Tour de France 2015 - may contain nuts and SPOILERS

[Arrowfoot]

OK then imagine you are Christian Prudhomme and you have just invited the first ever African team to the tdf.
You have done this to try and get cycling going in Africa because its a whole new market and you know African athletes have a long history of being exceptional at endurance sports.
The last thing you want is for this first african team to be blown away so you need to give them a few crumbs keep the african public watching interested.
So in the first week you make sure one of them takes the polka dot for a few minor climbs and gets on the podium. Great publicity but no effect on the real contest for the polka dot.
You already know its nelson mandella day during the second week so you design a transition stage where a break will most likely succeed, but just to be sure the sprint teams don't get involved you put a 3km 10℅ climb just before the end.
Tip everone a wink about what is going to happen then hope the African team rider can hang on, when he doesn't of course you have to tell the 2 in front to stop and have a row so he can get by for the win.
Brown envelopes all round and great P.R. which will hopefully get the Africans cycling.

Stranger things have happened on the TDF.

Seems like too much planning. If the 2 Frenchmen were not arguing about who was going to make tea, the results could have been different.

 

[coffeejo]

Boardman kept repeating the word "fact" mantra ad nausesm. There was also no "facts" during Armstrong's years of cycling. I felt that Boardman should have defended Froome better rather than keeping repeating the word "fact". He could have have said Froome has offered a full suite of physiological test for instance.

I liked that someone was keeping a level head. Fact suggests that if there's a case to answer, it should be answered. The hot-tempered "is/isn't" broken record by all the armchair pundits is what leads to people getting so worked up they throw about cups of P&P. Sorry, pee pee.

 

[Crackle]

Jalabert is a plonker.

 

[Crackle]

I think Froome's just seen the ITV highlights

https://twitter.com/chrisfroome/status/622853463182045184

 

[MisterStan]

OK then imagine you are Christian Prudhomme and you have just invited the first ever African team to the tdf.
You have done this to try and get cycling going in Africa because its a whole new market and you know African athletes have a long history of being exceptional at endurance sports.
The last thing you want is for this first african team to be blown away so you need to give them a few crumbs keep the african public watching interested.
So in the first week you make sure one of them takes the polka dot for a few minor climbs and gets on the podium. Great publicity but no effect on the real contest for the polka dot.
You already know its nelson mandella day during the second week so you design a transition stage where a break will most likely succeed, but just to be sure the sprint teams don't get involved you put a 3km 10℅ climb just before the end.
Tip everone a wink about what is going to happen then hope the African team rider can hang on, when he doesn't of course you have to tell the 2 in front to stop and have a row so he can get by for the win.
Brown envelopes all round and great P.R. which will hopefully get the Africans cycling.

Stranger things have happened on the TDF.

Do you not think, having gone to all that trouble, they would let an actual African rider win?

 

[tug benson]

I take it his wife has uploaded it to youtube

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Jalabert is a plonker.

Made a bit of a tit of himself.

 

[Louch]

Anyone know why some bmc are in blackshorts and others in red? Is it just personal preference?

 

[coffeejo]

Anyone know why some bmc are in blackshorts and others in red? Is it just personal preference?

There was something earlier in the commentary about "cycling injuries" and the need for special shorts to assist with this. Not sure if they were talking about BMC or not.

 

[coffeejo]

interview with Froome on Sky News
.
http://news.sky.com/video/1521423/froome-on-cyclings-tarnished-image

overall a good interview but I hope the "not blood testing" doesn't come back to haunt him....

Not relevant to the content but am I the only one struggling to hear it? Seems really quiet.

 

[coffeejo]

sound was fine for me....

Either my laptop's struggling or my hearing has deteriorated again.

 

[HF2300]

There was something earlier in the commentary about "cycling injuries" and the need for special shorts to assist with this. Not sure if they were talking about BMC or not.

Yes, they were, Rohan Dennis.

 

[Crackle]

Quite a sensible and excellent article about power here. Lots of stuff to read but skip to, Knowing the possible, if you want some salient info on the perils of guesstimating power output from riders.

https://drmarkburnley.wordpress.com...ecessary-utopian-and-a-complete-can-of-worms/

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Either my laptop's struggling or my hearing has deteriorated again.

I found myself checking volume levels because the sound was low for me too. And there was no slider to make sure the program was working at 100%, just on or mute.

 

[coffeejo]

I know I said my hearing's dodgy but you didn't need to repeat yourself.