Horner’s first comment on NBCSN yesterday was essentially, ‘Sagan doesn’t mind throwing shoulders and bars for position and Ewan was caught between Sagan and the barrier’. Now, is that throwing shade on Sagan? It’s not exactly absolving him of any blame for Ewan going down and taking Sagan with him. Maybe I’m just being harsh on Horner. I notice he didn’t try it again this morning in pre-race commentary; just said that the crash was Ewan’s fault. So perhaps he changed his mind after watching several replays.
Symbolic protest this morning and back to racing. Glad Roglic and Geraint are still in it. Though it’s going to be an uphill battle for both to stay in the top seed. Ewan is out. This is the break that Cavendish was looking for.
I’m wondering whether there is something to this protest with respect to cycling becoming more dangerous for the riders and who to blame. Can this really be laid at the feet of the tour organizers and UCI? How much of this is simply the teams and riders putting pressure on themselves to take bigger chances when dealing with terrain rather than taking a safe, more cautious, approach to racing. It seems like winning at all costs is a decision the riders are making on the course because while UCI and route planners are responsible for the roads they choose, it’s the riders that make the decisions about what risks they are willing to take.
No, that’s not throwing shade on Sagan. Riders are entitled to their sprint line, and if you try to push them off of it you should expect them to push back. Sagan in particular is unlikely to move over to make space for you out of the generosity of his heart. Ewan had gotten himself a bit boxed in. That was his problem, not Sagan’s. He needed to sit behind Merlier till Sagan kicked and then he could have swung left around both of them - probably too late, because that corner was really fricking close to the line. That’s a positioning error on Ewan’s part. Winning sprints isn’t just about who has the highest 15-second watts.
There’s another Tour de France happening concurrently with the big show. Lauchlan Morton from EF Pro Cycling is riding the route solo and attempting to beat the peloton to Paris. He’s riding all the stages and the transfers where the peloton would be bussing or flying between stages. You can read about it and follow his dot here: The Alt Tour | Rapha
Morton has done some pretty epic rides on the “alt calendar” as EF calls it. Lots to view on the EF youtube channel.
Do we need a formal spoiler policy in this thread? Might be a good idea. I mean, some days I watch live, some days I watch in the North American evening. On days when I watch live, it can be fun to chat about events as they unfold, but obviously knowing the end result takes a lot of the suspense out of the race.
Well, if it’s just my preferences we’re talking about, I’d suggest using spoiler tags on results prior to early evening in North America on weekdays, and nothing on weekends. I sometimes sneak some streaming in at the office, particularly on sprint days when I only need to watch for 10 minutes to see the main action, but big mountain stages I’ll save for after work.
I also enjoy coming up with meaningful but cryptic unspoilered comments.
Two riders broke away and the various teams put the brakes on the peloton to let them go. What’s the rational for that in this kind of stage? The joy of the hunt??
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