Le Tour de France 2016! - MN Peloton takes to the road again!

[thewheelscomeoff123]

Yes it's July almost, which means only one thing. The biggest, craziest, Frenchiest push bike race in the world. Three weeks of riding round France in multi-coloured lycra, sweating, swearing, playing poker on 380 wheels, tears of joy and frustration, in the saddle for about 5 hours per day, up and down massive hills, throwing the odd tantrum. Then going to bed, and getting up in the morning and doing it all again! Questions: Why? Well we just don't know. When? Starts on Saturday 2nd July with a flat bit from the beautiful Mont Saint- Michel on the Normandy coast to Utah Beach, and ends with the sprint finish on the Champs Elysee, Paris on Sunday 24th July. Where do they go? Essentially they ride for 2,200 miles around the edge of France, and wandering a bit into Spain, Andorre, and Switzerland. This is for the sake of going up and down the Pyrenees and the Alps. Which we know as the 'lumpy bits'. There's a route map coming up. There's always a route map. Is it tiring? Evidence suggests it might be. In the 3 weeks the riders consume the calorific equivalent of eating 252 McD's double cheeseburgers. Some of us are both proud and ashamed of the fact we could eat all of that in the 3 weeks without riding anywhere..... So who wins? It's the person who covers that distance in the shortest time. BUT..it's a team game and the winner cannot do it without all 9 team mates. The prize is 500,000 Euros, which the winner will partly hand out to his buddies. Is it on UK tv? Yes, ITV and Eurosport carry a lot of live action and both do a highlights package for an hour or so each evening. Is there a 'virtual' competition where you can 'buy' a team of riders within a budget and see how they do? I'm glad you asked that. here is a link to everything you will need to show off your directeur skills and have a bit of added interest for the race Do I have to know loads about pro-cycling to understand what's going on? Nope. Have a watch, have a read, ask anything on this thread and your layered knowledge will build and you will get so much more out of it. When are you going to shut up and show the route map? Now.

G's weather assessment tip top if this week has been anything to go by, how I can be mildly sunburned as well as suffering from trench foot I do not know.

When I can hear what he is saying I really enjoy Millar's commentary, yesterday when he was talking about how Contador literally has nothing other than cycling in his life I really felt for him. You get insights only someone who has been inside the peloton, and doped and will talk about it, would ever have. I just can't bloody hear most of them!

I hate rest days, they make me remember that the tour will be over at some point and I'll have nothing, OK the Vuelta a bit, to obsess about. I think my year runs tour to tour .

And caaaalm!

It IS a funny old world. We are watching a whole bunch of alpha males on bikes, fighting for supremacy as individuals, which could be really boring, like Formula 1, BUT.. this is lessons re teams. fwiw I think it's a sort of analogy for many things in life. Lots of sacrifice, helping your buddies, a bit of glory now and then, showing your character, paying attention to detail, preparing yourself as best as you can, measuring your effort, seeing who your compatriots are, who your challengers are, and basically..who you can rely on.

And also, the great things about actually riding a bike.

That sort of thing. I think.

Maybe a little romantised way of looking at things, but...there is no other universal sport that relies for success so heavily on people relying on each other in extremes of demands.

And being mobile advertising hoardings.

And run you should young lady!

Sorry. I've been having daydreams where Froome (in Yellow) has a Wiggins moment and helps lead out Cav to win the sprint on the Champs Elysee (?sp) even though they aren't on the same team. To be fair we had a slow hour at work this morning and I let my mind wander.

I'm really enjoying David Millar's commentary. I've never really felt the same about Phil and Paul since I found out what big Lance supporters they were.

I didn't get to see much of the itv programme last night except about 30 seconds of Ned. I let out a high pitched squeal of "NED!" and DD asked me what was wrong.

Getting round to reading Beardy Blog in bits Atia! Impressive and fab photos. Thanks v much! Pass on words of appreciation to the Hirsute One?

Lol, sadly he's nothing to do with me! Dh sent me the link because his camera is rather less waterproof than Beardy's and he hadn't been taking photos of the madness

I'm currently waiting impatiently for my beloved husband and daughter to update their blog because they managed to book into a hotel in El Serrat (on the final climb up Arcalis) with NO WI-FI They're in Carcassonne tonight. Definitely not envious at all.

oh Carcassone! Just exquisite. I'm not envious either.....

What was that about Peter Sagan and the press conference?

Going back to there is no other universal sport that relies for success so heavily on people relying on each other in extremes of demands - I was talking to my dad at the weekend and he pointed out that it's unusual to qualify/be invited to an event as a team, work together as a team, and yet it's the individual winner who gets all the glory. Like the highest goal scorer at the world cup getting the biggest trophy I did say that the winner shares his spoils, but there isn't anything else quite like it is there? Formula one a bit perhaps?

Am a bit gutted for Sagan after all that work. Matthews just got carried along for the last 20-30k

and yet it's the individual winner who gets all the glory.

I disagree, cycling isn't all like that. There are 42++ competitions within the TdF alone and ~ half of those tend to go to a lowly domestique (look at what Voekler does, or who was Matthews before today?).
The contracts are short-term & insecure for almost everyone (look at Contador team hopping in recent yrs). Everyone knows it's a relatively short career so they need a good exit strategy. Then there are national jerseys and other competitions for specialists to shine at. You've got people like Lars Boom who jump around between specialisms, or someone like GeraintT who can slip in a Commonwealth win in his spare time.

Today I think Sagan kept trying to shake them because he enjoyed trying to shake them.

We were only talking about the end of the TdF - not sure my dad is quite ready for the entire cycling calendar yet I guess the teams are fairly amorphous - the adverts on the rolling billboards change frequently, so the riders themselves are the only constants.

Only 6-7 yrs ago the cycling buffs had to patiently & repeatedly explain to radio presenters why the TdF actually is a team event, and why teams matter, and what a team does for the supposed 'winner'.

Mind you, this yr the Tories & Labour are competing with the TdF for sheer soap opera spectacle & drama.

someone told me tonite that Contador has had a major falling out with Sean Yates, true?

I read a brilliant article by Ned where he said - bit of a précis because I can't quite remember - they start the big races knowing only possibly 10 of them are in with a chance of winning, probably down to 2 by the halfway point in France, yet all of them are indispensable overall.

I remember listening to R4 I think a few years back when Wiggins was making cycling relevant outside out little community of zealots and the presenter said 'winning the two thousand two hundred mile race - hold on, that can't be correct, I'll get back to you on that.' Then had to come back and apologise because that was actually the distance .

I'm sick of the politics, not that I don't find it important and engaging, I'm just so overwhelmed and overstimulated, I want to go back to the days where we laughed at the prime minister for porcine anomalies when he was a student that probably weren't true but made for some great jokes.

Didn't watch it today because of work/children so I don't actually have anything relevant about the race to say!

I hadn't heard about Contador falling out with Yates, but I see from cyclingnews.com that Contador has apparently signed for Trek Segafredo for next season.

Isn't that because this is Tinkoff's last season? They're all out of a job, including Sagan.

yes probs. isn't it Cordelia? Though I've also read somewhere that Oleg won't just walk away entirely - that he's just a bit cheesed off with 'Tinkoff Saxo' set up and wishes to start all over again - different name, different set up.

anyone hear Cav-en-dish on R5 Live last night? 60 mins all about him and sprinting. I heard a bit but had to be out. But loved the term "wheel surfing".

Oleg is crazy enough and rich enough to do anything!

I'll have a look for the Cav programme, thanks for the heads up.

I see now my comment above makes it look like I was suggesting Contador was moving teams because of a fall out, but that wasn't what I meant. What I should've said is: in other news, it looks like Contador is going to Trek, despite rumours that he's retiring at the end of the season.

Sagan won't have a problem getting signed by another team - as long as they can afford him.

Bloody hell, what's going on today?! 4km left and Cav's bike is broken and Froome is in a new breakaway with the peloton making up no time!

I will have to make sure I see the highlights tonight!

LOL at my team in the league. I am going for the Lanterne Rouge unless Nairo Quintana bucks his ideas up.