They are called « pavés », in the north of France. And in the rest of the country, actually. Like when you guys say « « paved » or « pavement ».
One of the riders was being interviewed after todays stage and he said “he’s making us all look like fucking idiots” no prizes for guessing who he was referring to lol
Thought Kamna was gonna make it at the end there today. Brutally heart breaking Without wanting to go down the whole ped road, has there ever been any doubt about the pog’s *ahem cleanliness do we know? Hope not obviously.
Given the speeds didn’t drop from the notorious days of Lance Pharmstrong I find it difficult to believe they’re racing clean. Riders who win tend to have the best doctors…………
Although the overall race speeds are still very high (the science behind fuelling and recovery has advanced a lot in the last 20 years) the climbs have got slower. The 5 fastest times ever up Mont Ventoux were in the 1994 Tour de France. The 5 fastest times ever up Alpe d’Huez are from Lance Armstrong (2001/04) and Marco Pantani (1994/5/7). That was at the height of performance enhancing drug taking. I’d like to think today’s riders are a lot cleaner than 20+ years ago. If so Pogačar is an alien in Le Tour, but he hasn’t yet tackled the Giro and has only done the Vuelta once (2019) so any thoughts of him being like Merckx will need a few more years and some other grand tour wins.
I’m far too cynical to believe they’re clean in the purist sense of the word, even pre blood doping there were ‘performance’ enhancers being used. There have been occasions on some stages where the known dopers times have been beaten but maybe they’re just outliers and not constants. Pog, won’t ever be a Merckx unless you’re confining it to only the modern day races still being run, some races aren’t run any longer. But for me they’re pointless comparisons like those made about other sports and their historical and modern competitors.
From what I know - I used to work at a university where they have developed some of the WADA testing and where they have Olympic and Paralympic athletes studying - and although I didn’t work in that area I have discussed these things with some of the staff. There are undoubtedly current athletes who take performance enhancing drugs, but it is not like the days of old when almost everyone was doing it. The most common thing nowdays is gentle rule bending in the form of exemptions. However cycling is much stricter than many other sports. If Pogačar is taking something (and I am sceptical about that) then he’s probably been doing it since he was a teenager because he was winning when he was 17/18. The ones to look out for are those who were average and then one year start being good. That is suspicious. I agree that it is impossible to accurately compare riders from different eras. Everything is different. Even the Vuelta and Giro are at different times of the year from 50 years ago. I was really just trying to point out that I think that those hailing Pogačar as an all conquering road cyclist, like Merckx was, are jumping the gun a bit. He is very good, but I’ll wait until he has won all three grand tours and a few more classics, monuments and other stage races before I start saying that he’s one of the greats of road cycling. If all you do is ride the Tour de France and prepare for riding the Tour de France, like Lance Armstrong did, you have a slight advantage over other riders who are contractually obliged to compete a bit more. That and a few other reasons is why I think in the future you are likely to see individuals winning the Tour de France 3-4 times in succession because they have a slight advantage (both physical and mental) over their competitors and are able to maintain that advantage for several years.
Not hippies apparently, right wing nationalists protesting the "annihilation of their society". Wondering if we should put them in touch with some of the cranks on here, together they could form some kind of gammon super army. Just a thought.
Thought we were going to have a new yellow jersey at one point today, shame really. Big alps stages tomorrow and Alpe d'huex thursday (which even i know about with my limited knowledge of the sport)
Well done the Gendarmerie, perhaps they could come over here and train our police to deal with the fools who sit down on motorways
Didnt see that one coming, we have a new leader!! Amazing stage, the comms kept rooting for Bardet to win for le froggies but i wanted Quintana to nab it, in the end neither of them won it lol. Even Thomas and to a lesser extent Yates making up time on TP today. Be interesting to see if Vingegaard has f*cked himself with all that effort today but was some supreme cycling, that last climb made my legs go funny and i was sat in front of the telly.
That was a bit of a surprise. It showed how important having a strong team is. Before yesterday I did wonder why Pogačar was so keen on grabbing every second he could on his rivals. The reason was probably two fold. It gave him a potential psychological advantage by making his rivals perceive him as stronger than they are. The minute or more lead he built up could be needed if his team isn’t able to provide him with the support and control of the race he needs in the mountains. Now he no longer has a psychological advantage because all his rivals are aware of how to beat him. He also has 2min 22secs to make up on Vingegaard, which I suspect will not be easy to do. I’m expecting an immediate fight back on the Alpe d’Huez stage today. I’ll be interested to see how close anyone gets to Marco Pantani’s 36min 50secs ascent of the Alpe.
For anyone wondering how quickly the riders completed yesterday’s ascent of Alpe d’Huez. Jumbo Visma rider Sepp Kuss, who finished 3 seconds behind Pogačar, Vingegaard and Thomas did it in 39m 54s according to Strava. Tom Pidcock’s time was 42m 42s (based on Louis Meintjes’ Strava time). 39m 51s (which I presume to be Pogačar, Vingegaard and Thomas’ time as I think they were all with Sepp Kuss at the bottom of the climb) is 36th on the all time Tour de France list, just behind Quintana’s 39m 49s from 2013. For reference Geraint Thomas’ 2018 stage winning time was 41m 16s. Chris Froome’s best Tour de France time was 40m 42s in 2015. His time yesterday was 44m 48s (by my calculations).
It was good to see Froome back at the front again but what a ride by Pidcock. Some of those scenes coming up to the finish were epic.
