on camera and no penalty? Yes he was running up the mountain bike less!There is no excuse for this.
This sport lives in corruption and made up excuses.
What do they do? Give him his time back as nothing had happened.
They probably ruled that he gained no advantage by running up the road, kind of like Armstrong being forced off the road and going cross country on that switchback. Lance left the course and did not re-enter where he left, but he gained no advantage by doing so.
There are rules in place about crashes in the final 3000m. This crash was caused by two moto bikes. The one in front stopped quick or crashed into a fan. The second moto crashed into Froome ruining his bike. So Froome's crash was caused by race officials. Whenever there's a crash in the final 3000m, race officials meet and decide how to render a verdict for the sake of fairness to all. That's standard procedure. It used to be only crashes in the final 1000m, but a few years ago, they extended it out to 3000m due to the crazy tight turns in some of those small French towns hosting the finish.
They had to rule for Yates on stage 7 when Yates crashed due to race negligence when that inflatable 1k marker collapsed when a fan unplugged it.
If anything, they should refund Froome his 200 euros for fining him for punching a fan earlier in the race.