Tour de France 2016

littlegreenman

Mont Ventoux stage tomorrow has been shortened due to 120Km/h winds up at the top, which apparently looks like this!!!



Finish will now be at Chalet Reynard, just before the treeline gives way to the usual lunar landscape, for obvious safety reasons. Not the finish anyone wants, but as shown in the above vid, anything else would have been foolhardy from Prudhomme.

kuro

Just when you think you've seen it all....

Heartfeltdawn

Absolutely mental. 

oddball

F**king shambles just about describes todays events

mudslide73

The first time I've dared to watch it at work (shusshh!) and that happened! You couldn't make it up!

joneve

What the fucking fuck was that??

littlegreenman

The crowds on the likes of Ventoux and Alp D'Huez have long been fucking nuts. On the one hand it's always been part of the charm of the sport that the fans can get so close to the action, on the other there's been many cases of it causing problems.

Today was pretty extreme though, and I'd say the organisation made the right choice with the result.

Look for much longer barriered sections in the future towards the end of the classic mountain finishes. Perhaps not this year, but it's probably coming soon.

Ro_S

Have there been any nasty crashes yet?

They make me wince; I worry about their joints and skin on the road surface.   I can't help but watch them, though.

axisus

Today was shambolic. Utter disgrace of organising. I hate all these effing twats getting in the way, they have no respect at all for the efforts and pains of the riders. At least the organisers did the right thing re Froome's time. 

BigLicks67

I felt sorry for Froome, he gets taken out by Crowd/Motorbike, then another motorbike wrecks his bike and when the ASO makes the right decision he gets booed on the podium. You then go on the BBC website and it is full of comments from head the balls complaining about Froome's so called tax evasion because he lives in the south of France (like 80% of the rest of the peloton). More seriously, I think with what has happened last night in Nice, the organisers need to get a grip of this as it seems wide open for some nutter to commit another atrocity.

crunchman

Froome isn't liked in France - partly because he is better than their riders, and maybe because of his style.  He's a bit more of a diesel not one of those spectacular climbers who appear to be dancing on the pedals.

Yesterday was probably made worse by the stage being shortened.  If there had been another 6km of track to spread the crowd over it might not have been quite as bad.

Agree the organisers have to do something though.  As @BigLicks67 said it would be a soft target for a terrorist attack.

joneve

BigLicks67 said:

I felt sorry for Froome, he gets taken out by Crowd/Motorbike, then another motorbike wrecks his bike and when the ASO makes the right decision he gets booed on the podium. You then go on the BBC website and it is full of comments from head the balls complaining about Froome's so called tax evasion because he lives in the south of France (like 80% of the rest of the peloton). More seriously, I think with what has happened last night in Nice, the organisers need to get a grip of this as it seems wide open for some nutter to commit another atrocity.

Wis'd 

I did not understand how or why he was boo'd. The only guy that was heavily penalised from the decision is Baalke Mollema, who gave it absolute socks to get on Porte's back wheel for the final few KMs and managed to avoid too much delay when the crash happened....yet he's now somehow still behind Quintana and the others, despite gaining loads of time on them. So you have to feel for him. 

Agreed re: last night's news from Nice though 180+ riders grouped together could be inviting for someone  

littlegreenman

A typical time trial on a most untypical day, Dumoulin doing what he does best. Good post-race interview from Tom.

Definitely the right decision to race on by the organisers, and to not celebrate with podium presentations. Laying the flowers on the podium was a touching tribute by the jersey leaders, seemingly ad-libbed by Froome. Classy.

littlegreenman

And that makes it 30!

Rio may be calling but the Champs is probably calling a little louder for Cav.

kuro

surprised he hasn't had a phone call from the GB Olympic committee asking him if it's wise to continue the TdF. I can't imagine the long, slow punishing days ahead are going to be good for his sprinting legs.

littlegreenman

I'm guessing that the chance to close in on Mercx is more enticing than a possible chance of Gold.

If he gets another this year on the Champs Elysee's, then it's all to play for. The chance to go and try for top of the all-time Tour wins trumps an Olympic Gold for any cyclist.

mudslide73

Eddy Merckx.. the mind boggles. Cav already has superhero status but that is immortality right there. 

axisus

Let's face it top of the tour greats trumps a gold medal by a very long way. It's close for Cav now, but also a very long way off. He should stick with the tour.

Benson

mudslide73 said:

Eddy Merckx.. the mind boggles. Cav already has superhero status but that is immortality right there. 

In a recent Interview Merckx was a bit dismissive of stage wins, saying although Cav may be nearly equal in that regard the real metric was overall wins, of which Cav has had none as yet. 

axisus

Benson said:

mudslide73 said:

Eddy Merckx.. the mind boggles. Cav already has superhero status but that is immortality right there. 

In a recent Interview Merckx was a bit dismissive of stage wins, saying although Cav may be nearly equal in that regard the real metric was overall wins, of which Cav has had none as yet. 

Merckx being a bit of a twat there. Every individual stage is a race.