Tour de France today

Didn't watch earlier but thanks for the highlights tip. I'll record that and watch later. I see also the highlights are repeated tomorrow at 1pm.

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It was nice to see that there's still a bit of sportsmanship in some racing. Chris Froome lost his gears, so needed a bike change. There's a sort of unwritten rule that if the guy in the yellow jersey has a mechanical problem, they all let him catch up again afterwards, which is what they did, except one guy (Aru), but none of the others would help him form a break-away group, so he had to comply too.

Later, there were some ructions between Aru and Froome, but in the end, they had to cooperate as a team to catch up the guy in lead.

It always amazes me that after racing all day for nearly 200km up and down mountains, the winner is only 1cm ahead of the second guy. Yesterday, it was about 2mm.

It took me about three years to understand the rules and strategies and tactics. It's extremely complicated because riders are in teams, and they have different roles in their team. At times, they separate from their teams, and make ad hoc alliances with members of other teams to form a temporary team for their mutual benefit.

You can ride with 30% less power if you're following another rider, which is the difference between working hard and cruising, so they take it in turns to lead the team.

A potential tour winner is called a general classification (GC) rider. The domestiques in the team have the job of riding in front of the GC rider/s to pull him along and keep him fresh until he needs to do his own specialist activity, which might be climbing or sprinting.

The GC riders are more interested in gaining time on the other GC riders than winning the race, though they get a time bonus if thet come first, second or third. The domesiques go like work-horses until they run out of energy. They normally drop out when their job is done.

Do you remember when there was some controversy about whether some riders were using hidden electric motors and batteries? Wouldn't it be interesting if there was an electric bike class with "anything goes"? We might find some innovative motors, batteries and regenerative braking systems being developed then.

They already have that. It's called the isle of man Zero TT.

They already have that. It's called the isle of man Zero TT.

I was thinking of UK legal assistance!

Edited July 9, 20178 yr by Peter Thornton

they got motors and system out now its just the cost and then there is the waight of the batt for the amount of power you want as you add more of that and the batt gets more heavy.

you can get 200bhp motors to fit in a frame for 10k but its not viable due to the size and waight of the batt.

they got motors and system out now its just the cost and then there is the waight of the batt for the amount of power you want as you add more of that and the batt gets more heavy.

 

you can get 200bhp motors to fit in a frame for 10k but its not viable due to the size and waight of the batt.

That's just the point though, competition improves the performance. Look at Formula One where they have all sorts of interaction with the batteries which eventually finds itself onto road cars. If there was an E-Bike class then we'd see some rapid improvements in all kinds of things.

http://www.evwest.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=8&products_id=297&osCsid=b0o4kj7qg16h5f934591ccpfv2

http://www.lmxbikes.com/upload/p2.1_01.jpg

I was wondering about an e-bike competition the other day. I think all teams could be supplied with the same 36 V battery (ies) and everything else is up to them.

Say a race on a nice hilly course with a decent straight: prize for those who go the furthest, prize for highest speed on straight, best average speed over set distance or time...

It was nice to see that there's still a bit of sportsmanship in some racing. Chris Froome lost his gears, so needed a bike change. There's a sort of unwritten rule that if the guy in the yellow jersey has a mechanical problem, they all let him catch up again afterwards, which is what they did, except one guy (Aru), but none of the others would help him form a break-away group, so he had to comply too.

 

Later, there were some ructions between Aru and Froome, but in the end, they had to cooperate as a team to catch up the guy in lead.

 

It always amazes me that after racing all day for nearly 200km up and down mountains, the winner is only 1cm ahead of the second guy. Yesterday, it was about 2mm.

Sorry don't understand 'the respect for the yellow jersey'

Why should the guy with the yellow jersey be given a better chance to win than anyone else,aren't they racing each other ro win?

My sport was yacht racing,if a boat lost its mast or was in trouble you stopped to check everyone safe,you normally got a time allowance for the time lost. But if you saw a boat couldn't get a sail up or had a mechanical failure that was your opportunity to roll your competitor.

Are we saying that if say Aru had a mechanical failure but wasn't wearing the yellow jersey the others would ride away,but because Froome had the yellow jersey they should slow down and wait for him to catch up.

Ridiculous....Can you imagine if Vetell had a mechanical problem and had to go back to the pits for a spare car then Hamilton and the rest of the grid would slow down and wait for him to catch up,just because Vetell is currently the F1 current leader.

To my mind when Froome had his mechanical problem that was the moment the others should have attacked the yellow jersey,

In the end Froome extended his lead,he didn't stop when Porte had his nasty crash on the downhill?..

KudosDave

Sorry don't understand 'the respect for the yellow jersey'

Why should the guy with the yellow jersey be given a better chance to win than anyone else,aren't they racing each other ro win?

My sport was yacht racing,if a boat lost its mast or was in trouble you stopped to check everyone safe,you normally got a time allowance for the time lost. But if you saw a boat couldn't get a sail up or had a mechanical failure that was your opportunity to roll your competitor.

Are we saying that if say Aru had a mechanical failure but wasn't wearing the yellow jersey the others would ride away,but because Froome had the yellow jersey they should slow down and wait for him to catch up.

Ridiculous....Can you imagine if Vetell had a mechanical problem and had to go back to the pits for a spare car then Hamilton and the rest of the grid would slow down and wait for him to catch up,just because Vetell is currently the F1 current leader.

To my mind when Froome had his mechanical problem that was the moment the others should have attacked the yellow jersey,

In the end Froome extended his lead,he didn't stop when Porte had his nasty crash on the downhill?..

KudosDave

Kudos,

Its not like that at all Dave, it's more akin to a sense of fairness agmonst the pelonton,if a disastrous mech problem befalls a rider, or a serious crash happens amongst the top leaders,sometimes ,not every time, the race slows down,it's just ettiquite and show of respect from other riders, news spreads through the pelonton quickly as to how or what happens.

It's very much a show of sportsmanship not gamenship amongst the riders. In the case of a serious crash ,they slow down to hear if the rider is likely to re join ,if not they race on ,otherwise the leading team gains advantage.

Call it like a minority Government,alliances are made for every team to have a chance of the win of the day.

I haven't watched the tour for some time now, but do follow the press for its progress.

I generally watch the highlights show at 7pm, but yesterday I sat down at 12:00 to have some lunch and thought I'd watch the race live for 20 minutes or so. At 4pm I realised I'd been so hooked on the racing that I'd lost a quarter of my weekend! Definitely on of the most absorbing stages for a while. It helps that a big chunk of that stage was raced a couple of weeks ago in the Criterium du Dauphine so many of the riders had a good idea of what to expect.

I do get out to watch the Tour de Yorkshire each year - and there's talk of that extending to become a four or five day event. And we've got the World Championships coming to Harrogate soon too.

Sorry don't understand 'the respect for the yellow jersey'

Basically the difference is that the Tour de France is about finding the best rider, and there's effort in both rules and rider conduct to ensure the machine doesn't get in the way. That's why they can have spare bikes on following cars and use as many as they need. There's a strict set of rules to ensure the bikes in use are very similar in any one stage, ensuring a bike design advantage doesn't affect the result. Hence no recumbents allowed for example, and no disc brakes as yet.

The yellow jersey rider has already shown themselves to be the best to date in what is a competition to find the best cyclist, so they shouldn't lose that status solely due to a bike problem.

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I totally agree with the respect shown towards the yellow jersey, however it could be argued that the eventual stage winner had the same mechanical problem after Richie Portes bike clipped his rear mech and nobody thought of stopping.

Yes, but in that case, the rider didn't stop to change his bike. Why would the others stop for him, only to see him disappear in the distance?

Let's be brutally honest,Froome is a fit guy but it's Team Sky that wins the Tour de France. Geraint Thomas said it all when he said that Sky paid him £400k to do his job,that job was to pull Froome up the hills.

There are some very strange etiquette in bike racing....

1. If there is a crash the peloton slow down and wait for the riders to catch up?

2. If a rider has to seek help from a team car,maybe just for water,the car will drag him back to the peloton or even attached by the 'sticky bottle'

3. It is obvious that the major teams don't usually put GC rides into a breakaway,when that happens,which is rare,it means that they have to race all day,the teams don't want that. They are looking for seconds at the top,if a GC rider is in a successful breakaway he could take minutes out of the leaders but they have an agreement not to do that.It means that for 100 plus kms they are out for a Sunday afternoon ride.

I wonder what would happen if say Sky decided to make a breakaway with Froome,that would force all teams to race all day,real racing that would be.

4. The yellow jersey within a top team seems to have unfair respect that stops junior teams from attacking the yellow jersey,it's why Froome keeps winning the Tour.

If I was in bike racing I would put a strong team in a breakaway and force the rest to chase all day.

Having said the above I love watching the Tour,the scenery is fantastic and the tactics very interesting.

KudosDave

Yes, but in that case, the rider didn't stop to change his bike. Why would the others stop for him, only to see him disappear in the distance?

It would have been interesting what would have happened if Froome had a mechanical breakdown on the downhill without a team car immediately to hand.

KudosDave

The GC riders become that when they have earned it. The team believe that they're have the best chance of winning out of all the team members, so they organise the team to give him the best chance. Often they crash out in the race, some the team has to come up with plan B and give someone else a chance. If there's two guys in the team that both show they have potential to win, the chances are that one of them will be poached by another team at the end of the season. It's the same in Formula 1. There's normally a preferred championship winner.

This Tour de France racing is more exciting than F1 because there's a lot more going on with the tactics and interrelationships as well as the skill of the rider in racing down slippery windy roads at speeds of up to 70 mph on skinny tyres with rim brakes. F1 would become more similar to bike racing if there were say 6 drivers in each team. That would make it interesting.

Don't forget also that in the TdF, there's two time trial days, where the riders are completely on there own. That's where they make the biggest time differences, so your GC rider has to be the best racer on his own with the ability to at least keep up with the best on the long hill-climbs and have the stamina to be able to sprint at the end of a 200km ride.

Just watching it now...why are their back wheels covered like that??..the spokes/wheel are sorta covered..dunno how to explain it really/....have a look..

They are on aerodynamic time trial bikes.