The world’s toughest race starts Saturday, and it’s delightfully hard to call this year
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Unlurking for the very fist time, to welcone Eric Berger's annual promotion of The One True Race (tm).
If you want to take away the Lance Armstrong aftertaste, the film "The Last Rider", which covers Greg LeMond's astonishing win in 1989, is well worth seeking out.
[still riding my 1999 LeMoond Tourmalet]
If you want to take away the Lance Armstrong aftertaste, the film "The Last Rider", which covers Greg LeMond's astonishing win in 1989, is well worth seeking out.
[still riding my 1999 LeMoond Tourmalet]
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The scenery is how the Tour lures you in. My wife couldn't have cared less about bikes but I'd have the tour on and she'd stop to see the scenery and now she texts me about team strategies while I'm at work.
What a delightful summer of sports between Euro 2024 and the Tour.
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Albino_Boo
Ars Praefectus
He rode at a slower than average speed than the pelton. NFL games take place on the others side of the Atlantic was starting in a country on the same continent some how worse.
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As a Belgian this was one of those things I used to watch every year. Also had plenty of cyclists of my region compete, had a few of them using my motorcycle to draft behind (Ludo Dierckxsens comes to mind, great guy always took the time to thank me and greeting from afar!).
But having gone through every doping scandal since the early 90's, I just can't watch it any more. My father and one of my sisters are still big into cycling and to them its now a clean sport... I just can't trust it any more because I heard it all before.
I do hope the people tuning in will enjoy it and that there will be no more scandals. It was a fun time when I was ignorant of all that crap. May others find much joy in with the sport.
But having gone through every doping scandal since the early 90's, I just can't watch it any more. My father and one of my sisters are still big into cycling and to them its now a clean sport... I just can't trust it any more because I heard it all before.
I do hope the people tuning in will enjoy it and that there will be no more scandals. It was a fun time when I was ignorant of all that crap. May others find much joy in with the sport.
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Mine wasn't quite so intimate. He was with an entourage all on bicycles. He did smile though. Heiden was super nice, but I would expect no less from a guy from Madison Wisconsin.
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As a Slovenian I do feel pride of my fellow countrymen being so successful. I do think this kind of cycling has become really an extreme sport and you probably have to be just a little bit insane to do it.
And speaking of extremes, there is a race in Slovenia called "Goni Pony", translated roughly as "Ride the Pony", with Pony being an old type of city bike with 20 inch wheels and no gears (most of them were built between 1965 and 1985, although a modern version built today can be bought).
The race starts in a town at about 800 m altitude and the finish line is on top of the Vršič mountain pass at 1611 m. The current record for this 13.5km track with 24 serpentines is 39 minutes 39 seconds.
Jure Robič won RAAM in 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2010. He sadly died crashing into a car while riding a bike later in 2010, at only 45 years of age.
Apparently cycling is in our blood
.
And speaking of extremes, there is a race in Slovenia called "Goni Pony", translated roughly as "Ride the Pony", with Pony being an old type of city bike with 20 inch wheels and no gears (most of them were built between 1965 and 1985, although a modern version built today can be bought).
The race starts in a town at about 800 m altitude and the finish line is on top of the Vršič mountain pass at 1611 m. The current record for this 13.5km track with 24 serpentines is 39 minutes 39 seconds.
Speaking of RAAM, a Slovenian was also successful there:
Jure Robič won RAAM in 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2010. He sadly died crashing into a car while riding a bike later in 2010, at only 45 years of age.
Apparently cycling is in our blood
.
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Tech that hopefully won't make an appearance at this years includes hidden motors and electromagnetic wheels. The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the governing body, have appointed former US Homeland Security investigator Nick Raudenski as the new head of the fight against technological fraud. A commissaire will check all bikes at the start of every Tour stage. Post-race checks, using X-ray inspection technology and other tools, will be carried out on bikes used by the stage winner, the classification leaders, randomly selected riders and any rider who “gives rise to suspicion”. If necessary, bikes will be dismantled.
See The Guardian for more details.
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Last year was the first time in about 30 years I did not follow the TDF. I didn't feel like subscribing to the NBC streaming thing. It was great when you could fast forward through the endlessly repetitive commercials. It's a limited market so there are a limited number of advertisers which means you see the same commercial about 6 times per day.
I'm subscribed to the "cock" for this year's TDF. If I'm forced to watch the same commercials over and over, I might quit watching the race.
I'm subscribed to the "cock" for this year's TDF. If I'm forced to watch the same commercials over and over, I might quit watching the race.
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Oh I forgotten about the Vendée Globe! Definitely harder than the Tour de France
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If anyone is looking for podcasts to listen to during the tour, might I recommend the following:
- The Cycling Podcast. 3 hosts following the race, with some interesting side tracks on things like food and culture. https://thecyclingpodcast.com/episodes/the-cycling-podcast
- Lanterne Rouge Cycling Podcast. Highly focused on stage recaps and tactics. https://www.youtube.com/@LanterneRougeCyclingPodcast
- Lanterne Rouge has a second channel that has good 7/8 minute stage recaps. https://www.youtube.com/@LanterneRougeCycling
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As a French, I concur. Remember what happened last year.
PS: by the way, good luck for Monday's match!
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Another great cycling podcast is 'Never Strays Far' which covers the TdF on a daily basis. It's hosted by journalist Ned Boulting and ex pro cyclists David Millar and Pete Kennaugh (who all also provide commentary for the UK ITV network). As the name of the podcast suggests they cover a wide range of subjects but never stray far from cycling.
Never Strays Far
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Well we won't know what new drugs will make a difference this year until they come out in 10-20 to reveal them
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We know what Armstrong was like as a rider before starting doping. He was a one day specialist very fast won a few of the early etapes, but rarely finished the Tour or finished among the last
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This year there's a lot of focus on Mark Cavendish, the "Manx Rocket". He's pretty popular amongst the cyclists, teams, and organisers. It's pretty clear that, this year, they've deliberately set it up for the sprinters, to give Cav the chance of one more stage win and beat Eddy Merckx's record.
For many, this is where the interest will be.
A quick delve into sports politics. This year the tour isn't ending in Paris, apparently the International Olympic Committee insisted that it be relocated to avoid competing with this year's summer Olympics in Paris. This hasn't exactly gone down well with many in France, adding to the many Gallic woes that may befall the games (strikes, etc). Disrupting the normal flow of August holidays and displacing the mega-street party that is the Tour de France by the crass, overtly commercially self-serving Olympics and costing the nation a ton of money to stage hasn't exactly gone down well...
For many, this is where the interest will be.
A quick delve into sports politics. This year the tour isn't ending in Paris, apparently the International Olympic Committee insisted that it be relocated to avoid competing with this year's summer Olympics in Paris. This hasn't exactly gone down well with many in France, adding to the many Gallic woes that may befall the games (strikes, etc). Disrupting the normal flow of August holidays and displacing the mega-street party that is the Tour de France by the crass, overtly commercially self-serving Olympics and costing the nation a ton of money to stage hasn't exactly gone down well...
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He took fewer days, not less time, because he averaged 12 hours of cycling per day. That's more than twice as much actual time in the saddle than the racers.
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I really only became "aware" of road tour cycling in mid 2023 when I stumbled across the Artic Race of Norway, which primed me to watch La Vuelta 2023 and Sepp Kuss' amazing ride. Since then, whatever race is on, wherever it is, male or female, I'm glued to it.
And as someone else remarked, I'm lucky to live in Australia where SBS TV coverage is pretty good. I'd say "excellent" but for their tendency to only pick up races half way in. C'mon guys, it's only a few more gigabytes.
As well as the riders, their bikes and the race, I'm constantly fascinated by the quality of the coverage - practically being able to see the hairs on riders' legs from multiple angles in almost real time from halfway around the planet. Someone screaming down a narrow, twisting mountain road on a bike going 90kph is one thing. That the action is being brought to us by someone else standing pillion on a motorbike (mad skills!) with signals relayed via multiple aircraft is quite another.
What I'd like to see in Ars is a bit more about the tech - types of bikes, gearing and tyre choices, and a fair bit more about the "back end" tech that brings this stuff to our TV screens.
And if anyone from British Cycling or The Tour of Britain Women is reading this comment, next year could you please just get the people who film the Grand Tours to do the job because, not to mince words, your 2024 coverage was rubbish. Brexit doesn't have to mean tech-exit too.
And as someone else remarked, I'm lucky to live in Australia where SBS TV coverage is pretty good. I'd say "excellent" but for their tendency to only pick up races half way in. C'mon guys, it's only a few more gigabytes.
As well as the riders, their bikes and the race, I'm constantly fascinated by the quality of the coverage - practically being able to see the hairs on riders' legs from multiple angles in almost real time from halfway around the planet. Someone screaming down a narrow, twisting mountain road on a bike going 90kph is one thing. That the action is being brought to us by someone else standing pillion on a motorbike (mad skills!) with signals relayed via multiple aircraft is quite another.
What I'd like to see in Ars is a bit more about the tech - types of bikes, gearing and tyre choices, and a fair bit more about the "back end" tech that brings this stuff to our TV screens.
And if anyone from British Cycling or The Tour of Britain Women is reading this comment, next year could you please just get the people who film the Grand Tours to do the job because, not to mince words, your 2024 coverage was rubbish. Brexit doesn't have to mean tech-exit too.
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The poster on the wall of my then ~8 to 10 year old best friend in the mid 80s.
Probably still up if it hasn’t been wrecked.
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I was an avid cyclist until three years ago, when diverticular disease required a hemicholectomy.
I miss the wind in my face.
I miss the wind in my face.
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Go Slovenija!
Luka Doncic is done for the season... now we can watch some other Slovenians dominate their respective sports in the meantime.
Shit, even the men's soccer team advanced to the round of 16 at Euro2024. Big year for our people.
Luka Doncic is done for the season... now we can watch some other Slovenians dominate their respective sports in the meantime.
Shit, even the men's soccer team advanced to the round of 16 at Euro2024. Big year for our people.
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Phil Liggett is insufferable. Always talking over others, getting facts wrong, repeating the same few cliches. It’s time he retires.
Regarding the doping, watch the documentary Icarus. It starts off about doping in cycling then gets deep behind the scenes during the insane doping scandal for the Sochi Olympics.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icarus_(2017_film)
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So much discussion of the crashes that already happened, but it seems everyone is overlooking the fact that many GC contenders crash out or get injured enough to drop from contention during the TdF. Or they get sick, have GI issues on a critical day, get interfered with by fans or motos, mechanical issue at just the wrong time (Schleck’s dropped chain in 2010). Anything can happen during Le Tour.
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Albino_Boo
Ars Praefectus
In grand tours, coverage from the start of the stage is only a recent thing, less than 10 years old. The British events are not world tour level and consequently receive less coverage. Last year the organisation that ran the British races went bust. It's only early this years that a new sponsor was found. The races nearly didn't happen. It has nothing to do with Brexit, just the simple fact the races aren't that popular or competitive.
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The food tech would be interesting to read about, with ketamines or maybe general diet. Apparently riders even use pickle juice too when having cramps, as the acidity causes the muscles to relax.
This year's race, the Visma-Lease A Bike team sent out a 'Control Room' minivan à la Formula One to analyze real-time data of the course situation, weather situation etc. Not real-time data from the participants bikes or biological data like heartrate though as it's deemed illegal.
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When the Tour de France comes to Britain, that is popular and competitive.
Though, it does occassionally catch them out. Years ago there was a stage starting and ending in Portsmouth. It was fab, one mega carnival. However, it had been deemed by many teams to be a "flat" race, and watching the peleton come steaming up Portsdown Hill at a speed significanty in excess of that I could sustain up it rather underlined the point.
Except, for one little hill up in the South Downs. The route took them down a hill, through a tiny collection of old houses / pub, and back up the other side. The length of the hill was, what, 100 or 150 metres? However, what very few of them had twigged in advance was that it was very steep. It doesn't matter how long the hill is; if it's too steep and you can't turn over your lowest gear, you're not cycling up it!
There weren't many spectators because that bit of road was very narrow, but there was the hilarity of all these pro cyclists having to walk up the hill, in their cleats pushing their bikes. Those who'd had the foresight to put on a bigger lower gear made it up, but that wasn't very many. However, despite it being the perfect breakaway opportunity, there was enough time for the peleton to reform and it ended in a mass sprint finish.
The reason why they'd been caught out? Blame the Romans. They'd worked out efficient gradients for roads for marching soldiers, horse-drawn carts, etc. and that's how a lot of continental roads go. But a lot of roads in Britain follow routes that pre-date the Romans, and some can be very steep indeed.
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Plenty of people I know watch the Tour just as much for the cycling as the views, or even only for the latter. And the camera operators and directors do a pretty good job of showing the beautiful landscapes, too.
IIRC in the last one they even added short geology sections on any interesting geological formations or features the Tour was on or around, narrated by actual scientists...
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Having seen the schedule I dont think the sprinters will be very happy this year, though, the normal start with flat stages isnt there now, the first stage is already a nasty one and so is the 4th, I think only the third stage is a sprinters one. No Paris Champs Elysees arrival also means no final stage for the (remaining) sprinters.
There are flat sprinter stages but they're not as consecutive as they've been in many years meaning the sprinters cannot do their thing for a week and go home.
There are flat sprinter stages but they're not as consecutive as they've been in many years meaning the sprinters cannot do their thing for a week and go home.
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Albino_Boo
Ars Praefectus
More likely is that no one bothered to recon a lower category race and no road book with the gradients. These days there's velo viewer that will give you accurate information on routes.
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I was just looking into RAAM, Perhaps I've heard of it before (no doubt I have) but never paid it any mind.
Apparently last year was won by a Woman (for the 2nd time a female has won)and both times they were in their 50s.
I knew for super ultra distance running races women have an advantage but apparently thats also for bikes, perhaps worthy of a Arstechnica article.
Apparently last year was won by a Woman (for the 2nd time a female has won)and both times they were in their 50s.
I knew for super ultra distance running races women have an advantage but apparently thats also for bikes, perhaps worthy of a Arstechnica article.
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Ahem. Seems like your intuition for geography also falls apart
Slovenian is South Slavic, and Slovenia is usually defined as being in southern Central Europe, as it is bordered by Italy, Austria and Croatia. It didn't even fit in the Cold War usage of Eastern Europe contra Western Europe as divided by the Iron Curtain, as Tito's Yugoslavia was non‑aligned in the Cold War. Definitions of geographic areas are by definition dynamic – you wouldn't call Southern California "Northern Mexico" nowadays, would you?
And even if there might not be any universally agreed official definition of it, I'd say this is a pretty good map (apart from still including Russia – I'd argue that they should not be counted as European anymore, at least culturally):
Just FYI
If this helps (likely better to hear it yourself than read my lame attempts at English‑friendly phonetic transcription or you getting your head around IPA):
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...ogg/Tadej_Pogačar_spoken_in_Slovenian.ogg.mp3
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe.../a/a1/Primož_Roglič.ogg/Primož_Roglič.ogg.mp3
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Ahem. Seems like your intuition for geography also falls apart
Slovenian is South Slavic, and Slovenia is usually defined as being in southern Central Europe, as it is bordered by Italy, Austria and Croatia. It didn't even fit in the Cold War usage of Eastern Europe contra Western Europe as divided by the Iron Curtain, as Tito's Yugoslavia was non‑aligned in the Cold War. Definitions of geographic areas are by definition dynamic – you wouldn't call Southern California "Northern Mexico" nowadays, would you?
And even if there might not be any universally agreed official definition of it, I'd say this is a pretty good map (apart from still including Russia – I'd argue that they should not be counted as European anymore, at least culturally):
View attachment 84207
Just FYI
If this helps (likely better to hear it yourself than read my lame attempts at English‑friendly phonetic transcription or you getting your head around IPA):
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...ogg/Tadej_Pogačar_spoken_in_Slovenian.ogg.mp3
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe.../a/a1/Primož_Roglič.ogg/Primož_Roglič.ogg.mp3
To be fair to the OP, they probably meant 'eastern European languages' as a shorthand for Slavic, Baltic, Hungarian and Albanian, regardless of their actual location.
Also, I don't think it's uncommon to view Yugoslavia and Albania as part of Cold War Eastern Europe, just like Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland and Ireland were part of Cold War Western Europe despite their neutrality.
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Albino_Boo
Ars Praefectus
There's massive differences linguistically and culturally in all those groupings on that map. It's not terribly good.Ahem. Seems like your intuition for geography also falls apart
Slovenian is South Slavic, and Slovenia is usually defined as being in southern Central Europe, as it is bordered by Italy, Austria and Croatia. It didn't even fit in the Cold War usage of Eastern Europe contra Western Europe as divided by the Iron Curtain, as Tito's Yugoslavia was non‑aligned in the Cold War. Definitions of geographic areas are by definition dynamic – you wouldn't call Southern California "Northern Mexico" nowadays, would you?
And even if there might not be any universally agreed official definition of it, I'd say this is a pretty good map (apart from still including Russia – I'd argue that they should not be counted as European anymore, at least culturally):
View attachment 84207
Just FYI
If this helps (likely better to hear it yourself than read my lame attempts at English‑friendly phonetic transcription or you getting your head around IPA):
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...ogg/Tadej_Pogačar_spoken_in_Slovenian.ogg.mp3
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe.../a/a1/Primož_Roglič.ogg/Primož_Roglič.ogg.mp3
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i have the ad-free tier but i cannot see the world feed this year although it was there in years past. any thoughts on how to make it show up in peacock for 2024 race?
update:
according to cyclingscoop, world feed is not available for 2024:
https://cyclingscoop.com/pros/watching-tour-de-france-united-states-peacock/
scroll down for june 30th updates:
"The World feed with Anthony McCrossan and Nico Roche will not be available."
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You mean like micro motors hidden in the cycles frames or new molecules for blood serum?
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Preview of stage 1 from The Inner Ring.
https://inrng.com/2024/06/tour-de-france-stage-1-preview-rimini/
https://inrng.com/2024/06/tour-de-france-stage-1-preview-rimini/
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That's not on them. Races that are broadcasted from the beginning are the exception. Broadcasting a race costs quite a lot of money (helicopters in the air and whatnot), while in the first hours of the race usually not a lot of interest happens. It's not (just) that SBS doesn't broadcast it; there simply isn't anything to broadcast.
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