Monday, July 12, 2021
2021 Tour de AWESOME! Stages 15 thru 21 and final thoughts, banter, gossip and whatever else that comes to mind!
Monday night, still in Vegas (last night, tomorrow Jeannie flies home and my brothers both show up and we are driving up to Zion to hike for 2 days).
So...le Tour...Stage 15...WOW!! I think that was one of the most exciting finishing 20 miles or so that I can remember! The entire top 10 riding together on the final climb, attacking each other over and over and over..just mind blowing fantastic racing by all of them!!
OK..I do have to toss out one negative comment here, then will not say another word about it. So...I think we learned (or should have) back in the LA era that when things seem too good to be true, they probably are. And my point...Valverde. 41 years old...just destroyed the ENTIRE TOP 10 of this years Tour on that final climb, beating them all at the line by over 4 and one half minutes. Does that seem pretty unlikely to anybody else?? I mean, if that was uhm, er, honest...then well done Valverde!! But another thing we learned during the LA era was that not testing positie doesnt really mean that it wasnt happening.
And thats all I have to say about that. Now, we go positive and discuss the Durango Kid...22 year old SEPP KUSS WINNING the stage!! Its been 10 YEARS since an American has won (Tyler Farrar) and he is ONLY the TENTH Aerican to win a stage...EVER! Gosh, I pray this kid isnt a flash in the pan...becasue it seems his future is so freaking bright that WE need to wear shades just to watch him! I surely truly honestly hope that is the case. (ok, and one more negative bit...that Valverde was ONLY 23 seconds BEHIND Kuss at the finish, and LESS THAN 20 at the top of the climb? Seriously??) And while Im sad that Roglic is out, IF he wasnt, maybe todays finish would have been very different. We will never know...it is what it is. And America rejoices! (and lets not forget Neilsson Powless on EF who finished THIRTEENTH today out of the breakaway!!! WOO-HOO!!)
Ok..NOW Im done with that...promise. Now we can talk about the rest of the top GC guys...what a great fun crop we have this year! Whats his face (who leapfrogged into 2nd on Stage 14 fell apart as everybody expected against the best of the best, droppig off the charts as expected). So...Pogacar shows he was equal to the task, defending his Yellow by himself and stamping his dominance and shouting to the world that this race is about 2nd thru 10th. And speaking of that...we have Riggo, Vingegaard, Carapaz, OConnor, Kelderman, Lutsenko, Mas, Martin (who doesnt really belong here, can he hold it?),
And now...the KOM jersey fight...and WHAT a fight! For a while there it LOOKED like Quintana was back...and then hes gone. But the OTHER top 3 contenders, HELLO!!! And THREE MORE Pyrnees stages to go! Good for us!! Wout Poels taking the Polka dot jersey! And nipping at his heels, Woods (who Im rooting for), Q still in the hunt, Van Aert all withing 10 points of Poels... and then Molema much further back. So we truly have a FOUR WAY FIGHT for the Polka dots...how fun is THAT!!!
OK...I need to get some sleep, finish packing and get out of here in the morning. Zion is next on my radar...not sure how much of ANY Tour I will get to see over this next few days...will be home late Thurs night/early Friday morning...so will have MORE catching up to do. But I cant deny this has been just a FANTASTIC RACE and I am SO GLAD I didnt miss it like I thought was going to happen!
TOUR ON!!
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So...just posted this last Tour post, and peeked at the final product. Must be something with my laptop...whenever I post from it I LOSE ALL the line breaks between paragraphs...the entire blob is just one HUGE paragraph...I promise Im not THAT bad at grammar/English. (of note, youve probably noticed...a few years back something happened on my laptop and some of the special characters like apostrophes and such dont work...if you hadnt noticed it you will now...they work just fine on the desktop so you will readily know if I post from the laptop or not).
ReplyDeleteHave a good time - the forecast doesn't look too bad temperature wise (with plenty of water carried, that is) but rainstorms and flash floods - be careful! BrianHead is where I finally got the hang of skiing, BTW.
ReplyDeleteI was so happy to see Sep Kuss pull off that attack and WIN!
Not to defend Valverde really, but he is not the first to get away from the contenders and stay away, in this tour. And he has always been among the best climbers (however he developed that ability). I wouldn't be terribly surprised to find out that he was still doping, but one would think that with his history he might be under extra scrutiny. There are some others in the peloton that I would not be surprised to hear that they'd been nabbed, actually. But, somehow I manage to enjoy it all regardless.
In my opinion, Sunday's Stage 15 was the BEST stage of this Tour! And in fact, the only really GOOD mt stage. I don't feel the same as most of you about this year's race, I HATED the course! The so-called mountain stages were largely busts (come on, WHY have mt stages that don't finish on the summit! TWO times up Ventoux & you don't finish on top?! Ridiculous!) And of course, the winner was "decided" basically by the end of the 1st week!
ReplyDeleteIt has been exciting to see who else would share the final podium with Babyface in Paris but not the same as watching a tooth & nail drag-out fight for the win. Speaking of Babyface, his face has now lost its baby fat but once bestowed a nickname, you get it for life, so "Babyface" he stays. :) And wow, he stomped all over EVERYONE in this race! It kills me to think what 'could have been' if Roglic had not crashed so hard at the beginning. Could Babyface be doping? Sure, any of them could. Anyone who thinks doping in pro-cycling began & ended with Lance, knows NOTHING! But until someone tests positive or there is other proof, you just have to decide yourself on whether you think any rider is "believable". I think Nibabli doped his way to his Tour win & that Sky used all kinds of "illegal" things to dominate all those years.
I held my breath every mt stage this year for Cav to make the time cut! So stressful! I know it's never been easy for him & that he was eliminated the last time he did ride the Tour, but I swear, I don't remember this much angst during his 1st 10 years in the Tour. Is it his age? Even though he LOOKED in his best shape ever this year!
I'm SO hoping he wins on the Champs & breaks the record! But either way, his resurrection MADE this year's Tour for me!
Rae, thanks for your comments on my current health issue. I actually have some questions for you. I specifically asked both Urgent Care Drs how I got an "inflamed colon" & both said "it just happens sometimes"... I asked if my fall down the stairs before Xmas (I hit my back on one of the steps before falling forward onto the backs of my my feet & breaking 4 toes but the feet hurt so much for a month that I was barely conscious of the back pain at that time) & was not given an answer. My pains are continuing although not the 24/7 unbearable pain that it was for 12 days. According to the internet, this "Postherpetic Neuralgia" happens to 30% of Shingles sufferers & can last months (to years!). The worst thing for me is that from the beginning, my worst areas of pain were where by bra goes & that means wearing one even for a few hours prompts the pains. I'm starting to get worried because after the Olympics, I want to be back in my office 2-3 times a week & full-time by end of Sept & that will be impossible if I keep feeling like this. On Wed, the day I currently go into office, the pains are bad after 6 hours & driving home is awful & I'm wrecked for the rest of the night.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think the anti-viral I took for the Shingles (Valtrex) said it could cause "ligament weakness" or something. How long does that last? I took that medication for 7-10 days I think, but that ended 2 weeks ago, so do I still have to be worried? The last thing I need now is an Achilles or knee injury! Gawd.
Whew...JUST finished catching up...missed all since Tuesday (only saw up to about 20 miles to go on Tues so didn't know the winner). Too much to process just now...the KOM battle was awesome...and Baby Face...winning White, Polka-dots AND Yellow AGAIN! At 22 years old! Mind blowing...could this kid be the upcoming all time most Tour-wins rider in say 6 or 7 years from now? Sure seems possible...but that's a LONG ways out...but no doubt he sure was fantastic! I loved to see him NOT play it safe in the mountains...no team-mates, the top 5 or 10 GC guys all going at it, and he goes to the front and hammers them all...repeatedly! And he didn't even need to with his huge time gap!
ReplyDeleteAnd I was SO rooting for Cav to pull it off in Paris...I thought he was boxed in and Pederson pretty much closed his door (impeded him for sure) but that's racing sometimes...Can't take anything away from Van Aert...winning the final TT, then on the Champs? And being on a team of FOUR? Not sure if Cav will get another chance next year...he wasn't the top sprinter on Quick Step...luck really rained down on him and what a surprise he was this year! Any way you look at it, being tied with Eddy Merckx for the ALL TIME MOST TOUR STAGE WINS isn't anything to be sad about!
Well..have to get to bed and back to work tomorrow...(yuk...always hard to come back to work after any vacation).
And the party's over. Dang...always LOVE Tour-Time!
Good night...sleep tight, don't let the bed-bugs-bite!
Susie, there is a medication that might help with the pain, but I think that with the delay in starting it its effectiveness might be limited - just as with starting the Valtrex so late (should be within 48 hours of the first symptom). It sounded like your (back wrapping around to front, following the affected nerve) initial pain followed the classic distribution of shingles pain so I am flummoxed that it didn't occur to the MDs- except that I have learned that Urgent Care MDs are often not the cream of the crop.
ReplyDeleteI cannot find any reference to Valtrex causing ligament weakness. The only drug that I am familiar with causing this is levofloxacin (Levoquin), an antibiotic. I sent an email to my cousin the dermatologist asking about this, and what else he might suggest to help you. Hopefully I will hear back soon.
In the meantime, you might try lidocaine ointment or a lidocaine patch on the sensitive areas. I am not sure how much it can help since the pain originates in the nerve root, not the tissues, but if the bra pressure is making it worse then maybe it will help. Go see a dermatologist if the pain continues severe.
I do agree that less dominance in the jersey race would have been more fun, although I did enjoy the attacks on the mountain stages (even though they failed utterly). Didn't it seem that we had more wins from breakaways across all stages than usual?
I think that I will try to watch more cyclocross this winter, in order to see Wout Van Aert compete against VanderPoel, Pidcock, Merlier and others. If they all compete - seems like sometimes once they start racing on the road they don't go back, or don't have the same form if they do (like Stybar & Boom).
I have to say that I am really peeved at J. Vaughters, for his on air interview on the day that Rigo cracked, when he basically said that Rigo didn't have what it takes to win the Tour. Not just that day, but any day. So shabby to say that in the middle of the race, whether true or not! I think the team made a decent showing although without a win. But, Jumbo-Visma!! with only 4 riders at the end! What a team!