Tour de France 2015 - may contain nuts and SPOILERS

[Mad Doug Biker]

Oh to be given the opportunity to do that to Wayne Rooney....

We could open a book on how long he writhes on the ground in mock agony for!!

 

[coffeejo]

I remembered the third item on my wish list for 2016! For each stage to be televised in full, including the roll out. (Preferably on the BBC for both the advantages of no adverts and a significantly better 'player, though I recognise there's more chance of getting a women's version of each Grand Tour than this...)

 

[sleaver]

....the advantages of no adverts....

But if you ever need a new brand of shampoo, you would never have known there is apparently a very good German engineered one

 

[mjr]

But if you ever need a new brand of shampoo, you would never have known there is apparently a very good German engineered one

Which now the tour's over will presumably revert to being "Doping for hair"?

 

[sleaver]

Which now the tour's over will presumably revert to being "Doping for hair"?

Giant need to have a word then as it didn't help them

 

[sleaver]

I am currently negotiating a deal with them for me not to wear their kit.

I don't think we need to see how well it works on those hairs

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Mock?

I thought that's what they did.... Ok then... Until someone tells him to MTFU?

 

[Legs]

Basically, how close does it really have to be before they throw 'tradition' out the window?

Vinokourov's stage win in 2005 was enough for him to leapfrog Levi Leipheimer for 5th in GC. I remember thinking at the time that it was rather dishonourable (though not as dishonourable as the doping conviction for which Leipheimer was stripped of 6th and Vinokourov should have been stripped of 5th...)

 

[MisterStan]

Sagan's not the only one who can pop a wheely....
From SKY's Facebook page;

 

[ColinJ]

Vinokourov's stage win in 2005 was enough for him to leapfrog Levi Leipheimer for 5th in GC. I remember thinking at the time that it was rather dishonourable ...

I'm no fan of Vinokourov, but it is a bit odd to suggest giving up the chance of a prestigious stage win because the side effect of it would be to make a significant improvement on the GC!

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

Only 341 days til it starts again

 

[Andrew_P]

Must admit to having the TdF shakes.

 

[coffeejo]

Not sure if this has been posted elsewhere or if you can view it without a facebook account but here's an interview with G from earlier this year, looking back at how it all began in Cardiff:


View: https://www.facebook.com/CyclingWeekly/videos/10153056232332634/

 

[suzeworld]

For the stage win, yes, but if you had, say, 2 or even 3 good all rounders who have been biting away at each other *timewise*throughout the tour, and..... Basically, how close does it really have to be before they throw 'tradition' out the window?
Also, what if something was to happen to the leader on the final stage and you in fact won.... But you didn't because it had been neutralised because of 'tradition'..... I bet you would be just a tad wistful at least.
I can't beleive for a minute that all these super competitive guys just lamely roll over and take it each year because its 'Da roolz'.

If the top GC guys were that close, to literally a few seconds then they would fight for it, but my point is they are not going to get big enough time diffs on a sprint stage to catch up a gap of over a minute, which is what we have this year. Quintana could race all he liked, but he needed mountains to put a minute into Froome on Friday and Saturday. Basically, the teams are not that different in strength for anyone to be able to put a minute on a sprint stage. The noble art of "closing down a break" is far too well establshed for that.

AS for neutralised? Maybe we are talking about different things? My understanding is that neutralising is an actual rule the race organisers can call on to apply in sh^t weather .. to prevent utter carnage. Nothing to do with tradition. And if Froome had gone arse over tit and not been able to finish from some point earlier in the final stage, then Quinatna would have been the winner of the tour .... simps ...

 

[HF2300]

First stage of 2016 will be a sprint stage from Mont St. Michel to Utah Beach, according to ASO via INRNG. Second stage from St Lo to Cherbourg, so I guess probably a sprint as well.

http://inrng.com/2015/07/tour-stage-22-preview/#more-25972

Must admit I felt a bit lost yesterday without a Tour stage to watch