OFFICIAL 2021 Tour de France thread

Wobbie

Sagan is in like 12th place with 500m to go.........and WINS! Dude is a stud even if the sprint field has been seriously diminished.

HesCalledDyer

I miss the days of Zabel, O’Grady, McEwen, Hushovd, Hunter, & Cavendish. Zabel had a stranglehold on the green for many years, but the competitions seemed much closer then.

Wobbie

gotta think Cav may have ridden his last TDF.

HesCalledDyer

Yeah, after crashing out last year, re-injuring the shoulder earlier this year & other injuries in prior races, and missing a time cut in this year’s tour, I’d be surprised to see him come back next year. 

ST66483

Those days of Zabel, Ogrady, McEwen etc. were fun to watch for sure.  I like the guys that will win in a flat stage I.E. a pure sprinters stage, but also go off in a break on a moderately hilly stage like yesterday to scoop some points. A few of those names were capable of that, and Sagan still is, but others like Cavendish never really seemed to have that ability (but boy could he dominate a flat sprint).

HesCalledDyer

Yeah Cav is probably the best flat out sprinter I’ve ever seen. He’s a mutliple World Champion track racer so it’s no surprise. It’s a shame he’s sustained so many injuries in the last year because I’d really like to see him win a few more TdF stages and break the record. He did say he promises to be back next year but we’ll see. I hope so.

HesCalledDyer

A little TdF Jersey history:

Yellow was chosen as the color of the GC because the sponsor printed their newspapers on yellow paper.

Green was chosen for the Points classification because the sponsor was a lawnmower manufacturer. 

Although is the second oldest award in the tour, no actual jersey was awarded for the Mountains classification until 1975. White with red polka dots was chosen because the sponsor’s chocolate bars were wrapped in the same color scheme.

From 1968-1975 the white jersey was given to the Combination classification. This was chosen as a combination of all three colors. This was awarded to the best rider in all three classifications (general, mountain, & points). This was replaced by the Young Rider classification in 1975.

In 1980-82 and 1985-89 the Combination classification was reintroduced and was awarded a technicolor jersey comprised of white with red, green, & yellow rectangles and red polka dots, with one green & one yellow sleeve.

Wobbie

last two stages have been excellent! yates and gilbert showed huge courage yesterday.

can froome be knocked off the podium?

Meltdown99

Is the sport cleaner??

Wobbie

Meltdown99 said:

Is the sport cleaner??

hard to say, but I don’t think anyone has failed a test at this year’s race.

Meltdown99

Wobbie said:

Meltdown99 said:

Is the sport cleaner??

hard to say, but I don’t think anyone has failed a test at this year’s race.

Hopefully its cleaner.  Seems like users of PEDS are sometimes 1 step ahead of the testing...

HesCalledDyer

I doubt it's cleaner.  As long as there is testing, there will be ways to be beat testing.

Wobbie

I do think it’s cleaner because no one has done a “floyd landis just pulled back 11 minutes!!!!!!”

I’ll never forget that day

PJ_Soul

HesCalledDyer said:

PJ_Soul said:

HesCalledDyer said:

Alli, watch the video I posted above with Joe Rogan & Peter Attia.  Lance Armstrong didn't taint the Tour de France.  It was going on long before him and much more out of control before he ever came along.  He's no more scum than any of the other hundred and fifty racers who were running those same tours and all doing the same thing.  Lance won those tours and he sleeps perfectly well down the hall from where his 7 Maillots Jaune are displayed.

Lance is only scum in the public eye because the UCF and USADA made him the scapegoat.  He should be looked at as a legend.

I know all about it - I developed a great interest in the whole topic when it all went down and did my research. The reason I think Lance in particular ruined it all is not specifically because of the doping, because yes, so many others were doing it too and everyone knew it, but because of everything that he did after he finally got busted. Him personally. THAT is what makes him the king of the scumbags to me, and the whole livestrong thing just makes it that much worse to me. As far as him being scapegoated goes... I couldn't care less. When you're doing something you know is wrong and lying through your teeth constantly without any guilt, I think your right to not be scapegoated goes right out the window, frankly. I am completely unforgiving about doping, and don't give a shit what happens to anyone who is caught, no matter how many others are doing it. I fucking LOVE it when people are caught doping! And the more they are raked through the coals for it, the more I enjoy it. Serves them right.

Serious question - and I'm not trying to be facetious or combative - but do you honestly expect these guys to go out every day and destroy their bodies to the utmost unhealthy extreme without taking anything to help speed their recovery and to get their bodies functioning at normal levels again, in order to go do the same thing the next day?  To do what they do, they are sacrificing their health and threatening to shorten their own lives. I'm a little baffled that you'd express gratitude when they're "caught" getting a blood transfusion or taking a drug to ease the pain and help their bones & muscles recover to normal, healthy levels. I'll agree on one thing - it serves them right.  It serves them right for wanting to be healthy again and increase their life's longevity.  If the cost of that is being banned from sport or stripped of titles, at least they have their lives to live afterwards.

One of the biggest misconceptions on the planet is that blood doping, EPO, steroids, etc give you more strength, more power, or some physical advantage over everyone else during competition.  That's simply not true.  The term "performance enhancing drug" is a bit of a misnomer.  They don't really do anything to directly enhance your actual performance.  If it were that easy, we'd all just rub some cream on our asses and hit 75 home runs.  What those things do is allow an athlete to recover faster, so they can continue training, practicing to get better without having a physiological hangover (for lack of better word), that's the advantage you get.  The indirect result of that is the possibility of an improvement in performance (you still have to be strong enough, skilled enough, & disciplined enough to perform at that level in the first place).  And when done under the strict, safe supervision of a medical doctor, strength & training physicians, physical therapists, etc, like Lance and US Postal/Discovery teams did (and those before, along side, & after him) I really don't see the problem with it.  It has been medically proven that running the Tour de France "on dope" is much, much healthier and safer than not.

I can grant you the personal behavior - the lies, the cover-ups, letting people down, etc.  (Though Floyd Landis really is way more of a scumbag in that respect.)  But I can't really see how anyone could be mad at an athlete for not wanting to destroy their body to the point that they threaten life longevity.  So-called PEDs have come a long way since the days of just injecting anabolic steroids in your thigh or snorting uppers.  They are safer, healthier, without the side effects of the drugs used in the early stages of doping, and they will continue to get even safer & healthier as more research is done, the more doctors learn about the human body and its functions, and the more focused the drugs become on specific functions.

Just look at my heart medication.  In the 1920s I would have been told to drink a tincture of peppermint, lavendar, & ginkgo root to treat stroke.  Today we know that is completely ineffective and through research we have better drugs to help me recover.  Am I cheating or doping because I want to live longer and thus take drugs under the supervision of several doctors?  My body has failed and drugs that enhance the performance of my circulatory & pulmonary systems (directly, at that) have helped me recover and live longer.  The only difference is that governing bodies, whether it's a state run government or a sporting association, has deemed one okay and one not.  The function of either is really no different in the grand scheme of life.

I'm a little baffled by how open you are to cheating., so we're even?
I really do know a lot about the subject, so my opinion is well-informed, and I have a zero-tolerance attitude about it. I think that if they feel they need to dope for any reason whatsoever then that's their choice, so tough shit for them if they get caught or suffer any other negative consequences. I really don't give a shit. Nobody is holding a gun to their heads forcing them to compete in a sport that is harmful to their bodies and that has rules.
Taking drugs for medical reasons has nothing to do at all with sports doping IMO, and yes, I understand what you're saying about the physical punishment of sports (my dad was a hardcore athlete btw - he held the European championship). I don't accept your analogy.
But I do understand where you are coming from and accept that's your opinion, analogy aside.

Meltdown99

Wobbie said:

I do think it’s cleaner because no one has done a “floyd landis just pulled back 11 minutes!!!!!!”

I’ll never forget that day

That's a good point...

Wobbie

hell of a stage today! tomorrow matters.

HesCalledDyer

Geraint Thomas will ride into the Champs-Elysee as the first Welshman ever to win a grand tour! Hell yes!!

Would like to have seen Roglic hold his podium spot but he just couldn’t do it on the final day. Froome takes his spot by narrowly missing the stage victory.

World Champion Tom Domoulin wins the TT and will finish 2nd overall!

Hell of a tour!! One of the best I’ve seen in years!

Wobbie

jesus....opening day nerves!!

F Me In The Brain

That crash caused by the moron fan was crazy.  
A shame to have so many people dinged because of one selfish fool and his sign.

F Me In The Brain

Well, we know it was not you standing out there holding the sign, Wob!  (I assumed it was a man but apparently it was a woman who was the idiot at fault.)

https://news.yahoo.com/woman-caused-crash-tour-france-034448042.html

Halifax2TheMax

F Me In The Brain said:

Well, we know it was not you standing out there holding the sign, Wob!  (I assumed it was a man but apparently it was a woman who was the idiot at fault.)

https://news.yahoo.com/woman-caused-crash-tour-france-034448042.html

Are you sure it wasn’t wobbit? Have you seen his closet? And there seems to be a lot less letters to the editor of late. Must be the French postal workers are on strike again?