Le Tour 2019 “Now with spoilers”

Team Sky is now team Ineos
Froome is out with injury
Can GT repeat?
The Manx missile has been a dud.

Who ya got?

I was hoping Lance would come out of retirement.

There’s a good recent interview of Lance.

You should watch it.

Looking forward to seeing who my new favorite is this year.

Riche Porte for me again this year. Might have a GC team

Nibali? He climbed away last year...I guess the bloke that won last year is a chance
Who else is in the GC mix
I better go do my homework and download the SBS tour tracker

Edit Loaded and already looking forward to S6

I miss Mario Cippolini talking trash and then taking all the first leg sprints followed by dropping out when in sight of the first cat 4 climb.

Marco Pantani and all those crazy attacks he did.

Richard Virenque and his unorthodox out-of-the-saddle climbing technique.

Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, period.

Miguel Indurain, well, he was a great champion, but boring as snot.

There's another very popular rider from this era whose name is escaping me. Started out as a sprinter and turned into a really good GC rider. He gave Lance some good battles back in the those tdf day. Dammit I cannot believe I cannot remember.

EDIT: Laurent Jalabert!!!

I'll miss Paul Sherwen this year.

This climb looks good for some fireworks.


The steep stuff at the end begins about 9:20.

Gianni Bugno was my favorite...Andy Hampsten, too. And don't forget Steve Bauer.

enduro0125, I'm glad you started this thread. I didn't realize the Tour was starting tomorrow.

I'd love to see Dan Martin seriously contend. He's an exciting rider but seems to have no strategic ability. In any case, he can be fun to watch.

Well the team time trial mixed it up a bit

Finally got my stream to work, and...crap! No Paul! He made it very enjoyable. Bob Roll's attempts at filling in on the culture/geography/history sound like he's reading from notes.

e: Oh no! Just googled... I hadn't realized he died...

I always enjoy Bobke.
He has a show now at Noon ET on NBCSN. Off Script" Might take a look if I can figure out how to watch it.

Great stage 3 today. I'm waiting to see stage 6. That should be epic.

I am so glad Gomer isn't racing the Tour this year. I wish him no ill-will and I hope he has a speedy recovery... but it's just gonna be a better tour without him.
I absolutely despise Team Death Star and Darth Brailford (what a blowhard).
Having said all that, I think it's going to come down to Geraint Thomas or Egan Bernal. Both seem like good guys. Given Egan's story, I would love to see him win it all.
Richie is a wild card, but I don't think he can hold it together for 3 weeks.
The Yates brothers will bring it... no question. I think Brother A has learned some hard lessons and will be ready this year.

About 1/2 of the Teams have already written-off their GC ambitions at the start... CCC has G-VanA as their #1 plate, Bora has Sagan, SunWeb has Michael Matthews... etc, etc,

As for who I will be cheering for... EF - Uran has proven he can be there in Paris, TJ always makes a good bridesmaid (when he can keep from crashing) and Woodsy has a little 'Jens' in him that I love.
Mrs. Bullseye is a huge Tibot fan and she's betting this is his year.

That stage 1 sprint finish Sagan lost by a actual whisker was crazy close.

Third stage with kink of the mountain points? I thought they saved the climbs for the end of the first week.

Do any of you know why Julian Alaphilippe was placed at the front with the race leaders in yesterday's stage?

He's French?



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If I now understand a finish correctly, a time gap only happens if you're at least 1s behind the rider in front of you. If you're within 0.99 seconds, you both get his time.

So if the entire peloton, with no breakaways, is strung out for 2km, single file with 0.99 second gaps and takes ~150 seconds to go by, when the first guy crosses the line...the entire field gets that same time result. If everyone is 1s separated, everyone has a separate time.

Somehow, that never sank in, even after watching all these years. I had thought they somehow assigned 1s increments at the finish, regardless of the (lack of) gap in front of you.

Also: Viviani. Dayum. Powerhouse. If he can see daylight, you're toast.


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Sagan seems half a step off this year. ...but the race is young

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