Tour de France Stage 4 Le Touquet-Lille *Spoilers*

FJS

Impressive sprint by Kristoff, almost got it even with a 400 m sprint started from way too far out

above_the_cows

Everyone seems desperate to inject as much DRAMA into this Tour as possible sometimes.

mulletmaster

Perfectly possible to have a fracture that is occult on plain x ray but visible on a CT or MRI for example. Doesn't mean that it's likely in CF though. If I was his Dr I'd tell him to ride on it and see how it goes. If he can cope it doesn't matter what the MRI says, if he can't cope again it doesn't matter whether it's fractured on MRI or not.

GentlemanBear

mulletmaster wrote:

Perfectly possible to have a fracture that is occult on plain x ray but visible on a CT or MRI for example. Doesn't mean that it's likely in CF though. If I was his Dr I'd tell him to ride on it and see how it goes. If he can cope it doesn't matter what the MRI says, if he can't cope again it doesn't matter whether it's fractured on MRI or not.

Very informative - cheers!

mulletmaster

Good job Tramadol is legal (we need a zipped smiley face to insert here)

GentlemanBear

So what you're saying is that CF deliberately fell off his bike to incur (1) Terrible road rash and (2) A hairline scaphoid fracture to get a TUE for both Tramadol and Prednisolone?*


*This is obviously satire, and I have no idea what I'm talking about, medically speaking

RichN95.

mulletmaster wrote:

Good job Tramadol is legal (we need a zipped smiley face to insert here)

Not the sort of stuff you want if you need to concentrate.

mulletmaster

GentlemanBear wrote:

So what you're saying is that CF deliberately fell off his bike to incur (1) Terrible road rash and (2) A hairline scaphoid fracture to get a TUE for both Tramadol and Prednisolone?*


*This is obviously satire, and I have no idea what I'm talking about, medically speaking

Nah you don't want to break a scaphoid, it could be dead by the end of the tour requiring a lot of surgery and work, poor blood supply to it. Prednisone also dreadful for fracture healing (not much use for pneumonia either but I'll leave that there).
Tramadol would be awful stuff to cycle on without doubt, but if reports are to be believed the pros are at it. I certainly would need something to get me over pave with a sprained wrist never mind bone bruising or an undisplaced fracture though!

rick_chasey

FJS wrote:

Impressive sprint by Kristoff, almost got it even with a 400 m sprint started from way too far out

Was mainly helped by Renshaw leaving a good 1-2 bike lengths gap.

frenchfighter

jerry3571

Just thinking that is it time to get cycling clothes to be more robust. If the clothes was more resilient then road rash would be reduced. Road rash is a bitch to get over.

RichN95.

jerry3571 wrote:

Just thinking that is it time to get cycling clothes to be more robust. If the clothes was more resilient then road rash would be reduced. Road rash is a ***** to get over.

On balance it doesn't make sense. It's playing the percentages. However, on another thread someone pointed out that pros always train with full length kit - well that's why.

r0bh

jerry3571 wrote:

Just thinking that is it time to get cycling clothes to be more robust. If the clothes was more resilient then road rash would be reduced. Road rash is a ***** to get over.

Wouldn't make much difference. You can get bad road rash in a crash even when your lycra remains undamaged (I speak from experience here!)

frenchfighter

ATC, every day the leading team get presented with small cows. I have no idea why but Sky have had them recently.

frenchfighter

Contador. Love this guy.

"The truth is that I have tried to finish as high as possible because the position of the car tomorrow is very important," he said. "But I had to take some risks to get that placing.

"It was again a day marked by nerves and danger at every moment plus the threat of wind which forced us to be well positioned. I think I was always in the top 20 throughout the entire stage, thanks to the extraordinary work of my team. We haven’t had crashes or other mishaps, but we had to be a lot in front and ‘eat’ a lot of wind to be in the top positions. I have gained two positions that are really important for the car position tomorrow..

"I cross my fingers because it will be a really difficult day. The weather forecast is very bad. Without rain it would already be a complicated stage but with rain will be a skating rink. We will have to try to negotiate the sections of cobbles in the best possible way, and we will have winds of about 30 km/h which could split the peloton even before the cobbles. Tomorrow will be a tough day and I hope that if we have a crash, it will not be a big one.

“Right now I'm really happy with my feelings, with the team work, with the concentration in the race. For now, we're going as good as possible. To have finished four stages without mishaps is a succes but it is also thanks to the great work of my team. Of course, tomorrow is a day to cross fingers and hope that everything goes well.

"I don't know anything about Froome's crash. I have not seen it. The whole team has been focused from the beginning till the end. Again the work was extraordinary. It is important to be well placed, but if you are unlucky you can not do anything."

Pross

jerry3571 wrote:

Just thinking that is it time to get cycling clothes to be more robust. If the clothes was more resilient then road rash would be reduced. Road rash is a ***** to get over.

Geraint said that Froome had chosen to wear a summer skin suit that gets torn more easily than 'normal' kit so as Richard has pointed out clothing is being chosen by riders on factors other than crash protection.

frenchfighter

“I can’t express how upset I am right now. Nothing to say but my knee exploded and I had to hold it together till I could get to the Ambulance. At the TDF clinic they didn’t have the correct equipment to drain and stitch so Im off for surgery now. Will know more tomorrow re resuming training. Was a dirty disgusting looking wound. I now know what a kneecap looks like minus skin. Thanks to everyone for your kind words. I’m pretty emotional right now but I will try remain positive.”

takethehighroad

I actually just shuddered reading the words "Now I know what a kneecap looks like minus the skin"

jerry3571

I'm familiar too with road rash and on two occasions seeing my bones peeking through the mess but I think there is more protection wearing clothing despite the obvious cost. My last crash was wearing a goretex jacket and it didn't rip and left no road rash so happy days.
Seems a shame as Sky can get their black kit to not absorb the sun's heat but not provide any kind of protection as I'm sure Froomey has left his bedsheets, this morning, with a few nasty, bloody stains.

dsoutar

More from Lotto Belisol

Team doctor Jan Mathieu: "Greg Henderson has a deep cut of twelve centimeters on his right knee. During a first check-up in the medical cabinet after the finish, the wound was stitched. Tonight Greg will go to the hospital of Herentals where he will undergo minor surgery by doctor Toon Claes. The knee will be drained to avoid the wound gets infected."

"Lars Bak hit his head and has abrasions on the right side of his body. After the finish he was a bit dizzy. Bart De Clercq also hit his right side: shoulder, hip and knee. Both riders could continue the race."

ridgerider

frenchfighter wrote:

Is this the detached front end of the Canyon that caused the second spill?

goonz

Looks like steerer failure

DeVlaeminck

RichN95 wrote:

jerry3571 wrote:

Just thinking that is it time to get cycling clothes to be more robust. If the clothes was more resilient then road rash would be reduced. Road rash is a ***** to get over.

On balance it doesn't make sense. It's playing the percentages. However, on another thread someone pointed out that pros always train with full length kit - well that's why.

I don't think that's the reason - they just have very low body fat and will tend to feel the cold a bit more than your average rider. If you are out all day then it makes sense to wear a bit more for the early morning or evening and unless it's uncomfortably warm you may as well leave it on. There's probably a bit of old school myth about protecting your joints from the cold too which feeds into it being the done thing.

frenchfighter

Yes RR, just after Froome's crash as someone posted a gif of.

frenchfighter

frenchfighter

"A rider from Belkin wanted to go through a gap that wasn't there," Keukeleire stated. "He hit me and I was barely able to avoid the wheel ahead of me. Behind me was Froome and he touched my wheel and crashed."

"Immediately I thought, even though it wasn't my fault, 'Fuck, I took down the winner of last year's Tour de France,' but in the end he seems to come away with some minor scratches."

After the crash, both Mollema and Froome were able to get back in the peloton and Keukeleire went over to Froome to apologize. "He said it wasn't necessary because it wasn't my fault since the Belkin rider was to blame, although he appreciated the gesture."

frenchfighter

dish_dash

frenchfighter wrote:

ATC, every day the leading team get presented with small cows. I have no idea why but Sky have had them recently.

RATG Semences are the sponsor. They were chucking out cow keyrings from the Caravan too. I can't quite make the link between their being a agri-biotech company making seeds and the cows... but hey ho. Wonder if they also supplied the poppy seeds being thown out of the caravan...

The_Boy

dish_dash wrote:

frenchfighter wrote:

ATC, every day the leading team get presented with small cows. I have no idea why but Sky have had them recently.

RATG Semences are the sponsor. They were chucking out cow keyrings from the Caravan too. I can't quite make the link between their being a agri-biotech company making seeds and the cows... but hey ho. Wonder if they also supplied the poppy seeds being thown out of the caravan...

Cows are identified with the traditional image of the countryside in the majority of people's imaginations, plus stuffed toys are cute. Agri-biotech companies do stuff that people might not associate with "farming" and the countryside, and are generally a lot less fluffy and cute. The company would rather have their name being associated in the public's imagination with fluffy and cute than with GM-type stuff.

Or there were a bunch of stuffed cows available on the grey market for cheap so the sponsor picked them up.