Anyone see? (Tour de France)

[TommyBB]

Tadej Pogacar take the yellow jersey and thus the race on the last meaningful stage, an individual time trial on Saturday? Took it from his friend and countryman Primosz Roglic who wore yellow for 16 days? Quite reminiscent of Greg Lemond taking the race from Laurent Fignon in 1989!

This Tour was one hell of a race.

[BigO]

My brother has been trying to get me to watch it for a decade. I'm not going to be critical of the fans of the sport, but I just don't get it.

[bigipps]

I did. It was a impressive ride—blew away everyone on the stage and the tour with that ride. Including the polka dot jersey!

I had not seen the time trial so late in the race.

that last mountain day was pretty interesting too.

[bigipps]

Originally Posted by BigO

My brother has been trying to get me to watch it for a decade. I'm not going to be critical of the fans of the sport, but I just don't get it.

It’s a good event to watch on demand. It’s a 21 day “marathon” of 5-6 hour races so you can’t watch every minute. (Or at least I can’t). I’d typically spend an hour or two per day with it.

Overall, it is an impressive event a lot of it is watching one rider/team working the others to exhaustion whether it is a sprint, climb, stage, etc.

[TommyBB]

Originally Posted by bigipps

I did. It was a impressive ride—blew away everyone on the stage and the tour with that ride. Including the polka dot jersey!

I had not seen the time trial so late in the race.

that last mountain day was pretty interesting too.

And the white jersey! If I heard it right, it was Pogacar’s first Tour? He is only 21.

[stogie5150]

Originally Posted by BigO

My brother has been trying to get me to watch it for a decade. I'm not going to be critical of the fans of the sport, but I just don't get it.

I RIDE, and I can't watch it.

[BigO]

A Monopoly tournament is a sport that is in my wheel house. I really enjoy fantasy football as well. My bones are too brittle and my joints are too far gone to participate. My family plays cutthroat badminton of all things and I can't even play that anymore. The goal in our badminton play was to put the shuttlecock down somebody's throat.

That being said, I would love to learn Olympic style archery or skeet.

[TommyBB]

OK, I was quiet all Tour, this year, mostly because I am posting a lot less from my office.

Tadej took this year, NEARLY sweeping all the major competitions in the race. At 22 years-old. I hope and pray he's not doping or whatever else it is they do. He is beyond impressive and can win whatever he decides he wants to win, and has a team around him willing to do it.

He had the Yellow Jersey for 2 weeks. He won the white jersey for best young rider (under 25) by that same 5+ minutes as the Yellow Jersey. He won the polka-dot jersey for winning the most points on the climbs-the King of the Mountains. The only competition he didn't win was for the sprint competition, the green jersey which 35 year-old Mark Cavendish won.

Cav. was a huge story as well. He had trouble even getting signed for a team more than once in the last year. He wasn't in DeCeunink's plans even two weeks prior to the Tour. But they signed him, then chose him, and it paid off for Cav. and for the team. He won 4 stages of the race and is tied at 34 stage wins with the great Belgian rider Eddie Merckx for most all-time. Simply amazing.

He got boxed in on the final sprint on the Champs d'Elysee and finished fourth. So, instead of breaking the record in style and on the VERY biggest stage, he has to try and make a team again next season. If he gets the record, sadly, it won't be in Paris on the biggest day of the year, but likely in a small village somewhere at the beginning of the 2022 Tour. Blessings upon that town, they'll have something to commemorate for decades to come.