Tour de France 2023

[Heckel7302]

Another great race this year. Anyone else watching? Halfway through and still exciting every day.

The Vingegaard/Pogacar rivalry in full swing. Who's got the goods?

Philipsen dominating the sprints, will he sweep the last two sprint stages (or three according to him?)

American Powless holding the polka dots, can he hang on to it until Paris?

 

[Moooza]

Vingegaard and Pogacar are so evenly matched. The next three days will be interesting to see if they can be split, otherwise it may simply come down to the time trial. Can't wait.

 

[Heckel7302]

Just watched the time trial today. Holy crap, I don't think I've seen such a dominant performance. Almost seems impossible. Makes me question if there was something fishy going on. I hope not, but really makes me wonder. Almost three minutes over 3rd place? Hmmm...

 

[Keithpaints]

Well it's tour time 2024 it should be a good one. Everyone was writing off Jonas Vingegaard the great Danish champion.
Because of his bad accident hasn't raced since, now in the tour. Pogacar attacked on second stage Jonas was able to match his speed. These two riders are light weights down right skinny, but big slow beating hearts & large lung capacity for their size. That & plenty power.

Saw talking heads on YouTube said since got out of hospital only training steep mountain roads.

One thing would expect Jonas will ride himself into top form in the tour. I like both of them Pogacar is good for cycling personable smiles a lot & has a good team this year.

 

[Keithpaints]

EPO was best performance drug in cycling I would think they have testing for it. Drugs have been in cycling since the beginning some harmful to cyclist.
From that to no banned substance in today's tours I'd like to believe it. Of coarse I believed Lance Armstong at first. When teammates started coming
out I knew he was guilty.

 

[Heckel7302]

So good to see Pogacar with some competition this year. Will be a fun one to watch!

 

[RickH]

Just watched the time trial today. Holy crap, I don't think I've seen such a dominant performance. Almost seems impossible. Makes me question if there was something fishy going on. I hope not, but really makes me wonder. Almost three minutes over 3rd place? Hmmm...

Yeah, I love the Tour. BUT, when Pog and Ving are riding faster than cyclists that we know doped, it makes you wonder. Great rivalry, tho!

 

[Lars]

Cav

 

[Heckel7302]

Cav

So happy for him. He’s been longing for that 35th so hard. Now can retire!

What do you think the odds are he rides out the rest of the tour? I think low chance.

 

[Keithpaints]

With plenty mountain climbing ahead him having team come back to help make time limit from being cut from the tour. Odds are against it. Of coarse pride finishing his last tour who knows.

 

[Heckel7302]

With the finish in Nice instead of Paris, probably further softens the motivation to make it to the end.

 

[Keithpaints]

Who would notice that Cav's chain would come off after crossing finish line. I like watching Johan Bruyneel podcast. He had noticed couple years ago when Cav won 4 sprints his chain came off 3 of them and again today. Figured so much power to the crank when crossing finish line power stops & throws the chain.

 

[Corradobrit1]

Brilliant result. And at 39 too. So happy for The Manx Missile. He's been through the wringer over the years. That Richard Mille just doubled or tripled in price...
It's great his entire family could be there to enjoy the experience.
I think he will continue and hope to collect another win today if he still has the legs. Flat as a pancake so a good sprinters stage to Dijon.

 

[daddy yo yo]

With the finish in Nice instead of Paris, probably further softens the motivation to make it to the end.

Nice would be the extra motivation for me. I prefer Nice over Paris by far!

And as far as doping is concerned, for me I have lost faith in pro cycling a long time ago. That was even before Armstrong. I never believed Armstrong (or anyone else), this was (and still is) just the way, everyone doped, no mater what. Also today, my opinion, they don't ride on Müsli and water...

I'd do the opposite of anti-doping strategy, how about liberalizing performance-enhancing substances completely. I get it, we would have Schwarzenegger-type-of-guys riding bikes at ridiculous speeds, many of them having heart-attacks while riding or after retiring, but hey, if that is the only way how to get cyclists realize that what they're throwing in is harming their bodies, I'd say it's their decision. We would have completely different sponsors, pharma-industry, of course. That would be honest!

 

[Keithpaints]

First 3 finishers at summit finish beat doper Marco Pantani record time up same mountain. Pantani was a pure climber who won the double Giro & TDF in 1998. Granted bikes are lighter, wheels are too. Tadej said nutrition & many other things better than when he started in pro's 6 years ago. Was reading that some substance that is legal now may not be in the future. I'm sure with money involved with top riders Tadej & Jonas food nutrition & whatever else to be able to out distance rest of riders in mountains.

I laugh one guy calls Tadej the Alien & Jonas the Sardine. They both putting out more watts in the climbs not only in present day, but all of cycling history.
Even the great Eddy Merckx.

 

[daddy yo yo]

Pantani was allegedly doped in 1998 (like everyone else) when he rode this climb in ~43 minutes. Pogacar was now 3 minutes faster. That is 7%. Do with that info whatever you want.

Many sport directors in pro teams are former pro riders that were active in the time of which we nowadays can say with some certainty that most were doped. So much for a system change.

 

[Keithpaints]

These guys esp Jonas are skinny lightweights with large hearts & lungs for body weight. As with many endurance top athletes. Look at the small Kenyan marathon champions. Pantani was small guy 127 pounds. Died of drug overdose.
Have dvd of his Giro & TDF double in 1998. That was the year of drug busts on the tour. Pretty much all the riders doped I loved watching Pantani climb his breakaway in pouring rain alone gaining huge time mountain peaks & dangerous desent. He was way down most of tour. Clawed back time & won TDF. One of favorite tours even with all the drug drama.

I was rooting for Tadej who was also down came back to win his first TDF
That was my favorite modern TDF.

 

[daddy yo yo]

These guys esp Jonas are skinny lightweights with large hearts & lungs for body weight. As with many endurance top athletes. Look at the small Kenyan marathon champions. Pantani was small guy 127 pounds.

And what does that tell us? They've all had large hearts and lungs, we all can read in Armstrong's biography what his lung volume was, etc.

I still don't admire the riders because I have always and still believe that performance enhancing substances (both allowed and forbidden) are being used. Hence no admiration.

What would change if they were all clean? They'd be a tad slower, but the ranking wouldn't change. But I am convinced this will and can never happen as long as former alleged dopers are part of the system.

 

[Heckel7302]

My feeling on the whole doping thing, who knows if they are or aren’t. If they are, for sure it’s not just the guys that are winning. So doping or not, I think they are at the same baseline. Same with Armstrong. Take the doping away, Armstrong still wins by the same margins.

Barring any disaster this year, Pogacar is going to win. The main interest at this point is how much he wins by. That and the green jersey race. Will be fun to see if Girmay can hold on in the remaining intermediate sprints to keep green. I bet Philipsen is cursing that relegation on stage 6.

 

[Heckel7302]

I wonder how the riders feel about ending this tour with a time trial. None of the usual pomp and circumstance on the last day. Seems super weird to me and kind of an insult to the sprinters, Chams or not. I guess it would have been cool if yellow was super close and stage 21 had some real stakes, but that doesn’t seem likely.

 

[Keithpaints]

Well I liked tour because wanted to see Tadej win another one after losing to Jonas last couple years. Jonas to even enter race after serious accident was gutsy. He still was second best as the two have been 5 years now. Back & forth.

Also first double Giro & TDF since Pantani in 1998. Someone mentioned that Tadej might have exerted too much in dominate Giro win. So much for that theory.

 

[Keithpaints]

Mark Cavandish did finish his final tour.

The diff. Jerseys on podium was cool.
Polka Dot Carapaz from Ecuador, Green jersey Binian Germay from Eritrea Africa. Tadej Pogacar yellow Slovenian, Evenepoel white Belgian. Looked like United Nations up there.