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EtoileSportiveDeDerby

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Interesting comments from Cavendish about the  BikeExchange team and their tactics to try and prevent him getting the green jersey, One instance being to try and ensure he missed the cut in the mountain stage, presumably by not helping in the back 'bus' of struggling sprinters. Apparently Greipel dad to sprint to get inside the time limit.

Today they tried to drop him on a long drag about 20k from the finish. As he said, they're not riding to win, thet'ye riding to make other people lose.

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3 minutes ago, Phoenix said:

Interesting comments from Cavendish about the  BikeExchange team and their tactics to try and prevent him getting the green jersey, One instance being to try and ensure he missed the cut in the mountain stage, presumably by not helping in the back 'bus' of struggling sprinters. Apparently Greipel dad to sprint to get inside the time limit.

Today they tried to drop him on a long drag about 20k from the finish. As he said, they're not riding to win, thet'ye riding to make other people lose.

I was half watching (working from home, eh?) and there did seem to be a lot of activity earlier towards then end and the Quickstep really had to work to get him up near the sprint.

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On 05/07/2021 at 08:54, Duracell said:

Thanks for taking time to respond @RadioactiveWaste @Chester40 @RoyMac5 @86 Hair Islands

Understood the idea behind why the Yellow jersey mattered most but before @RadioactiveWaste explained that sprinters are usually weak climbers, it didn't make sense to me how the sprinters weren't also the yellow jersey winners.

Makes sense now, thank you!

Hope you are enjoying It. You have picked a great one to watch, It is gripping. I sat down to watch 2 minutes of It yesterday and 2 hours later realised I was 5 cups of tea deep and I hadn’t moved due to It than the kitchen! 

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So much respect for Cav!

I have to admit, I thought his chance at the record had gone years ago when he couldn't beat Greipel, Kittel, Ewan etc. in sprints he usually would've dominated, but chapeau to him for keeping going and working hard to get back to the top of his game. He's been a revelation this season.

I wouldn't put it past him getting at least 2 more wins before the tour is over.

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19 hours ago, JoetheRam said:

One thing I don't understand is why the leader absolutely busts a lung to win a stage by a few seconds when he's minutes in the lead. Surely just saving yourself and finishing with them/just behind them at a slower pace is more sensible than risking a crash or using up more energy than need be.

In 89 or 88 I’m not sure which year Greg leMond won the tour by 8 seconds, I guess they are all naturally competitive and every second could count. 

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So, will Mark Cavendish make history today?

That's the final question to resolve in the tour.

Whilst Pog dominated the GC, there's been all sorts of interesting other stories thoughout the race. It's been under the radar, but both Froome and Thomas despite being bashed up early on have made big efforts to get to the end, Cav matching the record when it looked like his top class days had gone a couple of years ago, Wout Van Aert putting in heroic rides all over on all kinds of stages, breakaway wins, a team hotel raid (nothing found but..................) a close KOM competition until the end (oh, there's millions of points on the last two mountain stages and Pog gets all the points).

I also stumbled across Lance Armstrong's podcast on youtube (it's called The Move) and, yup, he's got no regrets and 100% doesn't think he did anything wrong which is tragic and hilarious in equal measure although he does know what he's talking about.

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1 hour ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

So, will Mark Cavendish make history today?

That's the final question to resolve in the tour.

Whilst Pog dominated the GC, there's been all sorts of interesting other stories thoughout the race. It's been under the radar, but both Froome and Thomas despite being bashed up early on have made big efforts to get to the end, Cav matching the record when it looked like his top class days had gone a couple of years ago, Wout Van Aert putting in heroic rides all over on all kinds of stages, breakaway wins, a team hotel raid (nothing found but..................) a close KOM competition until the end (oh, there's millions of points on the last two mountain stages and Pog gets all the points).

I also stumbled across Lance Armstrong's podcast on youtube (it's called The Move) and, yup, he's got no regrets and 100% doesn't think he did anything wrong which is tragic and hilarious in equal measure although he does know what he's talking about.

Lances podcast is great, like you say, he knows what he is talking about and is very good at saying It…..he can never admit he regrets It, even if he does. 
 

fingers crossed for Cav today that he will make history. 

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7 minutes ago, MuespachRam said:

Lances podcast is great, like you say, he knows what he is talking about and is very good at saying It…..he can never admit he regrets It, even if he does. 
 

fingers crossed for Cav today that he will make history. 

Yeah, I get that. In a way I do admire his refusal to play the fake hand wringing "I'm so sorry I feel awful please forgive me" game and it's true that doping was utterly entrenched in pro-cycling at the time, so was he really worse than anyone else.

I remember reading about Festina a while ago and the sad/amusing irony being they were underperforming because they didn't have an effiient doping scheme then got caught bungling trying to get the stuff (which is a way different to the popular memory of "oh Festina, they were the team that was the worst for doping and that massive scandle)

I think the thing I do feel bad towards him for is the people who he crushed to protect the lie (who were, it turns out, trying to do the right thing).

But his podcast is good chat and having George Hincape on provides a good balance.

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1 hour ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

Yeah, I get that. In a way I do admire his refusal to play the fake hand wringing "I'm so sorry I feel awful please forgive me" game and it's true that doping was utterly entrenched in pro-cycling at the time, so was he really worse than anyone else.

I remember reading about Festina a while ago and the sad/amusing irony being they were underperforming because they didn't have an effiient doping scheme then got caught bungling trying to get the stuff (which is a way different to the popular memory of "oh Festina, they were the team that was the worst for doping and that massive scandle)

I think the thing I do feel bad towards him for is the people who he crushed to protect the lie (who were, it turns out, trying to do the right thing).

But his podcast is good chat and having George Hincape on provides a good balance.

He was certainly the best rider out there in his day and without doubt the best at covering his tracks….but like you say, what a truly terrible person he was to some of the people trying to put him. 
 

have you listened to Wiggins podcast..? He is incredibly knowledgeable on the sport but It does feel like he says 75% of the things he does just to cause a reaction. 

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