Just read through that...........very interesting and informative.
Tour de France rules ??
- Thread starter Dave7
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Spinney
Bimbleur extraordinaire
- Location
- Back up north
^^ I may be wrong...1) Cavendish won 2 stages (not seen today's).........does that help him in the overall ratings & finish positions ? He's never going to win a yellow jersey at the end of the race. Not ever. It might help him in the points race (green jersey), but as he said himself Sagan, who is a better rider, will pick up points that Cav can't on sprints on hilly stages.
2) How is the overall winner decided i.e. is it possible to not win any stages but win the overall race ?
Yes, winner is decided on cumulative time over the whole race, so as long as different people beat our potential winner on different stages, they can win without having won any stages.
3) How does a rider get KoM ?...........can someone in the peloton win it ? (surely they don't time every single rider on the hills). There are set hills in each stage designated as KoM hills, and the first X (I don't know how many) riders to the top of these get points (more points for the first across, obv.) KoM is decided on cumulative points from these.
4) I understand that all riders in the Peloton are given the same finish time (to avoid crazy behaviour near the end). So.......yesterday, at the end, there were no break-away riders but a mad dash at the end. Do 2nd/3rd/4th place etc. etc. get anything for the effort ? Yes, if they are trying for the green jersey, as the first across gets more points than the 2nd across, etc. But there are also intermediate sprints on each stage where riders pick up points for being first across. On some stages the breakaway group will sweep up all of these.
Lots more questions keep coming to me as I'm watching e.g. where/when do they pee but the above will suffice for now
Just read through that...........very interesting and informative.
Interesting link
a) when I do, say a 40 with my mate I may not need a pee at all.............he will need at least 2.
b) The mind boggles as to how anyone can continue riding, pull their bib down and manage to get the old wiggle wonder stretched far enough not to pee all down their leg
Andy_R
Hard of hearing..I said Herd of Herring..oh FFS..
- Location
- County Durham
Interesting link
a) when I do, say a 40 with my mate I may not need a pee at all.............he will need at least 2.
b) The mind boggles as to how anyone can continue riding, pull their bib down and manage to get the old wiggle wonder stretched far enough not to pee all down their leg
I take it you've never smelt the peleton go past...
Fortunately notI take it you've never smelt the peleton go past...
Heisenberg71
When you're dead, you're dead
- Location
- Wakefield
It's impressive you can reach down that far. Very flexible.
srw
It's a bit more complicated than that...
Lots of men (never women, for some reason) get togged up in stretchy bike clothes and go for a very long bike ride around France across three weeks. Despite the name it's not always all in France. They're not serious cyclists, and can't carry panniers or saddlebags on their fancy bikes, and so lots of cars go with them to carry their drinks and sandwiches. The route they travel is chosen by a sadist - they almost never choose the quickest, or flattest route from A to B, and instead go over lots of hills when they could be in their hotels having a nice dinner.
They're basically riding advertisements for their employers, but once in a while some of them get penalised by having to advertise someone else. There's the Yellow Jersey (the GC - Gilet de Custard) for the one who takes the piss the most and ends up getting home first. There's the Green Jersey, for the one who gets to each coffee stop first (except that the ones at the front never seem to stop for coffee). There's the White Jersey, for the token youngster in the tour. And then there's the Polka-dot Jersey (which is our very polite translation for Bean Jersey). That's given to the vegetarian, because the only vegetarian breakfast they can find in France is beans on toast, so they get a good farty pump up all the hills.
Eventually they make it to Paris, drink champagne at lunchtime to celebrate being able to go home and go for a pissed ride up and down the Champs Elysées around the Arc de Triomphe.
All of this is considered a bit of fun by the telly folk, so they lay on motorbikes and helicopters in case any of the riders need a lift home.
cyberknight
As long as I breathe, I attack.
- Location
- Land of confusion
Hill Wimp
Fair weathered,fair minded but easily persuaded.
lutonloony
Über Member
- Location
- torbay
winjim
Straddle the line, discord and rhyme
Yep, General Classification. This means the overall best time. The leader of this wears the yellow jersey. They talk about GC teams and riders specifically because each team and rider will have a different objective. Surprising as it sounds, not all teams will be trying for the GC. GC requires a rider who is good at everything but not necessarily specialist in anything, so some teams may only be looking at the more specialist contests like king of the mountains or stage wins.
If a team is going for the GC they will usually have one (maybe another as a backup) GC rider who they are hoping to win it and they will throw all their resources at him. It's the job of the rest of the team to help him out. So there are only a certain number of teams aiming for GC, and within those teams only a few riders who are actually capable of winning it.
