Tour de France 2024 - this time it’s personal

he explained it himself, they've got better bikes than Pantani!

did I see one of his domestiques passing him a can of coke on Sunday? That's the secret weapon… (I don't know how anyone could drink a can of coke while cycling hard, I'd be burping for the rest of the day).

Disaster for Girmay

Hopefully Girmay has enough of a lead in the green jersey comp for that crash not to be too costly for him.

Better from Sam... 4th by the looks of things.

Sam was in a good position there, no excuses this team, just didn't have the acceleration or confidence or legs perhaps, he is in OK form but not top form

it’s an amazing sport. I know it has its cynics and that’s understandable. There’s history there that can’t be denied. I’ve worked in the sport at every level, I’ve no doubt there are many who dope but I don’t think they are the ones making the headlines now.

Todays stage finish. Anyone sport the severed levers on Girmays bike? Some impact to do that.

Wanty will do everything they can to make sure big safe breaks go every day. The only exception is stage 19 where the bonus sprint is too early to be anything but a bunch sprint.

Shame for Girmay but it has at least made the intermediate sprints a bit more interesting, no more tapping away without breaks trying to go!

44x23 - wow that's some big gearing ⚙️

I know the science and the training etc were different but the changes since are massive

OMG, the commentators today mentioned they are trialling banning team radio in a couple of races next year. Thought it would never happen, major win for the fans if they trial is successful and they totally ban it.

There is no unpredictability left because of radio, only when someone cracks is there a bit of tension now, otherwise every rider in every team is fully aware of everything going on and no chances are taken. Hopefully a ban or at least major curtailment of the number of support cars is next.

It could really go the way of even more controlled, as they won't take any risks with who's in front. I'd say only stages it may make a difference are potential crosswinds, where teams won't have the information from ahead.

But typical of the UCI to ban it just when we're beginning to get some interesting, or at least added value, from broadcasts of it a bit like F1.

Does the fact they already ban coms in the Olympics not act as the trial?

i think there is merit in keeping it for non actical issues like mechanical and medical, you don't want riders losing a tour because they had to wait for a replacement bike etc but maybe you could replace that with a non verbal beacon button of some sort

The potential for crosswind echelons should be banned from the commentators vocabulary unless it's properly strong. It's the hope that will kill you.

It seems like a very long time since there was a proper crosswind stage.

We have had some great races with race radios and we've had some absolute dreck where radios weren't permitted so I'm not sure that a ban is the panacea to boring racing we might think it is. What will happen is that "road captains" will become trendy again and the Daddy Warbucks big-budget teams will be able to afford the best ones.

I'd be for banning any devices that receive live race coverage in the team cars (for a variety of reasons) or having any race broadcaster have a 30-60 second delay in transmission so the team car is not seeing the live situation.

(While I'm at it, I'm also in favour of banning TT bikes in stage races, but that is for another day).