Tour de France 2024 SPOILERS

[Adam4868]

Maybe it's a fair fight.
Pog's tiredness from the Giro against Vingo's lack of training time.
Apparently Vingo and Remco also beat Pantani's time up the Plateau de Bieille. Times move on.

I don't think Pogs tired...more that he used the Giro as a training ride 😁 He looks stronger than ever this Tour,still a week to go though so fingers crossed.You have to feel for Vingo a little though,Visma rode a great stage and did everything right,any other opponent than Pog and he wins the Tour right there.
Remco also smashed the record yesterday,he's been class so far....silence from the Remco doubters 😍

 

[T4tomo]

going back to 2011....

There were 88 riders outside the time limit in the autobus on stage 18 (incl cavendish) that is why the weren't DQ'd

I cant find the exact number for stage 19 (which was a short explosive mountain stage) but it was also over half the field (Edit its was 83 of 165 riders) and contained all the green jersey competitors so again they were all docked 20 points and reprieved. it wasn't a favour Cav issue, it was a lets not look like dicks and DQ 80 odd riders.

 

[Dogtrousers]

@Dogtrousers I think you'll find he was let off again the next day. That was the year they'd amended the green jersey competition specifically to help Cavendish win it, so it's not hard to imagine that the 20-point fine was carefully chosen to make sure it didn't ruin everything.

And then he won the final stage. After being let back into the race twice. Merckx must be fuming inwardly.

Ah, I remembered the kerfuffle, but not that two stages were involved. More digging required to refresh my memory.

There was also a case around then in the Vuelta when the majority of the race refused to chase a fast breakaway and just rolled in late and challenged the organisers to eliminate them. The race would have been reduced to a joke so they all started the next day. All IIRC.

Edit. The Vuelta incident was Vuelta stage 15, 2016 and involved 93 riders https://www.skysports.com/more-spor...mates-should-have-been-eliminated-on-stage-15

 

[Dogtrousers]

going back to 2011....

There were 88 riders outside the time limit in the autobus on stage 18 (incl cavendish) that is why the weren't DQ'd

I cant find the exact number for stage 19 (which was a short explosive mountain stage) but it was also over half the field (Edit its was 83 of 165 riders) and contained all the green jersey competitors so again they were all docked 20 points and reprieved. it wasn't a favour Cav issue, it was a lets not look like dicks and DQ 80 odd riders.

In my reading on this I've seen a claim (dunno if it's true) that if such a thing we're to happen now the reprieved riders would lose ALL points.

 

[Aravis]

In my reading on this I've seen a claim (dunno if it's true) that if such a thing we're to happen now the reprieved riders would lose ALL points.

You must've edited your post - I was about to point out that the green jersey would then probably have gone to a GC type.

When they have to amend the cut-off because for whatever reason they don't like what it's about to do, we're really into "what kind of foolishness are we most comfortable with" territory. I can't say to what extent Cavendish was in their thinking, but there was no secret that the points competition that year had been tailored for him. In his Champs Elysees interview Sir Mark described this as "humbling", which was a novel take.

I'm less certain, but I think there was a suggestion that there was a riders' union agreement in play, making sure there were enough OTLs to ensure they couldn't all be eliminated. It would've been quite funny if that hadn't worked; TBH I think it would've harmed the rest of the race. At Alpe d'Huez in 1977, 30 riders out of an original start list of only 100 were timed out.

 

[mjr]

And then he won the final stage. After being let back into the race twice. Merckx must be fuming inwardly.

Merckx probably knows that he wouldn't have come close to 34 stage wins under modern rules with two year bans instead of one month for taking prohibited substances, even inadvertantly due to bad doctors.

Is Pog likely to threaten the stage win records?

 

[Adam4868]

Is Pog likely to threaten the stage win records?

Now you're just playing mind games.

 

[biking_fox]

Is Pog likely to threaten the stage win records?

Not this year!
(Cav did say to him 'don't beat it' when Cav got his 35th. So maybe! If Pog can stay at this level for several more tours....

 

[Alex321]

Not this year!
(Cav did say to him 'don't beat it' when Cav got his 35th. So maybe! If Pog can stay at this level for several more tours....

I suspect staying at the the level where you can win multiple mountain stages in one tour is probably harder trhan staying at the level where you can win multiple sprint stages at one tour.

But nobody else has come close before, so difficult to be sure.

 

[T4tomo]

When they have to amend the cut-off because for whatever reason they don't like what it's about to do, we're really into "what kind of foolishness are we most comfortable with" territory. I can't say to what extent Cavendish was in their thinking, but there was no secret that the points competition that year had been tailored for him. In his Champs Elysees interview Sir Mark described this as "humbling", which was a novel take.

They have messed about a lot with how they award green jersey over the years and introduced the intermediate sprint concept. It got tailored to give a higher proportion of points on "flat" stages vs medium and mountain stages, which did help Cav and all, the other sprinters, and went from 3 intermediates to one intermediate sprint.

 

[Dogtrousers]

You must've edited your post - I was about to point out that the green jersey would then probably have gone to a GC type.

I did edit it because the very fact that you point out occurred to me just after posting.

 

[cisamcgu]

I had a thought this morning. Running on the assumption that all the riders are clean, would allowing, say Ciccone or Yates to take whatever drugs they want allow them to decimate the field and win by a huge margin ? How much benefit do drugs give a top class rider ?

 

[Dogtrousers]

I had a thought this morning. Running on the assumption that all the riders are clean, would allowing, say Ciccone or Yates to take whatever drugs they want allow them to decimate the field and win by a huge margin ? How much benefit do drugs give a top class rider ?

Are Ciccone and Yates in your fantasy team by any chance?

 

[Alex321]

I had a thought this morning. Running on the assumption that all the riders are clean, would allowing, say Ciccone or Yates to take whatever drugs they want allow them to decimate the field and win by a huge margin ? How much benefit do drugs give a top class rider ?

Well you wouldn't allow just one or two riders to take drugs, so that is rather a meaningless question.

But some drugs certainly give enough benefit to make a significant difference at that level.

 

[ColinJ]

I had a thought this morning. Running on the assumption that all the riders are clean, would allowing, say Ciccone or Yates to take whatever drugs they want allow them to decimate the field and win by a huge margin ? How much benefit do drugs give a top class rider ?

Yes.

Massive!