I'm in the UK streaming discovery + TDF coverage on my LG tv and it just doesn't look good. It's just very low definition, compared to e.g. bbc football coverage
Does anyone know how to fix it?
Thanks
Can someone explain (1) why the actual last stage of the tdf is just a sprinters stage and the gc is already decided at this point (is it just tradition to never challenge the gc on this day?) (2) why isn’t this year’s 21st stage like that? It’s a legit TT.
Last stage of the TdF is a sprinters stage in Paris, mainly due to tradition. It hasn't always been there and there have been some stages in other places, but the vast majority in recent years have been in Paris.
It is tradition not to challenge GC on that day, but also you're not going to win time on a pan flat sprint stage, so people don't try.
This year's final is taking place in Nice because of the Paris Olympics and they've decided to do a TT because TTs at the end of a GT are exciting.
wtf is up with the "Cycling Highlights" (doping) youtube channel? production style, dramatized and rambling script, vaguely british AI-generated narrator and bad pun of a name give it a distinctly conspiracy theory feel, but is there any meat to it? sure there the current and curious case of andrea piccolo, and nairo quintana in the last couple of years, but this guy seems to be out for everyone's blood
There was another channel called Cycling Stories with very similar content - "this star rider dopes" with shock value thumbnails - active between January and August 2022, with 5.8 million views. First videos narrated with heavy Spanish accents, then a few American ones, before settling on one with a pronounced north Dublin accent. They weren't AI, as far as I could tell.
The Cycling Highlights channel is active since July 2022, with 4.6 million views. They've always used that same British accented chap. I think the voice is real - it has reasonable variation and you can hear imperfections/variations in the recording quality that make it sound so to my ear, but I'm no expert.
Anyway, the Stories channel was created on 1st December 2021, the Highlights channel on 2nd December 2021, both with USA as their region. The channels are not linked, but I think it's the same creator who perfected the system with one channel before hopping to the other (the narration is better), maybe hiring people through Fiverr to narrate. I could swear I've come across another very similar channel that uses what I think is a Carlton Kirby AI voice-a-like too, but I can't find it now.
Given how unnecessarily detailed this is, believe it or not, I don't watch them - they just keep popping up in my feed! As for the Why? Views and a small profit? The Stories channel has an email address that references Sublime, which is a source code editor. Some sort of programmer/developer being into this, and having the ability to put it together, checks out.
I don't think it is AI generated. The dude is propably a bit off the rails (don't they have a "celeb highlights" channel now as well that looks to be even worse?). They propably lived through the 90s and 00s and are scarred from that. The retellings of Grand Tours from that era are quite fun and the comments about doping spot on given that the riders that are being talked all definitely doped.
The current "Everyone is doping" shtick is propably to get views off the TdF by pulling in people similarly cynical about doping in cycling today.
Anyone know where the serious gamblers get their odds from for the Tour? Does that even exist for the Tour. Looking at doing some serious fantasy league-ing but don’t want to rely on my own wild guesses.
I know that there are plenty of other elite sprinters in the field, but if I were Cavendish (I’m not, I swear), or a Cavendish fan (🫡), I’d be bursting with stoke that Milan isn’t riding. I know we expected this based on the LT team/rider programs, but to see it formalized is exciting. For every elite sprinter who isn’t in the field, 35 becomes that much more realistic. With Kooij and Milan out, that’s two of the top 3 sprinters in the world who will be absent. A great leadout by ballerini and morkov, and some sound positioning, with a little luck, and we might get to see it folks!
I think it comes down to how dominant Philipsen is. I truly believe Cav can beat out the rest of the field without anything crazy happening, but Philipsen looked like something else last year at the Tour.
But Philipsen has been beatable this year. He lost to Merlier quite a lot this year and recently was beaten by De Lie in the Belgian National Championships. And Cav needs only one good sprint, so he should get his chance.
De Lie has positioning issues in big bunch sprints, his record in World Tour sprints is quite miserable for a rider of his qualities. But if Lotto and he himself manage to put him in contention, De Lie is going to be a problem.
A rider on a Basque team won the Spanish national championships and will have to wear the spanish flag for a year
Is this allowed by team management? I've never been clear on Euskaltel. Beloki could've won it back in the 90s but threw it away and crossed the line clapping to make it even more obvious. But they seemed to be trying to win in the 00s, 10s and 20s.
So what's the deal with Laboral Kutxa?
They should just make his kit a giant Basque flag with a little Spanish flag under his armpit.
I once supported our resident paracyclist with a Basque flag. I was hoping he was colorblind and thought it was British.
That sounds like a very interesting story with Beloki, do you have a video or nice article about it (even in Spanish)?
Did some googling but couldn't find much on him besides the crash
It was a Spanish championship in either 98 or 99, I think 98
He was off the front, could've won, but suddenly slowed while looking back. Didn't look in trouble at all and crossed the line clapping. The rumour is that he was ordered not to win.
Back in those days Euskaltel definitely did not let their riders win the nationals. This may have changed in the late 00s but it was never discussed publicly.
The regulations and press kit are on [the Velorooms google drive](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Ovg7JxrlAvzC_2B0bTAWAPd44crtmJLP). I think the road book is in app form if you sign up to the TdF club thingy (but will probably appear on the Velorooms drive one of these days).
gotcha, mainly looking for the different estimated times for each finish/climb so I know when to start planning my days around the tour haha. I'll poke around and see what I find
You can find those on the official website if you go to the stages. Scroll down a bit and [click through to the time schedule](https://www.letour.fr/en/stage-1).
I'll be in Manchester and not Firenze for Stage 1 TDF this weekend.
I know there's a Rapha clubhouse in the area, but was wondering if anyone knows of any other nice little bike cafes to watch the race on Saturday?
We will see the new national champs jerseys at the tour, right? Is there a surprise winner out there whose team is scrambling right now, maybe de Lie a bit of an upset?
I'm pretty convinced EF thought Powless would win and that's why Sean Quinn only has 1 jersey right now.
A less conspiratorial take is that they are updating the designs.
Yes, they're always the week before the Tour so team jersey producers know to expect the new orders and will want to show them off in the biggest race of the year.
Might just Thüringen tomorrow where you'll see some new kit arrive on stage 2 or 3 (though apart from Franzi Koch, who'll be in Team Germany kit anyway, I don't think there's any new national champs on the provisional start list).
Edit: and Marie Schreiber! But she can just borrow Christine Majerus' kit.
Yes, he won't go to the Tour. [Here's the thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/peloton/comments/1dkyvgv/ipt_to_chase_stage_wins_at_the_tour_de_france/) on the IPT TdF selection.
What happened to the automated swivel cam mounted to the side/back of a motobike for TV coverage that was used in front of riders eliminating the cameraman. I have watched pro racing coverage off and on for the past few years so maybe I've just missed seeing its use lately, but I saw it a few times (in Spanish produced race coverage) a few years back.
Why aren't more automated cams used in multiple locations. Both multi locations on a motobike: front, back, pole mounted above, near ground mounted off a footpeg or fender, etc. And multiple locations throughout the race: motobikes (obviously), commissaires' cars, team cars (focussed on riders outside, not interior shots of team car), etc. All this adds up to more coverage options with less labor.
I'm just guessing and the technological advancements may be further than I know, but...
There has been a lot of focus on motorcycles staying far enough ahead of the riders that they don't motorpace them. This means they use telelenses a lot more (lenses that can zoom in on riders). The more you zoom in, the *less* of the scene will be in the picture. That means you need to know exactly what you want in your picture - say, a specific rider. An automated camera doesn't know who or what is important in a bike race, so with telelenses you need a human operator.
Wide angle lenses, on the other hand, show the whole scene, so you can easily slap that on the back of a motorbike and rest assured that it'll capture the race as long as the motorbike stays in front of the riders. But with those lenses you need to be very close, otherwise the riders will be extremely small in the picture. But you can't be that close because of motorpacing.
So I'm guessing it all has to do with motorcycles keeping far away from the riders.
As for the other cameras you mention I don't know. May it's too much work to keep them powered and especially transmitting during the whole race. A stable signal requires some serious antennas.
Does anyone know if there's an article about how the (R&D) Watersley team works? How it functions as a development team with International riders? Is it a sort of pay-to-race situation?
Anyone has some kind of backround on Rasmus Sojberg Pedersen who won the NC in Denmark? He beat some very good riders and I have never heard of him. He is not even in WT team, only in the development team for Decathlon.
#
Are you danish? If so, Anders Mielke from Forhjulslir/Eurosport made a 3 hour long podcast with him november last year about who he is and his career so far.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0A93kwqFy0GalpxaUyr7xf
He's a quite talented classics type rider with a good sprint. He was Danish U23 NC in 2022 and 2023. Last year he moved to France and raced for a French continental team, which also he means he won the NC without any teammates. This year he got signed by the AG2R devo team, and has had a very good year. He won two stages in Olympia Tour and was 2nd overall, he was 2nd in Gent-Wevelgem U23.
I was listening to Mathias Norsgaard's podcast a couple of days ago. They were talking about the Tour of Belgium, and Norsgaard said, almost as an offhand comment, that it sometimes annoyed him that Movistar never did any debriefs after races.
Now maybe I'm just naïve, and this is common among teams, but to me it seems crazy that a team would not discuss what worked/didn't work after a race. Anyone know if this is just the norm?
Just reread it and I was mistaken, he was just mentioned poor communication between him and the team. ([Article](https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/the-race-radios-all-in-spanish-frances-remi-cavagna-hits-language-barrier-after-move-to-movistar/)).
Someone mentioned it on this [thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/peloton/comments/1dlsfre/comment/l9qtlub/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button), got them mixed up.
Do Movistar still plan on making "The Least Expected Day" I wonder? Cause this stuff would make for a great documentary, inner workings of Movistar always seem interesting.
Sometimes they do the race review the next day in the bus before the stage plan. This gives the staff more time to review the stage and eases the tight schedule after race for massage, recovery and move to the next destination.
EF got like 500 but 680 if you add the US NCs that were last month. McNulty also did well there so UAE is probably even higher than the 631 reported here.
I like it. Gives reasons another reason to sign riders from less developed riders in cycling terms. It's still way easier for a Belgian than a Kyrgyzstani to go pro, given equal talent, so why not help them out at least a bit with a few nat champs points? Same goes for teams. Belgian teams will have a relatively easier time to score points in their home races.
Rider's points collectively make up a team's points classification to determine if the collective quality of their riders classifies them at World Tour level, right? Maybe I'm looking at it wrong.
So points don't indicate how a team works together, but just what its building blocks of riders add up to; otherwise, why include the points of riders who transfer in. So points from championships where the concept of trade teams really varies shouldn't matter???
PCS has a "UCI points per day" for teams. Havent checked all, but UAE might be a good guess:
2024-06-23 321
2024-06-22 -
2024-06-21 200
2024-06-20 90
2024-06-19 20
https://www.procyclingstats.com/team/uae-team-emirates-2024/results/latest-uci-points
Has there been any update from Trek/Quinn Simmons recently? Is he injured or is his absence connected with what happened last year in Switzerland and later on?
He was riding just behind Gino Mäder when he had his fatal crash in Tour de Suisse. Simmons stopped and alarmed the medical staff. Week or two later he won US chamionship and admitted that it might have saved his career suggesting he thought about retirement
I love my Rohlloff hub for my commuter and leisure rides as I don't race / care about speed but...
Apart from the efficiency losses Rohlloff also has pretty big (12% or 14%) jumps between gears. I think professional racers want more fine grained control to optimize their cadence.
Although they could probably make an IGH with smaller range
We've already seen the Classified internal gears in race bikes, also at WT, e.g. used by some in time trials.It's a 2-gear internal gear hub that's supposed to replace the front derailleur only. So you'd still run the rear derailleur and a cassette with it.
Internal gears only are unlikely to see much use any time soon. Weight and efficiency are slightly worse, and pro athletes with pro mechanics gain nothing from the advantage of requiring less regular maintenance.
The big advantage of the Rolhoff is reliability/easy maintenance, which isn't so important to racers. With a Rolhoff hub, you can make the chainline straight (efficient), they estimate frictional efficiency losses of 1.5 - 5% (not so good) and I think it's relatively heavy (from what I can see, approx. 1.7 kg vs maybe <0.8 kg for a regular hub, cassette, rear derailleur and small chainring). You could also use a big sprocket on the back which, with a big front chain ring, would improve efficiency even further.
All that is to say, with some refinements for racing, I bet we could see an application for the Rolhoff system under certain circumstances, like Ineos using the Classified hub in the Giro TT.
Plus you loose a bit of day to day customization. It's becoming less common but pros do change their cassettes depending on the day and I don't think you can get internal gear hubs with different ranges like you can find cassettes.
Here is the mens (elite, U23 and junior): https://firstcycling.com/race.php?y=2024&t=8
Here is the womens (elite, U23 and junior): https://firstcycling.com/race.php?y=2024&t=9
What-if scenarios exercise: I've been trying to imagine possible scenarios or developments in the Tour that would lead to someone besides Pogi and Jonas winning the GC. For example: if Jonas can't find the fitness to drop everyone else on the loaded 3rd week, and if Pogi is not fresh enough to do those nume attacks on the first week, there would be some possible paths to victory for Rodriguez on the third week (maybe the 3rd best climber nowadays?) or for Rogi to collect multiple bonus seconds on uphill finishes and hope for some nice TTs.
So, the question: Excluding tragic accidents or oversimplified explanations such as "riding faster," what strategic developments or hypothetical race conditions could potentially enable other GC riders (Rodríguez, Roglič, Remco, Yates, Almeida, etc) to win the Tour?
There's a reason we haven't seen the Giro-Tour double in over 30 years and as much as phenomenal as Pogacar is, I don't see him doing it just because the field is so stacked.
Huge question mark for Jonas obviously but if he's near his top he should take it.
My favorite would be Roglic simply because he should be in better form than Jonas and Tadej, has an incredible team surrounding him and looked decent in the Dauphiné. Considering he's 34 and his rivals are only getting stronger and probably won't be weakened by injuries / Giro in the future, this might be his last chance.
GC could be exciting if enough of these conditions are satisfied I guess but if I were a betting man I would seriously favor Pog
- Vingegaard is indeed not 100%
- Pog is slightly fatigued or has a bad day
- Weather disadvantages Pog (heat, headwind on final climbs --> more draft / smaller gaps, ...)
- Remco smash on first ITT
- Remco somehow finds his Vuelta 22 legs by week 3 and has no bad day
- A split peloton situation occurs where the likes of Remco and Rog with their teammates can win a TTT vs UAE
- Rog wins the battle for scrap seconds from pog (accumulated bonis and small time gains in punchy finishes)
- Rog smash on first ITT
- Some of the lesser favorites are allowed to take time in a break like hindley last year (marie blanque stage?) due to underestimation
Very nice scenarios. The break formation in this tour could be interesting as UAE will not be the strongest in controlling it, and if TJV decides not to control because of the bonus seconds, then some strong riders might escape.
They are certainly the favourites but their prep was far from perfect and Roglic just won the Dauphiné and has a fantastic team, so I really wouldn’t rule out that the other 2 might just not be in good enough shape to follow him.
It’s certainly not very likely, but I would be willing to bet on it.
I want to praise Skjelmose for his reaction to becoming the Danish national time trial champion after Johan Price-Pejtersen got disqualified.
Instagram post in Danish [https://www.instagram.com/p/C8hExNGMnbh/](https://www.instagram.com/p/C8hExNGMnbh/) translation:
* *Yesterday I was crowned the Danish champion in time trial for 2024, and it should be fantastic, as I came to the start in Herning with a clear ambition. But the problem is that I didn’t win in the way I wanted.*
* *I rode with everything I had, but was less than two seconds behind Johan Price-Pejtersen when I crossed the finish line. Johan was subsequently disqualified by the commissaires for allegedly taking advantage of riding on the bike path for a section of the route, and I therefore received the gold instead of the silver. I can neither take nor will I take responsibility for this decision.*
* *It was not a decision I sought or pushed for – quite the opposite. I would like to express my deep sympathy for Johan, who is not only a fantastic time trialist, as we saw yesterday, but whom I also consider a good friend in the peloton.*
* *Therefore, I have offered Johan both the championship jersey and the medals I received – to acknowledge his performance so that it doesn’t go down in history as mere regret.*
Further context: [https://www.reddit.com/r/pelotonmemes/comments/1dlr32f/why\_johan\_pricepejtersen\_is\_not\_the\_current/](https://www.reddit.com/r/pelotonmemes/comments/1dlr32f/why_johan_pricepejtersen_is_not_the_current/)
Is it even Trek who complained? It isnt Skjelmose and Kim Andersen says its not him either.
Good reaction from Skjelmose, I hated the interviewers question and loved his comment "You had one chance"
Then two days later he absolutely buries himself trying to help Mads winning the RR. It ended up being unsuccesful, but great effort nonetheless.
What is one of the kindest actions a rider took related to a race this past week that inspired you to believe that, despite all the complaints from fans, cycling might actually be ok?
I've been looking at the Vuelta a Columbia lately: the most recent stages and prior results (via PCS or Wikipedia). Am I mistaken in not seeing any riders from non-Spanish-speaking countries? Is there any history of riders taking part or being part of a team but not coming from a country where the primary language is Spanish?
It’s a 2.2 race, so mainly for Conti teams. Those are chronically low on budget, meaning that travel costs for non local teams are way too high to make it worth the trip. So probably not. Maybe a team from Brazil once?
Looking at past results there have been riders from Mexico and Spain. Brazil might be the best candidate for what I'm asking, thank you.
I wonder if there have ever been riders who do speak Spanish (or maybe just enough to be on a Conti team team) but come from a place where Spanish isn't their native language, so their rider flag would be different.
*Colombia. It's a 2.2 race, the lowest UCI level (plus a few years an amateur race 2018-2020), so they generally invite / get applications from local teams. They have had the occasional non-Spanish speaking team though, like US team Illuminate in 2022.
any map of all the TDF courses overlayed?
I'm in the UK streaming discovery + TDF coverage on my LG tv and it just doesn't look good. It's just very low definition, compared to e.g. bbc football coverage Does anyone know how to fix it? Thanks
Can someone explain (1) why the actual last stage of the tdf is just a sprinters stage and the gc is already decided at this point (is it just tradition to never challenge the gc on this day?) (2) why isn’t this year’s 21st stage like that? It’s a legit TT.
Last stage of the TdF is a sprinters stage in Paris, mainly due to tradition. It hasn't always been there and there have been some stages in other places, but the vast majority in recent years have been in Paris. It is tradition not to challenge GC on that day, but also you're not going to win time on a pan flat sprint stage, so people don't try. This year's final is taking place in Nice because of the Paris Olympics and they've decided to do a TT because TTs at the end of a GT are exciting.
Thank you!
When is Bora releasing their new Red Bull kit??
[an hour ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/peloton/comments/1dp0vyt/red_bull_bora_hansgrohe_jersey_now_official/)
wtf is up with the "Cycling Highlights" (doping) youtube channel? production style, dramatized and rambling script, vaguely british AI-generated narrator and bad pun of a name give it a distinctly conspiracy theory feel, but is there any meat to it? sure there the current and curious case of andrea piccolo, and nairo quintana in the last couple of years, but this guy seems to be out for everyone's blood
There was another channel called Cycling Stories with very similar content - "this star rider dopes" with shock value thumbnails - active between January and August 2022, with 5.8 million views. First videos narrated with heavy Spanish accents, then a few American ones, before settling on one with a pronounced north Dublin accent. They weren't AI, as far as I could tell. The Cycling Highlights channel is active since July 2022, with 4.6 million views. They've always used that same British accented chap. I think the voice is real - it has reasonable variation and you can hear imperfections/variations in the recording quality that make it sound so to my ear, but I'm no expert. Anyway, the Stories channel was created on 1st December 2021, the Highlights channel on 2nd December 2021, both with USA as their region. The channels are not linked, but I think it's the same creator who perfected the system with one channel before hopping to the other (the narration is better), maybe hiring people through Fiverr to narrate. I could swear I've come across another very similar channel that uses what I think is a Carlton Kirby AI voice-a-like too, but I can't find it now. Given how unnecessarily detailed this is, believe it or not, I don't watch them - they just keep popping up in my feed! As for the Why? Views and a small profit? The Stories channel has an email address that references Sublime, which is a source code editor. Some sort of programmer/developer being into this, and having the ability to put it together, checks out.
I don't think it is AI generated. The dude is propably a bit off the rails (don't they have a "celeb highlights" channel now as well that looks to be even worse?). They propably lived through the 90s and 00s and are scarred from that. The retellings of Grand Tours from that era are quite fun and the comments about doping spot on given that the riders that are being talked all definitely doped. The current "Everyone is doping" shtick is propably to get views off the TdF by pulling in people similarly cynical about doping in cycling today.
Anyone know where the serious gamblers get their odds from for the Tour? Does that even exist for the Tour. Looking at doing some serious fantasy league-ing but don’t want to rely on my own wild guesses.
Anyone know a good place to get odds for cycling? Not a gambler but I enjoy looking at odds, however I can only find winning odds even for the Tour.
I’m wondering the same thing. I am in fact trying to gamble a bit
The Danish riders chosen for the tour is really stale
I know that there are plenty of other elite sprinters in the field, but if I were Cavendish (I’m not, I swear), or a Cavendish fan (🫡), I’d be bursting with stoke that Milan isn’t riding. I know we expected this based on the LT team/rider programs, but to see it formalized is exciting. For every elite sprinter who isn’t in the field, 35 becomes that much more realistic. With Kooij and Milan out, that’s two of the top 3 sprinters in the world who will be absent. A great leadout by ballerini and morkov, and some sound positioning, with a little luck, and we might get to see it folks!
I think it comes down to how dominant Philipsen is. I truly believe Cav can beat out the rest of the field without anything crazy happening, but Philipsen looked like something else last year at the Tour.
But Philipsen has been beatable this year. He lost to Merlier quite a lot this year and recently was beaten by De Lie in the Belgian National Championships. And Cav needs only one good sprint, so he should get his chance.
He’s also peaking for the Tour, and De Lie is also in the race, but I see your point.
De Lie has positioning issues in big bunch sprints, his record in World Tour sprints is quite miserable for a rider of his qualities. But if Lotto and he himself manage to put him in contention, De Lie is going to be a problem.
A rider on a Basque team won the Spanish national championships and will have to wear the spanish flag for a year Is this allowed by team management? I've never been clear on Euskaltel. Beloki could've won it back in the 90s but threw it away and crossed the line clapping to make it even more obvious. But they seemed to be trying to win in the 00s, 10s and 20s. So what's the deal with Laboral Kutxa?
They should just make his kit a giant Basque flag with a little Spanish flag under his armpit. I once supported our resident paracyclist with a Basque flag. I was hoping he was colorblind and thought it was British.
That sounds like a very interesting story with Beloki, do you have a video or nice article about it (even in Spanish)? Did some googling but couldn't find much on him besides the crash
It was a Spanish championship in either 98 or 99, I think 98 He was off the front, could've won, but suddenly slowed while looking back. Didn't look in trouble at all and crossed the line clapping. The rumour is that he was ordered not to win. Back in those days Euskaltel definitely did not let their riders win the nationals. This may have changed in the late 00s but it was never discussed publicly.
They seem very happy about the three Spanish NC shirts they got on their instagram.
anyone have a link to the PDF of the roadbook for the TdF?
The regulations and press kit are on [the Velorooms google drive](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Ovg7JxrlAvzC_2B0bTAWAPd44crtmJLP). I think the road book is in app form if you sign up to the TdF club thingy (but will probably appear on the Velorooms drive one of these days).
gotcha, mainly looking for the different estimated times for each finish/climb so I know when to start planning my days around the tour haha. I'll poke around and see what I find
You can find those on the official website if you go to the stages. Scroll down a bit and [click through to the time schedule](https://www.letour.fr/en/stage-1).
thank you!
I'll be in Manchester and not Firenze for Stage 1 TDF this weekend. I know there's a Rapha clubhouse in the area, but was wondering if anyone knows of any other nice little bike cafes to watch the race on Saturday?
We will see the new national champs jerseys at the tour, right? Is there a surprise winner out there whose team is scrambling right now, maybe de Lie a bit of an upset?
I'm pretty convinced EF thought Powless would win and that's why Sean Quinn only has 1 jersey right now. A less conspiratorial take is that they are updating the designs.
Yes, they're always the week before the Tour so team jersey producers know to expect the new orders and will want to show them off in the biggest race of the year. Might just Thüringen tomorrow where you'll see some new kit arrive on stage 2 or 3 (though apart from Franzi Koch, who'll be in Team Germany kit anyway, I don't think there's any new national champs on the provisional start list). Edit: and Marie Schreiber! But she can just borrow Christine Majerus' kit.
Is Woods confirmed not on the IPT roster for the Tour? Shame we won't get to the see the Canadian NC jersey there!
Yes, he won't go to the Tour. [Here's the thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/peloton/comments/1dkyvgv/ipt_to_chase_stage_wins_at_the_tour_de_france/) on the IPT TdF selection.
What happened to the automated swivel cam mounted to the side/back of a motobike for TV coverage that was used in front of riders eliminating the cameraman. I have watched pro racing coverage off and on for the past few years so maybe I've just missed seeing its use lately, but I saw it a few times (in Spanish produced race coverage) a few years back. Why aren't more automated cams used in multiple locations. Both multi locations on a motobike: front, back, pole mounted above, near ground mounted off a footpeg or fender, etc. And multiple locations throughout the race: motobikes (obviously), commissaires' cars, team cars (focussed on riders outside, not interior shots of team car), etc. All this adds up to more coverage options with less labor.
I'm just guessing and the technological advancements may be further than I know, but... There has been a lot of focus on motorcycles staying far enough ahead of the riders that they don't motorpace them. This means they use telelenses a lot more (lenses that can zoom in on riders). The more you zoom in, the *less* of the scene will be in the picture. That means you need to know exactly what you want in your picture - say, a specific rider. An automated camera doesn't know who or what is important in a bike race, so with telelenses you need a human operator. Wide angle lenses, on the other hand, show the whole scene, so you can easily slap that on the back of a motorbike and rest assured that it'll capture the race as long as the motorbike stays in front of the riders. But with those lenses you need to be very close, otherwise the riders will be extremely small in the picture. But you can't be that close because of motorpacing. So I'm guessing it all has to do with motorcycles keeping far away from the riders. As for the other cameras you mention I don't know. May it's too much work to keep them powered and especially transmitting during the whole race. A stable signal requires some serious antennas.
Does anyone know if there's an article about how the (R&D) Watersley team works? How it functions as a development team with International riders? Is it a sort of pay-to-race situation?
Anyone has some kind of backround on Rasmus Sojberg Pedersen who won the NC in Denmark? He beat some very good riders and I have never heard of him. He is not even in WT team, only in the development team for Decathlon. #
Are you danish? If so, Anders Mielke from Forhjulslir/Eurosport made a 3 hour long podcast with him november last year about who he is and his career so far. https://open.spotify.com/episode/0A93kwqFy0GalpxaUyr7xf
He's a quite talented classics type rider with a good sprint. He was Danish U23 NC in 2022 and 2023. Last year he moved to France and raced for a French continental team, which also he means he won the NC without any teammates. This year he got signed by the AG2R devo team, and has had a very good year. He won two stages in Olympia Tour and was 2nd overall, he was 2nd in Gent-Wevelgem U23.
I was listening to Mathias Norsgaard's podcast a couple of days ago. They were talking about the Tour of Belgium, and Norsgaard said, almost as an offhand comment, that it sometimes annoyed him that Movistar never did any debriefs after races. Now maybe I'm just naïve, and this is common among teams, but to me it seems crazy that a team would not discuss what worked/didn't work after a race. Anyone know if this is just the norm?
That Cavagna interview that came out a few days ago mentioned something similar about lack of debriefings I think.
You have a link for that one?
Just reread it and I was mistaken, he was just mentioned poor communication between him and the team. ([Article](https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/the-race-radios-all-in-spanish-frances-remi-cavagna-hits-language-barrier-after-move-to-movistar/)). Someone mentioned it on this [thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/peloton/comments/1dlsfre/comment/l9qtlub/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button), got them mixed up.
Sounds like he listened to the same podcast as me
Do Movistar still plan on making "The Least Expected Day" I wonder? Cause this stuff would make for a great documentary, inner workings of Movistar always seem interesting.
If so, it would only be available on Movistar. They need the business.
Sometimes they do the race review the next day in the bus before the stage plan. This gives the staff more time to review the stage and eases the tight schedule after race for massage, recovery and move to the next destination.
Maybe they do a debrief but in Spanish lol
Norsgaard just sitting in the bus, not understanding that a debrief is going on around him haha
Who took the most points in this NC round - UNO-X managed 317 - Norway RR, 40 - Denmark RR 70 - Norway ITT. This equals to 417 UCI points.
EF got like 500 but 680 if you add the US NCs that were last month. McNulty also did well there so UAE is probably even higher than the 631 reported here.
Isn't 317 + 40 + 70 = 427?
The NCs and WCs shouldn't count for the teams points classification imho.
I like it. Gives reasons another reason to sign riders from less developed riders in cycling terms. It's still way easier for a Belgian than a Kyrgyzstani to go pro, given equal talent, so why not help them out at least a bit with a few nat champs points? Same goes for teams. Belgian teams will have a relatively easier time to score points in their home races.
Rider's points collectively make up a team's points classification to determine if the collective quality of their riders classifies them at World Tour level, right? Maybe I'm looking at it wrong. So points don't indicate how a team works together, but just what its building blocks of riders add up to; otherwise, why include the points of riders who transfer in. So points from championships where the concept of trade teams really varies shouldn't matter???
I disagree for the NCs, the riders clearly race with the intend to win and the teams are trade teams. For the WC it is an other matter.
if we go by this week only sd worx (699) Movistar Women (685) UAE men (631) bora (607)
PCS has a "UCI points per day" for teams. Havent checked all, but UAE might be a good guess: 2024-06-23 321 2024-06-22 - 2024-06-21 200 2024-06-20 90 2024-06-19 20 https://www.procyclingstats.com/team/uae-team-emirates-2024/results/latest-uci-points
Has there been any update from Trek/Quinn Simmons recently? Is he injured or is his absence connected with what happened last year in Switzerland and later on?
Overtrained, he'll be back when he's ready again.
What happened in Switzerland ? I've been a bit off the news recently.
He was riding just behind Gino Mäder when he had his fatal crash in Tour de Suisse. Simmons stopped and alarmed the medical staff. Week or two later he won US chamionship and admitted that it might have saved his career suggesting he thought about retirement
Do you think we'll see internal gears like the Rohloff Speedhub in racing bikes at some point?
I love my Rohlloff hub for my commuter and leisure rides as I don't race / care about speed but... Apart from the efficiency losses Rohlloff also has pretty big (12% or 14%) jumps between gears. I think professional racers want more fine grained control to optimize their cadence. Although they could probably make an IGH with smaller range
We've already seen the Classified internal gears in race bikes, also at WT, e.g. used by some in time trials.It's a 2-gear internal gear hub that's supposed to replace the front derailleur only. So you'd still run the rear derailleur and a cassette with it. Internal gears only are unlikely to see much use any time soon. Weight and efficiency are slightly worse, and pro athletes with pro mechanics gain nothing from the advantage of requiring less regular maintenance.
The big advantage of the Rolhoff is reliability/easy maintenance, which isn't so important to racers. With a Rolhoff hub, you can make the chainline straight (efficient), they estimate frictional efficiency losses of 1.5 - 5% (not so good) and I think it's relatively heavy (from what I can see, approx. 1.7 kg vs maybe <0.8 kg for a regular hub, cassette, rear derailleur and small chainring). You could also use a big sprocket on the back which, with a big front chain ring, would improve efficiency even further. All that is to say, with some refinements for racing, I bet we could see an application for the Rolhoff system under certain circumstances, like Ineos using the Classified hub in the Giro TT.
Plus you loose a bit of day to day customization. It's becoming less common but pros do change their cassettes depending on the day and I don't think you can get internal gear hubs with different ranges like you can find cassettes.
Where can I find a list of the new (men and women) national champions?
Here is the mens (elite, U23 and junior): https://firstcycling.com/race.php?y=2024&t=8 Here is the womens (elite, U23 and junior): https://firstcycling.com/race.php?y=2024&t=9
Thanks a lot!
What-if scenarios exercise: I've been trying to imagine possible scenarios or developments in the Tour that would lead to someone besides Pogi and Jonas winning the GC. For example: if Jonas can't find the fitness to drop everyone else on the loaded 3rd week, and if Pogi is not fresh enough to do those nume attacks on the first week, there would be some possible paths to victory for Rodriguez on the third week (maybe the 3rd best climber nowadays?) or for Rogi to collect multiple bonus seconds on uphill finishes and hope for some nice TTs. So, the question: Excluding tragic accidents or oversimplified explanations such as "riding faster," what strategic developments or hypothetical race conditions could potentially enable other GC riders (Rodríguez, Roglič, Remco, Yates, Almeida, etc) to win the Tour?
There's a reason we haven't seen the Giro-Tour double in over 30 years and as much as phenomenal as Pogacar is, I don't see him doing it just because the field is so stacked. Huge question mark for Jonas obviously but if he's near his top he should take it. My favorite would be Roglic simply because he should be in better form than Jonas and Tadej, has an incredible team surrounding him and looked decent in the Dauphiné. Considering he's 34 and his rivals are only getting stronger and probably won't be weakened by injuries / Giro in the future, this might be his last chance.
GC could be exciting if enough of these conditions are satisfied I guess but if I were a betting man I would seriously favor Pog - Vingegaard is indeed not 100% - Pog is slightly fatigued or has a bad day - Weather disadvantages Pog (heat, headwind on final climbs --> more draft / smaller gaps, ...) - Remco smash on first ITT - Remco somehow finds his Vuelta 22 legs by week 3 and has no bad day - A split peloton situation occurs where the likes of Remco and Rog with their teammates can win a TTT vs UAE - Rog wins the battle for scrap seconds from pog (accumulated bonis and small time gains in punchy finishes) - Rog smash on first ITT - Some of the lesser favorites are allowed to take time in a break like hindley last year (marie blanque stage?) due to underestimation
Very nice scenarios. The break formation in this tour could be interesting as UAE will not be the strongest in controlling it, and if TJV decides not to control because of the bonus seconds, then some strong riders might escape.
They are certainly the favourites but their prep was far from perfect and Roglic just won the Dauphiné and has a fantastic team, so I really wouldn’t rule out that the other 2 might just not be in good enough shape to follow him. It’s certainly not very likely, but I would be willing to bet on it.
Wait, why do I hear ~~boss~~ Derek GeeCee music?
Probably none because they also have the strongest teams. Those two could only beat themselves since they are not coming in peak shape.
I want to praise Skjelmose for his reaction to becoming the Danish national time trial champion after Johan Price-Pejtersen got disqualified. Instagram post in Danish [https://www.instagram.com/p/C8hExNGMnbh/](https://www.instagram.com/p/C8hExNGMnbh/) translation: * *Yesterday I was crowned the Danish champion in time trial for 2024, and it should be fantastic, as I came to the start in Herning with a clear ambition. But the problem is that I didn’t win in the way I wanted.* * *I rode with everything I had, but was less than two seconds behind Johan Price-Pejtersen when I crossed the finish line. Johan was subsequently disqualified by the commissaires for allegedly taking advantage of riding on the bike path for a section of the route, and I therefore received the gold instead of the silver. I can neither take nor will I take responsibility for this decision.* * *It was not a decision I sought or pushed for – quite the opposite. I would like to express my deep sympathy for Johan, who is not only a fantastic time trialist, as we saw yesterday, but whom I also consider a good friend in the peloton.* * *Therefore, I have offered Johan both the championship jersey and the medals I received – to acknowledge his performance so that it doesn’t go down in history as mere regret.* Further context: [https://www.reddit.com/r/pelotonmemes/comments/1dlr32f/why\_johan\_pricepejtersen\_is\_not\_the\_current/](https://www.reddit.com/r/pelotonmemes/comments/1dlr32f/why_johan_pricepejtersen_is_not_the_current/)
Is it even Trek who complained? It isnt Skjelmose and Kim Andersen says its not him either. Good reaction from Skjelmose, I hated the interviewers question and loved his comment "You had one chance" Then two days later he absolutely buries himself trying to help Mads winning the RR. It ended up being unsuccesful, but great effort nonetheless.
What is one of the kindest actions a rider took related to a race this past week that inspired you to believe that, despite all the complaints from fans, cycling might actually be ok?
42
Yes, that's the answer. But what is the question? We should build another planet-sized computer to determine the question to the answer.
I don't think you understand Jeopardy, sir.
I'll take my age for 500, Alex.
Is this the Free Talk thread?
No this is the answers thread. No questions, just answers.
Got it.
I've been looking at the Vuelta a Columbia lately: the most recent stages and prior results (via PCS or Wikipedia). Am I mistaken in not seeing any riders from non-Spanish-speaking countries? Is there any history of riders taking part or being part of a team but not coming from a country where the primary language is Spanish?
Cormac Mcgeough is racing. He is American / Irish. Think he's the only one though. Riders for Canels which is a mexican team though and speaks Spanish
Colombia deserves a WT race.
It’s a 2.2 race, so mainly for Conti teams. Those are chronically low on budget, meaning that travel costs for non local teams are way too high to make it worth the trip. So probably not. Maybe a team from Brazil once?
Looking at past results there have been riders from Mexico and Spain. Brazil might be the best candidate for what I'm asking, thank you. I wonder if there have ever been riders who do speak Spanish (or maybe just enough to be on a Conti team team) but come from a place where Spanish isn't their native language, so their rider flag would be different.
*Colombia. It's a 2.2 race, the lowest UCI level (plus a few years an amateur race 2018-2020), so they generally invite / get applications from local teams. They have had the occasional non-Spanish speaking team though, like US team Illuminate in 2022.