Vetplant

Anyone know what happened that made Wout crash in the first place to find himself behind the peloton? Road furniture?

Another example: A gripe I can raise is the societal damage that alcohol does to our society at-large. This gripe is rooted in personal experiences of lives in our family that were ruined due to alcohol. So, do I have merit to boycott any sports team that is sponsored by Castle/SAB? Can I force other people to see things my way and boycott them too? Very difficult thing to pin down. I think if your own convictions push you to avoid a team/sport due to atrocities, then do it. But don't expect others to follow you on your path. IMHO.

First Cobble sections come at about 15:40 today. Enjoy

One possibility is that he was earmarked to work for Phillipsen on the three "sprint" stages we just had, but things just didn't work out for them. But maybe he has been given freedom for today, so my anticipation is a MvdP masterclass in riding cobbles... Hopefully Sagan can join him and we can have an epic battle.

Without going to the actual results sheets, just by memory: Stage 20 - 2021: +10s? Stage 21 - 2021: +0s Stage 1 - 2022: -4s? Stage 2 - 2022: -0s Stage 3 - 2022: -0s Stage 4 - 2022: +8s? So NET margin, in time, over the last 6 stages: +14s? (Discounting the Bonus seconds)

😱

I was a little surprised the TDF TV director decided to do the Super SlowMo of Phillipsen crossing the line. The embarrassment is worth the airtime he got for the sponsors

Not sure whether everyone picked up on it, but Jonas looked dangerously strong on that final climb. Yates too. Safe to say, I think we will NOT have a procession in the GC battle.

WOUT!

In the meantime, here is the link to the original point:

@justinafrika, would you mind making the opening statement?

Anyone else have ZERO response from sellers after sending them a message on Bikehub? It has been three times now in the past week that I don't get any reply. Some of these sellers even relisted their adverts since my message, so it is not like the bike has been sold in the meantime? 🤔

Have you been online in the past two years? People have highly emotive opinions about any current topic, so best to isolate such a discussion from the actual racing action. NB: We are not saying "shut-it", we are asking to separate it from this thread. (Fine, I created the thread myself, just go post your postulation there and we can discuss: Ethics)

@justinafrika raised a point about Ethics in support a sports team. Let's discuss it here.

Fair point, would you mind making a new thread on the Topic? Would love to know more. I think most people on here would like to keep this thread limited to the race itself, thus the need for a new thread.

Yeah, agree. That is a Non-Cycling-Related issue. NCR for short. It needs to be discussed, but not here, IMHO.

7min lead with 90km to go... If only they had two more riders with them, they could play cat-and-mouse with the Peloton and maybe even sneak a win if they held back and put the happer down at 50km-to-go. But, alas, we will wait some more for a proper Breakaway stage 7' 15'' lead 15:21 7'15'' lead for Cort and Perez with 91km to go

Exciting 10 minutes we just had Quick Step speeds up 14:19 Quick Step puts the hammer down in the downhill after Cassel. It looks like they want to split the bunch. 20'' between the two pelotons 14:26 There are two pelotons now, with 20'' difference between them. Van der Poel and Co back to the pack 14:29 The group of van der Poel, Martin and Pinot has joined the peloton. There are still about 20 riders off the back.

Well, not exactly... Back to work until they reach the coast it seems.

Only real interesting GC item on the menu today is the potential of crosswinds in the final 30 odd kilometers. But I'm not convinced the windspeed will be high enough to have any real impact. The route profile seems interesting enough to entice riders to go on a jaunt with the Polka dot wearer MCN...

Hectic, she really gave it a good go to try to evade arrest.

I can see something similar to what MvdP did in Amstel Gold a couple of years back....

Word on the street is WvA will be chained to Rog and Jonas on those cobbles, but that doesn't mean he cannot sprint if he happens to be in the lead group going to the Finish line.... I think Wout will win on Stage 4 and will then be happy to work on Stage 5. PS.Gotta love sport, we have no idea what is actually going to transpire.

The course seems more inviting for a Breakaway to succeed on Stage 4 and even more so on the Arenberg Stage 5. Luckily my calendar is clean for Wednesday, but tomorrow afternoon requires some creative thinking...🤔