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.

I want to know what the boo'ing was about, too.
I don't think the other riders, like Yates & Movistar, understood what had happened, so they just kept going like they are supposed to.

Chris Boardman was fuming that fans could cause that, though, as was David Millar.

I think that sort of gentleman's agreement seems to have fallen out of favour. Was it Contador who went on when Andy Schleck had the mechanical, and then won by that gap? I think that was the result that was taken away, but there was a lot of controversy at the time. Contador basically said "so what?!" and I haven't really seen that sort of waiting since.

Wiggo waited for Cadel Evans when he was punctured by tacks, and earned Lord Wiggo lots of chapeaux in France - Le Gentleman.

But in the last kilometre up Ventou surrounded by crowds and with an epic battle being played out then the circumstances are quite different. IF Quintano had stopped then he would have known comms between riders was impossible in the noise so nothing at all could have been organised to neutralise anything.

Boo-ing? I think that;s just good ole anti-Sky/Froome/anyone who isn't French, and on Bastille Day too. Anyone who boo-ed can fuck off and I would tell them that individually. Bloody Frenchies!

Watching on catch up. That was INSANE. In almost 2 decades of following the Tour, I have never seen anything like that. DH & I have been saying for a while now that the crowd situation is out of control on the big climbs. They are just too pissed up and frenzied to be sensible. ASOS do need to think again. Porte was VERY pissed off, wasn't he? Understandably.

In other news, Chavenel and Teklameimenot FINALLY make me some points.

I thought Porte was showing signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

And the podium crowd would have been pissed off we give them Boris Johnson as our Foreign Secretary.

Porte - certainly symptoms of shock. Hopefully BMC have a psychologically-informed support team. It could wipe him for a few days.

He could be having an acute stress reaction, i'd all but expect that in his position really. It's way too early to be calling PTSD.

I'd imagine BMC have a sports psychologist but they wouldn't have a clue about reactions to trauma like this. I hope they look after the affected riders.

I've just caught up. OMG. I've never seen anything like that at the Tour, never.

Just awful for the riders.

Something has to be done about the crowds.

Bloody hell.

I have been avoiding FB and this thread (and closing my eyes, putting my fingers in my ears and singing la-la-la during the report on the news) for fear of spoilers, because I had to wait until dh got home, to watch this.

And now I am completely gobsmacked - that was unbelievable.

I'm glad the commissaires made the decision they did - it was the right one, I think.

Callmecordelia - it was Contador who attacked when Schleck has a mechanical - and I thought it was unacceptable then - and am still bearing a grudge!

France

Some of us might balk at the prospect of cheering on a bunch of multi-coloured mobile bill boards in France today. For some it just wouldn't seem right.
The Tour organisers and owners may mark this tragic event in some way today or in the days to come.
Obv Bastille Day was targetted - the single day that most celebrates the over throw of kings and gods, for democracy and science, and liberte-egalite-franternite. The very notions that the murderer would have wished to have removed. We'll know that France and Le Tour won't let the murderer win. That the world, and the wheel, keeps on turning despite the horror, the grief, and the sorrow.
So I'd think we can do both - keep on watching and posting IF we wish, AND experience the shock and mourning of the event albeit from some distance away.

Puts it all into perspective.

I wonder what the response of the organisers will be. Impossible to ignore. The true measure of terrorism being successful though is that we change our routines in response so I guess onwards and upwards and everyone carries on as before?

Poor beautiful France, they are baring the brunt of it for all of Europe it seems.

Well the TT is on, I am selfishly pleased as I'm on sort of enforced bed (sofa!) rest for the next weekish. Netflix and the tour are all I have!

Yes, just seen that, and Froome extending sympathies.

Le Tour, et tout , has to roll on.

Silence at the start and finish and no music on the caravan, that will be very odd. Must be very hard to decide what is decent and how much you have to just keep going.

Pinot abandoned now as well. He can join me on the sofa of bad chests.

I'm pleased they're carrying on. The Tour is a showcase for the best of France, it would have been wrong to disrupt it. The silence and no music sounds like the right balance.

I am ill too MrSlant. Netflix and the Tour have got me through it, although I have a four month old who isn't quite as enthralled by the cycling as I'd like him to be.

Oh no, poorly and a four month old is a rubbish combination. I've been pretending I'm perfectly fine but the GP has given me the antibiotics of DOOM and I can't let my skin see UV, I think she knows banning me from standing outside watching the DS' do sport is the only way to slow me down . I don't like not doing anything, I'm boooooored! Do you know where he start times are listed for the TT, be nice to know who is going well. I've had to give Spartacus a serious talk on the team bus as he's only got me 4 points so far on velogames, I have told him today is his stage .

The tour is a great advert for France and for many nationalities working together in a big, bright coloured gang. I'm glad they are still going ahead.

Time trial start times - www.cyclingnews.com/news/2016-tour-de-france-stage-13-time-trial-start-times/

I'm pleased you are taking it easy. Chest infections are horrid. I have a cold, with a temperature and sore throat thrown in.

TTs. Snooze day....

Having said that, on this Tour even a snooze-fest of a TT will probs throw up something extraordinary.

Hope you are both feeling better soon MrS & cordelia

Jeeze, Spartacus is paying me no attention at all, rubbish.

I'm proper poorly, it's weird, I'm used to living with my mega dose painkillers and rubbish bones but don't often get ill, I need to find the commissars and put in a strongly worded complaint, GP worried it's pneumonia fingers crossed that the test comes back negative for that. Well or positive I mean if you are going to bother getting ill you might as well do it properly not competitive, noo, not at all

Thank you for the starting list Callme, nice warm brandy with lemon and honey for that throat maybe?

Yay! Baby is napping just before ITV live coverage starts!

Am on plenty of painkillers otherwise temperature goes a bit haywire. If I wasn't a brandy - might even put honey and lemon in it - would be very welcome.

Good baby, they rarely do that to schedule!

Excellent time there Dumoulin DS1 informs me that his skin suit was made using a 3D printed model of him not thinking about that too much .

EEEEeeeewwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!