2014 TdF

FocusZing

RideOnTime

Those kits are grim

BelgianBeerGeek

Having remained aloof as a South-Coast sophisticate and bored of all this tediousness, I now approve.

I am a massive TdF fan and always have been. Bring on the most exciting, gruelling, hard-assed mother flipping race of them all!!

Bu**er those effetes who think that that Paris-Tours is where it's at. The big race is starting.

Lanterne_Rogue

FocusZing wrote:

This picture makes me happy, and I'm not sure why. Possibly because it draws that direct line between club runs and the cyclists who do things we could only dream of.

TMR

Apparently there will be bike mounted cameras inside the Peloton this year for the first time at the TdF: http://www.letour.fr/le-tour/2014/us/pr ... loton.html

Exciting! Can't wait to see AC's rear facing one as he destroys the Froome pretender!

RichN95.

TMR wrote:

Exciting! Can't wait to see AC's rear facing one as he destroys the Froome pretender!

I very much doubt any of the big GC guys will have one for mountain stages. Extra weight and all that. You'll get someone you've never heard of in the autobus.

FocusZing

Turfle

There's been a marked increase in utterances of "the Tour is my 3rd favourite grand tour" in the last few days, so we must be getting close to kick off. I'm getting excited.

TMR

Turfle wrote:

There's been a marked increase in utterances of "the Tour is my 3rd favourite grand tour" in the last few days, so we must be getting close to kick off. I'm getting excited.

Me too. I love this race soooooooo much!

RichN95.

Turfle wrote:

There's been a marked increase in utterances of "the Tour is my 3rd favourite grand tour" in the last few days, so we must be getting close to kick off. I'm getting excited.

Those opinions are just for people trying to be cool. Cool is not giving a toss what anyone thinks.

I like Coldplay. I like Carlton Kirby. And the Tour is the best Grand Tour.


(And that beard you've grown in the last year looks stupid - I bet it'll be gone this time next year)

joelsim

Agree. That's twice in one week.

The Giro and Vuelta are great but they aren't the Tour and they don't attract all the top riders.

And I think Kirby is great. Fair enough he gets it wrong but he is witty and has a lot of passion for the sport. He gets the rough end of the stick on here.

Lanterne_Rogue

RichN95 wrote:

Turfle wrote:

There's been a marked increase in utterances of "the Tour is my 3rd favourite grand tour" in the last few days, so we must be getting close to kick off. I'm getting excited.

Those opinions are just for people trying to be cool. Cool is not giving a toss what anyone thinks.

I like Coldplay. I like Carlton Kirby. And the Tour is the best Grand Tour.


(And that beard you've grown in the last year looks stupid - I bet it'll be gone this time next year)

Yeah, but by saying all this, you're trying to convince us you're cool. Which is deeply not cool.

You may wish to rethink your strategy here.

RichN95.

underlayunderlay wrote:

Yeah, but by saying all this, you're trying to convince us you're cool. Which is deeply not cool.

You may wish to rethink your strategy here.

Ah. But I'm not cool. Never have been, never will be.

Macaloon

There’s a pleasure to be had in being right after the event but for next three weeks I’d love it if every prediction and call above flew out of the window in a race that’s full of surprises. It’s what made the Dauphiné so great. This year’s route does lend itself to surprises but it’s up to the riders to roll the dice.

http://inrng.com/2014/07/tour-de-france-contenders-2014/#more-21140

This one's going the distance.

RichN95.

Let's get down to the standard star system

***** Froome, Contador
**** Nibali
*** Talansky, Valverde, Van den Broeck
** Bardet, Konig, Van Garderen, Mollema, Costa
* Porte, Nieve, Horner, Rodriguez, Schleck

joelsim

***** Froome, Contador
**** Valverde, Nibali
*** Talansky, Van den Broeck
** Bardet, Konig, Van Garderen, Mollema, Costa
* Porte, Nieve, Horner, Reichenbach
Frank & Andy*





*not a cat in hell's

frenchfighter

Macaloon wrote:

There’s a pleasure to be had in being right after the event but for next three weeks I’d love it if every prediction and call above flew out of the window in a race that’s full of surprises. It’s what made the Dauphiné so great. This year’s route does lend itself to surprises but it’s up to the riders to roll the dice.

http://inrng.com/2014/07/tour-de-france-contenders-2014/#more-21140

This one's going the distance.

Yes and no. Had Froome not lit up the first mountain and Contador lit up the last it wouldn't have been nearly as good. I love it when there are two riders head and shoulders and the rest being unpredictable.

above_the_cows

Joelsim wrote:

Frank & Andy*





*not a cat in hell's

That's harsh Joel.



But true.

'Tis about to rain here in flatland. So I'll catch you all for Le Grand Depart and remember 12 BST for your PTP picks (should really be earlier seeing as coverage starts at 11 BST but well I've said 12 and that's convention and I'm going with it.)

tailwindhome

It's extraordinary just how big the TDF is.

42 pages of a pre race chat thread.
Multiple threads on the first page.

TMR

TailWindHome wrote:

It's extraordinary just how big the TDF is.

I agree. I was trying to explain the TdF last night to my best friend's wife. It isn't just the challenge, it's the history #emotional #passthehanky

TMR

This morning's Twitter round up for you.

frenchfighter

Those sheep are expertly dyed.

Agreed re Sport Weekend. Got footie today as well. Go Federer, Go Argentina, Go Cavendish.

milton50

TailWindHome wrote:

It's extraordinary just how big the TDF is.

42 pages of a pre race chat thread.
Multiple threads on the first page.

I think this year it's mainly down to the fact that the duel for the yellow jersey looks to be so close. Added to that the start list is unbelievable. Every team is absolutely packed with the most talented cyclists in the world. If Quintana was riding then this could be the highest quality field in recent memory.

I can't remember what the pre-race threads were like in 2012/13 but I'm guessing they weren't nearly as long or as excitable as this year.

For the record, if there are no crashes/incidents then I think Froome will win this race. The thing is though, I think there will be plenty of incidents and I'm not convinced he's 100% healthy. Can't wait to see how this pans out.

cal_stewart

Michal Kwiatkowski for 3rd after taking 5-10 mins on st5

TheBigBean

RichN95 wrote:

Let's get down to the standard star system

***** Froome, Contador
**** Nibali
*** Talansky, Valverde, Van den Broeck
** Bardet, Konig, Van Garderen, Mollema, Costa
* Porte, Nieve, Horner, Rodriguez, Schleck

Three 5 star sprinters too.

hammerite

underlayunderlay wrote:

FocusZing wrote:

This picture makes me happy, and I'm not sure why. Possibly because it draws that direct line between club runs and the cyclists who do things we could only dream of.

Whilst I agree with what you say - if a Starbucks ended up on the club run list of destinations for our club I'm sure there'd be a fair amount of moaning and chuntering over corporate, overpriced, mass produced, etc... Not to mention the lack of fried or scrambled eggs on their menu

FocusZing

frenchfighter

frenchfighter

frenchfighter

Not too sure where to put this but I like the sentiment:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/brailsf ... ench-rider