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Vive Le Tour!

Starting in Copenhagen.

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Some observations. First surprised they started in Denmark. I know they always go outside of France but that is really oitside. And I never knew that Denmark was so flat, always thought it mountainous. They went over a large suspension bridge similar to the a Golden Gate and announcers said the tops of the two towers are the highest points in all of Denmark.

As for the race itself a very interesting story line. Two years ago in a race in Poland racer Dylan Groenewegen caused a crashed that nearly killed Fabio Jocabsen. Fabio was given IVs on the spot while waiting for a helicopter to take him to hospital. He was in a coma for weeks and required multiple surgeries to repair numerous facial fractures. Dylan, who had a broken collarbone, was suspended for nine months and dropped from his team.

Fabio worked hard to recover and is back in the tour. Dylan found a new team and is also back. Both are sprinters and are often fighting alongside each other and there is residual anger from Fabio. They talked by phone once but reports are didn’t go well.

And the twist is that Fabio won Stage Two in a heroic comeback from such serious injuries. Then Dylan won Stage Three for his comeback from injury, suspensions, new team, and having been ostracized for two years. Oth finishes were very emotional.

The race is just in its early stages. Will be interesting to see how the relationship between these two develops.

 
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Some observations. First surprised they started in Denmark. I know they always go outside of France but that is really oitside. And I never knew that Denmark was so flat, always thought it mountainous. They went over a large suspension bridge similar to the a Golden Gate and announcers said the tops of the two towers are the highest points in all of Denmark.

As for the race itself a very interesting story line. Two years ago in a race in Poland racer Dylan Groenewegen caused a crashed that nearly killed Fabio Jocabsen. Fabio was given IVs on the spot while waiting for a helicopter to take him to hospital. He was in a coma for weeks and required multiple surgeries to repair numerous facial fractures. Dylan, who had a broken collarbone, was suspended for nine months and dropped from his team.

Fabio worked hard to recover and is back in the tour. Dylan found a new team and is also back. Both are sprinters and are often fighting alongside each other and there is residual anger from Fabio. They talked by phone once but reports are didn’t go well.

And the twist is that Fabio won Stage Two in a heroic comeback from such serious injuries. Then Dylan won Stage Three for his comeback from injury, suspensions, new team, and having been ostracized for two years. Oth finishes were very emotional.

The race is just in its early stages. Will be interesting to see how the relationship between these two develops.

Highest natural point in Denmark is a farmer’s field. I like highpointing and joke with my Danish colleagues that I’m going to risk it all and scale their highest mountain

 
It was so much better in the old days. Here is a picture from the 1920 Tour de France. These guys weren't rubbing clear/cream steroid concoctions into their thighs to win, they were trying to poison their opponents with cheap cigarettes!
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tour+de+france+smoking.jpg
 
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Highest natural point in Denmark is a farmer’s field. I like highpointing and joke with my Danish colleagues that I’m going to risk it all and scale their highest mountain

560 feet. So how many countries have you highpointed? What’s the highest point? Have you highpointed the US?......Denali? Ever gonna highpoint the planet? Pretty cool.
 
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Impressive ride by Primos Roglic. Crashed yesterday with 30km to go and dislocated his shoulder. Put back in himself and finished the stage. So today he rides well on the longest stage of the race at 136 miles and finished ninth. The pain tolerance of these guys is amazing.

van Wert cracks in the final climb after leading on a breakaway all day as Pogacar takes the yellow jersey.
 
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Impressive five by Primos Roglic. Crashed yesterday with 30km to go and dislocated his shoulder. Put in back in himself and finished the stage. So today he rides well on the longest stage of the race at 136 miles and finished ninth. 5he pain tolerance of these guys is amazing.

van Wert cracks in the final climb after leading on a breakaway all day as Pogacar takes the yellow jersey.
Yeah, good stuff (and the French countryside has some gorgeous scenery).

Neilson Powless of the USA just missed the Yellow Jersey -- now in 2nd in the GC, just 4 seconds back (this before Stage 7)
 
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Gotta say, I am not happy with the reduced overage. USA network seems intent to cram the stages into a four hour time slot (or less), even though what we are missing at the beginning of races is for the umpteenth showing of episodes of Law & Order or NCIS. It gets wore in some future broadcasts which are not covered live and edited down to two hours.

That being said, after yesterday's finish, I get the feeling Pogacar is ripe for a cape. His talent is superhero level. Just an amazing athlete.
 
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Late to this thread but we were fortunate enough to be in Copenhagen for a stage 1. I know little about the Tour and couldn’t name a competitor but it was really fun to be around a major international event. Copenhagen was very into it… they are a bike culture (at least tons of bikes for daily commuters, etc) and were obviously very excited. Course was packed w spectators all day … watched the last hour only but made friends w a group of Norwegians who had traveled for the first few stages.

Copenhagen seemed to do a great job hosting and it was fun to observe even casually.
 
Gotta say, I am not happy with the reduced overage. USA network seems intent to cram the stages into a four hour time slot (or less), even though what we are missing at the beginning of races is for the umpteenth showing of episodes of Law & Order or NCIS. It gets wore in some future broadcasts which are not covered live and edited down to two hours.

That being said, after yesterday's finish, I get the feeling Pogacar is ripe for a cape. His talent is superhero level. Just an amazing athlete.
The first hours are on the Peacock Network.......for $4.99/mo. Screw that. Used to be on NBCSports but that folded last year. So NBC has the rights and it using the Tour to push Peacock.
 
Late to this thread but we were fortunate enough to be in Copenhagen for a stage 1. I know little about the Tour and couldn’t name a competitor but it was really fun to be around a major international event. Copenhagen was very into it… they are a bike culture (at least tons of bikes for daily commuters, etc) and were obviously very excited. Course was packed w spectators all day … watched the last hour only but made friends w a group of Norwegians who had traveled for the first few stages.

Copenhagen seemed to do a great job hosting and it was fun to observe even casually.
Pretty cool. It’s a huge sport in Europe, perhaps the largest. Last year each stage had between a half million to one and a half million each stage. Each stage is stretched out over 100 miles......except for the time trials.......going through towns and cities along the way. People fill up the motels, bars, restaurants, and tourist spots in every town.

Then on the final ride into Paris they will get 3-4 million people lining the streets. Could be over 25 million people the entire run. Of course a lot of people travel and watch three or four stages and get counted multiple times. So probably more like 15-20 million....which is still huge.

Started watching for the beautiful scenery but now appreciate the whole show. Would love to go someday!
 
Newsflash! Pogacar is human! Great race by Vingegaard.
A very crazy day yesterday. Phil Leggit, doing his 50th tour, said he never saw anything like it. The top four GC riders attacked each other many times over with 25 miles to go instead of waiting until the final 5. Really crazy how they got caught up in the competition and all got wore out before the end. Pogacar went from a minute ahead to to over two minutes down. A very big swing.

Today was a very difficult ride with three mountains rated off the charts hard. And very warm temps. So the boys were far more disciplined today.

After the race Pogacar was asked if he felt better. He danced around a bit then said he was fine but yesterday was big mistake he won’t make again. Went on to say the race is far from over and should be very exciting.

Sure looks like a great week ahead.
 
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Tough day for Jumbo Visma. Before race started one of their best riders dropped out backseat he had dislocated his shoulder earlier and couldn’t continue. Then later in stage one of their guys, one of their most experienced and team capita , crashed and was taken off by ambulance. Seemed he had a broken armor shoulder. Crash happened when some demonstrators blocked the road ahead and the peloton was slowing. Then their man in the lead wearing the yellow jersey crashed along with another Jumbo rider. Both got up and continued but who knows how sore they will be. Fortunately for them, tomorrow is a rest day.

One very interesting clip they showed was the ToF caravan. Seems that is a caravan of about 125 vehicles consisting of parade like vehicles decorated by various sponsors and companies. It is roughly six miles long and they drive the course two hours ahead of the racers and throw SWAG into the crowds along the way. Hats, shirts, bottles and more. They move quickly, unlike a parade, to stay ahead of the racers. It also has three ambulances and one paddy wagon in case needed! Been watching for the years and never knew about this caravan.

interesting finish to a very hot day. The winner was a first time stage winner that had been second several times. Worst was Stage Four when he didn’t know there was a rider a hundred yards ahead and thought he won the stage and put on a big celebration when he crossed the line. Said he has gotten a lot of ribbing for that!

All the GC riders ended up with the same time splits so no change. But Jumbo losing two more key guys could really impact the race.
 
For years I have been hearing references to the caravan and always thought they meant all of the support vehicles, like team buses and cars, medical personnel, race officials, etc. The story was interesting as the caravan kind of acts as a shill to get crows turn out.

Jumbo and Emirates are now even with six riders each. The next few days in the Pyrenees will tell the tale. The difference maker may well be Van Aert in support of Vingegaard.
 
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For years I have been hearing references to the caravan and always thought they meant all of the support vehicles, like team buses and cars, medical personnel, race officials, etc. The story was interesting as the caravan kind of acts as a shill to get crows turn out.

Jumbo and Emirates are now even with six riders each. The next few days in the Pyrenees will tell the tale. The difference maker may well be Van Aert in support of Vingegaard.
The caravan does move rather fast. Lots of music, SWAG and snack/candy. If they had a way to slow down and give me a beer it would be way better.
 
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