Tour De France

Great day for Sky and Bradley Wiggins. Wonderfully exciting ending to the stage. Managed to keep an eye on the cricket, tennis and motor racing but Le Tour remains the great spectacle. Hard to grasp the fitness, strength and endurance of these cyclists.
 
Remarkable to see Sky with yellow jersey and helmets and polka-dot jersey too, plus the stage win. What are their normal colours? Is anybody still in them? I can't imagine they'll hold the polkas, but there must be a real chance for yellow and green at tour's end.

Remarkable to me that Cav would move away from a team centred on him to one where he's almost an afterthought because he wanted to be part of a tour win. Says a huge amount about the man and his alleged arrogance.
 
So who's watching it live today and who's watching the tennis?
The boss has the tennis on the main TV (in HD). I've pushed the boys off their TV to watch Le Tour.
 
I'm watching the tennis live and taping (disking?) the Tour live feed for later. Doing it that way purely because most of my twitter friends are watching the tennis and tennis is perfect for twitter - a two-minute scan-and-tweet window every eight or ten.
 
I watched the whole of Le Tour closing stages without checking the tennis. Went for a 30 minute ride on the Royal Enfield then picked up at a key moment in the tennis. Nearly over.

Where's the whisky? I'm gonna need it.

These are tough days.
 
Cav has a real love of the sport and its history and Palmares. He knew he would have little or no chance of the Green Jersey this year if he wanted the Olympic gold. Sky was his best option all round with Ellington and Brailsford and others. He worked with Sky to change his bodyshape for Box Hill. Witness today in TdF where HE was pacing Eisel!! He had said for a while that all he really wanted from TdF12 was the Yellow for Wiggo, one stage win "to honour the rainbow jersey" and to sprint the Champs Elysee again. I would bet that he's also making some alliances for London too - Millar has already said he's speaking to the Aussies and Germans and Us teams.
The net was abuzz with pics of Cav doing drinks duty for the team yesterday, even not contesting the intermediate sprint. Cycle fans were REALLY in admiration of the world champ becoming " the humblest of water-boys". For followers of the sport, he gained so much respect for what he did - and the day before riding 3km with a puncture in case he was needed! If you only see him around race time you miss a lot. Then he's either stressed, in pain, stressed and in pain, or pumped full of adrenalin.
Last year he was called a "little fat fuck" by Wiggo while at the WC GB training camp, because of their obvious differences. Now it is just mutual admiration after Copenhagen. A Cav WC jersey is on e-bay $1,550 last time I looked!
TdF13 is to have a new jersey - for whichever team leaves most skin on French tarmac.

love'n'joy
Lloyd
 
My beloved bought me two books for father's day.

How I won the yellow jumper - dispatches from the Tour de France - Ned Boulting
Mark Cavendish- Boy Racer.

So I'm having a great time reading through them while the race is on each day. Lots of interesting insights.
 
Big fan of Le Tour also. Sky are looking fantastic so far. What a TT by Froome and Wiggo yesterday! You'd think Froome will be looking to be a team leader next year. Be nice to see Cav get another stage or 2 after the Alps.
 
I've been looking, but almost no mind games this year during the commercial break ("rest day").
Maybe Sky PR us seen as just too powerful/rich + GB PR for Cav, Wiggo, Froome (David Millars sister here in Manchester).
Millars tweet re Wiggos swearing was really astute and funny. 12 momentous days to endure/enjoy!!

love'n'joy
Lloyd

Just seen this tweet from Cav. 227ffs

"Mark Cavendish ‏@MarkCavendish
So @TeamSky's rest day training ride featured an impromptu 'highest cadence competition'. I won with 227rpm.. "

love'n'joy
Lloyd
 
Cracking stage yesterday....great break by Van Garderen who seems to have all round ability (perhaps future winner) but unfortunately Evans didnt seem to have the legs to keep with him. But fair play to the youngster for his teamwork and trying to aid his Team Leader.

Bit of mutual respect between Wiggo and Nibali, as should be the case after a stage like that....however loved Nibali giving it the eyeballs to see if Wiggo was flagging during the stage, proper competitor looking for a weakness.
 
Had visitors yesterday so missed most of the live action. So what was the Frome breakaway that was suddenly reeled in by team orders? Was there ever a serious possibility that he would attack Bradley for the Yellow Jersey?
 
Fido said:
Had visitors yesterday so missed most of the live action. So what was the Frome breakaway that was suddenly reeled in by team orders? Was there ever a serious possibility that he would attack Bradley for the Yellow Jersey?
Click to expand...

No, according to Brad straight after the race, it was simply a misheard order in the earpieces, Froome was setting slightly too high a pace, the team principal told him "CHRIS, SLOW, SLOW!" but over the noise of the crowd, Froome heard "CHRIS, GO, GO!" instead so he attacked. He said he was as confused as anybody else as to why the boss wanted to attack his own leader.

He realised within about 30 seconds what had happened and he then had clarified orders from the team, get back to Bradley and pace him, so he waited up.

Wiggo seemed to find it quite amusing to be honest.
 
I think Froome is riding a brilliant tour, he looks more convincing to me than Wiggo.
He could have been in Yellow yesterday if they hadn't called him back.

Poor Cadel looked spent yesterday, it was a beast of a stage.

Great Tour this year though!
 
Never has there been a tour like this for the brits. Four wins for four different riders - and Millar today was superb.

I'd love to see Cav getting led out properly tomorrow, too :).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom