The world’s toughest race starts Saturday, and it’s delightfully hard to call this year
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I wish they still did the Echo Challenge. That was great but then the guy went off and did Survivor, which is more of a reality show (backbiting, traitors, drama, etc.) which people seem to like more. Seeing some of the comradery and stuff in the Eco Challenge was amazing... pretty much the opposite of Survivor.
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On one hand I feel SD Worx-Protime (as they're called this season) is a bit less dominant this season; especially Lidl-Trek, FDJ-Suez and Canyon//SRAM seem comparatively somewhat more competitive this year. On the other hand main rival Van Vleuten retired, and SD Worx-Protime's Vollering is very good in stage races. If I were a betting man, I would put my money on them.
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Though I admire the RAAM riders, it's hard to compare directly but on balance I reckon Le Tour is tougher.
True, Le Tour has 30-40% fewer kilometres and riders have support, but RAAM rides only take 9-12 days whereas Tour winners must compete for 21 at roughly double the speed of RAAM winners. RAAM involves around 17-19 thousand metres of climbing, this year's tour will have over 52 thousand (yes, still twice as fast). RAAM is risky as riders are alone at night on open roads, drivers are crap and the safety requirements are lower. Tour riders face riding through literally millions of (often drunk) at times close packed fans at breakneck speeds. 200 close-packed riders, road furniture, dogs, horses, bags, placards, flags, bottles team cars, motorbikes and uncounted number of possible obstacles can take out a tour rider at any time but it's a testament to fans, ASO and French authorities diligence that there aren't fatalities most years.
Reckon I could complete RAAM at my own pace but I'd be eliminated from Le Tour on stage one.
I'll stick my neck out and say the tour is tougher, could be wrong
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Paradox might not be the best word, but calling something “Tour de <Country A>”, but staging part of it in <Country B> does make it a bit confusing. Especially as it seems to be the opening stage of the Tour de France where this happens.
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I'm not sure if the Tour de France is the toughest anymore - it used to be, and that forced a lot of Cyclists into doping. The organizers have cut down drastically on the long stages (300km +) after the doping scandal.
it's definitely not the same as the early days where a stage was pretty much always over 200km, cyclists had no technical support and had to fix their bikes by themselves.
it's definitely not the same as the early days where a stage was pretty much always over 200km, cyclists had no technical support and had to fix their bikes by themselves.
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I was unsure what the world's toughest race was, but a quick search tells me it's Eco-Challenge. Sounds interesting.
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Love watching the tour every year as well as a bunch of the other events. I was lucky enough to be in France for work on the weekend of this year’s Paris-Roubaix and was able to tick off a bucket list item by spending a Sunny afternoon by the side of a cobble stone road with a roaring crowd of inebriated French and Belgians
I was spoiled living in Australia getting to watch a mix of the local and British coverage. Now that I live stateside it’s clear that at least part of the reason the sport isn’t followed here is the lousy commentary teams and silly coverage. The commentators must get memos that the have to regularly talk up the prospects US riders even though most of them are working as domestiques and will rarely do more than carry drinks or cover for a lead rider coming back into the group after a puncture or a toilet break. Glitzy lower thirds continually cycle through standings and times that are usually irrelevant to the current situation. In years past Peacock gave us the option of watching the international feed instead but that went away. Last year we made do with having the volume way down.
I was spoiled living in Australia getting to watch a mix of the local and British coverage. Now that I live stateside it’s clear that at least part of the reason the sport isn’t followed here is the lousy commentary teams and silly coverage. The commentators must get memos that the have to regularly talk up the prospects US riders even though most of them are working as domestiques and will rarely do more than carry drinks or cover for a lead rider coming back into the group after a puncture or a toilet break. Glitzy lower thirds continually cycle through standings and times that are usually irrelevant to the current situation. In years past Peacock gave us the option of watching the international feed instead but that went away. Last year we made do with having the volume way down.
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More unusual is the last stage: it's a time trial (last Tour with a time trial as last stage was in 1989) with finish in Nice instead of Paris, to stay out of the way of the Olympic Games (I think it's the very first time that the Tour finishes outside of Paris; even if not unique, it's extremely unusual).
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You are talking about the way the tour was raced more than 70 years ago. The event was covered by news reels and journalists submitting updates by telegram. Just how old are you Quovodis?
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Not to defend the doping, but the extra boost the doping provided isn't all that big so yes, he had to have been very gifted cyclist to get to the point where doping would matter.
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Thanks, I apologize for misinfo. And Belgian riders are a tough bunch
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Former US Armed Forces Cycling Team member here, cycling competitively since 1987. Sure, Poggie's clean, so are the other "contenders." Mauro Gianetti has a sordid history of managing doped riders/teams. If anybody thinks the upper echelon is clean, they should evaluate all the history of pro cycling's PED history. That aside, the TDF is watchable via NBC Sports, as well as their Peacock offering, which usually has both a US-based team (Phil Liggett, Bob Rolle, Christian Vande Velde, Steve Porino (moto, in-stage coverage perspective), along with Brent Bookwalter and Tejay van Garderen, both former pro cyclists.
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I'm not that old
but I've read stories about the early years of the Tour, especially that onehttps://www.welovecycling.com/wide/2020/09/10/eugene-christophe-broken-fork-at-the-1913-tour/
However, I'm old enough to remember stages in the 80s and after, some of them were absolute classics; like the final stage cliffhanger of the 1989 tour.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tour_de_France
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O'Connor isn't riding. He focused on the Giro d'Italia this year, where he finished just a couple minutes off the podium.
But if we're talking of other riders to step up in case of someone going out, not only does UAE have Yates and Ayuso (who grew up with American English and gives great interviews), they also have Joao Almeida (whose first name no one ever pronounces properly), who's finished very well in grand tours and is on a tear this year.
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I am a sometimes cyclist and used to watch the grand tours. I've given up watching - mostly because of doping. There's every incentive for these teams to cheat. There's no incentive for the organizers to catch them. The very extensive testing keeps it from being a complete joke, but I can't help but wonder if the winners aren't just the one with the best labs behind them.
Yes, and I know that it's the same in pretty much any sport, but cycling has a particularly nasty history.
Yes, and I know that it's the same in pretty much any sport, but cycling has a particularly nasty history.
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Appreciate the article. Thank you.
This year's tour looks like Napoleon's invasion of the Italian states!
I used to play fantasy TdF but now just enjoy watching the race. However, I would say that some sort of doping is still going on and it will be interesting to learn years from now how they're doing it and what tech is being deployed.
Since we're swapping recommendations, and I appreciate the article one and those in the comments, thank you, I would add Icarus. It's more cycling related than the preview lets on.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXoRdSTrR-4
I took EPO and the stuff is magic! It wasn't for cheating at sport, but to counter red blood cell loss due to chemo (not for cancer). As an avid cyclist who still gets the bug to compete now and then, it's always in the back of my mind because I knew what it did for me.
This year's tour looks like Napoleon's invasion of the Italian states!
I used to play fantasy TdF but now just enjoy watching the race. However, I would say that some sort of doping is still going on and it will be interesting to learn years from now how they're doing it and what tech is being deployed.
Since we're swapping recommendations, and I appreciate the article one and those in the comments, thank you, I would add Icarus. It's more cycling related than the preview lets on.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXoRdSTrR-4
I took EPO and the stuff is magic! It wasn't for cheating at sport, but to counter red blood cell loss due to chemo (not for cancer). As an avid cyclist who still gets the bug to compete now and then, it's always in the back of my mind because I knew what it did for me.
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If you watch the original Eco Challenges you can definitely see how it evolved into Survivor. "Let's keep the physicality, ramp up the interpersonal drama, and make this a whole lot easier to follow."
Luckily "Race to Survive" has revived that. Alaska was pretty good, and now R2S: New Zealand is on the horizon.
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I enjoy watching the Tour. I used to have it on the TV while I was getting ready for work and recorded it to watch when I got home but now it's the annual search for where I can watch in the US. I've read that it will be on some NBC owned channels but the NBC site says you have to use peacock except for stages 8, 14, and 20.
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You're being -- at this moment anyhow -- downvoted, and I'm not dismissing the effort it takes to be a NASCAR driver, and also I'm not unaware of the role equipment plays in sports, but I have a difficult time putting drivers in the same category as cyclists, runners, and those ball-bearing athletes...
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The world’s toughest race ?
Do people not know there is a solo, non-stop, non-assisted, round-the-world race every 4 years ?
Hint: It also starts and ends in France.
Do people not know there is a solo, non-stop, non-assisted, round-the-world race every 4 years ?
Hint: It also starts and ends in France.
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xyz123.domain
Ars Centurion
I used to enjoy TdF due to riding a road bike myself, but once I got into mountain biking and trials riding, I realized the skills needed are so much higher. For me that equates to so much more fun, ESPECIALLY when looking at the trails only to realize that most people wouldn.t want to even walk it. Even my moto buddies look at the things we do and think it's unrideable. Now THAT is fun.
Though I highly respect the endurance and power these guys put out, truly insane, but again, it comes down to the skills needed to ride the gnarly stuff that made roads.....boring.
Though I highly respect the endurance and power these guys put out, truly insane, but again, it comes down to the skills needed to ride the gnarly stuff that made roads.....boring.
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As a rider, I can see how things like mountain biking can be a lot more fun. As a spectator though, I think road cycling is a lot more interesting to watch: there's a lot more going on in terms of tactics.
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Plus, nearly everyone he was racing against, was doping as well.
Hard to say how different it would have been if no one was doping, but he may have still won some tours if everyone was clean.
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No, a lot goes on that doesn't get picked up by cameras and there have been plenty of riders who have thrown their weight around in the bunch. But Armstrong was a real asshole and that's always been my main problem with him. Everyone was loaded to the gills (on drugs) back in the day (and there are certainly still plenty of folks trying to work around the edges today, though it's harder), so I don't care so much about the drugs.
He was particularly nasty to Christophe Bassons, but also (allegedly) convinced Trek to shut down Lemond's bike line, sued newspapers, restricted media access from critics, etc. The list is long.
Edit for clarity.
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Armstrong ruined many people's entire careers. Not riders, but support staff and crew. I'm not cool with any of that.
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It depends, espeically with EPO. If you naturally have a hemetocrit level of, say 50, you're going to get more boost than someone with a normal level of 55 or 56. But you're right that the pros are so far next level that none of us would stand a chance either way. GCN did a nice video with a pro on cobbles - this guy was putting down 400-500 watts like it's nothing.
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Yeah, he's a real jackass, and to this day seems almost entirely unrepentant about all of it.
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I thought this article was going to be about the Barkley marathon
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barkley_Marathons
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barkley_Marathons
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It's mostly the behind the scenes stuff, where he threatened people, or cost people jobs, or destroyed reputations to keep the "Drug free" lie going. So it's recreations and documentaries:
https://www.documentarytube.com/best-of/the-11-best-documentaries-about-lance-armstrong/
It's absolutely amazing the house of cards didn't collapse sooner.
I don't know how anyone could keep living that lie, knowing that any point it could unravel.
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BackMarker
Ars Centurion
Thanks for the film recommendation.
To add to that one can also spend time listening to Kraftwerk's Tour de France Soundtracks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_France_Soundtracks
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Do I understand that this is mostly a team event? Are there team awards also? I know zip nada about bike racing, or even bike riding.
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Albino_Boo
Ars Praefectus
Kopecky is skipping the tour this year, so they don't have her monster turns to bring back breaks. I still think it's Vollering's to lose.
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There is a team award. Every stage, they take the time of your 3 best riders (on that stage). Those times are added up and used for the teams classification. Teams don't usually chase it, but some do - Movistar gained a reputation for chasing it in the big tours.
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