TDF stage 18: Embrun-Valloire 208 km

MPFGLB

Cyclign Mole view https://twitter.com/cyclingmole/status/1154423712218832896?s=20


Article from Cycling Tips
https://cyclingtips.com/2018/03/time-finally-ban-tramadol-cycling-pharmacists-view/

MPFGLB

Also rumour that AICAR is back in the Tour peloton ...but too difficult to test for as naturally occurring

https://cyclingtips.com/2013/04/the-new-epo-gw1516-aicar-and-their-use-in-cycling/

at1withmyself

Really enjoying the Tour this year, shame about Dan today but hopefully they can figure out the issues and he might come good later in the season.

Really impressed by Bardet & Quintana today, both looking to get something out of the tour. Hopefully now there is a good fight for the Polka Dot Jersey for the next 2 days alongside the Yellow Jersey.

Strange to see so many of the Sky domestics doing so poorly this year????? Will we see a Giro repeat on Saturday where they all suddenly come good, maybe they're all just riding into Fitness at the moment!

Inquitus

at1withmyself wrote: »

Really enjoying the Tour this year, shame about Dan today but hopefully they can figure out the issues and he might come good later in the season.

Really impressed by Bardet & Quintana today, both looking to get something out of the tour. Hopefully now there is a good fight for the Polka Dot Jersey for the next 2 days alongside the Yellow Jersey.

Strange to see so many of the Sky domestics doing so poorly this year????? Will we see a Giro repeat on Saturday where they all suddenly come good, maybe they're all just riding into Fitness at the moment!

Aye the Ineos train is non existent, but JA looks very vulnerable and both Bernal and Thomas are best placed to capitalise. I do think they need to drop him on one of the penultimate climbs in the next 2 stages, that said they could take 45 secs on both MTF's and still overturn the deficit. Bernal seems the stronger of the 2 but he also seems to be going off script and riding for himself and not for Thomas, could make for some interesting internecine rivalry!

Alaphilippe apparently had disk brakes on his bike today - the others in that group who he caught back up with were on rims.
Very advantageous for late-braking in descents.

equivariant

glasso wrote: »

Alaphilippe apparently had disk brakes on his bike today - the others in that group who he caught back up with were on rims.
Very advantageous for late-braking in descents.

Ya. You could see quite clearly from the overhead shot as he was riding through the group that he was braking later than most of them. Not sure if he has been riding discs on other stages but I think that he definitely had planned to take time on today's descent. I could see the same thing happening on the Col de l'Iseran tomorrow - even if he loses a minute on the climb he has a 15k descent to get it back. I'd imagine that he will be planning to use that to save some energy for the final summit finish - he needs to squeeze out every little advantage he can at this stage

Dr. Bre

Would love JA to win but he lost contact on the Galibier towards the end and it wasn’t cos of attacks . Is Quintana too far down at nearly 4 minutes? Surely he pays the price tomorrow for being in the breakaway today !

retalivity

Dr. Bre wrote: »

Would love JA to win but he lost contact on the Galibier towards the end and it wasn’t cos of attacks . Is Quintana too far down at nearly 4 minutes? Surely he pays the price tomorrow for being in the breakaway today !

I can see quintana going again tomorrow, either because hes riding into form or part of some kamikaze movistar team tactics.

neris

Because waiting for the race to come by takes hours (and your probably half cut aswell)

https://twitter.com/tdfbeefeaters/status/1154477794488799232?s=19

dastardly00

^^^^
That's hilarious

I was on the Oude Kwaremont for the Tour of Flanders this year and a lot of people were well oiled. Most of it was harmless fun and good craic but there were the odd idiots.

One incident was when a women, who was either very drunk or very, very hot in the sunshine, decided to flash her b00bs whilst sitting on top of the shoulders of a guy :pac:

jack01986

equivariant wrote: »

Ya. You could see quite clearly from the overhead shot as he was riding through the group that he was braking later than most of them. Not sure if he has been riding discs on other stages but I think that he definitely had planned to take time on today's descent. I could see the same thing happening on the Col de l'Iseran tomorrow - even if he loses a minute on the climb he has a 15k descent to get it back. I'd imagine that he will be planning to use that to save some energy for the final summit finish - he needs to squeeze out every little advantage he can at this stage

I wouldn't be surprised to see him give that descent a good go, it is very fast coming down this side with some tricky hairpins and some long straights. Should make good watching!

Raymzor

Why didn’t Pinot follow Bernal?

the.red.baron

Raymzor wrote: »

Why didn’t Pinot follow Bernal?

i'm sure if he could he would


its not that easy


why didn't the rest?


what happens one day affects how much you can give the next


People say quintana gets better as the race goes on, but typically hes already out of the race like yesterday so has nothing to lose and is left go


one thing affects the other

geotrig

He was also watching Thomas so if he followed bernal ,G could have launched a counter at some point.

the.red.baron

at that gradient and speed does it really matter


one person on their own isnt going to lose much so holding a wheel isn't much of advantage


if he or thomas could have followed they would, pinot even mentioned he doesn't like the heat



same with the descent


not as much benefit of being in a group there


its about not blowing up knowing the descent is to follow

geotrig

yes ,fully agree but he also didnt know how serious an attack was coming from Bernal , Thomas being the leader and The GC highest placed he had to stay with him for all he knew the bernal attack was a ply to get him to react and blow up on a coutner by Thomas or maybe I'm giving them all too much credit. He also knew he had 2 more days as well.

Angliru

Pinot said he wasn't feeling too great and could not follow Bernal.

walshb

Stage 19 kicking off shortly?

Edit

The 19th stage of the 2019 Tour de France starts at 13.55 and the race is expected to finish around 17.35 – both are local times.

walshb

walshb wrote: »

Stage 19 kicking off shortly?

Edit

The 19th stage of the 2019 Tour de France starts at 13.55 and the race is expected to finish around 17.35 – both are local times.

yes starts at 12:55pm Irish time.