You can only get your bike down to 6.8kg, but there’s no UCI limit on how much weight you can lose off your body. At least since the beginning of the Froome era, top riders have been taking their weight dangerously low - so low it messes with their immune systems, hence relatively frequent abandons due to cold & flu. The guys who don’t expect to be competitive in the mountains look healthier.
Interesting. When I first started running in high school ('76), the rule of thumb for distance runners was 2 lbs per inch of height.
Your stats are 2.11 lbs per inch.
I’ve been as low as 2.13 lbs per inch. Absolutely fucking useless. Had nothing in the tank as far as energy reserves. Would need to spend 20 minutes in a hot sauna to stop shivering after a swim. But then I didn’t have a nutritionist and coach to make sure I ate and recovered. Still, don’t know how they maintain this. Obviously they do.
When I ran in high school and college ( a few years after), I was right at the 2 lbs/1. I didn’t swim but I never had trouble with energy or recovery. Probably because I ate like a horse.
Yeah, I had to calorie restrict and TRF to get to that weight. Wasn’t good.
Bennett is a monster.
This was definitely not Peter Sagan’s tour.
Sagan is a good sport.
Time for the awkward speech by a 21 year old. I hope he didn’t take his speaking tips from Bradley Wiggins.
How is the team competition determined? They can’t just add the individual times of the riders, somehow eliminated riders have to be accounted for.
Ceremony is going so much faster without all the kissing and gladhanding.
Et Voilà !
Team competition is calculated by adding the times of the best 3 finishers each stage.
Since it has been mentioned, I have watched the Move podcast on youtube a few times… just because it was amazing to me how clueless these former greats are about what’s going on. They hardly seem to know the riders and definitely do little in preperation (Lance is way worse than george, but still). That’s why they have to go to Johan Bruyneel all the time for basic info. Couple of examples: the question whether the tour had ever gone to cote de loze before (in Europe, common knowledge they paved the road for this race), how they admitted having forgotten the gravel bit in the last mountain stage (the only topic of discussion here, leading up to the stage). Extra funny was their statement of not having Slovenes in the peleton in their day, while Janez Brajkovic was their team mate for a few years.
I’ve noticed this before in that podcast: only GC in one of the big three really counts and only teams that focus on these GCs are “big teams”. I remember last year how Lance was “100% sure” Mathieu van der Poel was going to a big team and would be focussing on the road. That guy makes a fortune just in cyclocross, just in starting fees. All common knowledge for anyone that takes the time to show an interest.
There is a whole lot more to proffesional cycling than the tour. Different teams have different objectives, which often is linked to where the team/sponsors are from. The strongest team in the world is probably Quickstep… not in grand tours, but by dominating the one day classics (although they will need to change that for Remco Evenepoel). I’ll link to a great docu about the most important day on the cycling calender (for me at least): tour of Flanders. They have this for a bunch of years, most have subtitles available I believe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpiFLhmMFNk
The Belgian and Dutch teams focus on these races; the French have their own races they care about; as have the Spanish and Italian teams (specially the pro conti teams). For what it’s worth: Jumbo is a large Dutch supermarkt chain; Visma is a Dutch software company and Hema is also a sponsor and a Dutch department store.
Ah thanks, interesting, even after having followed the Tour for over 40 years and listening to literally days of commentator’s chatter on long stages, I never knew this.
ETA: but I know every French church, castle, monastery or winery 
.
Don’t feel bad about it. Nobody cares about the team classification except Movistar. Every now and then another team might contest it if by accident they happen to be close to Movistar in the last week, especially if they don’t have any stage results etc, but Movistar is the only team that ever actively pursues the team classification from the start.
Youngest winner since 1904(!)
Glad Sam Bennet got the last stage win in addition to the green
Sepp Kuss - 15th overall and 12 in KOM. Nielson Powless was 9th in the youth category
Pretty respectable showing for USA
Still amazed that a race where the winner had 87+ hours, second place was less than a minute behind. That is ~0.02%
Brian
I just saw the finish, and have a couple more questions.
The final stage ends with multiple laps around a loop in Paris. Didn’t they used to alternate, one year clockwise, the next year counter-clockwise? Seems like the last few years have all been the same direction. Did they change the rules, or does my memory need a visit from the medical car?
Tadej Pogačar is the youngest winner ever; how will his age be recorded? I often see records like that described as XX years and YYY days. His birthday is tomorrow, and this was a leap year. Is he 21 years and 365 days old?
According to the BBC, the last one was Eddy Merckx in 1969 - when the jerseys were different from today. If true, Pogacar is therefore the first winner of the yellow, polka dot, and white simultaneously.
I think they were trying to be too cute by half. If your b-day was Jan 1, on Dec 31 you’d be X years and 365 days old.
So Pogačar is 21 years and 366 days old.
And I did not hear this anywhere; just something my brain cooked up all on its own.