TOUR TIME! Duh!
Wow...today really sneaked up on me...I thought today was tomorrow! (seriously...I thought the 1st was Saturday...went into work today thinking the pre-Tour show would be on Peacock, and lo and behold Stage 1 was just about to start! Boy was I shocked!)
So after ONE stage I'm liking my $10 investment for Peacock Prime Plus (no ads/commercials). Watching the ITT the video would cut and go right back to the race...it was awesome! If all the stages are like that, well, lets just call that $5 well spent!
Quick Step and their Cavendish ordeal...we will never know if Mark could have won that ONE stage to be the winningest sprinter ever...likely he would have...but their guy they did bring is on fire also. Fabio Jakobson...the post-stage show the guys showed the video (in at least 3 different views) of his horrific crash in a sprint final 2 years ago (I think). YIKES! I've never seen such a crash! Can't even describe it other than to say he was pushed into the barricades at warp speed, the barricade wall moved back and he went stright into the front-end of the next barricade part which seemed to stop him nearly instantly...barricade parts and bike parts and humans flying around from the impact...emergency surgery, they thought he might not even LIVE, let-alone ride/race again. I hadn't heard that story, and that he's back to sprinting and WINNING again...just wow.
I hereby admit I've seen nor even HEARD absolutly ZERO cycling this year...so I've NO IDEA WHATSOEVER who is doing what on which team. But the ITT was interesting...and Baby Face looks like he slapped all the other GC guys in the face with his iron gauntlet alrealdy. Wout looks pretty amazing, I thnk is the new Peter Sagan...the do it all superman (Sagan is here, and I will have my fingers crossed he can pull off a bit more Tour Magic and win a stage)...and once again there is Roglic, but this year for sure he has a monkey on his back...his own teammate Vingagard (sorry dude, I butchered the crap out of your name, will have to look that up and get it right)...the man who took the reigns last year after Primo crashed out and not only finished on the podium, but in 2nd just behind Baby Face! I think that's an interesting story for Jumbo...now THEY have the dual leader thing going for them, and that can't be good for Primo. Seems the dual leadership thing never really works out for the guy who 'was' the man...Primo is 35 years old now I think? That's getting up there in cycling years.
I'll keep this short as I just finished watching the stage, and NOW my annual July riding dilema begins...I WANT to be out all day tomorrow on my bike like my usual Saturdays..and I want to ride at least twice a week after work also. But NOW I've got a Stage to watch as much of as possible, still get enough sleep to NOT be a zombie at work, and to keep my fitness where it's at with no backslide (which I'm usually not very successful at doing).
Anyway, HELLO JULY!
And GAME ON!
I saw a very nice documentary about Jumbo-Visma's TdF last year - on YouTube - "Plan B: the fall and rise" Boy howdy, how impressive that team was last year! Has me fired up to see how the team does this year!
ReplyDeleteSo stages 2 and 3 are in the books...watching Jacobson win his first Tour stage on 2 was pretty great...can't help but wonder how Cav would have done in that position. But then today on 3 he (Jacobson) really blew it in that left turn at 800 meters...he totally had it, his team was killing it and had he just held the wheel of Morcock (his leadout man) he had it in the bag, don't think anybody could pass him if he was in that position...but he lost about 15 spots on that turn when he went WAY wide towards the barriers, and then was just locked in. Same for Ewen...he was just too far back in too much traffic. In my expert opinion (ha!), if anybody was guilty of not holding their line and blocking others today (stage 3) it was Wout...Gronovagen held his line and in fact was going slightly to the left if anything...it was Wout who pushed right towards the barriers and squeezed out Sagan who then squeezed out Ewen. We will see tomorrow if the judges have anything to say about this one...sprinters need to do a better job holding their line, I can say that...we see way too many guys shut down of any opportunity due to this and it's usually just considered part of the sprint unless it's extreme. But anyway, enjoyed the ho-hum stage (got to watch the entire thing LIVE this morning..woke up at 3am wide awake...the Peacock broadcast started at 3:30...so cool! Of course, it's 8pm and I'm BEAT as I didn't get any naps today. Tomorrow is a rest day...yea...day THREE is a rest day...sure it's a big transfer from Denmark to France, but taking the first rest day about a week early...that's gonna wreak havoc with only 1 more rest day for the 18 days of racing left to go. Happy Independence Day!
ReplyDeleteStage 4 yesterday, awesome stage! Jumbo Visma having an amazing race so far! And then today...Stage 5...COBBLES! Man oh MAN, just everything bad that can happen to a team happened to Jumbo! But have to hand it to Wout...looked like he was out to me, went down on that turn, who knows how hurt he was but he sure wasn't looking very zippy after that...and then suddenly he puts on his cape, and SuperWout is now pulling for Vingegaard helping to stop the bleeding (looked Terminal, Babyface was KILLING all the GC guys up near the front). And poor Roglic, I have been rooting for him, and he was doing it right up near the front...and then a FREAKING HAY BALE gets knocked into the road by Ewen....how on earth can a HAY BALE be in such a precarious place that one guy knocks it into the road? That is disgusting for the race orgainzers..a hay bale takes out a top contender...that should never happen. That stupid bale took down Roglic among others! And he just got CRUSHED after that...lost a TON of time to Babyface! Also I was really rooting for Powless up in the break to hold off the others and win the stage AND maybe wear Yellow for a day...he sure gave it his all. Anyway, wow...just wow. What a stage...drama, trauma, melodrama...(HA!) The NBC crew can take apart this stage for hours coming up with all the things that went wrong for lots of riders. Jumbo just happened to get WAY more than their share. Riches to Rags. OK...bed time! July always makes me tired...I didn't do any FF'ing thru this stage...wanted to see it ALL! Tour Time...Ahhhhh....LOVE IT!
DeleteJust looked and see Blogspot suddenly things I'm "anonymous"...obviously me in the last 2 comments and I"m logged into my account when making them...that's odd (and even more obvious that this is me here in this comment too btw...bet it still calls me "anonymous".
ReplyDeletelost that bet. Suddenly it knew who I was. OK...NOW off to bed. Good night!
DeleteSo Stage 6 was pretty great! And we FINALLY saw Super-Wout crack...I've been wondering just how he has been SO much stronger than everybody else...today we saw he IS human after all. And oh my...Powless missed going into yellow by FIVE SECONDS! If he could have stayed with Babyface in that final 50 meters or so he would have done it! Wasn't to be buy oh my, he is SO CLOSE!! And nice to see another American Quinn Simmons out front in the 3 man (and then 2) breakaway for half of the day, after surviving the first near 50 miles of chaos and destruction waiting for THE break to finally emerge. Quite the stage, great viewing, and it was wonderful to see Primo attack on the final climb, even if it was doomed from the start as Babyface crushed it and continued right on by...but still that showed he's got fight still left in him after dislocating his shoulder yesterday (and putting it back on his own on the chair of a spectator!) No WONDER he lost so much time yesterday, I couldn't figure out where he went after sliding out in that turn from the hay bale. OK...bed time...July....ahhh! Game ON!
ReplyDeleteHere I am Ms. Anonymous (Rae). I am loving this tour so far - each stage has offered something interesting, and I really enjoyed seeing some new faces winning the first several stages. (new, except for Wout - but it was also nice to see him in yellow.)
ReplyDeleteI've been alternating between the stream with Phil & Bob, and the alternate stream with Anthony McCrossan (I think - I tend to confuse him with Matt Keenan) and Nico Roche. Phil & Bob are easy and familiar, and I really enjoy the segments with Christian and Chris (especially post race), and Robbie Hunter's comments from the bike. But the commentary by Anthony & Nico is full of information and a different take, and I enjoy that too! Especially since Nico isn't that long retired, he has some perspective on current riders and happenings.
All have commented that some of the longstanding traditions of the Tour have gone by the wayside - like the peloton slowing after a big crash, or if the yellow jersey has had a mishap. And noting how much higher the speeds are overall.
I'm glad to see that Sagan has been in the mix, but not surprised that he isn't quite competitive enough - he recently had Covid again, the 4th time IIRC! that has to be affecting him.
Hey Rae...I've also been enjoying this Tour! Every stage is exciting...we THINK that Pogacar is pretty much a done-deal to win it, but 2 more weeks, and ONE teensy little thing can throw that out the window...he went down today when we lost one of our Americans in that early crash (he was the 1st to go down)...not sure if he was truly hurt or they took him out on Concussion protocol....looked like he went face/head-first at speed...didn't look good at all. Roglic SEEMS to be out of GC contention...and Vingegaard (HA! I know how to spell him now!) is doing everything right...LOVED that he challenged Pogacar yesterday at the top of that finish...really thought he had it! I think tomorrow (Sunday) will really give us insight into the other players and IF they are up to putting any pressure on UAE. Been wondering when Ineos would do SOMETHING...4 guys in top 1-0 and all they do is sit on wheels...sheesh, Pogacar does more on his own to animate the race than the ENTIRE Ineos team! Time will tell if they really have something or not. Other than Jumbo I really don't see any big surprises, but new superstars can emerge at nearly any time...so we can hope for one of those revelations as things get hard in the mountains...But so far we've had 8 stages and 6 diff winners...only Wout and Tadej have won 2....like it when there are a LOT of different winners. And that poor guy yesterday who got passed in the final 50 meters or so, he could barely pedal his bike, and Jonas and Tadej swooped by him like he was standing still..however both of those guys was protected all day and breakaway dude worked HARD all day...do love it when the breakaway guys can hold off the "for certain" catch at the end and win it by the skin on their teeth...that is extremely rare tho. OK...bed time...big day tomorrow...woo hoo! And Susie, you out there?? Hope you're doing well and liking the race thus far!
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