Tour de France

[sprintcyclist]

Good night for the tour tonight.
Get up about 10:30 for a good section of the stage


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[sprintcyclist]

Look at the climbs toward the end of this stage.

5.7Km @ 8.3%

8.8Km @ 8.9%

7.5Km @ 8.5%

Any of those would be hard to walk up.
I'ld be in 3rd or 2nd gear in a car

[sprintcyclist]

It's a wet day there.
Really awful riding in the rain, really cold, really unpleasant for hours. Downhills are dangerous.
Their tyres are made for racing, very thin, hard, no tread.

They have 80 kms to go.
Peloton is well within reach of the lead cyclist

[sprintcyclist]

lead cyclist out by 40 secs to bunch of 17 riders.
3 mins following is the peloton.

Riding in the wet, rain flicks up of the rear wheel right up the centre of your back.
Rain from the front wheel goes onto the sloping bar of the frame. It hits that, sprays out onto and into your shoes with every revolution.
Your shoes fill up with water.

[sprintcyclist]

50 km to go.
Lead cyclist is caught.

1st of the grade 1 mountain climbs now.
One of the lead cyclist is a specialist a downhill descents in the wet.
That could be worth a lot today.

[sprintcyclist]

3 km to the top of the first mountain.

On the descent they can top 100 km/hr.
On a twitchy bike in the wet .......

[sprintcyclist]

Wow, on the descent 2 ran off the road, 1 crashed badly.

Peloton is 5.45 from the lead 2.
2nd climb started by lead cyclists. Another grade 1 climb.

[sprintcyclist]

2nd grade 1 climb of the day.

Yellow jersey wearer has dropped off the peloton. He will probably lose his jersey today.
Many of the best cyclists in the world are falling off the peloton.

Next descent, they will be wearied, colder.

[sprintcyclist]

Pogascar is 3rd in this race and may well have made a tour winning move just now.

The yellow jersey is 8 minutes back. Well out of it.

A descent now

[sprintcyclist]

Last climb started.
Yellow jersey wearer is a dutchman, comes from a pedigree of cyclists. Father and Grandfather.
Now he has worn the Yellow Jersey in Le Tour de France