Pro Cycling Discussion Thread 2015

Well watching that stage after 25 years of watching the tour, hand on heart that was by a country mile the most tense I've ever been. Best I've seen too. & those crowds! :D Whoever said the tour is declining in popularity has never been to Alpe D'huez on a tour day.
 
Grimley said:
Well watching that stage after 25 years of watching the tour, hand on heart that was by a country mile the most tense I've ever been. Best I've seen too. & those crowds! :D Whoever said the tour is declining in popularity has never been to Alpe D'huez on a tour day.
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The Alpe seems like the most popular destination for foreign fans though, and definitely the roads in rural France seemed a bit quiet this year.

Good ride from Froome, never really looked in trouble despite the gap. Hard to see past him winning again next year unless a Giro esque parcours is chosen. Really pleased for Pinot too, dug in well to hold on.
 
So I understand why being behind your team mates on the flat is beneficial, but when you're grinding up a hill at <10mph, what benefit is there? Surely there's no aerodynamic benefit at that speed?

I've heard the commentators talk about being paced by your team mates, but surely know one knows what is the best speed for you than yourself?

Really enjoyed today. In fact I really enjoyed the whole tour. Would have been more interesting if the gap to Froome was a little less but glad he pulled through. Lets hope it's a good day for Cav tomorrow.
 
mpledge52 said:
So I understand why being behind your team mates on the flat is beneficial, but when you're grinding up a hill at <10mph, what benefit is there? Surely there's no aerodynamic benefit at that speed?
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Yep, there is still a good advantage to sitting behind someone at those speeds. (it's more like 12-13 mph though, rarely below 10)
 
mpledge52 said:
So I understand why being behind your team mates on the flat is beneficial, but when you're grinding up a hill at <10mph, what benefit is there? Surely there's no aerodynamic benefit at that speed?
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Uphill or downhill, a headwind is a headwind. If there's someone in front of you taking the brunt of the headwind, you're going to be putting in less power to keep the same speed. Every watt counts!
 
On a climb I think it's more to do with setting a pace that they can easily follow, and to be able to respond to attacks without your gc guy having to go into the red straight away. Froome was feeling very fresh the first day in the pyrenees, he made no secret of that, but Quintana thrives in the third week of a grand tour. Excellent work by the whole of the sky team though, each and every one of them has been crucial on one stage or another and they've completely turned themselves inside out to defend Froome from the start and to make this win a reality. Well deserved imo, and I wonder if we've seen a few rising stars in Porte and Thomas.
 
Did anyone else spot Quintina being interfered with yesterday when a spectator grabbed or pushed the rear or his saddle? One of the sky boys had to push a spectator away. Highlights didn't seem to pick up on it. Shortly after quintana dropped back to the group.
 
It's not uncommon to see the slaps on the back, helpful shoves on the saddle and sometimes even fans running behind riders pushing them up the hills. Seem to remember seeing this a lot in the Vuelta. Can't help feeling a lot of those aimed at Froome yesterday looked more like a spiteful whack across the back and the odd shove. Seems to be a LOT of anti Sky feeling during this Tour that hasn't really been mentioned other than right at the beginning when someone commented on the sheer number of Sky trucks bordering on being a nuisance.
 
Jonny69 said:
It's not uncommon to see the slaps on the back, helpful shoves on the saddle and sometimes even fans running behind riders pushing them up the hills. Seem to remember seeing this a lot in the Vuelta. Can't help feeling a lot of those aimed at Froome yesterday looked more like a spiteful whack across the back and the odd shove. Seems to be a LOT of anti Sky feeling during this Tour that hasn't really been mentioned other than right at the beginning when someone commented on the sheer number of Sky trucks bordering on being a nuisance.
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Remember that happened on the Zoncolan in the Giro last year ruining an Italian rider's chance of a stage win:
http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/raci...ancesco-bongiornos-chance-giro-ditalia-124899
 
Jonny69 said:
It's not uncommon to see the slaps on the back, helpful shoves on the saddle and sometimes even fans running behind riders pushing them up the hills. Seem to remember seeing this a lot in the Vuelta. Can't help feeling a lot of those aimed at Froome yesterday looked more like a spiteful whack across the back and the odd shove. Seems to be a LOT of anti Sky feeling during this Tour that hasn't really been mentioned other than right at the beginning when someone commented on the sheer number of Sky trucks bordering on being a nuisance.
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Were you watching Eurosport? ITV have had a lot of coverage of this. I think a lot of it stems from some comments on French TV about Froome's performance on stage 10, even throwing out some estimated W/kg figures and pretty much saying as obviously as you can without actually saying it that foul play was involved. This is what prompted sky to actually release the data from that stage to show that he was talking out of his arse, but evidently the French speaking coverage has still been very critical of Froome, and that a lot of the French "fans" had already made up their minds.

Did you hear the constant booing sky got all the way up alpes d'huez? That's just not on.
 
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