TDF 2018, Stage 9: Arras Citadelle > Roubaix 15/07/2018 - 156,5 km *Spoilers*

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Comments

  • webboo
    webboo Posts: 6,087
    Webboo wrote:
    Jez mon wrote:
    I think after today maybe the calls that cobbles don't belong in a GT might die down?

    I’m used to cobbles, and knackered roads, and cattle grids, some of these guys obviously aren’t :lol:. Bunny hop any interfaces, watch any sharp corners after the pave, stick to the middle, hammer it, you’ll be fine.
    The man who never goes above 60 revs a minute and avoids hills, who also never gets his heart rate above 60% of max. Now is giving the professional’s advice.
    What a c*ck.

    In fairness to Walt he was not giving them advice he was just pointing out why he is so much better than them
    Sorry my mistake :lol:
  • adr82
    adr82 Posts: 4,002
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or-ypF6tdd8

    Velon highlights, worth a watch. Catches several of the crashes, and a nice clip of Sagan smoothly breezing past Froome through a cobbled corner.
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,262
    adr82 wrote:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or-ypF6tdd8

    Velon highlights, worth a watch. Catches several of the crashes, and a nice clip of Sagan smoothly breezing past Froome through a cobbled corner.
    Also Dumoulin shouting at Sagan and a Fortuneo rider taking out the Sunweb rider.
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,660
    DiK0xghWsAApE7K?format=jpg&name=medium
  • andyrr
    andyrr Posts: 1,823
    And another!

    DiJ5HDzUYAEplgi.jpg:large

    Friebos looking nonplussed about the whole thing.

    Slash from GnR spectating the Paris Roubaix stage of the TdF !
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,660
    AC broken on one of the flights with half the peloton on it this arvo.
  • kleinstroker
    kleinstroker Posts: 2,133
    andyrr wrote:
    And another!

    DiJ5HDzUYAEplgi.jpg:large

    Friebos looking nonplussed about the whole thing.

    Slash from GnR spectating the Paris Roubaix stage of the TdF !

    Milliseconds earlier....

    DiKEUZhXUAAbfcH.jpg
  • ddraver
    ddraver Posts: 26,719
    adr82 wrote:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or-ypF6tdd8

    Velon highlights, worth a watch. Catches several of the crashes, and a nice clip of Sagan smoothly breezing past Froome through a cobbled corner.

    In other news, Velon are still a thing...

    (Yet still not incorporated into an ITV4 style highlights package which is the only place such footage is anything other than a side show...(and really! I do like it, that's a great bit of footage. Imagine it on context, a 10 sec clip played whilst the bunch recover between sectors, it would be awesome!!)
    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
    - @ddraver
  • m.r.m.
    m.r.m. Posts: 3,486
    This meanwhile this is what the penis in the penis and chips looks like before it's cooked.

    Weird-Amphibians-Atretochoana-Eiselti.jpg
    I thought this is what Snapchat was invented for
    PTP Champion 2019, 2022 & 2023
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,599
    ddraver wrote:
    It makes a for a fun stage but I don't like them...

    If Bardet had punctured in a slightly different ways he'd have lost minutes and we wouldn't be seeing cobbles in the tour for another 10 years.

    Porte, Uran, TJ* have all had their GC hopes ruined by chance and bad luck. Now I know that all pink/yellow/red jerseys need some good luck but activity encouraging bad luck is just...meh

    It just turns cycling into a bloodsport

    *Ok, yeah, couldn't type that without smirking

    Sorry but this is bollox, Porte crashed on a straight bit of Tarmac miles before the cobbles started. No-one seems to know when Uran crashed. Martin could have gone out of the race yesterday on a nothing stage, last year Porte crashed on a mountain descent and wiped out Martin? in the process, should we ban mountain descents? They cost the likes of Pozzo and Pinot the chance of high placing son GC. Most of the GC contenders proved today that they are perfectly capable of riding cobbles but in this age of specialisms they don't do so. Cobbles are a part of bike racing, why should GTs be decided by which climber can time trial the best or vice versa? As Rick likes to point out, there's an art and skill to riding cobbles that limits the risk of 'bad luck' so if they are part of the route the contenders should work at improving that side of their riding.
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,262
    Clearly off his head on tramadol.

    DiLHqNiW4AA35At.jpg
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,599
    DiKEKkKXcAMN5h_.jpg

    Surely the team doctor could have waited until after the photo before lancing Froome's saddle sore?
  • Lanterne_Rogue
    Lanterne_Rogue Posts: 4,340
    I tend to agree with Pross here. It's not like the cobbles were sprung on the teams at four o'clock this morning - they had plenty of time to assess which of their riders were capable of riding a stage with cobbles and which weren't well before they rocked up at the tour. Porte seems to have crashed due to hitting a spectator miles before the cobbles even started (hopefully they're okay), and even if today had more pace it's because it was a potentially decisive stage after two days of fairly low-key racing and everyone naturally went off at a billion miles an hour. Bardet suffered an enormous amount of bad luck but still lost barely any time - and a large portion of his bad luck appeared to be because his bike offended him in some way and he never got back into position as a result. If you can't ride cobbles on this tour you're not a GC rider and ought to get over yourself, and if you're there to support someone else on other stages then slow the hell down and just get through it. Lawson Craddock managed it and he's riding with a broken shoulder.

    Ultimately people's view on this tends to divide over whether they believe there is one true model of GC rider, but we've had these stages several times now and the idea that cobbles are some sort of cosmic pinball machine that ruins the natural order of things isn't supported by experience. Even this year people have lost larger chunks by being stuck behind stupid crashes on absolutely flat stages with nary an obstacle in sight. If it's unfair for Uran to have fallen over on cobbles then it was equally stupid to ask Froome to make it round an innocuous corner a few days ago. At least Uran knew there were cobbles there.
  • Lanterne_Rogue
    Lanterne_Rogue Posts: 4,340
    DiKEKkKXcAMN5h_.jpg

    9896cc3b8ddc0e1f5ca79ad8fec5552b.jpg

    (eta - Note Richie Porte, facial expression caught mid-chute, on the right of the picture there)
  • ddraver
    ddraver Posts: 26,719
    Pross, I answered most of those points in the second post...
    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
    - @ddraver
  • ddraver
    ddraver Posts: 26,719
    edited July 2018
    Ned n Dave made a funny thing - https://twitter.com/nedboulting/status/ ... 5939069953

    As someone said though they missed a trick not having someone with little wheels at the side of the road...
    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
    - @ddraver
  • No_Ta_Doctor
    No_Ta_Doctor Posts: 14,692
    OK, is it just me that wants to press the red and white play button on this?
    FocusZing wrote:
    DiJlQUoW4AEanKK.jpg:large
    @TourDeJose

    TDF Stage9. The crazy cobbles.
    Warning No formatter is installed for the format
  • No_Ta_Doctor
    No_Ta_Doctor Posts: 14,692
    ddraver wrote:
    Ned n Dave made a funny thing - https://twitter.com/nedboulting/status/ ... 5939069953

    As someone said thought they missed a trick not having someone with little wheels at the side of the road...

    I think they missed a cinematography trick as well - I think all cycling shots in the original were shown with riders going right to left. If I remember correctly it was supposed to be some sort of masterstroke.
    Warning No formatter is installed for the format
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,599
    ddraver wrote:
    Pross, I answered most of those points in the second post...

    Not really, you just suggest that cobbles are a 'random joker' whereas in reality they a known part of the route the same as a mountain hairpin. The last few times there have been cobbles in the Tour people have argued they shouldn't be there due to the 'increased risk of bad luck' but how many genuine GC contenders have seen their race finished by them? Frank Schleck is the only one I can think of whereas most years a contender crashes out in the mountains.
  • No_Ta_Doctor
    No_Ta_Doctor Posts: 14,692
    Warning No formatter is installed for the format
  • RonB
    RonB Posts: 3,984
    OK, is it just me that wants to press the red and white play button on this?
    FocusZing wrote:
    DiJlQUoW4AEanKK.jpg:large
    @TourDeJose

    TDF Stage9. The crazy cobbles.
    I know what you mean. It looks like Kristoff is just about to get his freak on.
  • m.r.m.
    m.r.m. Posts: 3,486
    That is a gorgeous photo!
    PTP Champion 2019, 2022 & 2023
  • gsk82
    gsk82 Posts: 3,620
    RonB wrote:
    OK, is it just me that wants to press the red and white play button on this?
    FocusZing wrote:
    DiJlQUoW4AEanKK.jpg:large
    @TourDeJose

    TDF Stage9. The crazy cobbles.
    I know what you mean. It looks like Kristoff is just about to get his freak on.

    Itv4 played a sequence of rapid fire photos leading up to this one.
    "Unfortunately these days a lot of people don’t understand the real quality of a bike" Ernesto Colnago
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,660
    I am pleased for Degenkolb.

    He was an absolute a lister one dayer before that crash and he has really grafted hard for two years.
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,660
    Matt White making a good point re the moto cams falsifying the result.

    “We can talk about doping and motors, let’s talk about TV motors.”
  • Vino'sGhost
    Vino'sGhost Posts: 4,129
    RichN95 wrote:
    Clearly off his head on tramadol.

    DiLHqNiW4AA35At.jpg

    looks happy to be thinking of Trek. Now if they just keep him on standby for the Vuelta and then leave him at home he should have a perfectly naff prep for next year.

    Come on Jim....
  • Vino'sGhost
    Vino'sGhost Posts: 4,129
    M.R.M. wrote:
    That is a gorgeous photo!

    Sports still photography def still has a place, so much more powerful than video sometimes
  • above_the_cows
    above_the_cows Posts: 11,406
    adr82 wrote:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or-ypF6tdd8

    Velon highlights, worth a watch. Catches several of the crashes, and a nice clip of Sagan smoothly breezing past Froome through a cobbled corner.

    Loving all the shouts of "fiets OK" after every crash.
    Correlation is not causation.
  • above_the_cows
    above_the_cows Posts: 11,406

    The "oh sh1t" moment.
    Correlation is not causation.
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,660
    Matt White making a good point re the moto cams falsifying the result.

    “We can talk about doping and motors, let’s talk about TV motors.”

    Come on we get 60 pages of Froome on an inhaler and no one bites on this?

    I know what falsified the race more...