Tour de Suisse 2021 *****Spoilers****

Dorset_Boy

Pross said:

So which race is likely to be best to watch today - Switzerland, Belgium or Slovenia?

Depends on whether Cav wins or not!

JimD666

Pross said:

So which race is likely to be best to watch today - Switzerland, Belgium or Slovenia?

Bonus of using the ES player or GCN+: All of them

RichN95.

This is Switzerland. Slovenia and Belgium look like sprint stages. So it should be possible to watch the key parts of all three.

kingstongraham

Switzerland interesting over the last few mins

kingstongraham

Peloton can't decide who is going to do the work to catch the break, so it's gone out to 6:30 with 25km to go. An accidental breakaway win coming.

Pross

Got Switzerland on in the background. Seems a bit dull really.

Pross

It would be funny if JA ends up second on GC to a third time in three days but to a different leader.

Pross

Bissegger takes the sprint, led out and Thomas looked like he was pulling him back but he just held the power to take it comfortably. Awful finish on a wide open runway.

kingstongraham

That finish really showing Switzerland off to its fullest.

Pross

The end was like watching a midweek Regional C race from Castle Combe, just needed someone to divebomb a corner and bring everyone down to complete the impression.

blazing_saddles

Today could actually be the defining GC stage.....................or not.

andyp

The Erschmatt climb is tough, if someone like Ineos or Bahrain set a hard pace up there it would immediately become a GC day.

kingstongraham

Why is the first climb a cat 1? Less than 7km at 5%?

The second one should sort out who is going for GC. You'd expect Alaphillippe to be in better climbing form than he was in Tirreno Adriatico - needs to be if anyone gives it some from that far out.

jam1e

I've ridden up to Leukerbad, they're going up the less interesting side of the valley to start with by the look of it. Going up the left side has really narrow roads and single lane tunnels while the way they're going up is predominately main road.

When I went up the temp was showing at 38deg with the heat bouncing back off the cliffs so I remember it feeling a lot harder than the uncat rating makes it sound!

N0bodyOfTheGoat

kingstongraham said:

Why is the first climb a cat 1? Less than 7km at 5%?

Pro race climb categories don't follow a logical progression, unlike Strava categories (80/160/320/640/1280+ metres elevation gain at 3%+ average gradient), they use artistic license and sometimes take the position of a climb in a stage into account.

Using https://fitfortrips.com/calculate-elevation-gain-on-a-treadmill-hiking-workout/ calculator (first link I found), that climb is ~345m and so is a Strava cat2.

Pross

kingstongraham said:

Why is the first climb a cat 1? Less than 7km at 5%?

The second one should sort out who is going for GC. You'd expect Alaphillippe to be in better climbing form than he was in Tirreno Adriatico - needs to be if anyone gives it some from that far out.

Makes even less sense when the final climb isn't categorised. It's the same tomrrow, a 7.1km climb to the finish at 3.5% but they've only categorised the first 1.2km at 5.8%. They also seem to go out of their way to avoid a finish at the top of a big climb.

bobmcstuff

N0bodyOfTheGoat said:

kingstongraham said:

Why is the first climb a cat 1? Less than 7km at 5%?

Pro race climb categories don't follow a logical progression, unlike Strava categories (80/160/320/640/1280+ metres elevation gain at 3%+ average gradient), they use artistic license and sometimes take the position of a climb in a stage into account.

Using https://fitfortrips.com/calculate-elevation-gain-on-a-treadmill-hiking-workout/ calculator (first link I found), that climb is ~345m and so is a Strava cat2.

It's as much a method to assign KOM points and animate the stage as a categorisation of the difficulty of the climb isn't it.

jimmyjams

bobmcstuff said:

N0bodyOfTheGoat said:

kingstongraham said:

Why is the first climb a cat 1? Less than 7km at 5%?

Pro race climb categories don't follow a logical progression, unlike Strava categories (80/160/320/640/1280+ metres elevation gain at 3%+ average gradient), they use artistic license and sometimes take the position of a climb in a stage into account.

Using https://fitfortrips.com/calculate-elevation-gain-on-a-treadmill-hiking-workout/ calculator (first link I found), that climb is ~345m and so is a Strava cat2.

It's as much a method to assign KOM points and animate the stage as a categorisation of the difficulty of the climb isn't it.

I agree with B.McStuff, it is surely a combination of trying to enliven the race early on (thus first climb cat 1), plus also considering a possible stage victory and/or a top GC placing or jump up the GC, sufficient reward on the last climb (thus why the final climb isn't categorised).

I'm not very keen on MTFs getting lots of mountain pts because it so often can mean the GC leader/winner is also Mountains leader/winner; I prefer the idea of the two competitions being more separated, as done in this stage. I'd like to see the same done in the GTs.

kingstongraham

N0bodyOfTheGoat said:

kingstongraham said:

Why is the first climb a cat 1? Less than 7km at 5%?

Pro race climb categories don't follow a logical progression, unlike Strava categories (80/160/320/640/1280+ metres elevation gain at 3%+ average gradient), they use artistic license and sometimes take the position of a climb in a stage into account.

Using https://fitfortrips.com/calculate-elevation-gain-on-a-treadmill-hiking-workout/ calculator (first link I found), that climb is ~345m and so is a Strava cat2.

It's right at the start, just before a 100km flat bit.

I guess it's just because they wanted to encourage a breakaway early, but it's still not a cat 1 climb in any race.

There was no breakaway.

kingstongraham

Anyway, mvdp is in the break. Seems like he's having a decent week of training anyway.

Attacked on the descent, and went away with 3 others. In the leader's jersey.

andyp

He was probably bored.

phreak

Pross said:

kingstongraham said:

Why is the first climb a cat 1? Less than 7km at 5%?

The second one should sort out who is going for GC. You'd expect Alaphillippe to be in better climbing form than he was in Tirreno Adriatico - needs to be if anyone gives it some from that far out.

Makes even less sense when the final climb isn't categorised. It's the same tomrrow, a 7.1km climb to the finish at 3.5% but they've only categorised the first 1.2km at 5.8%. They also seem to go out of their way to avoid a finish at the top of a big climb.

It's perhaps a perception, but it seems pretty rare for the race to ever include any of the really big Swiss climbs, which always seems odd, not only as there are so many, but these races are kind of a tourist video for the country, and what better way to show it off than showcasing the mountains?

ddraver

I think most people know Switzerland has Mountains to be honest...

N0bodyOfTheGoat

ddraver said:

I think most people know Switzerland has Mountains to be honest...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnTlpgrZS4E

kingstongraham

Chaves loses 10 seconds of his lead when he decides to go up a local's drive rather than staying on the road.

Pross

phreak said:

Pross said:

kingstongraham said:

Why is the first climb a cat 1? Less than 7km at 5%?

The second one should sort out who is going for GC. You'd expect Alaphillippe to be in better climbing form than he was in Tirreno Adriatico - needs to be if anyone gives it some from that far out.

Makes even less sense when the final climb isn't categorised. It's the same tomrrow, a 7.1km climb to the finish at 3.5% but they've only categorised the first 1.2km at 5.8%. They also seem to go out of their way to avoid a finish at the top of a big climb.

It's perhaps a perception, but it seems pretty rare for the race to ever include any of the really big Swiss climbs, which always seems odd, not only as there are so many, but these races are kind of a tourist video for the country, and what better way to show it off than showcasing the mountains?

Yeah, I was going to say similar but then the profiles for the last two stages this year show them doing big climbs. It certainly feels like they aren't overly bothered in showcasing the best of the country in this race (yesterday's airfield finish being an example). If I'd never seen the race before I would be switching it on expecting loads of helicopter shots of snow capped mountains, beautiful pastures and mirror like lakes but it never inspires me.

blazing_saddles

Mmmm what went on there?
Schachmann I think dropped bottles into team car, Alaphilippe took a bottle and gel.
Got an earful so watch the post stage fines I guess

blazing_saddles

Birdsong currently riding into the leader's jersey as the rest procrastinate and allow Tolhoek to slowly tow them up the finishing climb.

blazing_saddles

Then it explodes.
Woods starts then Carapaz's response blows the rest away.

kingstongraham

Alaphillippe has looked laboured for a few km, but just doesn't get dropped.