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2021 Tour de France thread

Hornius Emeritus

By Hornius Emeritus
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idigTexas

idigTexas 2284

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And while I am ranting, can we please put Phil Ligget out to pasture already?  The next time he correctly identifies a cyclist or country's flag will the first for this tour.  I think I also prefer Bob in a lesser role.  I miss Paul Sherwen more than ever.  Shirley they can find another former cyclist with an accent who can call a race.  

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Hornius Emeritus

Hornius Emeritus 12449

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17 hours ago, idigTexas said:

And while I am ranting, can we please put Phil Ligget out to pasture already?  The next time he correctly identifies a cyclist or country's flag will the first for this tour.  I think I also prefer Bob in a lesser role.  I miss Paul Sherwen more than ever.  Shirley they can find another former cyclist with an accent who can call a race.  


I We didn't put Keith Jackson out to pasture and Phil Freakin' Liggett is equally legendary.  He's doing fine.

 

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idigTexas

idigTexas 2284

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5 hours ago, Hornius Emeritus said:


I We didn't put Keith Jackson out to pasture and Phil Freakin' Liggett is equally legendary.  He's doing fine.

 

I agree that he is a legend, but being a play-by-play announcer shouldn't be a lifetime gig.  Citing Keith Jackson as a precedent makes my point more than yours.  Phil was great back in the day, and having Paul next to him really highlighted his strengths, but now he fumbles through everything, misidentifying riders and groups, mispronouncing names, and not being able to calculate time differences.  To his credit, it is probably difficult to talk with Cavendish's cock in his mouth.  Swap him with the motorcycle reporter, and switch Bob and Christian, and I think that would solve the issue.    

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Captain Ron

Captain Ron 12862

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On 7/7/2021 at 7:49 PM, idigTexas said:

Nothing against Cav and his great story, but I hate seeing the most stage wins title going to a sprinting specialist who needs a lot of help on every mountain stage to keep from being disqualified due to his total time.  Also, he can only race against people who are there, but Ewan crashing out certainly helped his cause.  The sprinting field as a whole seems thinner than any year I can recall.   


I think the biggest issue is that the Tour has a life of its own and it’s being dominated by Tour specialists.  Guys like Merckx  just don’t exists now. Instead you have guys like Lance, Froome, and even Pogacar focus their season on this race to win primarily this.

And stages wins are going to be dominated by the sprinters. It’s just the way it goes. And yes week 1 wrecks certainly thinned the field greatly this year. 

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Captain Ron

Captain Ron 12862

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As far as the Phil discussion, he is absolutely fine. The guy has to fill 4-6 HOURS of TV time, he does a good job.

Bobke is doing great and quickly coming into his own. Moto-guy is meh and the studio team is boring. Vandevelde I don’t think gets the history of the sport as well. Watching him do the Vuelta last year, I was unimpressed. 

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idigTexas

idigTexas 2284

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I guess I'll be thankful that we can watch every leg.  As someone who has been watching faithfully since the late '70s, that wasn't always the case, and commentary was often from someone who had never ridden a bicycle, much less raced one.  

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Knoxtnhorn

Knoxtnhorn 5971

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I'm a day behind.  Yay Sepp!  Funny, because yesterday morning, I almost posted something about how disappointing it is that an American can't even challenge for a stage.  

I figured Sepp would go out for at least one win considering Roglic being out and the team having a bad Tour.

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Litig8r

Litig8r 414

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Other than the heroics by Cav, there really hasn't been much to this tour.  I hooked em to Leggett comment but damn it must be hard to talk about cycling for 4+hours everyday for three weeks.   I also didn't know there were about 1,324 countries represented in the Tour.  Well it seems like it because they are always referring to Jaque von Bigring as the champion of whatever...

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Whitewater Horn

Whitewater Horn 968

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“I wasn’t born in the spotlight. Nah, I hadda grind ta shine…”
 

There’s always at least one set of incessantly repetitive ads during the Tour that become annoying ear worms, and that’s the winner for me this year. And fuck them for bringing back the Hulu ad or whatever it is that has Aidy Bryant saying “I’m shaking it up, I’m my own boss now!” 

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Jerry Callo

Jerry Callo 8695

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1 hour ago, Whitewater Horn said:

“I wasn’t born in the spotlight. Nah, I hadda grind ta shine…”
 

There’s always at least one set of incessantly repetitive ads during the Tour that become annoying ear worms, and that’s the winner for me this year. And fuck them for bringing back the Hulu ad or whatever it is that has Aidy Bryant saying “I’m shaking it up, I’m my own boss now!” 

There's no way I could watch if I wasn't able to fast forward through all of the commercials, all of the slow parts of the race, the repetitive stories about riders, and the countless times they break down the previous day's stage.  I probably watch a hour and a half to two hours of a good mountain stage and maybe an hour of a flat stage with a bunch sprint.

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Wally Pryor

Wally Pryor 5261

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Not a very big cycling fan but find myself watching the Tour because of the scenery, countryside and fanaticism. (Sometimes goes too far with signs, apparently.)

I was watching yesterday and the cyclists were climbing some mountainside and there were bunches of people on the side of this one road - standing, jumping up and door, etc.   And not 3 feet back, one little stumble, from where they were standing was a massive drop off where there would be no return.  Definitely a "Holy Shit" moment.   Perhaps it's not uncommon. 

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Bevo

Bevo 13559

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13 hours ago, Austinvines said:

Pogacar is wicked. Yellow, White, and Polkadot jerseys. Wow.

He is going to have to switch teams and lose CEO Mauro Gianetti and general manager Joxean Fernandez Matxin for me to believe that he is clean - He's not.

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BearSchlong

BearSchlong 8083

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I'm listening to Tyler Hamilton's mea culpa book. Am a fan of Phil Gaiman as well, he's written a few funny and reasonably interesting books.

Also a book about the TDF's beginnings.

Fans used to throw nails in front of their favorites rivals. Those 1905 era farmers weren't fucking around.

Did yall watch that Netflix doc on team Movistar?

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Jerry Callo

Jerry Callo 8695

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54 minutes ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

I am not sure if they showed it on American TV but there was a great moment before today's stage in which Eddy Merckx and Cavendish embraced and Eddy said "I hope you win today's stage."  Classy.

Unfortunately, most of Merckx' classy statements over the past few weeks have been followed by some attempt to diminish Cavendish's stage wins.  It's true that Merckx wasn't trying to win stages, its true the Merckx won his stages on different profiles, its that Merckx was dominant in every facet of the sport and won the yellow jersey 5 times with nearly 100 days with it on his back - but, that doesn't mean he has to bring it up every time he's asked about Cavendish tying or besting his record. 

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idigTexas

idigTexas 2284

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Yay, Wout Van Aert.  Dude is my type of cyclist, winning a brutal climbing stage, a race of truth, and a sprint in the same Tour.  Only Merckx and Hinault have matched that feat.  I expect Eddy to buy Wout dinner, and maybe an F250.  

I know this Tour lacked a lot of drama due to Pogachar being so dominant, but I still enjoyed the hell out of it.  Now let's see what Kuss can do as a GC front man.  

 

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Jerry Callo

Jerry Callo 8695

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18 hours ago, Hornius Emeritus said:

You gotta think that Van Aert can win the Tour one year.  He's only 26. He's got 3-4 years to peak. Indurain didn't win his first until he was 28, as was Lance. 

It'll be interesting to see what Jumbo-Visma does next year with both Van Aert and Primoz Roglic.  Either one is strong enough to lead the team for the GC.  

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Hornius Emeritus

Hornius Emeritus 12449

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29 minutes ago, Jerry Callo said:

It'll be interesting to see what Jumbo-Visma does next year with both Van Aert and Primoz Roglic.  Either one is strong enough to lead the team for the GC.  


Yup. They could come into the TDF with two team leaders and see which one is doing the best after the first TT or they could split them up with Van Aert doing the TDF and Roglic doing the Vuelta and the Tour de Italia or something like that.  

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