Tour de France 2020 general thread (SPOILERS GALORE)

North of 32

The Buster wrote: »

Carlton rambling on about his book again! Anyone read it. I presume not worth reading!

Read it last year while on holiday. Pool-side pamphlet. The only parts I remember enjoying were the stories about Sean Kelly.

Inquitus

North of 32 wrote: »

Read it last year while on holiday. Pool-side pamphlet. The only parts I remember enjoying were the stories about Sean Kelly.

Have you read Sean's Autobiography Hunger? Would highly recommend. Also Charly Wegelius, Domestique: The Real-life Ups and Downs of a Tour Pro,The Flying Scotsman: The Graeme Obree Story, and ofc Kimmage's a Rough Ride, Hamiltons book ain't a bad read if you can get past his apologising for being a cheat.

buffalo

I'm not sure if this was posted before, but I enjoyed some of these immensely:

https://twitter.com/tomowencc/status/1305908051912916992

breezy1985

Inquitus wrote: »

Have you read Sean's Autobiography Hunger? Would highly recommend. Also Charly Wegelius, Domestique: The Real-life Ups and Downs of a Tour Pro,The Flying Scotsman: The Graeme Obree Story, and ofc Kimmage's a Rough Ride, Hamiltons book ain't a bad read if you can get past his apologising for being a cheat.

The Ascent is an excellent read for Irish fans I flew through it when reading it.

Also read "The beast, the emperor and the milkman" and despite finding something odd about the writers style he gives a great account of the culture of Belgian cycling

dinneenp

Hi,
What kind of speed do they hit when sprinting towards the finish line?
Thanks,
Pa.

Weepsie

Lantern Rouge is a great read. And the Laurent Fignon autobiography is one of my favourite ones too.

There's a brilliant book about Anquieteil called sex lies and handlebar tape too that is great. It along with the gino Bartali and fausto coppi books are the best I've read.

Chips Lovell

Depends an awful lot on gradient and wind. Usually tops out between 60 and 70

dinneenp

Weepsie wrote: »

Lantern Rouge is a great read. And the Laurent Fignon autobiography is one of my favourite ones too.

There's a brilliant book about Anquieteil called sex lies and handlebar tape too that is great. It along with the gino Bartali and fausto coppi books are the best I've read.

Began reading this humourous book about an average guy cycling the Tour route by himself. Kind of like Bill Bryson's style
French Revolutions

Tim76

Did a Eurosport commentator mention yesterday that Sean Kelly referred to the Pogacar v Roglic battle as the Podge & Rodge Show?

I tried to skip back on the player but the iPad wouldn't let me. Anyway, I'm sure the reference was lost on most of the Eurosport audience

Bambaata

Is there anywhere that has details of all the sprint points on offer by stage/by sprint etc?

breezy1985

Tim76 wrote: »

Did a Eurosport commentator mention yesterday that Sean Kelly referred to the Pogacar v Roglic battle as the Podge & Rodge Show?

I tried to skip back on the player but the iPad wouldn't let me. Anyway, I'm sure the reference was lost on most of the Eurosport audience

Ya he did. Pronounced Pog & Rog show but still funny

breezy1985

Bambaata wrote: »

Is there anywhere that has details of all the sprint points on offer by stage/by sprint etc?

Wikipedia have it

Inquitus

Bambaata wrote: »

Is there anywhere that has details of all the sprint points on offer by stage/by sprint etc?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Points_classification_in_the_Tour_de_France#Current

That gives the rules, and letour.fr will show you stage by stage where the intermediate sprints are.

procyclingstats have it too. Great site you should bookmark if you are unfamiliar with it.

mcgratheoin

Had a quick scan of Strava today after the mountains stage - was interested to see what life looks like in the grupetto. Pretty bloody fast!!! :eek:

Bryan Coquard's Grupetto ride

py

Sagan’s green jersey hopes are still alive, but fading.

Eamonnator

Moviestar are 1/33 favourite to win the Moviestar Team prize.

py

Looking back on Sam's exit from Bora, you'd wonder if his presence at the tour was something that concerned them and why they dragged their feet on releasing him.

f1000

py wrote: »

Looking back on Sam's exit from Bora, you'd wonder if his presence at the tour was something that concerned them and why they dragged their feet on releasing him.

I'd always thought that the team felt like he would not finish a grand tour and held him back until he was ready. How wrong was me

Weepsie

Specialized were paying a rather big sum to make sure Sagan was at the tour

magicbastarder

Inquitus wrote: »

Have you read Sean's Autobiography Hunger? Would highly recommend.

I thought it was deathly dull...

CantGetNoSleep

Eamonnator wrote: »

Moviestar are 1/33 favourite to win the Moviestar Team prize.

People were talking earlier in the thread about scrapping the white jersey (which I don't agree with, having Bernal and Pogacar as a genuine GC contender while eligible for the white jersey is probably the first time in the last 10 years or so since Quintana), but the team prize seems absolutely meaningless

CrowdedHouse

What bugs me is wearing a jersey you don't own because some other lad has a higher priority one.

Mefistofelino

dinneenp wrote: »

Began reading this humourous book about an average guy cycling the Tour route by himself. Kind of like Bill Bryson's style
French Revolutions

Moore has written a few more cycling books " Gironimo" (about riding the route of the 1914 Giro on a vintage bike) and " The cyclist who went out in the cold", about riding along the Iron Curtain.

breezy1985

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

People were talking earlier in the thread about scrapping the white jersey (which I don't agree with, having Bernal and Pogacar as a genuine GC contender while eligible for the white jersey is probably the first time in the last 10 years or so since Quintana), but the team prize seems absolutely meaningless

Movistar are obsessed with it because the sponsors want it but I dont know another single team that cares.

I hate how the rider in 2nd nurses a jersey if the guy in 1st has 2 jerseys but again its down to sponsors paying to have 20 stages worth of jerseys in view

breezy1985

Mefistofelino wrote: »

Moore has written a few more cycling books " Gironimo" (about riding the route of the 2014 Giro on a vintage bike) and " The cyclist who went out in the cold", about riding along the Iron Curtain.

havent read it yet but "Riding in the Zone Rouge: The Tour of the Battlefields 1919" about a race through the WW1 battlefields. Crazy thing about the Zone Rouge is it an area in France that its still illegal to build a house or farm because of all the toxins and bombs from WW1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_Rouge

Weepsie

breezy1985 wrote: »

havent read it yet but "Riding in the Zone Rouge: The Tour of the Battlefields 1919" about a race through the WW1 battlefields. Crazy thing about the Zone Rouge is it an area in France that its still illegal to build a house or farm because of all the toxins and bombs from WW1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_Rouge

I started reading this. It's a quasi fictional account of what the author think may have happened as the vast majority of the sources have been lost to the ravages of war.

In my recollection this was not apparent when it first came out so I felt a bit shortchanged .


It is available from public libraries though, but not my branch

Inquitus

We Were Young and Carefree: The Autobiography of Laurent Fignon, the English translation is well worth a read.

breezy1985

Has anyone here read G.Martins Socrates a Velo ?

geotrig

breezy1985 wrote: »

Movistar are obsessed with it because the sponsors want it but I dont know another single team that cares.

I hate how the rider in 2nd nurses a jersey if the guy in 1st has 2 jerseys but again its down to sponsors paying to have 20 stages worth of jerseys in view

I was in total shock earlier in the tour when they were not in 1st place in it .....but then they got it back so all good was worried that covid had thrown everything out of whack in this tour