Tour De France!

We’ve been twice, 2003 and 2010. Watch every stage every year. Looking forward to the start tomorrow!

My annual pilgrimage through France 🇫🇷! A summer without Phil Liggett and Bob Roll would be misery. I really miss the late Paul Sherwin in the announcer’s booth. Rooting for Mark Cavendish, the Manx Missile, to get a record breaking 35th stage win.

Will be tuning in early tomorrow!

Just signed up for Peacock so we can watch!

Ready to watch it on tv. My wife and I once considered going and meeting the devil and giving him an Arizona State Sun Devil shirt ! A fellow Little League coach went one year. He somewhat interferred with Lance Armstrong at the start of the Alpe d’Huez time trial. I heard he was kicked out of the country gor it.

Always watch as much as possible on SBS Australia's live coverage.
I was at the finish line for Stage 15 into Carcassonne 2018.

I'm pulling for Cav too, big time! Merckx was not gracious when Cav tied his record two years ago, at length pointing out how many of his own stage wins came outside of bunch sprints while.he was winning GC's. As if no one already knew that.

Of course EM was an absolute monster, no denying that.

It's not really a TdF for the sprinters. Hoping Cav hangs in at least until the few flatter stages late in the first week. The first stage looks crazy - 3.2k vm and 190km. Getting right to it.

I would LOVE to see Neilson Powless win a stage. It's so cool that he is a Native American kid racing at the most elite level, seems ike such a nice guy. Go America twice over with him.

So much about the TdF to be interested in. It's wonderful to see the scenery roll past in real time - France is so diversely beautiful.

We will be in the same time zone with the TdF this year but unfortunately not near France. Looking forward to watching in real time and not having to get up reallllly early. We have been to a stage, time trial and finale in Paris 3x. This year our 18 year old granddaughter will be in Paris on July 23 so I’ve been giving her some tips about seeing the last laps. Hoping the family interest continues.

I'm just looking for Bobke to say, "Tour DAY France."

For those who pay for the premium tier of Peacock....in addition to the NBC coverage you can also access the commercial free "world feed".

If you can access it (with a VPN) , the national channel France TV broadcasts the entire race.

You can also access the 5 raw live streams broadcast by the motorcycle cameras in the race (plus the live stream from one of the cameras installed at the finish).

You just need to create an account (free).
There is no advertising.

https://www.france.tv/

I'm a huge Tour fan too! I love both the racing and the scenery. Watching the Tour will be my only glimpse of France this year, so I'll be glued to Peacock!

I'm at a cabin with limited access to streaming media. Likely will download GCN and/or NBC's extended highlights. Could be worse, both pretty solid 20-30 minute condensations.

If i was working right now though the regular coverage wold be on screen two all morning.

Let's make this thread "spoilers allowed."

If you haven't seen the latest stage and want the suspense don't scroll down.

I'll update the first post.

@ Hank

Thanks for info about Powless being first nation heritage. That is great. Did well last night.

Regards Ron

I'm watching. Got up before 6 to watch and then realized I needed Peacock to see it. So I tuned in at 8 on NBC. My husband is taping it. But I really enjoyed getting up early in years past so we purchased a subscription to Peacock this afternoon. Yay. A few years ago I got my Mom interested in watching. I stopped watching this morning so I could go visit her. As I was getting out of my car at her assisted living facility I received a text. It was from Mom stating she was watching the Tour de France and the scenery was beautiful. So I went in and we watched it together. A nice morning was had by all. Thanks for staring this thread, Hank. I've been watching part of the Tour de France for years. Sometimes "life" gets in the way of watching it all. Sigh!

Traveler Girl

Powless in the polka dots - hope he hangs on to them.

Twins for the win! I wonder how Pogachar feels about his domestic taking off for a stage win with his twin brother from another team. Probably "today fine, but not tomorrow" ...

After starting the race in Copenhagen last year, it’s neat that this year’s Tour is starting in Bilbao, in Spain’s Basque Country. Finishing town for Stage 2 will be San Sebastián. The Basque fans are reveling in hosting the TDF. That’s great for Nielson Powless and Team EF-Education having the KOM jersey on Day 1, but what a shame that his teammate, Richard Carapaz, had to abandon this Tour with a fractured kneecap. Blood was gushing out of his knee after the crash, and he still finished pedaling across today’s finish line.

And Enric Mas is out, too. That’s sad, and with the Tour de France starting off in his native Spain. Movistar will have to just try for stage wins now, it would seem. Those two GC contenders were flying on a downhill section - what a nasty crash they had!

Geraint Thomas rode this year’s Giro d’Italia and is riding in the Vuelta a Espana, but not the TDF. He won’t have a chance to follow up on his Yellow Jersey from 5 years ago. This is Thibaut Pinot’s last Tour, and his last chance to be a French champion in the French race. He did win the top Climber jersey in this year’s Giro.

There’s now Uno-X, an all-Scandinavian team this year, 6 Norwegians and 2 Danes. Of course, last year’s Tour winner, Jonas Vingegaard, is Danish, but he rides for a Dutch team.

So Christian Vande Velde is on the back of a TV motorcycle this time, and not in the studio. Wonder what happened to Chris Horner? Glad that Phil Liggett and Bob Roll are still present.

It was handy having the race on regular NBC today, apparently the only stage where that will happen this year. Then the race is on USA Network, up through at least Stage 9. The telecast today suggested that USA wasn’t showing the Tour tomorrow, or beyond Stage 8, but it seems now that USA will be showing a long-delayed broadcast at midnight Mountain Daylight Time this coming week. Without streaming on Peacock, I’ll need to avoid any spoilers if I wait to catch stages on USA. Regardless, network NBC will go back to sports programming with a lot less scenery and historic locations.

Thanks to all of you posting updates and details. Watching the Tour has always been a great way to start my day, but this year I missed the memo on Peacock being the only way to watch the later stages and don’t have access to a tv where I can subscribe. At least I have a couple of days to figure this all out, but thanks in the meantime.

Great update Cyn thanks. I had no idea about the all Scando team!

@ Hank
May ask the following.?
When do TV/Cable stations start your broadcasting from?
Assembly prior to start?
When the riders line up in the neutral zone behind the official car?
Or when Prodhomme drops the yellow start flag/
Or some other time?
I am confused after reading some the preceding.

Ron

Update/Correction:

I’ve edited my earlier post about TV viewing options for the Tour. From what the graphics on the Saturday broadcast on NBC were suggesting, USA was only showing Stages 3 thru 8. I see now that USA will be showing delayed Stages 2 thru 9 at midnight my time, so I can record on DVR off of my Dish TV and watch it the next day, a day after the actual stage ran.

So even without Peacock, the USA showings appear to still be a viewing option, even if it’s long after each day’s stage has already ended. Hopefully USA airs the stages beyond Stage 9. My TV schedule preview through the next 7 days says USA is screening Stage 9 at midnight on Sunday the 9th, so maybe there is hope.

Tessie Devil, Hank may have a better answer for you, but my 2 cents worth is that, over the last 25 years, TV viewing options in the U.S. have changed, and the timing of the broadcasts have, as well.

On cable, sometimes on broadcast TV, and now for me on Dish satellite TV, airings varied throughout the Tour. Some stages started with a 30 minute analysis by commentators before the race began, sometimes the neutral start was shown, with Prudhomme then starting the racing while standing through the sunroof of the Race Director’s car, and occasionally the footage would air with the stage already well underway. The days are tough when the live airing begins at 4:00 AM in the Rocky Mountain time zone, 2 hours earlier than New York and 1 hour later than the Pacific coast states.

And this year’s Tour has a dozen Aussie riders, way more than the 6 Americans and 3 Canadians.

@ Cyn

Thanks for that, I think I have the gist and times.

We have taxpayer funded network, bit like PBS, that broadcasts nationally free to air. Since about 2013 usually starts streaming over the internet nationally from our commentators in France and then TV channel from the time the cyclists line up for the neutral zone. East coast about 8.30pm, (just after stacking the dishwasher) through circa 2 am. West Coast 6.30pm through circa midnight. Get the same for Giro and La Vuelta and some of the day races. Try to be in Perth for many these times. Contracts in place for approx. next 20 years.

Had Liggett and Sherwen as commentators from about 1988 until 2015 approx. Then cameo’s from them. Now just Liggett cameo’s.

Yes, a neat dozen. Simon Clarke got them together on Saturday for a group photo for us. They all may ride for different teams but at the photo op joined together in reminding the English riders, coaches and teams that our cricketers are giving the Poms a right old thrashing. Keeping their priorities in the right order. Hindley and O’Connor are from Perth, hoping they do well.

Regards Ron

My Oz buddy from Perth was on your junior national cycling team. Australian taxpayers regularly sent them to Europe to train. It is absolutely remarkable to me how much greatness there is in Australia in the sporting world given a small population. And doubly so for Western Oz.

I'm in Tahoe at a cabin. There is no cable TV. I have been cobbling together web updates and long form recaps.

When I get home I will watch on Peacock in the mornings, but somewhat passively. I can't plop down for five or six hours first thing in the day - to kinetic a constitution - by 4:00 in the afternoon I would feel depressed if I had sat around ;)

But definitely following with interest

This post sent, by the way, seated on a mountain bike at the top of Tahoe Mountain. After the climb, I stopped to check the tour and the forum. If you never hear from me again, I broke my neck on the downhill track 🙂

Wout was mad at the finish line. Chased down all the late breakaways except for the one that counted :). Happy for Cofidis and the French winning a stage.

Tade and Jonas both look super strong.

Hank, glad you made it down the mountain…

Yes, very happy for Lafay and Cofidis.

Another TV Correction/update:

Things are confusing and confounding. This morning, USA Network was showing Stage 3, and that started at 6:00 my time (MDT)! I was expecting the airing to not happen until Midnight tonight, as the schedule on the TV showed as of a couple nights ago. Allegedly Stage 3 will be rebroadcast at midnight, as indicated already.

There are also indications by Corporate NBC that Stage 9 through the final stage in Paris will only be available on Peacock, yet my TV schedule shows Stage 7 is set to air at 6:00AM on Friday, 7/7; Stage 8 will be at 6:00AM on 7/8; and Stage 9 not until midnight on 7/10; this is followed by Stage 10 supposedly at midnight on 7/12. We’ll see. USA is otherwise primarily focused on showing old episodes Law & Order, Chicago P.D., NASCAR, Pro Wrestling, and other filler.

This is a bit like several years ago, when I spent most of July in France. The French TV would start showing that day’s stage on one channel (France 2 or 3), then abruptly stop the airing, in the middle of the action, with no explanation or sign-off by the announcers. The race would then continue on another channel, either France3 or 2. Sticking with viewers didn’t seem to be a priority.

Watching riders go by, standing at the edge of the road or street does have its benefits, except you just see that moment of the action, and not every close-up, or the end-to-end parts that TV shows.

Woke up to USA showing the Tour! Loved the race, loved the scenery. It was sad to see the tack/nails thrown on the road impacting some of the riders. I hope they get that situation eliminated.

The French TV would start showing that day's stage on one channel
(France 2 or 3), then abruptly stop the airing, in the middle of the
action, with no explanation or sign-off by the announcers. The race
would then continue on another channel, either France3 or 2. Sticking
with viewers didn’t seem to be a priority.

For more than 25 years, the two public channels France 2 and France 3 have shared the broadcast of the Tour de France in this way by switching from one channel to another according to programming needs. And it's still the case this year.

Switching from one channel to another is always announced by commentators. You should ask them to announce it in English as well.. lol

Patty the nails thrown in the road are so bad - it's already soooo dangerous for the riders. Mean.

Jasper the Disaster comes through in the sprint. If I was the head judge I'd have given it to Wout - Jasper really did pinch him interesting into the barrier nearly at the line. I think otherwise. Wout had him.

Wout was smart to let up - similar situation nearly killed Fabio J a few years ago.

Polka dotted Neilson Powless is certainly endearing himself to the crowds with his thumbs ups and peace signs when he win a climb. Definitely doesn't hurt to be liked by the fans and fellow riders.

Me too! His team couldn't get him in position.

The Tour is now solidly in France. Jasper Philipsen wins again! It really helps when a sprinter holds his line as is supposed to happen, but yesterday’s finish was on a curve, with the barriers on the right side encroaching on the course as it neared the finish line (finishing line to Phil Liggett and undoubtedly others out there), so maybe it was hard to judge how far to drift left to stay “straight.” That still was hard on Wout and anyone else on the far right edge near the finish.

Cav got 5th today, one place better than yesterday. American Road Race Champion Quinn Simmons, in his Stars-and-Stripes racing kit, looks positively like Uncle Sam for 4th of July - right down to the long hair!

The nails in the road yesterday were criminal. It was said that street sweepers scour the course before the riders come thru, but it only takes one horrible person afterwards with a supply of nails to ruin things. Glad that riders didn’t have disastrous consequences…this time.

Now one of the remaining things that must be potentially distracting and hazardous for riders is all the people flapping flags right at handlebar or face level. Maybe this is a European thing, as I don’t believe that Americans use this technique much, but for the spectators that were/are on the edges of the roads with national flags, the way they hold and display them is by shaking up and down, like a clumsy Matador challenging a bull, or somebody trying to shake dust or dog hair off of a doormat. Maybe they’re excited, but it doesn’t seem respectful of their flag, or of the riders approaching inches away. Wave your flag, don’t shake it.

It’s still surprising how, on climbs, (most) spectators get out of the way of riders, just in time. Riders must just have to get used to throngs in front of them, parting to give them just enough room to get through just as they reach the wall of humanity in front, while fighting gravity and fatigue on hills. That’s just another thing that separates riders from a casual cyclist. But if a flag gets dropped, or a knee or elbow from a spectator gets in the way, that’s a problem.

I still don’t get the people who run beside riders, yelling at them (encouragement?), or seem to be racing the bike. The runners never beat the rider. And sometimes a police officer ends their run before they’d figured.

Stage 5 coming up next …

Oh, the Alpecin logo on Jasper Philipsen’s jersey … I had a chance to try some Alpecin shampoo at a place we stayed at in Ireland back in May. It’s really blue, like Dawn dish detergent, but not nearly as thick. It says to leave it in for at least 2 minutes, to absorb the caffeine into the hair, and the longer the better.

It gets hair clean, but I can’t say the caffeine seemed to make much difference, at least using it only 2 or 3 times. It certainly didn’t keep my hair up at night.

I don't know all the sponsor companies, probably half. Alpecin though I know, caffeine shampoo. I wonder if it absorbs into the scalp.

Jasper the Disaster back to back! And on a disaster-ridden stage to boot. Maybe he is growing out of his nickname.

Fabio Jakobson crashed at about 40 mph but was able to ride away. In just the little thin layer of lycra - might as well be naked. His road rash looked terrible. These guys are so tough ....

I am also rooting for Cav, his team needs to get him into position better so he can win a stage! Although the youngsters are setting a blistering pace - hard for the old guys to keep up lol. Sagan is a non-entity this year, his last. Something is up with Wout, for sure, he's barely there - has the team decided Vingegaard is their guy? Hills the next few days, Powless can pick up some more points perhaps..

I read somewhere, last year I think, that it is simply not possible to barricade an entire stage - not only the time, cost, and equipment to place 100+ miles of barricades, but also the terrain in some spots simply is not conducive to barricades and leaving enough road to race on. So organizers try to cover the places they think most of the spectators will be. But agree, not sure what these spectators are thinking, jumping out next to the cyclists and waving banners.

Hopefully someone will have cellphone video of whoever tossed the tacks on the road. That's crazy. Not sure that's ever happened before.

The spectator behavior is traditionally a part of the event. The tour itself has shown in promotional material fans running next to riders, and the sea of people parting on the climbs. This has been happening for generations.

It does seem like in the past couple of years there's been more focus on better fan behavior, at least to the extent that they don't want people to interfere. But overall the fan behavior is to an extent a monster of the TdF's own creation. They not only tolerated it for a very long time, they may be even tacitly endorsed it.

@ Hank

On the two previous stages I dropped of to sleep just around midnight. Not this morning.

Crown Princess Mary of Denmark (Supermodel and super mum) and Prince Christian get a 1 and 2.

It is a sandgroper for me.

Regards Ron

Another cycling fan. I'm playing in my 10th year of TDF fantasy league. Had to can Cav after he didn't win stage 4. Hated to do it but I think that was his best shot. Next year the Tour will not end in Paris... Nice here I come.

Another fun documentary ... I think Netflix but maybe YouTube... One Day Ahead.

“not possible to barricade an entire stage”… I agree. I’m saying near the top of the steep, narrow mountain roads. That’s where the majority go to watch because the riders are slow there because it’s so steep and it’s easy to see them and be as close to them as you want. Just because it’s always been done doesn’t mean it should continue. It’s very dangerous and rider's safety should be the priority.

Since I have worked a few years on the Tour de France and other races (but not by installing barricades), just to clarify that the Tour de France organization is only responsible for the barricades of the last kilometers at the finish and those in the most important sections or mountain passes.

The teams install tons of barricades every day in specific places defined for months by the organization.

After the arrival of the stage, they uninstall and transport them in the evening and at night to reinstall them from 5 a.m. at the next stage.

The other barricades are the responsibility of cities and local authorities who obviously do not have enough equipment and employees to install kilometers of barricades on the roads for which they are responsible. And anyway there would not be enough gendarmes and policemen to make sure that people stay behind these barricades

@ Donna

Maybe a rethink. Cav's old lead out man Renshaw was a special guest on our broadcast. Has been part of our special comment's team for the Giro and some monuments, In France as special coach for Cav's train. Told us last night that Friday sprint was the goal.

Regards Ron

JoLui, i’m talking about barricades only on the steep mountain climbs. Not the whole route.

One thing to maybe remember w/ barricades is that there is such an enormous number of them, some are inevitably installed by crews who know nothing.about cycling and don't care. And they can't do all state of the art, cutting edge cycle racing barricades everywhere - too expensive, they don't store as closely together so trucking from stage to stage is a problem.

These two things together, careless workers and old style barricades, actually cause some significant number of crashes, probably more than fans do. You see the fan caused crashes on the news more, but probably half of the time when a cyclist crashes into or over a barricade. It's because the barricade is old style and poorly installed. Many cycles feel like it's safer when there's just a road, not a wavering line of trip-sticks on both sides.

I don't necessarily disagree with restricting the fans on climbs, although it does change the character of the race. The Tour should not be too sanitary - it's not an exercise contest, it's a bike race (not mine but rather a common saying).

I'm nowhere even the remotest bit close to being a TdF caliber cyclist, but if I was I would want the fans parting last second on the Alpe de Huez. It must be an other worldly experience you suffering and grinding, and all of those people just flipping out of their minds. Screaming go go go. You wouldn't forget that, ever.

Oh, and looking forward to the women when they TdF! That tiny little Dutch one AVV is the GOAT - fun to watch her pound out her legacy, like a tiny blonde sledgehammer :)

I see it differently, it’s a bike race, not a dodge the idiots in the road getting in your face obstacle course.

As far as barricade accidents go, i’d like to see the stats on what you say. I’ve watched every TdF for 22 yrs now and a rider hitting the foot of a barricade is not as common as a spectator or another rider or rain causing an accident.
And a rider that gets too close to the side of a barricade and goes down or over the barricade is either the rider’s fault or another rider’s fault… not the fault of the barricade.

Sorry, it has nothing to do with the sport, but just to clarify for Susan that it is technically, financially and physically impossible to install barricades even only in steep mountain climbs, it would represent several tens of thousands of barricades on certain stages.

You have to realize that just for the 3 or 4 km of specific barricades installed by XPO Logistics, the official carrier of the TdF, and which are moved every day from stage to stage, this requires several dozen large trucks and more than a hundred guys.

And that's just part of what is moved and installed every day by more than 1,000 people. To get a little insight:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X8an0jw6_E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIay7iKe8T0

I hear you JoLui. My priority, if i were in charge, would be barricades on steep climbs before anywhere else.

if i were in charge, would be barricades on steep climbs before
anywhere else.

In a mountain stage there are tens of kilometers of steep climbs and hundreds of thousands of people on the sides of the road
This would involve finding, transporting, installing and assembling several tens of thousands of barricades (even more than 100,000)
and to start again the next day if it is also a mountain stage.

As I said it is materially and financially impossible. Also it's not in the spirit of TdF which is a popular (and free) show in which, whatever you do, you can't keep people behind barricades.

If one is concerned for the well-being of bicycle stage racers, then speed control in dangerous downhill areas has to be primary. That's where death and life altering injury happens, although Fabio Jakobson got really close clipping a barrier two years ago.

But it's not going to happen, except perhaps in the most limited of circumstances. Because it's not an exercise contest, it's a bicycle race, on public roads, with many hazards, dangers and distractions. The team cars and camera motorcycles cause problems. More than anything else other riders cause problems, often out of aggression or just plain screwing up. Sudden curbs and islands and speed bumps. Rain, snow, wind, hail, heat.

You can't bubble wrap all of it, and you can't police all of it. To me there's something distinctly American about trying to do so. But the TdF hits me as elementally European in the way that it's pragmatically hands-off with most potential issues where the USA would go hands on.

Anyway, reasonable people certainly can disagree on this stuff :)

@TassieDevil …. If only Renshaw was still his lead out! I heard an interview with Mark and he was so upbeat but Cav has a ton younger legs competing against him. I'll be cheering for Cav but he's not on my fantasy team anymore.

On barricades ... what do the competitors say? Nothing freaks me out more then watching them get close to those darn barricade "feet" sticking out.

I would love to be one of those fans screaming on the Alpe d'Huez! My dream trip.

I’d love to be at the climb on Alpe d’Huez too, that’d be fun.

Re: barricades… i meant at the top of climbs, like the Alpe d’Huez. But i understand what you’re saying JoLui.

Has anyone watched the documentary of the TdF on Netflix? I’ve only watched one episode so far, will watch the rest after this TdF.

Tade P showed strength today! I'm glad he took some time back from JV in a head to head battle.

We have race on our hands!

Of course Pogacar won today. He never did his share of pulling. He just sat. So no surprise at his jump in the last to win.
The real hero of today, and yesterday, has been Wout van Aert.

Tadej KOM'ed the Tourmalet today! Literally fastest anyone has every cycled up it, ever. He's on form for sure.

Stage 6 - what a fantastic race! Strategy, effort, stamina, and skill were all involved today. Vingegaard was so phenomenal yesterday. He’s a fantastic climber, and has the backing of the #1 placed team (so far) in this year’s Tour. But Pogacar won the day. But Vingegaard won the yellow jersey. And Powless reclaimed the KOM polka-dot jersey. And there’s more than two weeks of racing to go, so things have only just begun. Out of the punishing Pyrenees now, so that’s behind the riders. Don’t count Aussie Jai Hindley out - he’s still riding well and there’s more TdF to come.

Wout Van Aert gave 100% today, and will certainly continue being designated as the Most Combative rider - he’s not doing a cruise in the park, that’s for sure. And his fellow 28-year-old teammate, Sepp Kuss, what a huge job he’s done, as well. i believe he could be a GC contender, if he wasn’t already supporting the GC defending Champ from last year. The jump he made over the cattle guard on Stage 5 was phenomenal, at speed, and sticking the landing!

After getting torn up in Stage 5, I was glad to see Quinn Simmons riding solidly on Stage 6. With the nasty road rash on his left shoulder, arm, and backside yesterday, he unfortunately had a lot of extra red in his red, white, and blue theme. Stage 6, the descent at over 60 miles per hour the riders were doing, down narrow streets in the town after the Tourmalet, was just incredible. i’m sure glad a stray dog didn’t wanted into the street at the wrong time.

Tadej Pogacar seems to really enjoy being on his bike. He doesn’t look as serious as many of the other riders, although he’s clearly serious about what he’s doing. He just made things look easy today - as easy as possible, under the circumstances.

The finish on Thursday’s stage, Cauterets Cambasque, apparently has fabulous Nordic and Alpine skiing. It’s just barely inside the French border. It might make a wonderful wi yer vacation destination … hmmmmm.

So my latest rant about stupid spectators:

Stage 5 had one guy holding up a sign for the camera pointing back at the leaders to show. At least he was out of the way of the cyclists (unlike the woman who knocked down riders with her sign saying hi to her grandparents on Stage 1 two years ago), but it was some kind of corporate logo, not cheering on riders or some personal message. Maybe it was a soccer team’s logo, I’m not sure. I guess he accomplished his task - maybe his life is now complete.

Just as Pogacar made his kick to jump ahead of Vingegaard and win Stage 6, a fool was running alongside the two leading bikes, holding aloft a colored smoke flare. I’ve posted about those flares before, and it seems they’re popular for some European soccer spectators. I don’t get it. They’re in the same category as an air horn - just obnoxious, and not helpful. I have to imagine that anyone sitting in a stadium anywhere near the smoke bomb flare is subjected to unpleasant (dangerous?) smoke and sparks - what does that do to a cyclist who’s breathing hard on a 10% climb? And running alongside Pogacar with his hand-held firework - maybe that helped Pogi decide to accelerate away from the situation. Why limit yourself to a polluting flare? If the clown really wanted to name a statement to prove his existence at the site, how about spraying a fire extinguisher around? He could aim it right at victims, if that was his intent. I’m reminded of Deep Purple’s song “Smoke on the Water,” describing where, during a Frank Zappa concert, the casino in Montreaux was burned down by “some Stupid with a flare gun.”

Not to be outdone, some idiots tossed a bunch of confetti in the air, right in front of Pogacar near the end, captured by the camera following him. Pogi had stuck his sunglasses into his helmet at that point, so his eyes were unprotected. The close-ups of him, after he’d crossed the finish line, showed bits of the confetti stuck to his sweaty arm. Imagine if Pogi had gotten flakes stuck in his eye, or had inhaled some while breathing hard during his final push to the finish! And littering tge race course with bits of plastic isn’t nice, either. Hopefully confetti doesn’t become a “Thing” for spectators now. I’d not seen that before; hopefully it won’t happen again.

Great recap Cyn!

I hope NP wins the KOM jersey, but I don't think he will. He's not hanging with the elite climbers on the steepest longest climbs, but rather strategically picking off the low points climbs.

It seems like Sepp Kuss could win the KOM jersey - he's an incredible climber, own many iconic Strava KOM. Maybe not in the course of a stage race? Or too busy doing work for Vingegaard.

I agree Tadej looks loose and happy. The way his hair is always sticking up through his helmet is charming - gives a slightly disheveled look that belies his ability to crush watts for loooong stretches.

Hesitate to bring it up, but doping? The fastest rider are now smoking the times of the Lance Armstrong, Bjarne Riis (the guy was a 6' tall chemical cocktail!) super doped generation.

They say better bikes, zone training, accurate power meters are making these riders the fastest of all time. Some people doubt it ....

I don't know what to thing, probably not I guess.

But I would not be knocked over with a feather if some new form of doping was involved with all of the record smashing in the past 3 years ....

Cav missed by that much.

New nickname:

Jasper the Sprint Master

What a huge motor. Cav can still win through his characteristic guile, but Jasper seems to have a 1500 watt blowdryer in each leg.

Three stage wins out of seven, hats off to JP

Cav almost snuck it across, hopefully next time he gets the chance it comes together just a little bit better for him.

Wait now, just read that Cav's gears were skipping. When I was watching it did look like he wasn't in quite a high enough gear as he got passed. Liggett attributed it to him running out of gas, but turns out he couldn't grab enough resistance to push hard against.

“Unfortunately, I had a problem with gears when I was sprinting,” the
Astana Qazaqstan star told the press after finishing second. “It went
from the 11 [sprocket] to the 12. I had to sit down, and back to the
11, I had to stand up, then back to the 12.”

Tough break - poor guy's said he is "pretty devastated" and it just feels like maybe it's not meant to be.

The failure is either on the mechanics or the drivetrain ....

Just checked, Astana runs a Shimano Dura Ace drivetrain. No way Dura Ace malfunctioned - shifting must have been out of tune or got out of tune during the ride. And it's electronic shifting, so almost impossible that it got out of tune as Cav rode like a cable derailleur can.... So tough, poor Cav

Oh no! Cav out after a crash. Looks like a collarbone?

“Hesitate to bring it up, but doping?”

I hesitated too and bit my tongue, but i do believe some are doping. I lived through all the years Lance denied it and doping seems the only explanation for some of the top riders extraordinary, record breaking results. Doping is always one step ahead of testing.

Haven’t watched today’s Stage yet… but i’m devastated to hear Cav crashed.

Maybe Cav returns next year, notwithstanding retirement talk. Might not want to quit on an injury.

Mads P's wheelhouse uphill sprint. His team called the stage win for him as soon as course announced. Guess they know their riders pretty well.

Good point Hank, i’d love if Cav came back next year… we’ll see.

It would be nice Susan :)

Well, the USA network is showing stages at midnight MDT, more than 12 hours after the stage has ended. Stage 8 did not air at 6:00AM, so the TV guide schedule from a few days ago was inaccurate. Still, one isn’t required now to purchase Peacock, unless you want to see more coverage, and much earlier, than the 12:00 AM offering. At this point, NBC is apparently not going to air the final stage in Paris on its main broadcast channel. Haven’t they showed that last stage, even if no others, for years now? Maybe they don’t see a prime market for airing the last stage on “free” TV. We’ll see.

What a shame about Cav’s crash. The shoulder-to-shoulder fluctuation in the Peloton at the 38 mile to go mark didn’t seem to have created any disaster - at least in the initial aerial footage, but Cav was the one casualty. And he was so close the day before. He’d said he never felt more ready in his entire career, and with a good lead-out and no mechanical issues, a sprint win sure looked likely in the coming 2 weeks for him. There’s a fine, fragile line in bike racing between fortune and tragedy, and Cav got the wrong side of the equation. He won the last day of the Giro this year, and was all set to score a stage win at le Tour. Wrong place at the wrong time. yesterday. Maybe he’ll delay his retirement, and there’s still talent in the aging legs. He’ll need a team, though.

Wout got boxed in, or he truly might’ve won yesterday’s stage. Wrong place, wrong time for him, too. Mads timed his acceleration just right, and held off everybody on his long, long sprint. Good for him, but the day wasn’t so good for others.

Neilson Powless will need to stay up front for the Cat 4 climbs on Stage 9, to gain those KOM points, as he might not be scoring points on the HC finish. Tadej is not far behind in KOM at the moment. He was funny the other day when, after his 10th career Tour stage win, he said, “Watch out M - - -.”I couldn’t tell if he said Mark or Mercx, and it was all in jest, but if he remains healthy, he’s got many more tears to work on getting stage win 34, or even 35.

Christian Vande Velde was hilarious, scarfing bacon and potatoes on the back of the moto. “Don’t go too fast, or I’ll drop my potatoes!”

I’ll try to avoid status spoilers, as midnight is some time from now. Happy following of the Tour, everyone, however, whenever, and wherever you do it!

Neilson Powless will need to stay up front for the Cat 4 climbs on
Stage 9, to gain those KOM points, as he might not be scoring points
on the HC finish.

I suspected NP wasn't the best climber and it showed today. He got lit up by many others. I don't think his opportunism will be enough to win the KOM jersey.

GC wise, we got a race! Fun

Astana has offered a contract extension to Cav - no info on what he will do though. Broken collarbone, dislodged a pin he already had in there. Yikes.

I also think Vande Velde is great on the "moto" - he has a camaraderie with all the teams that none of the previous reporters did and it shows. Porino is doing a good job with "man on the ground" spots. I also like the studio team with the addition of Bewley in particular.

I’m glad that Mark Cavendish has an option. I hope that Astana can provide him a lead-out team that would allow him to make his move up front, with a clear path to the finish line, with enough energy left to complete the sprint task. If anybody could get a win next year, at that age, it’s Cav, should he reconsider retiring.

We were on the Isle of Man in 2018, and there was a big bike race that day. They handed out a bunch of little Manx flags near the start line in Douglas, the capital city. I got about a yard away from Cav, as he was being interviewed before the race (which I believe he won). Reminiscent of being about 2 feet from Aussie sprinter Robbie McEwen being interviewed after the first Tour de France stage I saw live, in Saint-Briuc, Brittany. Robbie the Rocket raced until he was 40, so Cav is a virtual kid by comparison.

Stupid Spectator notice for Stage 9: The guy with the clothesline of purple bike jerseys that collapsed right as the peloton came by. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cY9SsRmJtMU His “artwork” (enthusiastic display?) dropped onto Lilian Calmejane’s bike, knocking him down. As the cyclist got up and tried to untangle the jerseys and the rope from his bike and handlebars, the owner of the laundry mess casually wandered out to retrieve it. Calejane was surpassingly calm under the circumstances, and just threw the last wad of jersey material near the offender, clearly annoyed. He walked away a meter or two to get back on his bike, but had a choice final word or two in French, I’m sure, for the clueless dolt and his jersey display. Wave jerseys around if that’s your thing, fine, but make sure they’re not going to get tangled up in a racer’s bike. The Tour leader gets a yellow jersey; this guy should get the Most Stupid Spectator of the Day jersey (or a Dunce cap - to replace his silly polka-dot bucket hat that was probably a giveaway thrown from the Caravan of advertisers that precedes the riders by about an hour), then have to wear it for a month. Rant over.

The Stage 12 spectators were a surprise. I didn’t expect so many people waving Japanese flags from the sides of the road. It was a while before I could see those were actually a red heart on the white flags, and the word, “Beaujolais” in black, above the heart. Somebody was giving out (or selling) a huge number of those flags.

Today’s Bastille Day! There will be heightened desire for a French rider to win the stage on the French national holiday. I expect there will be more spectators than if it weren’t a holiday.

Poj nibble nibble nibbling back time.

Only seconds per bite, but JV must be somewhat demoralized that repeatedly now when Tade pushed he can't quite keep up!

To borrow from Jaws, JV is gonna need a bigger team?

The Jumbo Visma boat motors seem to be Wout van Aert and Sepp Kuss, and they appear to have phenomenal power. The Emirates riders have done some pulling of the pack, but with Wout at the beginning and Sepp towards the end of stages, it has been astounding to see their endurance and power. Sepp’s near the Top 10 in the overall standings.

But Tadej has undeniable acceleration, and Jonas knows it. The times that Vingegaard is leading Pogacar, he’s checking over his shoulder with every pedal revolution, anticipating Tadej’s attack, and trying to keep up.

What a cruel weekend for so many riders.

Saturday’s Stage 14:

Massive crash early in the stage, with horrible injuries to so many riders.

Neilson Powless hung in on initial KOM climbs, not winning any, but scoring done concession points. The surges by Giuliano Ciccone on his Trek bike gained him lots of KOM places today, and he was clearly the top climber on the initial climbs. But as the group with Vingegaard and Pogacar overtook Ciccone, who burned up lots of energy riding on a lone breakaway with lots of climbing to come, it was the two GC contenders who had the most to gain. There are those who think the KOM, polka-dot jersey and all, is an amusing marketing scheme, generating more interest in the Tour, selling lots of dotted merchandise and gaining publicity for the KOM sponsor, currently the Lidl grocery store chain. Because the most severe, highest, hardest mountains are towards the end of the 3 week race, and that’s when the GC favorites are up front, scoring major KOM points, anyone who topped the relative hills in the early stages aren’t going to place highly in the end. At the end of Stage 14, Neilson was now tied for first place in the KOM with Vingegaard. But the tiebreaker puts Vingegaard in the top spot, not something he was even vying for, and so Nielsen will still wear the polka-dot jersey for Stage 15, since Vingegaard’s yellow jersey will will supersede him wearing the spotted jersey. Vingegaard’s daughter Frida, who will be 3 years old in two months, is enjoying getting every new toy lion he wins with each stage finish in Yellow.

The 2 motorcycles with still and video cameras, not providing adequate distance when Pogacar made his move to bypass Vingegaard, was try interference with the race. There were still 8 miles to the finish, which would’ve been a long way to stay out in front of Vingegaard, but the physical and psychological advantage it might’ve given Pogacar were neutralized by the inattentive motos. Tadej clearly hitting his brake handles, and mouthing, “Oh, F**k!” showed his disappointment at being held up not by encroaching fans or mechanical failure, but by clueless employees working the race.

Interesting that Tadej didn’t curse in Slovenian. English has become such a universal language in Europe, and apparently among racing teams, that even swearing is done in English. Maybe the French riders still use “Merde!” English four-letter words now rule with everyone else, it seems.

Vingegaard gained one extra second on Pogacar in the end, so he leads by a whole 10 seconds after 2 weeks of racing. Technical Win today for Vingegaard, but possibly a psychological win for Pogacar?

Oh, with his hard riding and phenomenal pace setting for Vingegaard, Sepp Kuss moved up to 6th place overall at the end of Stage 14!

And Spaniard rookie, Carlos Rodriguez, moves onto the podium in 3rd place at the moment, with a blazing decent to the finish. Climbing ability is one thing, but maybe descending is the real bike racing skill - if you remain upright and don’t crash at 60 MPH!

Sunday’s Stage 15:

Attrition is showing, with lots of abandonments. Yesterday’s huge crash injured so many riders. Fatigue and disillusionment are taking a toll, too. Caleb Ewen didn’t even finish a couple days ago. He got banged up a crash, but didn’t seem more injured than others who are still riding. Did he just give up, or is he more severely hurt than it seemed? Hope he makes a speedy recovery, as well as the riders who have been taken away by ambulance!

Looks like 19 riders out at the start of Stage 15, 8 of them taken out on Stage 14.

Now the spectator in a white hat, sticking his arm out to record riders that had gone past him, hooks Sepp Kuss, knocking down Kuss and many others. No effect on the spectator, who’s nowhere to be seen 5 seconds later, but Sepp’s arm is subsequently bandaged. He still was there to help haul his team captain up Mt. Blanc.

Wout van Aert goes ahead of Tadej this time, trying for a stage win. Gets second. Still no stage win. Another Belgian, Wout Poels, gets his first ever Tour stage win, on his 10th Tour de France. Others finish ahead of the two leaders.

The two leaders, Jonas and Tadej, trade attacks right at the end, and finish neck and neck. Tadej finishes just ahead (by a neck), with no difference in time. Rest day on Monday, then Time Trial on Tuesday. We’ll see who has the faster TT.

Maybe this Tour will get settled by a sprint finish on the Champs in Paris? If a spectator doesn’t take out riders in the meantime.

Spectators have been a constant nightmare. It seems like they are worse on the tour. Is that even possible?
Part of the charm of the race is the way it's run and that you can be out on the course but affecting the outcome is total crap. It's hard enough just to make the miles.

“ Another Belgian, Wout Poels, gets his first ever Tour stage win, on his 10th Tour de France”

Even though he shares the same first name with the famous other Wout, Wout Poels is most definitely not a Belgian…. :-)

Mack, I don't know, but look at society in general. It's all about me, me, me.

Spectators interfering with the race should be subject to a minimum 30 days in jail and $10,000 fine. Period. Enough already.

And the Tour director needs to look at whether all of the motorbikes are really necessary.

Even though he shares the same first name with the famous other Wout,
Wout Poels is most definitely not a Belgian…. :-)

It's remarkable how many Dutch cyclists are great climbers, must come from going up and down all those bridges over the canals :)

Well, Wout Poels comes from the southeastern part of our country; the province of Limburg. No canals at all there, but plenty of hills. Contrary to popular belief, the Netherlands isn’t totally flat or completely below sea level.
Yes it’s true, we don’t have high mountains like the Alps, but we do have areas with lots of hills. However since these hilly areas are located in the eastern/southeastern part of the country, they seem to be completely unknown to a lot of tourists who tend to flock in their masses to a only few cities in the western part of our country.

The mountain time trial should be a banger! TP has never beaten JV in any time trial in any race.

I rode a part of this stage last summer (if you guessed the flatter part, you are a winner :). Pretty country, pretty towns, but the racers won't notice.

TP looked thrashed at the end of Stage 15, while JV looked calm and fresh. After the "rest day" (aka just 60 or so miles of fast cycling to keep the leg loose) all should be reset.

It has to be a big advantage in a way to go last - The coach in your earpiece can tell you how you're doing related to everyone else.

Also, if you've never laid down on tri bars, time trialing is scary! These riders are in a incredibly "slammed" position, upper bodies really low and laid out. Not at all optimal for handling but super aerodynamic. The most aero position is looking straight down, top of helmet facing forward. They're often pedaling blind, sometimes exceeding 40 mph, watching the pavement zoom by, listening to coaches countdown turns: "90 degrees to the left in 100m ... 50m ... 10m ....". It's terrifying to me! I have no idea how they keep eye down and pedal as hard as they can like missiles leading with their heads.

These guys are warriors and a little broken with the obsession of competition. Tough kids

Wout Poels is most definitely not a Belgian

Sorry, let me try that again… Another Wout, the Dutch Wout Poels, gets his first ever Tour stage win …

Tour monkeys is what I call these rude spectators. You can see them, a wide stance, their arms wide and pumping while they do little hops up and down, standing crosswise in the road. Showing that Europeans have no more class than the “loud, rude, American” stereotype.
Don’t be that guy.

Wout Van Aert is an absolute beast putting in the time he did on a time trial with big climbs. He weighs 40lbs more than Vingegaard and Pogachar! It's absolutely amazing how much raw power he puts down over long periods of time.

I don't think he's going to win the TT, but my goodness what an effort for the big guy up the hill

JV is bone, will, and cycling muscle. It's unbelievable how fast he was! TP smoked everybody else and wasn't even close.

Also, did you see how JV necked the recovery drink? I bet he did that the fastest as well 😂

Now he's got almost 2 minutes on TP. Looking grim for Croatia but it's still a race

“I’m gone. I’m dead.” - poor Tadej! He broke today, 7 minutes behind Vingegaard now for the yellow!

https://www.eurosport.com/cycling/tour-de-france/2023/tadej-pogacar-implodes-as-jonas-vingegaard-closes-on-second-tour-de-france-title-felix-gall-wins-sta_sto9708858/story.shtml

Yep Tade cracked. I feel bad for him. But Jonas rode a perfect time trial, and it was a MONSTER mountain stage today.

Race for 2nd and 3rd should prove interesting!

Takes a little wind out of my sails now that the champion is determined. For awhile this was the best Tour since the Lance years.

I'm not sure I've ever seen someone fall so dramatically since Miguel Indurain in 1995 or so. Big Mig looks great at 59 and lives a quiet life on a farm, mostly avoiding pro cycling teams and events.

https://www.cyclist.co.uk/in-depth/miguel-indurain-cyclist

You can purchase one of his winning Tour de France bikes for 75,000 pounds.

Susan, yeah, it's always in the back of my mind. Greg LeMond has a lot to say about this, and how at the end of his career others would pass him by on the bike with seemingly little effort as he was dying to keep up.

To misquote Michael Stipe, everybody bonks sometimes.

Pog bonked, happens. Happened to Lance a few times, and he was doping at the time.

Bonking sucks! But once you get into that glycogen deficit, there's not a hell of a lot you can do about it. Drink a lot of water, try to eat, suffer a lot and hang in ....

Second Shimano related fiasco happened today (first was Cav's gears skipping). Snapped chain in the course of normal riding. And then the support crew repeatedly blew it.

It's making me think twice about Shimano! Probably just bad luck, but SRAM and Campy haven't had similar issues this tour ....

that chain break was crazy, and the fact that none of the bikes on the neutral support car had the right pedals (that seemed to be the issue) is even crazier.

I wish Le Tour had more dramatic mountaintop finishes in the final week. Or a team time trial.

Had the time trial been on an earlier stage, with the same results, I wonder how that would’ve changed strategies for everybody. Tadej having to catch up, but more stages ahead to do so. Jonas Vingegaard having to maintain his lead, looking over his shoulder a million times. waiting to see when Tadej was going to jump ahead.

Jonas doesn’t have to think about gutting fish anymore. As a consecutive 2-time Tour winner, his fish processing days are likely a thing of the past.

A broken spoke on Carlos Rodriguez’s bike - with him speeding on a curve on a descent, and Sepp Kuss immediately behind him, sure led to a bad result for both of them. I’m surprised it just resulted in Sepp with a J-shaped bandage on his face, and a lot of lost time, and not a much worse injury.

Cyn, good thoughts.

Something I learned from this year’s Tour, the term pannekoeken. Pronounced “panna kooken,” it’s the Dutch word for a German pancake, or a Dutch Baby. German has Pfannkuchen. Norwegian also has pannekaken. For bike racers it means a goofball.

In his interview after the Stage 15 win, Wout Poels said that after he got into the lead group, ahead of the peloton, he had to try to win, because he didn’t want to be a pannekoeken. Turns out that’s a racer who spends energy to jump out front for a moment, without any chance to make something out of it. That can also mean somebody who’s just being silly and not helping the cause.

Lance Armstrong and George Hincapie have a podcast called The Move. They did daily analysis of each stage. They frequently assert that one rider or another is being a pannekoeken at some point. That term must get thrown around by riders all the time, when the situation warrants it.

Pannekuchen - a useful term.

Cyn, good stuff. Thanks for sharing. As Johnny Carson used to say, "I did not know that."

The Lance and George podcast is outstanding, perhaps the best out there.

Every time I think I'm pretty good at understanding bike racing something else comes up I didn't know about. If you haven't checked out "Unchained" on Netflix I'd recommend it. It was telling that the manager of Jasper the Disaster's team didn't think the nickname was so funny in that forgetting your helmet, gloves, water bottle, etc. gets old after awhile. Looks like Jasper has gotten the message and redeemed himself! I suspect he just grew up.

Susan and Hank, Cav might be getting a little on the old side to continue to be a top-flight sprinter. I hope not. He would be 39 next year.

Thanks to all of you for your comments and commentary, they really helped make it more fun for me. I was so disheartened after they moved to Peacock. I still watched as many of the highlights as I could, but your “color commentary” added a lot.

You could be right Mike, although there have been quite a few top riders in their 40s over the years. Being older isn’t what took Cav out of this year’s tour, and i’m sad for him that he didn’t get his 35 wins.

Great news, Astana has offered Mark Cavendish to join their team for next year’s TdF if he wants it.