Grand Départ Covid Countdown: General Chat and Info thread.

blazing_saddles

Having had a quick look, the rest of the route (sans Paris) looks fairly OK, infection wise.
So, if they get through this weekend, the stage to Sisteron will get them into a relative low area.
Team presentation is on Eurosport at 5-30pm. It might be more interesting than usual.................well, maybe odd is a better description.

Edit:
Listening to the Mayor of Nice live now, at the presentation.
There are government bods there.
He sounds pretty upbeat and determined that we will get lift off.

DeadCalm

I quite like Andy Schleck's comparison of Pinot to Cadel Evans in terms of vulnerability, suggesting that this might be Pinot's year. As a big Thibaut fan, it does give me a smidgen of hope. I'm not super optimistic though.

rick_chasey

Two “non-negative” corona tests for lotto soudal.

As is tradition the Thursday before the Tour

blazing_saddles

rick_chasey said:

Two “non-negative” corona tests for lotto soudal.

As is tradition the Thursday before the Tour

I saw from Lotto's tweet they have been sent home along with a room mate and presumably replacements brought in
Talking of removal, it seems that the 2 positive strike rule may well be out, too.
Teams weren't happy with it.

Looking at the packed beaches in Nice at 7-30pm, I really can't see the race not going ahead as planned.

blazing_saddles

Team Presentation: Roglic turns up wearing a large bandage over most of his left arm........

DeadCalm

blazing_saddles said:

Team Presentation: Roglic turns up wearing a large bandage over most of his left arm........

It's:
a) a big worry for Jumbo:
b) his arm, not his leg, so no big deal:
c) Smoke and mirrors.

I favour answer b.

darkhairedlord

DeadCalm said:

blazing_saddles said:

Team Presentation: Roglic turns up wearing a large bandage over most of his left arm........

It's:
a) a big worry for Jumbo:
b) his arm, not his leg, so no big deal:
c) Smoke and mirrors.

I favour answer b.

Or d) he's a lightweight.

Lanterne_Rogue

blazing_saddles said:

Team Presentation: Roglic turns up wearing a large bandage over most of his left arm........

Judging by the number of people in my local supermarket who believe that covid is transmitted by their chins, this may just be misplaced caution.

ddraver

Ultra runner, and winner of last year's UTMB, Pau Cappel has started his FKT attempt on the course in lieu of the actual race happening this year

Crowds are...yep

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CEZkvtTq8w0/?igshid=wm042w6m07tc

(Mask usage is interesting though)

Lanterne_Rogue

Annual Gideon Coe TDF special is on 6Music, if anyone's interested. Always marks the start of the Tour for me, so glad he's kept the tradition up.

Pross

DeadCalm said:

blazing_saddles said:

Team Presentation: Roglic turns up wearing a large bandage over most of his left arm........

It's:
a) a big worry for Jumbo:
b) his arm, not his leg, so no big deal:
c) Smoke and mirrors.

I favour answer b.

Maybe he uses the same doctor Bertie used to and got diagnosed that his arm had fallen off.

RichN95.

So according to the bookies

***** Roglic, Bernal
**** Dumoulin, Pinot
*** Carapaz, Pogacar
** Alaphilippe, Quintana, Landa
* Buchmann, Lopez, Martinez, Kuss, Sivakov

pblakeney

RichN95. said:

So according to the bookies

***** Roglic, Bernal
**** Dumoulin, Pinot
*** Carapaz, Pogacar
** Alaphilippe, Quintana, Landa
* Buchmann, Lopez, Martinez, Kuss, Sivakov

Not bad!
As I put an each way on Kuss at 100/1. 😉😎🚴

gweeds

Jeremy Whittle claiming the tour is in doubt as it 'edges closer to collapse':

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/aug/27/tour-de-france-in-doubt-after-covid-red-alert-issued-before-grand-depart-in-nice

jimmythecuckoo

Just read that, doesn't look too promising.

gweeds

It needs to just get out of Nice asap

blazing_saddles

gweeds said:

Jeremy Whittle claiming the tour is in doubt as it 'edges closer to collapse':

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/aug/27/tour-de-france-in-doubt-after-covid-red-alert-issued-before-grand-depart-in-nice

I see that Cycling Weekly have also chosen to go with "Red Alert".
Not sure that the French government even have a red alert.

Nice is certainly a hot spot, with 250 cases in the last week in the Alpes-Maritimes department.
However, the other side of Marseilles, in the Bouches-du-Rhône there have been 2-3 times the number of infections.
Anybody know if they have been closed for business?

rick_chasey

Oh man I hope there is some proper non-corona drama on this race.

Betrayal, appalling tactics, outrageous rides, the lot.

blazing_saddles

rick_chasey said:

Oh man I hope there is some proper non-corona drama on this race.

Betrayal, appalling tactics, outrageous rides, the lot.

A few teams have the capacity to do all 3.

inseine

i think Whittle might mean red zones rather than red alert....

blazing_saddles

inseine said:

i think Whittle might mean red zones rather than red alert....

Yes, you are correct.
More info on CN, but no mention of possible race cancellation:

Tour de France race director Christian Prudhomme previously said he was against holding the race behind closed doors but accepted that crowds would have to be strictly limited at the starts and finishes of stages and on the categorised climbs during stages 1 and 2 around Nice. Blackout panels will transform the start and finish into closed areas. On Thursday evening, only 1,000 people were allowed to attend the Tour de France team presentation.

According to the Alpes-Maritimes health authorities, the number of new cases diagnosed in the past seven days has reached 97 per 100,000 population. French prime minister Jean Castex classified 19 different French departments as red zones, making the wearing of masks obligatory.

Only people on bikes and on foot, equipped with a mask, will be authorized to access the Rimiez coast on Saturday and the Colmiane, Turini, Quatre Chemins and Eze passes on Sunday.

gweeds

https://twitter.com/petercossins/status/1299252605764407296

specialgueststar

This is a good cover picture for this Tour

r0bh

gweeds said:

Jeremy Whittle claiming the tour is in doubt as it 'edges closer to collapse':

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/aug/27/tour-de-france-in-doubt-after-covid-red-alert-issued-before-grand-depart-in-nice

Yeah but when was the last time that Whittle wrote anything optimistic about cycling?

davidof

It is hard to make sense of the latest French data. Lots of new cases but no-one getting ill enough to go to hospital. Is it just increased testing finally coming online?

gsk82

davidof said:

It is hard to make sense of the latest French data. Lots of new cases but no-one getting ill enough to go to hospital. Is it just increased testing finally coming online?

It's the same in the UK. It's all those bloody young uns and their promiscuous activities.

dish_dash

davidof said:

It is hard to make sense of the latest French data. Lots of new cases but no-one getting ill enough to go to hospital. Is it just increased testing finally coming online?

That's the theme across the board isn't it? Current conclusions seems to be that better/more testing means that inflections are being picked up earlier so can be treated sooner, less pressure on hospitals due to lower numbers, plus improved treatment (particularly the use of steroids) has meant that more people are pulling through.

inseine

Unfortunately Nice seems to be in the hardest hit region outside the centre of Paris. They almost couldn't have picked a worse start.

darkhairedlord

inseine said:

Unfortunately Nice seems to be in the hardest hit region outside the centre of Paris. They almost couldn't have picked a worse start.

Having circuits and staying in nice does look like a bad call; They could, and should, have either pulled or re-routed stage 1.
Is this going to be the Australian GP all over again?

bobmcstuff

gsk82 said:

davidof said:

It is hard to make sense of the latest French data. Lots of new cases but no-one getting ill enough to go to hospital. Is it just increased testing finally coming online?

It's the same in the UK. It's all those bloody young uns and their promiscuous activities.

Not exactly - earlier in the pandemic we were only testing people who were already very sick (people going into hospital mainly, or who otherwise had a clinical need, so-called Pillar 1 testing). Now we are testing far more people in the wider community (so-called Pillar 2), including those without symptoms (e.g., who have been in contact with someone who has tested positive) which would never have happened in, say, April.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-testing-data-methodology/covid-19-testing-data-methodology-note

pillar 1: swab testing in Public Health England (PHE) labs and NHS hospitals for those with a clinical need, and health and care workers
pillar 2: swab testing for the wider population, as set out in government guidance

Pillar 2 basically didn't exist earlier in the pandemic. For example, the Leicester "epidemic" is basically only visible in the Pillar 2 testing:



Obviously, this increase in testing is resulting in a lot more positive test results for people who are much less seriously ill, and who simply would not have been detected earlier in the pandemic.

The age distribution of those testing positive has definitely changed, and there's 2 possible reasons: because younger people are less likely to get seriously ill, they weren't getting detected earlier in the pandemic as there would have been no clinical need to test them. Or, you can make an argument that it's because they are all going out to bars and getting infected. But as they say, correlation does not necessarily imply causation and the data doesn't prove either way. Probably a bit of both?

This testing thing partially explains why the case rate is going up but the hospitalisation rate and death rate is not, in any case.

I recommend listening to BBC More or Less on this...