Favorites ascending. Photo: Gruber Images.
As many of you know, I write a monthly column for Cyclist Magazine where I answer Dear Abby-esque questions, and the most recent query pertained to whether I consider the Tour the best race of the year, or whether it’s an over-publicized circus. The question made me realize something about myself: I have a weariness around the Tour de France not unlike a romantic whose heart has been broken one too many times.
The fact is, as much as I prefer a race like Paris-Roubaix or the Giro d’Italia to the mid-summer shit show that is the Tour de France, nothing gets my anticipation going quite the way the Tour does, which is undeniably the pinnacle of the season; all the classifications and stages are prestigious enough that racers of all sorts are all arriving at the start in peak form. There is a promise of hard racing from day one, but the first week consists mostly of me worrying about the big favorites crashing out. As soon as we get through that mess, my heart is usually broken on the first day in the mountains, when the favorite takes a decisive lead and the rest of the race is most about stages than the GC.
At least, these are the dreads of a man who lived through the Indurain and Armstrong eras of racing.
Nevertheless, the Tour always manages to seduce me, and this year is no different. Maybe this year, she won’t be such a cruel lover. And, maybe this year, I won’t make horrible picks in the VSP. Just maybe, just maybe. You know the drill; get your picks in by the time the clock goes to zero, and you get some swap options on the rest day. Good luck!
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View Comments
@chris
May I suggest Captain Pugwash?
@Randy C
I've been thinking that it is relatively easy to conceive a semi soft barrier with a soft landing zone behind that could be uses in the last few hundred meters of potential sprint stages. The idea being that crashes go over the barrier rather than bouncing back into the roadway.
Would be easy to transport to each day. What is would need is a designate amount of space in a finish area particularly width free of obstruction but that may be no bad thing. The downside is for spectators as you may end up with no spectator space left and the spectacle reduced to F1 with massive run off zones.
I thought that barriers with projecting feet had been eradicated in the finish zone anyway but seemingly not from the ones the other day.
It could also be that weird result that the safer you make it the more dangerously the riders ride.
@Teocalli
I agree with placing some type of energy absorbing padding in the last 300-500 meters of sprint stages. However, it seems to me that the design of some of these stages is also to blame. Who puts a chicane in a sprint stage 500 meters from the finish? I understand that stages want to finish in town centers but there has to be a better design.
Christian Vande Velde rode parts of the course this morning and said that there is virtually a 100% chance of a crash in the final kilometer. I am paraphrasing but that was the message that I took away from his commentary.
@wiscot
Roger the Cabin-Boy
@RobSandy
Aye, aye, Seaman Staines!
@Rick
I think the bigger, and more intractable issue, is the hardness of the asphalt . . .
Regarding the roundabouts/chicanes, as cities and towns have grown (sprawled) over the last 25-30 years, this kind of thing is now commonplace and unavoidable. And if a town or city has paid to be a stage finish, it doesn't want the stage finishing on the outskirts of said town or city. I know from experience: when I left Scotland in 1990 there were many TT courses that used the odd roundabout as a turn or change of direction. Now there are more of them, some with traffic lights too. Basically, many of the old TT courses are now unusable unless you want to run red lights.
@Pali65
Will be visiting our office in Bratislava coming Tuesday, so I am keen to hear what the sentiment about Sagan is.
I don't think it would be difficult to design. The sort of heavy padded blocks they have in children's ballpits or around rugby goalposts for example could presumably be adapted and stacked in a vehicle which could lay them out in stretches pretty quickly. Or could be fitted over the barriers like a sleeve perhaps.
But I suspect part of the problem is scale and cost. How many sports are there where you need a long continuous barrier which simultaneously separates spectators and protects human bodies impacting at 50-60km/h? I can't actually think of anything else.
@ChrisO
Skiing?
Though I'm not sure that drilling holes in the road for the flex-posts and catch netting is necessarily a good idea.........