Tour de France 2021

[Mountain Bru]

Flip Woods could write a book on "how to attack too early". It seems every KOM sprint, Woods attacks with 350m to go, and then runs out of steam before he gets to the line

[Patchelicious]

1 minute ago, Mountain Bru said:

I think I heard somewhere that he has a "bonus only" contract where he doesn't have a salary but gets paid for wins. Maybe thats why he's suddenly performing so well ????

Make no mistake he is not wanting for cash.

[Mountain Bru]

Apparently its a hot day..... Good time to attack the Pog?

[Mntboy]

1 minute ago, Mountain Bru said:

Flip Woods could write a book on "how to attack too early". It seems every KOM sprint, Woods attacks with 350m to go, and then runs out of steam before he gets to the line

Has worked to a degree as he is now the virtual KOM at the moment. One climb left today and Poels is looking good. Hopefully we'll see a good battle between them not only for the KOM points but the stage win as well. Would be happpy if either one them wins today.

[Mntboy]

Woods crashed. Got to chase back on. However seems to be okay though. Only 15 seconds behind. Reckon he'll catch the other leaders on the climb.

[Mountain Bru]

Woods crashed on the "melting tar". (But they just said the temp is 25 deg C???).

He's not a strong descender though even at the best of times. I don't think he's a real threat for the stage today unless he opens a big gap before the last descent. 

[Mntboy]

Mollema trying a long range attack. Good enough climber to stay away and good enough descender to get a win out of today. But as Rob Hatch and Sean Kelly has mentioned it might be because the group is a rather strong one with both climbing and descending, in general, and that he feels he needs a gap in order to best them. 

[DieselnDust]

8 minutes ago, Mountain Bru said:

Woods crashed on the "melting tar". (But they just said the temp is 25 deg C???).

He's not a strong descender though even at the best of times. I don't think he's a real threat for the stage today unless he opens a big gap before the last descent. 

In Europe they often have to relay tar in summer and winter. The reason is the tarmac can't cope with the huge temperature swing between the seasons. So in more outlying areas where roads aren't used as much they use a lower temperature range grade of bitumen because the issue of bitumen softening is only an issue for a few days or weeks of the year.

[Mntboy]

Mollema getting a decent lead now. 1'09" for him on the chase group. They got to get organised if any of them are eyeing the win. 

[Mntboy]

G Martin has jumped up to second in the virtual GC. Going to be interesting to see if EF and JV come and assist UAE to keep their riders on the podium for the time being.

[Patchelicious]

Nice to see Maincheese on the back of the chase group 

[Jaco-fiets]

Looks like Sagan will be signing with Total Direct energy. Wonder if specialized would then be the new bike sponsor for them. I guess the brand has some money vested in him with the Sagan range they have.

Apparently Quickstep told him to rather sign somewhere else (actually think he approached them) because he comes with an entourage of about 20. Even has a social manager???? The guy is like a rapper.....

[Patchelicious]

Whoops looks like the cheese has melted 

[Jaco-fiets]

3 minutes ago, Patchelicious said:

Nice to see Maincheese on the back of the chase group 

Yip! Normally we see him at the back of the pelaton if we see him at all

Edited July 10, 2021 by Jaco-fiets

[Mntboy]

10 minutes ago, Jaco-fiets said:

Yip! Normally we see him at the back of the pelaton if we see him at all

Hopefully gaining some time and a place or two on GC today. ????

[Mntboy]

The stage should be Mollema's provided he doesn't crash. Can't see the others catching him.