Tour Talk 1

 And so, the 2025 edition of le Tour is underway! As I type the Stage 5 ITT is happening (it's still pretty early in the day). The first week has been hard to watch all of each stage, as it's all been pretty much 'sprint' stages, mostly pretty boring until the last 15k or so.

 Obviously there have been crashes...most notably was when Alpecin lost their sprinter Jasper Philipsen (Stage 3 I think), who was taken out in the bunch sprint having done nothing wrong other than being next to guys that were doing the argy-bargy. Bobke said they were probably over 60kpm when it happened, all I know was that it was very sad, when he didn't get up and they finally took him on a stretcher you know it was bad...I think they said broken collarbone, the typical cycling damage other than road-rash (and he got a bunch of that too). He wasn't in Yellow that stage, his teammate Van der Poel (one of his primary leadout men) was, tho he had on Stage 2 having won the day on Stage 1.

 Today SHOULD be Remco's to lose... holding the current World AND Olympic ITT wins as well as the crushing he did on both Pogo and Vingo in the Dauphine a few weeks ago, and that it's nearly totally flat, means he SHOULD be on fire (and to gain back some of the 58 seconds he's down).

 As usual, the NBC/Peacock team is first rate...and exactly the same as last year from what I remember (it was a winning format, why change it?) Phil and Bobke in the trailer somewhere near the finish line doing the play by play, CVDV on the back of the Moto IN the race, Paul, TJ and Brent back in the Studio (in the US somewhere, NOT in France), and finally Steve Porino somewhere out on the days route giving us fun insights and info on people and places the race goes by. Bobke was at his usual hilarious this morning talking about how he was riding out on the TT route when Remco went by him (like he was standing still) and then Vingo...his sounds, antics and facial expressions is a huge part of what we love about him! 

 It's quite a race so far, with Van der Poel still in Yellow, but Pogo and Vingo are just seconds behind...I'd assume either Pogo or Vingo will be in Yellow tonight, tho if Remco has a beast of a ride today it's a real possibility HE could be in Yellow...wouldn't THAT be something! I will say that it's great to see Vingo uninjured and looking like he's at his best....hoping those 2 fight it out all the way to Paris nipping at each others heels!

Going to post this and go watch the ITT, the 'interesting guys are getting close to being out on the course. 

It's now Thursday morning as I type, coffee in hand, Stage 6 on the Telly, and I'm in my Happy Place! The ITT yesterday certainly didn't disappoint, holy moly! My takeaways: Remco didn't exactly torch the course like he did in the Dauphine (tho he was still FANTASTIC and rode a pretty flawless route!), Pogo rode a very inspired race, and Vingo just collapsed, you could see it mile after mile like his power was just weeping away (he lit out of the starting block like gangbusters, and it was just a slow motion train wreck from there). I actually felt terrible for him, he seemed so full of promise in the early stages, showing he was going to hang with Pogo and give him a race. In the GC he basically switched places with Remco who is now in 2nd. 

They are riding right thru Normandie this morning, and there are LOTS AND LOTS of graves in the memorial cemeteries for the WWII fallen soldiers...that brings lots of emotions to the surface, SO MANY guys didn't come home, and yet we live in the world they provided by their sacrifice (and the race literally rolling thru Normandie is a testament to that sacrifice). Nazi occupied France...it's still so hard to imagine that possible history had the allied forces not prevailed, Europe (and the world) would be a radically different place. 

OK, enough of that train of thought, it's depressing. Back to THE RACE! And WHAT A RACE!

So Ben Healy just finished the stage for the win (his FIRST Bob said? Is that possible?), and I think I was grinning like an idiot for the last 15 miles watching him continue to increase his gap against the entire breakaway all the way to the line, it was amazing! Quinn Simmons took 2nd on the day (USA, USA!) and hey, the newcomer American on Movistar Will Barta takes 6th in his FIRST Tour! Hole cats, what a great day! I loved this stage...6 categorized climbs (5 Cat 3's and a Cat 4 just before the line) really spread out the peleton leaving plenty of room for a breakaway to succeed, and it did! And can't take away anything from Vander Poel...he got in the break (which was NO EASY TASK today) and it seems he'd wiped himself out just doing that, but he wasn't in it for the stage win but to try to take back Yellow that he lost yesterday...and it seems like he did it! YES! They just posted the GC, he's in front of Pogo by ONE SECOND! OMG, what a race! I LOVE IT! Quite honestly, good for Pogo to let it slip away (he even mentioned it last night apparently in on of the interviews), very out of character for him in years past...he's maturing into the leader now, so tomorrow (another hard stage, but aren't they all?) he doesn't have to wipe out the team defending Yellow. There will be PLENTY of days ahead for that, as we all know he WILL take back the Jersey, maybe even tomorrow. Gosh what a day, loved watching it, and the commentary was fantastic (as usual!). Oh, and one final thought on that subject...have you noticed that somebody must have been working with TJ, because he hasn't been doing the "Uhm"s over and over again like every year back that I can recall (his post stage interviews when he was still racing just made me cringe!) Well done TJ!!! The fact that I JUST realized that I haven't been hearing the Uhms over and over hit me like a brick. Very well done TJ! That's not an easy thing to do (I went thru Instructor School OH SO LONG AGO in the Navy, and then taught a mainframe computer class for the next 4 years...and I know in that 1 month school they try to eliminate all the annoying things like that, but it's not easy). I'm so impressed, I know the banter between him, Brent and Paul is always interesting, and his new insight by being management for Team EF gives him serious insider knowledge that's up a step from the rest of the rider/commentators (he even picked Neilsson Powless as his winner today, right team, wrong guy...but oh so close!) OK, on to my non-Tour pile of stuff to do. Boy it's GREAT not HAVING to really do anything during le Tour...I get to just sit and drink coffee and eat snacks and watch the stages...ahhh, life is great!