Tour de France 2021! (spoilers)

:roll_eyes:
Yawn.

Nopeā€¦but apparently you have missed the Jiffy Bag incident, the TUE scandals, Froomeā€™s salbutamol positive, the Freeman case, the Parlimentary investigation and report, etc.

1 Like

Ineos Grenadiers speed up at the head of the peloton, possibly for forcing Pogacar to retain the yellow jerseyā€¦

From TdF official live commentary. Can someone explain the reasoning behind it please?

The guy in the yellow jersey has interviews after each stage. Often he arrives 1-2 hours later in the hotel than the rest of the team.
Plus there are certain expectations for the yellow jersey team.
All of which can weaken the yellow jersey wearer and his team.

6 Likes

Iā€™m surprised that this unsubstantiated doping talk is allowed to go on and on here.

Pog has no rivals here. Rog crashed out. Bernal not there. Thomas crashed and on the downside of his career. Froome aged out. Quintana no where near his peak. The same with Nibali. Carapaz - some good results but never in the league of the top GC riders.

I donā€™t see Pogā€™s performance as any different than those of Hinault or Lemond or Fignon except Pog has no rivals. Lemond would have crushed Hinault and everybody else if the team had been riding for him. Lemond would have crushed it by minutes in '89 or '90 if Fignon had crashed out and if the known dopers werenā€™t in the top 10.

This is far different between the slug-fest in the Armstrong era with Armstrong, Pantani, Mayo, Ullrich, etc. slugging it out climb after climb.

13 Likes

Iā€™ve read that some riders gain weight as the nutritionist over feed them to keep them healthy.

This was a nice thread, but has totally regressed into hypotheticals, accusations based on no evidence, etc.

6 Likes

Yeah itĀ“s a bit sad that people donĀ“t seem to be interested in the race all that much.

3 Likes

With there not being any competition for GC anymore, itā€™s somewhat understandable.

Would likely make sense to open a Tour de France - Gossip topic.
I understand not everyone being happy with the speculations and allegations.

Itā€™s competitive eating with a side dish of a bike ride!

5 Likes

Wonder why Ineos is helping UAE so much. Sit on Pogā€™s wheel and make him chase Oā€™Connor, methinks.

And despite all those vast resources and the threat of jail time for perjury, they couldnā€™t find any evidence of anything. Good grief, they couldnā€™t find a solitary former domestique or soigneur with an axe to grind or a story to sellā€¦

1 Like

They were probably just trying to get Carapaz on the podium. Although he seems a bit dusted at this stage. I donĀ“t think Pog actually planned to attack today. He was just chasing Carapaz and then was probably thinking: ĀØWell IĀ“m out here nowā€¦ might as wellĀØ

A bummer all the other favourites crashed out. With a team this weak, would have been interesting to see how Pog would fend off attacks form multiple riders from multiple teams. CanĀ“t chase them allā€¦ but now there isnĀ“t anybody.

1 Like

The race seems open, which is making it more enjoyable as a spectator.
If Pog holds on to win the Tour, at least it wonā€™t be from being the anointed on a ā€œdominant teamā€.

1 Like

3 Likes

Can we have a separate tdf doping discussion thread and leave this thread to actual discussion of the racing? Not to diminish the seriousness of the issue but these arguments are always circular and itā€™s the same every year. At least keep them in one place.

23 Likes

Rigo in 3rd :colombia::colombia::colombia::colombia:

2 Likes
5 Likes

Rightā€¦.the team doctor of Sky / Ineos was convicted of ordering steroids to give to riders without any evidence.

Iā€™m sorry, but your post is just willful ignorance.

1 Like

image

3 Likes

Iā€™m probably in a group of 1 here, but I was just looking at another MVP/Poulidor story, and I really wish Alepecin would wear the yellow and purple all the time. It looked great.

Also, while Iā€™m not a fan of the Duck jersey or the measurements on the EF jerseys this year, I do love how they are so easy to identify in the peloton.

I wish more teams would stretch a bit with original kit ideas. Even though they wore black, for example, the 2019 Direct Energie ā€œcirclesā€ made them easily identifiable.

6 Likes