Be Excellent To Each Other

Well a dissapointing start for Rabobank, but Elisabeth 2 can be happy with a Manx win..

It was a good finish.

1pm on Eurosport for those of us at home.

yup, the team columbia driving away due to knowing the route and the wind was really some sight wasn't it, dutch commentry went "cycling in optima forma!"

I'd deffo cycle for 192km to get a snog from one of the Credit Lyonaise girls, though. I can see why Cavendish is always so keen to get to the front at the end. Team Columbia looked imperious. It was awesome.

I love cycling myself, but for some reason watching other people do it just isn't my cup of tea.

Be my guest, Z.

It's not particularly interesting to watch, but there's nothing else I can find at the moment, and I tend to work with the TV (online catchup only, unfortunately) on at all times.

Can someone explain to me how Mark Cavendish can keep winning the stages, but still be 142nd overall?

He rode a shit time trial in the prologue stage, and hasn't made the time up.

When the riders finish in a group, the person at the back gets the same time as the person at the front. So if the peloton all arrive together, each rider is credited with the time of the winner.

That's... odd.

Where can I see the tour online?

ITV catchup.

edit: unless you meant Live. Then, I don't know.

edit 2: there's a list of feed here: http://www.cyclingfans.com/

Not really. When it comes to a sprint, the time between riders can be effectively meaningless, hundredths of a second. The peloton is 190 riders, and when they arrive in one big bunch, how do you separate them?


Edit: The front of a sprint is usually chaos, so imagine 190 riders trying to gain a small positional advantage - it would have crashes all over the place.

GPS or RFID trackers.

Malc

Not accurate enough.

Cheers!

See the bit I edited in as well. It would be incredibly dangerous and especially pointless to have a mad scramble for hundredths of a second when the overall winner last year clocked a time of 87 hours, 52 minutes, 52 seconds.

Yes, it makes more sense now you've explained it. Cheers!

So the guy who won the previous stage gets to wear the green jersey, and the overall leader wears the yellow one?

I'd watch that.

No.

The yellow jersey is the overall leader on time.

The green jersey is the overall leader on points. Points are given for placings on a stage, so first gets 35 points, second 30 and so on and so forth. The idea of the green jersey is to give the sprinters something to aim for in a big bunch sprint, as they will spend some of the Tour simply trying to drag themselves over the mountains. Mark Cavendish holds the green jersey because he has won two sprint finishes out of two. There are more points available at the end of flat stages (where the big sprints take place) than there are on the mountains (where the field is split.)

The polka dot jersey is given to the King of the Mountains - each climb has points awarded to first few riders going over the top.

The politics, history and customs of the peloton are fascinating. Riders will share water on the way up, even when battling for the lead, and domestiques from different teams will work together until the last few kilometres, in order to grab some glory and TV time.

Other jerseys and traditions.

The white jersey is the best rider in the tour aged under 25 on January 1st that year.

The one rider who has been most active (breakaways, bringing back other riders) is awarded the "prix de la combative", and his number is printed white on red instead of black on white.

The rider wearing #13 is allowed to have one digit upside down.

The rider at the very back of the time classification is called the "lantern rouge" (red light).

Riders work together as a team, because all prize money for winning stages are shared equally between team members.

If a rider is celebrating a birthday, if possible he is given the honour of leading the peloton for a while. Ditto if the race passes through his home town.

Riders will not take advantage of falls, nor will they launch attacks during feeding zones. Lance Armstrong famously stopped when the guy he was riding against fell through crowd interference. They were 1st and 2nd in the classification at the time. Riders who do not respect these customs tend to get shunned by the rest of the peloton, not getting shared water and so on.

Unless the classification is close, the leader on the final stage does not have to worry about his rivals trying to haul back time.

I love Le Tour. David Duffield and Phil Liggett can fill time for hours, pointing out stories and facts about the towns the riders pass through, or the years the race has been going on. Fascinating stuff.

That's all quite fascinating, and making me want to watch it now.

Excellent article on the politics of the peloton.

1pm. Today.

Join us. Come with us. Join us.

Sorry, what? The Ashes has started now. You had me for a day.

additionally, although we lost Myp already,there are sprint-for-points at two intermediate points during stages

*glances over from cricket* What? Something about sprints...

Good leavage from Straussy there!

Always like watching the Tour (well watching the highlights in the evening). I heartily endorse the way the winner distributes the winning prize. The winner takes none of the cash, if he belongs to a team of 9 he will split it 9 ways with the eight other riders taking a share and the other share going to the technicians, the reasoning being that the winner will get his prize through the endorsements, sponsorships and appearance money.

What is the cut off point between being in the group and (slightly) outside of it? Is it distance or time? Not being arsey, a genuine question. I didn't know any of those other customs/traditions - but as someone else said it does make le tour sound quite a bit more interesting.

Reading up on it, they use a 2 metre gap (bike length and a bit).

Awesome final 60km today, really, really good.

The classic and deciding climb up the vicious Mont Ventoux is live on ITV4 this afternoon, 1pm-3.30pm. Although Alberto Contador is pretty much guaranteed the overall win, the next four or five riders are pretty much fighting over seconds one of the hardest and most histroic climbs in the cycling world.

I'm fucking well up for this. Might try and sneak a beer whilst I'm watching it before I go and manfully fight with the bike carrier (mrsA's bike frame is too small for it to fit properly on it, and when I add MaliBike, there's not a lot of room. HAha).

Also, bradley Wiggins has had a storming Tour, it's a shame that only the sprinters and stage winners garner such acclaim. Also, I thought Cav looked absolutely fucked yesterday, but I'm looking forward to the sprints up and down teh Champs Elysses on Sunday.

today will be the lovely/horrible climb to the ventoux, far more interesing then paris

Especially as the mountain appears to be on fire....

Anyone with a 360 and 800 points knocking about would do well to pick up the XBLA game. It's actually really good.

This is good watchin'

Wow, great ride from Contador and Armstrong to stay with Andy Schleck. Wiggins 4th!

Good work from Wiggins, just a bit too much for him at the end. That last stage looked murderous.

I heard a chorley-boy came 4th?

W'hey!

The cooporativr farmers lending bank is saved. Thanx Gerate! The closest our cycling nation came to a stage victory...

As you spotted I was playing the trial of this last night. It seems pretty good, but I could only manage to get my guy to win the stage by choosing "easy" and "rabobank". Otherwise I always get out-sprinted.
Any tactics advice?

Did you have any specialist sprinters in your team? If not, you'll always be outsprinted by those who do have them. I suggest picking Team Columbia and making sure that about 50km from the finish get the rest of the team to relay at the front of the peloton. Then bring Mark Cavendish to the front by about 25km. You'll start the sprint at 20km and he should have enough sprint stamina left to pwn everyone.

When you say start the sprint, you mean boost him with the "go" button?
What happens if there's a breakaway group already out there?
Usually I send a couple of guys out to follow that, but maybe I aught to get them to lead it at high effort, to wear out the rest of those riders...

Don't send anyone after the breakaway; they're usually sucked back into the peloton by the end of the stage. You need to get your teammates to push the peloton forwards to do this though (I usually stick them on relay 80% about halfway through the stage).

Don't go on an attack unless you're fussed about the intermediate sprints (they only give you 6pts rather than 35pts for winning the stage, though, so I don't bother).

In other news, BRITISH GUY DID NOT WIN TOUR DE FRANCE.

That had me choking on my sandwich.

I can't believe how much of a TDF fan I've becom over the last couple of weeks, when I didn't even care about it last year.

fun to see your transition to TDF fan in a few weeks

(and seeing as ratings and public across europe surged, you're not the only one)

wil ltry your mark c. tactics..