TDF 2018, Stage 17: Bagnères-de-Luchon > Saint-Lary-Soulan Col du Portet 25/07/2018 - 65 km *Spo

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Comments

  • adr82
    adr82 Posts: 4,002
    Di8i-QKWwAA1icP.jpg
  • ridgerider
    ridgerider Posts: 2,851
    Surely the GC riders will just take it easy unless one of them goes for it to disrupt the harmony. Otherwise it's a breakaway win like most mountain stages, but a bit quicker!
    Half man, Half bike
  • salsiccia1
    salsiccia1 Posts: 3,725
    adr82 wrote:
    Di8i-QKWwAA1icP.jpg

    I remain to be convinced...
    It's only a bit of sport, Mun. Relax and enjoy the racing.
  • G Hincapie
    G Hincapie Posts: 78
    Fingers crossed for G to prevail and for Froome not to shit all over him.
  • ridgerider
    ridgerider Posts: 2,851
    Hope they all clip in quickly or else there could be carnage in the first 100m.
    Half man, Half bike
  • hanshotfirst
    hanshotfirst Posts: 373
    Salsiccia1 wrote:
    adr82 wrote:
    Di8i-QKWwAA1icP.jpg

    I remain to be convinced...

    Yeah, this looks so gimmicky doesn't it? In motorsport pole position is advantageous to be the first one into the first corner but what advatage does the Yellow Jersey being 1m in front of second place actually give from a standing start at the beginning of a race.

    Bizarre.
  • Jez mon
    Jez mon Posts: 3,809
    TGOTB wrote:
    ddraver wrote:
    The question for the GC riders is do they go hard froom the gun, a la CX/XCO, and 'get the hole shot' or - more likley IMO - do they watch each other?
    Was thinking about this last night - thing is, there's no "hole", so the hole shot's not so attractive..

    No idea what you're talking about but I know I'm not googling it.


    I guess it's going into a section of single-track...
    You live and learn. At any rate, you live
  • craigus89
    craigus89 Posts: 887
    Only thing I can see that could affect this is that it is quite narrow, some clever blocking from the pens of riders could give someone near the front chance to get away I suppose.

    I have suspicions that pretty much every rider will treat the first 1-2km like a neutralised zone anyway and all will then proceed as normal.
  • No_Ta_Doctor
    No_Ta_Doctor Posts: 13,326
    Luke Rowe
    ‏Verified account @LukeRowe1990
    31m31 minutes ago

    Any tips for a grid start when you’ve had a bad qualification @eugenelaverty ?
    Di8kdVVWsAIa5jX.jpg:large
    Warning No formatter is installed for the format
  • lostboysaint
    lostboysaint Posts: 4,250
    Brilliant :)
    Trail fun - Transition Bandit
    Road - Wilier Izoard Centaur/Cube Agree C62 Disc
    Allround - Cotic Solaris
  • dave milne
    dave milne Posts: 703
    I think the first 10 riders should have pushers off UK TT style. Then imagine the chaos as they jumped over the barriers before the riders behind got clipped in
  • mididoctors
    mididoctors Posts: 16,847
    its nonsense I think this grid thing. having a time gap or something would be more of a hoot.
    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm
  • takethehighroad
    takethehighroad Posts: 6,645
    It would be better if the used the 900m warm up area to spread the groups out.

    Each group 100m from each other would create some gaps
  • shirley_basso
    shirley_basso Posts: 6,195
    Chatting to a friend who did a penned start. He said it was impossible for teammates to find you and get to you, especially at race pace.

    600m is a bloody long way to be back, that's over 1m at race pace of that's the case. CF and GT could smash it off the front so noone has their domestiques, then whomever is not on the front can attack as people are starting to tire. Dreamy
  • ContrelaMontre
    ContrelaMontre Posts: 3,027
    bobmcstuff wrote:

    ...

    Most obvious difference there is Dan Martin, who's a 3 star favourite on Inrng but has quite long odds, you can get 33/1 for him. Possibly worth a punt.

    You've puffed me in to doing this now. Backed Martin at 37/1 and TomDum at 14/1

    Rule No.10 // It never gets easier, you just go faster
  • amrushton
    amrushton Posts: 1,253
    Leaders roll out/team catches up/Sky set their usual pace maybe a bit faster. Eventually Sky burn out their train but by then Barder/Dumoulin will be on their own anyway. Then its either Froome or Thomas who goes (or both!).
  • davidof
    davidof Posts: 3,041
    Start them on time gaps based on 10% of their GC gaps.
    BASI Nordic Ski Instructor
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  • phil485
    phil485 Posts: 364
    Is eurosportplayer broken for anyone else?????
  • blazing_saddles
    blazing_saddles Posts: 21,812
    And to think that some folks on here used to criticise the Giro for trying to outdo the Tour by having gimmicky stages.......
    "Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
  • blazing_saddles
    blazing_saddles Posts: 21,812
    davidof wrote:
    Start them on time gaps based on 10% of their GC gaps.

    So, the latern rouge gets to start 20 minutes after the maillot jeune, with a 35 minute hors delay for the stage....
    Interesting. 8) :lol:
    "Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
  • davidof
    davidof Posts: 3,041
    davidof wrote:
    Start them on time gaps based on 10% of their GC gaps.

    So, the latern rouge gets to start 20 minutes after the maillot jeune, with a 35 minute hors delay for the stage....
    Interesting. 8) :lol:

    yes, so they get a delay of 20 + 35 minutes.
    BASI Nordic Ski Instructor
    Instagramme
  • tgotb
    tgotb Posts: 4,714
    davidof wrote:
    davidof wrote:
    Start them on time gaps based on 10% of their GC gaps.

    So, the latern rouge gets to start 20 minutes after the maillot jeune, with a 35 minute hors delay for the stage....
    Interesting. 8) :lol:

    yes, so they get a delay of 20 + 35 minutes.
    Interesting idea. I wonder whether, in practice, it would end up playing out like the final stage of last year's La Course (which I didn't think was a great success)...
    Pannier, 120rpm.
  • davidof
    davidof Posts: 3,041
    TGOTB wrote:
    davidof wrote:
    davidof wrote:
    Start them on time gaps based on 10% of their GC gaps.

    So, the latern rouge gets to start 20 minutes after the maillot jeune, with a 35 minute hors delay for the stage....
    Interesting. 8) :lol:

    yes, so they get a delay of 20 + 35 minutes.
    Interesting idea. I wonder whether, in practice, it would end up playing out like the final stage of last year's La Course (which I didn't think was a great success)...

    I guess that's the risk.
    BASI Nordic Ski Instructor
    Instagramme
  • blazing_saddles
    blazing_saddles Posts: 21,812
    davidof wrote:
    davidof wrote:
    Start them on time gaps based on 10% of their GC gaps.

    So, the latern rouge gets to start 20 minutes after the maillot jeune, with a 35 minute hors delay for the stage....
    Interesting. 8) :lol:

    yes, so they get a delay of 20 + 35 minutes.

    The problem with this being the amount of hanging around time.
    Still, they had to for Cav, I suppose.


    Anyhow, before this starts.
    No matter how exciting today and the remaining stages are and even if GT does win this race, I have to say that overall, this Tour has been a real stinker.
    "Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
  • mididoctors
    mididoctors Posts: 16,847
    davidof wrote:
    Start them on time gaps based on 10% of their GC gaps.

    So, the latern rouge gets to start 20 minutes after the maillot jeune, with a 35 minute hors delay for the stage....
    Interesting. 8) :lol:

    yeah but measured from their start time...ie not the winners start time.
    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm
  • effillo
    effillo Posts: 257
    edited July 2018
    davidof wrote:
    davidof wrote:
    Start them on time gaps based on 10% of their GC gaps.

    So, the latern rouge gets to start 20 minutes after the maillot jeune, with a 35 minute hors delay for the stage....
    Interesting. 8) :lol:

    yes, so they get a delay of 20 + 35 minutes.

    The problem with this being the amount of hanging around time.
    Still, they had to for Cav, I suppose.


    Anyhow, before this starts.
    No matter how exciting today and the remaining stages are and even if GT does win this race, I have to say that overall, this Tour has been a real stinker.

    Name me a year in recent times where people haven't said this exact thing!!

    I've only been following cycling properly for 10 yrs or so but I can't say this tour is any worse than ones in years gone by. I think people develop a nostalgia over time that paints previous editions as better than they actually were. I find this in the other sport I follow closely, F1 where everyone says races are boring now and not the same as 10-20 yrs ago,when in actual fact if you go back and watch races from that era the vast majority were plagued by the exact same 'boring' issues.
  • bobmcstuff wrote:

    ...

    Most obvious difference there is Dan Martin, who's a 3 star favourite on Inrng but has quite long odds, you can get 33/1 for him. Possibly worth a punt.

    You've puffed me in to doing this now. Backed Martin at 37/1 and TomDum at 14/1

    Really can't see Martin winning today. If he gets any gap Froome will use him as a launchpad or if he arrives at the bottom of the last climb with the GC group he is not good enough to climb with the best
  • mididoctors
    mididoctors Posts: 16,847
    [


    Anyhow, before this starts.
    No matter how exciting today and the remaining stages are and even if GT does win this race, I have to say that overall, this Tour has been a real stinker.

    strange one... had a few entertaining moments. I think the loss of porte and nabali is more race defining than the parcours...which wasn't the problem as many think IMO.
    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm
  • bobmcstuff
    bobmcstuff Posts: 11,196
    bobmcstuff wrote:

    ...

    Most obvious difference there is Dan Martin, who's a 3 star favourite on Inrng but has quite long odds, you can get 33/1 for him. Possibly worth a punt.

    You've puffed me in to doing this now. Backed Martin at 37/1 and TomDum at 14/1

    Really can't see Martin winning today. If he gets any gap Froome will use him as a launchpad or if he arrives at the bottom of the last climb with the GC group he is not good enough to climb with the best

    I've gone E/W. on him, the returns make it worthwhile. I think he has a reasonable shout for top 3 even if as you say Froome overhauls him
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,689
    [


    Anyhow, before this starts.
    No matter how exciting today and the remaining stages are and even if GT does win this race, I have to say that overall, this Tour has been a real stinker.

    strange one... had a few entertaining moments. I think the loss of porte and nabali is more race defining than the parcours...which wasn't the problem as many think IMO.

    Quite early to call it, given there are two set piece mountain stages and a TT still to go.

    I really enjoyed last year's Giro and that first week was, in hindsight, a stinker.