Cycling thread

[Bruce Wayne]

It wasn't too bad. A few motorbikes and the odd car. As I was scoffing a strudel at the top, about 20 sports cars turned up in the car park. Glad I missed that. There's a toll booth around a third of the way up, so that probably keeps traffic down (it's free for bikes).

I'm aiming to do both sides of the Timmelsjoch tomorrow. I expect that to be a lot busier.

The two sides of the Timmelsjoch neatly encapsulate the two countries. The Austrian side is wide, well engineered roads. The Italian side is like spaghetti dropped on the mountain. I think over 40 switchbacks, half a dozen tunnels, and roads a bit like a farm track.

 

[Rita_Poon]

Tour starts today, opening in Lille.

Fill your boots.

 

[jazzy]

Tour starts today, opening in Lille.

Fill your boots.

Unless he falls off we already know the winner.

 

[davek]

Tour starts today, opening in Lille.

Fill your boots.

Please no Pogacar procession.

I'm hoping that Vingegaard can take him into the final week at least and mount some attacks in the high mountains.

From what I can make out though the tour directors have made this year's course to suit Pogacar with a lot of smaller ascents.

Injuries notwithstanding it'll be at best a private duel between those two. I dont believe in Evenepoel; there's a lot of hype around him but he's nowhere near a contender.

Lipowitz can climb and he might be a dark horse to challenge.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

The two sides of the Timmelsjoch neatly encapsulate the two countries. The Austrian side is wide, well engineered roads. The Italian side is like spaghetti dropped on the mountain. I think over 40 switchbacks, half a dozen tunnels, and roads a bit like a farm track.

The Austrian side in the morning was actually lovely. My legs were fresh, the views were spectacular, and it was relatively quiet. The Italian side had none of that. A thick mist descended so you could barely see 10m in front of you, and it was a stream of motorbikes using it as a race track. And my legs were [Poor language removed], so I was crawling up the bloody thing.

 

[davids]

Interesting sprint there.

 

[TheWinslowBoy]

Interesting sprint there.

I presume you posted that about the insane sprint for a single KOM point.

I never want to see a crash (unless it involves Moscon) but that was undeniably hilarious.

 

[Rita_Poon]

Phil Liggett is on TdF highlights on itv4 in 11 minutes.

 

[Rita_Poon]

Back to 94 for Boardman, "you handled it like a champion".

 

[Rita_Poon]

That's quite enough of the Carpenters.

 

[Rita_Poon]

good sprint, beat poggers.

 

[Rita_Poon]

It speaks for Cavendish's successes that the Tour de France have invited him to be an ambassador for the entire event this year.

 

[FrenchDarrenBent]

Please no Pogacar procession.

I'm hoping that Vingegaard can take him into the final week at least and mount some attacks in the high mountains.

From what I can make out though the tour directors have made this year's course to suit Pogacar with a lot of smaller ascents.

Injuries notwithstanding it'll be at best a private duel between those two. I dont believe in Evenepoel; there's a lot of hype around him but he's nowhere near a contender.

Lipowitz can climb and he might be a dark horse to challenge.

Any tdf will be easy peasy if you can push 7kg/w for an hour.
Dont get your hopes up.

 

[Rita_Poon]

That's a shocker that. That's really hurt him. There'll be some words and probably more in a bit. Stupid and downright dangerous.

 

[Black Belt Jones]

Such a mangled finale yesterday overshadowed a world class sprint from Merlier - came from way back, took Milan's wheel with ease and then beat him straight up. No one really in his league atm in terms of pure sprinting skill and speed.

Much punchier profile today - nothing big but many short sharp climbs towards the end. Many will fancy it but it really all comes down to what Pog wants - whether he wants to open the race up ahead of the TT tomorrow.