Le Tour de Pharmaceutical 2021

Starts this Saturday. Hard to pick any form guide due to the number of new teams & riders. A couple of interesting points is that Ineos has named Porte in the team but has'nt as yet named a leader while Israel Startup has named Woods ahead of Froome as leader.
Stage one is for the sprinters.

Four potential leaders for Ineos, I guess it will depend on how they all go when it starts to get tough. Not sure any of them will threaten Pog and Rog though.

Cavendish back in for the injured Bennett, can he have one final fling at the Tour? Sagan might be back to mop up all the green points along the road, but Caleb “Mc” Ewan will fancy his chances for the Aussies.

Interesting route, virtually bypassing the Alps before taking on a double Ventoux climb (though no summit finish, strangely) and a couple of big Pyrenees stages to settle it.

Winter viewing is sorted.

Starts tonight. Excellent!!

Alaphilippe wins the crash marred first stage. Matthews finished second with a good sprint to the line. A number of the favourites including Porte were held up while Froome crashed heavily again. Only one rider withdrew after the crashes but i would'nt be suprised if a few more fail to front up today.
Something for everyone with stage two with a few low ranked climbs towards the end.

What a stoopid biatch that woman who caused the crash was. She was standing on the road shoulder with her back to the peleton as she foolishly waved her sign at the cameras.

skully wrote:What a stoopid biatch that woman who caused the crash was. She was standing on the road shoulder with her back to the peleton as she foolishly waved her sign at the cameras.

Yeah, made me think of the policeman allegedly taking a photo who took down Abdou-pushemoff back in the day. Not quite the chaos and danger of it happening in a bunch sprint like that, but still idiotic.

The Tour, perhaps road cycling as a whole, is the biggest load of organised chaos in top level sport, and a large part of that is down to having the crowds close to the competitors. We’ve seen dogs, carrier bags, leaders given a shove and virtually surrounded on Alpe d’Huez and Ventoux… all part of the attraction in a way but it’s a shame when something happens that really impacts the outcome.

10 British starters this year I remember the days when we’d just get one on the start list. Might not last for long, as the young riders can no longer get visas to train on the continent for long enough and we’ve got hardly any mountains here.

Still, the other worst incident I remember due to an outside influence was when Hoogerland(?) got punted into a barbed wire fence by a TV car that pulled out and clipped a small breakaway group. So it’s not always the general public causing carnage…

Strong win by van der Poel in stage 2.

Van der Poel ground his way to the line after his explosive attack and was strong enough to hold off an attack from the GC favourites, with Tadej Pogacar and Primoz Roglic finishing second and third on the day with Kelderman in fourth, six seconds behind the rampant van der Poel. Hard to see these riders with Alaphilippe not being in the finish at the end of the race.
Stage three is for the sprinters:

Ineos GC hopes looking in ruins already, looks like a Slovenian two-horse race.

Another crash marred stage with Thomas, Sagen & Haig all going down while Caleb Ewan withdrew with a broken collar bone. Thomas continued with a dislocated shoulder. Stage was won by Tim Merlier while VAN DER POEL retained the yellow. Stage four is another for the sprinters (if there are any left )

Demolition derby this year.

Cav's back. Took the stage in a group sprint to the line. The stage began with a rider protest after the heavy crashes in the first three days of the Tour, with the dangerous conditions of the previous day the main target of the peloton. The riders stopped enmasse for a minute, then continued along slowly for ten minutes before the racing began in earnest. Stage five is the time trial and a chance for some of the crash victims to reestablish themselves.

Amazing from Cav.

Tadej Pogačar set himself up to go back to back with a clear win in the time trial and is now only eight seconds behind VAN DER POEL. Porte had a good run to finish ninth & move up 16 places. Stage six offers last chance for the sprinters before moving into the Alps.

Cav has done it again, winning in Châteauroux for the third time after 2008 and 2011. Amazing as Cavendish was only included as a last minute replacement. Time for the climbers as we move into the Alps.

Alps seemingly just a bit of a warm-up act to the main action on Ventoux and in the Pyrenees, on this year’s route. Seems to have been something of a trend recently.

Great stage tonight, won by 'the other Slovenian', some rearrangement of the GC. Porte still 25th. Mountain stage tomorrow, three climbs, will sort out a few of those who spent their petrol today.

Yellow probably done and dusted already barring crashes, though will be interesting to see how the big teams play it in the mountains if their leaders are no longer a factor. A well-timed breakaway stage win for someone could grab them a spot on the podium in Paris.

beamer wrote:Yellow probably done and dusted already barring crashes

not sure, still hopeful of a breakaway in the mountains having an impact

Nibali and Uran are lurking in the top 10 and could yet threaten this year

lardbucket wrote:

beamer wrote:Yellow probably done and dusted already barring crashes

not sure, still hopeful of a breakaway in the mountains having an impact

Nibali and Uran are lurking in the top 10 and could yet threaten this year

Just assume Pogacar will blow them away in the time trial even if not before. He will need to have a very bad day somewhere for that to be off the agenda. I’d back him to win by 5 minutes, with Roglic apparently done.

As mentioned, Matej Mohoric takes out an epic stage highlighted by a large breakaway group featuring many of the tour leaders. Now moving into the Alps proper which should sort out the boys from the men.

A few fancied riders dropping right off the back here ... Cavendish, Froome, Thomas, Letour, Roglic. Some of the may not make the time cutoff.

This is an utterly incredible ride by Pogacar.