Le Tour de France - starts 30 June 2012

[DOD]Asprilla;22297062 said:
Thinking about last year's Tour of Spain; anyone think Wiggo should be supporting Froome?
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No. Wiggins is still a better climber on the longer ramps. That will become apparent as the race moves into the Alps/Pyrenees.
 
Russinating said:
What's the use of having a train/team on the climbs? Surely the wind resistance at those speeds is close to nothing?
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Remember that they are not going up the hills at the same speed as us mere mortals.

I was at an alpine climb watching the 2010 tour, the shutter speed of my camera wasnt fast enough to get any decent pictures :( I'd say around 17-18mph)
 
George Hincapie said:
No. Wiggins is still a better climber on the longer ramps. That will become apparent as the race moves into the Alps/Pyrenees.
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are we really sure of that ?

cadel evans last year was a jan ulrich couldn't accelerate or attack however just ground you down !

i appreciate its only one stage but he attacked and out accelerated wiggins, once, wiggins caught him up and did not at all look in danger but what if cadel does it 3-4 times then im not sure. still want and think wiggo will win but on todays basis it didn't look like the cadel evans i was expecting
 
memphisto said:
are we really sure of that ?
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We dont know for sure as there was no way wiggins was going to attack froome in the vuelta and in most other races froome will be working for wiggins and not worrying about his own time. Most people suspect that, head-to-head, wiggins would beat froome up a big TdF climb. I dont know if he was allowed to go for the win today was because he worked well on the climb and sky wanted to reward him, or if they just didnt want evans to win a stage and gain a bit of confidence. Either way, there was no need for wiggins to try and outsprint evans at the end and so he sat behind and saved some energy for the TT tomorrow.
 
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Two of them have fallen off with the first couple of km. Both crashed into traffic islands separately it seems.
 
How exactly does the Tour work?

Do the sprinters do a seperate race or something because it says stuff like Cavendish won but then he is nowhere near the top of the leaderboard. Also those that win a stage aren't near the top.

I'm not particularly interested in general but I always wonder why people who win don't seem to be winning :p
 
There are several "prizes" to aim for - sprinting, climbing, young rider, general classification. So Cav goes for the sprinting prize.
 
No1newts said:
How exactly does the Tour work?

Do the sprinters do a seperate race or something because it says stuff like Cavendish won but then he is nowhere near the top of the leaderboard. Also those that win a stage aren't near the top.

I'm not particularly interested in general but I always wonder why people who win don't seem to be winning :p
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The two big prizes are the general classification and sprint.

The general classification is time* - who can complete all 20 stages in the fastest cumulative time. This is the leaderboard that you're referring to and the person at the top will wear the yellow jersey.

The sprint is based on points which are awarded for winning stages and for crossing intermediate sprints that are laid out in the middle of some stages. The leader of this wears the green jersey.

Cavendish is a sprinter not a hill climber so he'll never win the Tour de France (yellow jersey) but goes for stage wins and the green jersey.

As ic1 said there's also a few others such as king of the mountains which is the same as the sprint prize but based on getting over hills first.

* It's worth knowing as well that everyone that crosses the line at the same time as a group (the peloton) gets the same race time. The only advantage of being at the front is safety in avoiding crashes, but the guys at the back will get the same time.
 
basically the race is broken down into stages over a 3 weeks even, each stage is each day. so people like cav could win 3 flat stages which lead to a sprints for example so he wins that days stage. The overall winner and yellow jersey wearer is the one that has completed to race to the end of the days stage in the fastest overall time by adding each stages times together.


EIDT above explained it way better while i was typing my blubber :p
 
Is it some unwritten rule that you have a few beers, strip down to your undies and then chase the riders up the road?
 
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