Tour de France 2017 ***SPOILERS***

[brommers]

I agree - an exciting finish

 

[Adam4868]

Is that the stage that sagan thought there was a couple of riders gone allready ? Yea right Pete.

 

[Crackle]

They have picked a team to do a job, rather than to satisfy a nationalistic/colour quota, which would have involved selecting less successful riders. Realistically they are a weak team,(arguably very weak) so no way can they support both a sprinter and a GC rider. The 4 riders you mention above have scored 0, 32, 20 and 0 World Tour ranking points to date, and we are half way through the season. By comparison guys like Haas, Fraile, Thwaites, despite doing dom work all year, EBH, Morton, and Cav, despite his illness, have significantly more points individually than the 4 Africans combined. To have gone the GC route with the African guys would have made no sense, particularly as 2 of those you mention will not have fully recovered from the Giro. Sending one or two of them to the Tour, unsupported, to compete against a load of teams packed with strong GC squads would have left them seriously exposed..
The team ethos of developing African cycling is great and to be commended, so it is understandable that these guys are revered in their own countries for putting cycling or even their country on the map, and rightly so. It is perhaps also understandable that their abilities are somewhat inflated by the local population which perhaps explains their disappointment ( see comments on team facebook) at their heroes not being in the Tour squad.
Going forward DDD have a significant problem in that 46% of their squad is African, yet very few contribute meaningful WT points. With relegation in 2019, points become critical. It is questionable whether this is a realistic number at World Tour level given the current level of African riders. If the intention is to continue at this percentage then they will need to dig deep and recruit a number of top level non African riders to secure the points until hopefully, the African riders develop further..

DD will have it fresh in their memory that but for backtracking by the UCI, they would not be a world tour team this year.

As for Cav, he's surely got to be an outsider for any sprint, though he might come good towards the end of the second week and with the shape of the Tour this year they've probably looked at him coming into form later in the race.

 

[smutchin]

Going forward DDD have a significant problem in that 46% of their squad is African, yet very few contribute meaningful WT points.

Yes, ok, I get all that, nothing in your post is news to me. I'm still disappointed that the one token African team in the World Tour isn't being represented at the world's biggest cycling event by any non-white Africans.

The simple fact is that one non-white African (Grmay) and one Asian (Arashiro) out of a startlist of 198 riders is not an acceptable level of representation in the 21st century. I'm not blaming Dimension Data for this - the responsibility really lies with the UCI to do more to promote a more diverse peloton.

This used to be a problem in football too. When FIFA changed the rules to ensure more equitable representation at the World Cup with an increased quota of African and Asian teams, there was much outcry about more talented (and by implication more deserving) European teams being omitted. People got over it, though, and it has demonstrably led to an improvement in the quality of African and Asian football. The UCI could do worse than follow that example.

 

[smutchin]

DD will have it fresh in their memory that but for backtracking by the UCI, they would not be a world tour team this year.

Backtracking or face-saving? It would not have reflected well on the UCI to relegate the only African team from the World Tour.

 

[rich p]

Yes, ok, I get all that, nothing in your post is news to me. I'm still disappointed that the one token African team in the World Tour isn't being represented at the world's biggest cycling event by any non-white Africans.

The simple fact is that one non-white African (Grmay) and one Asian (Arashiro) out of a startlist of 198 riders is not an acceptable level of representation in the 21st century. I'm not blaming Dimension Data for this - the responsibility really lies with the UCI to do more to promote a more diverse peloton.

This used to be a problem in football too. When FIFA changed the rules to ensure more equitable representation at the World Cup with an increased quota of African and Asian teams, there was much outcry about more talented (and by implication more deserving) European teams being omitted. People got over it, though, and it has demonstrably led to an improvement in the quality of African and Asian football. The UCI could do worse than follow that example.

In football, FIFA, were chucking money at those teams and federations for not entirely worthy motives.
Cycling funding would have to be revolutionised for that to happen. Even the successful teams struggle with funding.

 

[smutchin]

In football, FIFA, were chucking money at those teams and federations for not entirely worthy motives.
Cycling funding would have to be revolutionised for that to happen. Even the successful teams struggle with funding.

Fair point.

 

[rich p]

Fair point.

Didn't the late lamented Igor Tinkov have some view on financial restructuring to share money around?

 

[smutchin]

Inrng has published his stage-by-stage guide to the Tour: http://inrng.com/2017/06/tour-guide

 

[Adam4868]

Can't see Cav not being up to it.Hes had time to recuperate.Cummings has made a great recovery as has Aru.He will ride himself fit in tour I think.

 

[smutchin]

Cav DNFed at the nationals last weekend. Hard to read anything meaningful into that but it's certainly not indicative of a rider with much in the way of form. I fear he will struggle and may not last all the way to Paris. I hope to be proved wrong.

He's going up against the likes of Groenewegen and Kittel who both showed themselves to be in good sprinting form at the Ster ZLM Toer last week.

 

[Adam4868]

I'm being optimistic for once ! Potentially 9 sprint stages ? He's 4 off the record and has a great team around him.Steve Cummings, Boasson Hagen, Bernhard Eisel, Mark Renshaw etc.. I really hope he can get another couple.
I thought he wouldn't do much last year and got four !

 

[AndyRM]

If you're on Twitter and don't follow @UKCyclingExpert you are sorely missing out. If you save yourself for highlights each evening, beware, for he does post spoilers. Sort of.

 

[smutchin]

I'm being optimistic for once ! Potentially 9 sprint stages ? He's 4 off the record and has a great team around him.Steve Cummings, Boasson Hagen, Bernhard Eisel, Mark Renshaw etc.. I really hope he can get another couple.
I thought he wouldn't do much last year and got four !

They discuss his chances on the latest episode of the Cycling Podcast (which came out last week, before the team was announced)...
https://thecyclingpodcast.com/podcast/countdown-to-the-tour-de-france-episode-19

 

[Boon 51]

Well the day has arrived for the Tour to start.. But with whats on offer stage wise I just can't seem to get excited about it. Is it just me or are there others that feel the same?