This can serve as continued discussion. Please note there will be race day spoilers. I often record it and watch it without commercials so I'll refrain from looking here until that happens, or I may be inspired to write when it's live.
Stage one: A pretty good first day for the tour. I usually find the sprint stages a little boring except when there are wind splits. A few crashes, which is always unfortunate. The only big hitter involved was Alberto Contador. He seems to be okay.
The road approaching the finish was a bit narrow and there was an unfortunate crash with a Katusha rider. He went town pretty hard and took a few people with him.
Was rooting for the Germans, but Cavendish looks strong.
italianblend
2016-07-02 13:54:01
I really liked Cavendish's finish. He really is amazing. I am trying to get back into it. After they went back in time and took away a bunch of titles, I felt they ripped me off. The NFL would never go back in time, they would look to the future. What happened to Lance was a disgrace to the sport, because if you don't catch him during the year he won, then tough crap. Always look forward and improve, never take away fan's memories. Anyway, it was a good first stage. Contador was another busted doper, but he gets to race. I don't care for him. Enjoy the TdF.
gg
2016-07-02 22:54:24
Well I see this isn't a very popular topic, so I won't be wasting my time reporting every day.
Contador has had bad luck.
italianblend
2016-07-03 19:00:46
Contador is another Lance, but isn't from the USA, so he gets a pass. If he was from the US he would be banned for life as well, but cycling needed to pretend there was ONE bad guy. Lance. Anyway, I will read your posts here. You may totally disagree with my views, but I think it would be nice to hear from anyone that watches the TdF. Give it a chance.
gg
2016-07-03 23:22:49
DVRing the races, will try to watch some of the stages. What stages should I look out for?
benzo
2016-07-05 08:34:25
If you want to watch online,
http://cyclingfans.com has several links to coverage both live & taped and in several languages. The iTV4 coverage is what I've been watching. I find their commentators way less annoying then the U.S. coverage.
marko82
2016-07-05 08:46:21
I was happy to see Sagan take the yellow, I'm a big fan, such a character. And he took off this spring to do some mountain bike racing, ridiculous!
edmonds59
2016-07-05 12:37:15
Sagan is a bright light in what is an ever more dull sport. Froome has really turned me off to watching the last couple years.
rice-rocket
2016-07-05 22:41:07
Did a CMU chalk robot draw this penis?
http://flip.it/73ysO
stefb
2016-07-06 13:36:50
Today was absurd.
chrishent
2016-07-14 15:33:27
I'll second that.
marko82
2016-07-14 21:27:31
I think that what happened today was: they moved the finish line 6km down the hill (good idea). But they failed to reposition the last-kilometer crowd controls, so they had a poorly equipped last-km. Absent the crowd restraints, they had too many people jammed at the last km, with predictable results.
ASO made a last minute change to the plan, and didn't follow all the way through on the details. I don't think it's the moto drivers fault, it's a course management failure.
vannever
2016-07-14 21:34:44
It's definitely not the motor driver fault. He had nowhere to go with that crowd.
italianblend
2016-07-14 21:50:34
Wait... The moto incident was absurd, but nobody bothered to comment on the flamme rouge kite on Stage 7? Yeeeh!
The French have a spectacular sense of humor. TdF reliably descends into farce every year, arguably all the way back to 1903.
;^P
ornoth
2016-07-15 07:50:09
The French have nothing on the Italians when it comes to Grand Tour farce. That's why the Giro remains the more entertaining race
chrishent
2016-07-15 12:30:47
Mmm. Speaking of farce, here's Julian Alaphilippe experiencing some crosswinds on yesterday's time trial:
ornoth
2016-07-16 15:56:11
I can't seem to get ITV or NBSSN (via Sling TV) to work for me, and I'd have a hard time watching live TV from work anyway.
In previous years I have been able to get a live feed (not a live stream) of the event that provided the details in a tweet sort of form, with a great chart of leaders, award winners, distance to pack, etc in a graph at the top.
It was PERFECT for keeping up while at work.
I can't find anything like that this year.
Oh well, my spectating has gone from almost 100% to almost 0%. I am ok with that for now, but will be feeling the loss in a couple of weeks, when I realize that I've missed my TDF fix for the year.
Edit: I take back what I said....I found this:
http://racecenter.letour.fr/#/stageprofile
It's not exact, but it is close enough! Yay! I can follow the race again!
swalfoort
2016-07-18 09:22:52
Sara, it's a rest day and I'm watching recaps (NBC-s). If you do anything, find and watch a replay of Stage 11. No silliness, great racing.
edmonds59
2016-07-19 19:37:53
Interesting application of technology that doesn't include the bike
3D printed mannequin
https://3dprint.com/143171/3d-printed-mannequin-cyclist/
“It took several steps to make the suit more aerodynamic. First, Dumoulin’s body was accurately scanned. Next, using this data, a precise, full-size mannequin of his body was 3D printed. This mannequin was then used to take measurements with different suits and materials in the TU Delft wind tunnel,” said Dr. Daan Bregman of the TU Delft Sports Engineering Institute.
marko82
2016-07-21 14:16:10
