The Lanterne Rouge Thread 2017 **Spoilers**
Comments
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cougie wrote:Rick Chasey wrote:RichN95 wrote:It turns out Luke Rowe rode most of the Tour with a broken rib after a crash in week one.
Obviously depends on the break, but riding with broken ribs isn't that bad.
FWIW I have done that; broke ribs in a commuting accident on a Monday morning and I still commuted (and hard) for the rest of the week.
It's sleeping that's more difficult real problem.
Chapeau to comparing commuting to work with riding the tour.
Well played there. Your commute must be awesome if it occasionally goes over the Galibier. ;-)
RIding a bike is riding a bike; and I'm not the only one who will tell you broken ribs aren't too bad on the bike, usually anyway.
And anyway, those guys have considerably higher thresholds for pain than we do.
You won't catch me riding on with a broken pelvis or collarbone or any number of injuries like they do; so if I can ride with that injury, assuming it's comparable, I'm sure they can.0 -
Pinno wrote:imatfaal wrote:I still think the lantern rouge is a bit silly.
Why?!
Very minor feeling of silliness - frankly this thread more than balanced it
I know that every finisher has completed a daunting and enervating race and it just feels that the LR seems to trivialise that a little bit .
I think the LR epitomises the team set-up of one GC-rider, one sprinter, and the rest of the team just to get the first two around. I would like some way of engendering a situation in which the whole team needs to race not just complete the stage. LR rode a strong tour - organishing and bossing for a good while before fading off; that is a worthy ride which deserves praise. But too often the LR is either someone sickly or just outclassed and anonymous apart from being last - and that's the bit I don't like to highlight.
Just realised I have used LR for both lanterne rouge and Luke Rowe - rather fitting I guess0 -
Thanks underlayx2, this thread has been great.Ecrasez l’infame0
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GET WHEEZY - WALNUT LUNG RACING TEAM™0
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Thread of the tour.
Thanks Mr UU for the laughs.
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imatfaal wrote:Pinno wrote:imatfaal wrote:I still think the lantern rouge is a bit silly.
Why?!
Very minor feeling of silliness - frankly this thread more than balanced it
I know that every finisher has completed a daunting and enervating race and it just feels that the LR seems to trivialise that a little bit .
I think the LR epitomises the team set-up of one GC-rider, one sprinter, and the rest of the team just to get the first two around. I would like some way of engendering a situation in which the whole team needs to race not just complete the stage. LR rode a strong tour - organishing and bossing for a good while before fading off; that is a worthy ride which deserves praise. But too often the LR is either someone sickly or just outclassed and anonymous apart from being last - and that's the bit I don't like to highlight.
Just realised I have used LR for both lanterne rouge and Luke Rowe - rather fitting I guess
There's barely a half dozen riders capable of winning each category (4). That leaves 164 riders who are there as super domestiques, as domestiques, as wild cards, as individuals who just want to finish a tour. One could say that the vast majority are anonymous. The cream is the select few. The water carriers have to toil and blow themselves to shreds under team orders with little praise and away from the spotlight and the main protagonists. The majority of riders are just hoping to finish whilst doing their job.
There isn't really that much said on TV or in the papers regarding the LR. It was only on the Saturday after the TT that Eurosport and ITV showed Luke Rowe holding a red lantern.
I don't know why you think it's 'silly'. It's part of a long tradition that stems back to the days when riders were setting off at silly o'clock in the morning and finishing in the dark.
I do not know what you would achieve by compelling whole teams to race. There is limited space at the front of the peloton anyway and there's enough jostling for position at the thick end of a flat stage and then you also have elimination times. Even with the autobus, you can be out with it and be eliminated.
You may force riders who would ordinarily finish carrying an injury to just quit.
Winning a classification is for the select, most are there for support. They may not be the glam and glitter boys but they make up the majority of the peleton.
I ask you these questions; how many are genuinely there to 'win' the LR? I doubt it's any more than a handful. So what does it matter and how does it really affect the other end of the race?seanoconn - gruagach craic!0 -
Pinno wrote:
...imatfaal wrote:Pinno wrote:imatfaal wrote:I still think the lantern rouge is a bit silly.
Why?!
Very minor feeling of silliness - frankly this thread more than balanced it
I know that every finisher has completed a daunting and enervating race and it just feels that the LR seems to trivialise that a little bit .
I think the LR epitomises the team set-up of one GC-rider, one sprinter, and the rest of the team just to get the first two around. I would like some way of engendering a situation in which the whole team needs to race not just complete the stage. LR rode a strong tour - organishing and bossing for a good while before fading off; that is a worthy ride which deserves praise. But too often the LR is either someone sickly or just outclassed and anonymous apart from being last - and that's the bit I don't like to highlight.
Just realised I have used LR for both lanterne rouge and Luke Rowe - rather fitting I guess
I ask you these questions; how many are genuinely there to 'win' the LR? I doubt it's any more than a handful. So what does it matter and how does it really affect the other end of the race?
All yours are good points well made - and as I say it is just a mild feeling of it being a bit silly. If anyone comes to win the LR then that is what I think is silly. Smashing the front to set up your team, or riding with a broken rib, or in LR's case both - and then falling off the back with the knowledge of a job well done is admirable. I think what I meant by getting a bit more competition is summed up as Cofidis-Merida Syndrome - needs something to get a big lump of peleton to energise their race.0 -
The Lanterne Rouge as a competition is definitely a bit silly, but hopefully in the same way that the IgNobels are - first they make you laugh, then they make you think.
As for covering the Vuelta, it's flattering that people want to inflict more of this sort of stuff upon themselves, but I'll be away without decent phone reception for the first part of it so someone else will have to take up the baton, I'm afraid*.
Also I'm not entirely sure that the Spanish equivalent is? A Red Bull?
*For them, mostly. It does strange things to your grip on reality.0 -
The Tour's the only race, bar maybe Roubaix, where riders will turn themselves inside out and risk heavy injuries just to finish.
Any other race they'd just call it a day.0 -
Rick Chasey wrote:RIding a bike is riding a bike; and I'm not the only one who will tell you broken ribs aren't too bad on the bike, usually anyway.
And anyway, those guys have considerably higher thresholds for pain than we do.
You won't catch me riding on with a broken pelvis or collarbone or any number of injuries like they do; so if I can ride with that injury, assuming it's comparable, I'm sure they can.
Hmm, I'm not sure about that. Broken ribs can hurt from breathing so exertion riding hard and climbing are likely to make that worse and I doubt you were pushing quite that hard on your commute. Also, I'd have thought the slight twisting motion climbing out of the saddle could aggravate things not to mention getting low in a TT position or riding hard on the drops. Add in that the standard treatment would be to bind them tight but that would probably inhibit breathing.
I'm also not convinced all broken ribs are the same, I've known people only find out they had one weeks later after slight discomfort while others have been in agony whenever they move or cough. It possibly depends how much the bones are moving.
I'm slightly disappointed to learn that Rowe was injured, I thought he'd won the Lanterne clean but now know he's yet another injury doper like most past winners.0 -
When I had a broken rib the worst thing was sleeping, which would be quite an issue if you were riding a couple of hundred km every day.
But yes I think it depends which rib and how badly broken it is.0
