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TDF 2022(Jon don't read unless you have caught up your viewing)

Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2022 9:23 am
by paulgould
This year's tour is turning out to be a real classic.
Van Aert's relentless attacking has been a pleasure to watch, Wednesday's stage finishing on the Col Du Granon was the best stage I have seen on a grand tour in the last 25-30 years, and Pidcock's descent of the Galibier yesterday has got to be the most thrilling piece of riding I have ever seen( surpassing even Cancellara's brilliant descending back in the day).
The inclusion of the top multi-discipliner's like Van Der Poel, Van Aert and Pidcock has certainly added to the excitement and stirred up the establishment and the somewhat formulaic approach to stage racing.
This must be the most exciting peloton that professional bike racing has ever seen, with the cyclo cross boys, the Slovenians, Vingegaard, and Thomas finding his old form.
And there is still Bernal and Evenepoel who will surely feature in future grand tours.
Long may it continue!!

Paul G

Re: TDF 2022(Jon don't read unless you have caught up your viewing)

Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2022 10:05 am
by JonT
I finally caught up - well, I am always a day behind, watching Day X highlights on Day X+1.

Every single day is a gift. My personal highlights so far.
  • Obviously the master class that was Vingergaard taking the lead. Astonishing and riveting.
  • Tom Pidcock's stage win and the interview afterwards when he summarised the day overall as "Not bad". You can take the man out of Yorkshire....
  • The commentators losing the fact that Pogacar was in an early breakaway and wondering why Vingergaard was pushing the peleton so hard :lol:
  • The astonishing win of Matthews when I was convinced he was broken.
  • Everything about Van Aert
  • The sportsmanship and spirit of Pogacar
Jon

Re: TDF 2022(Jon don't read unless you have caught up your viewing)

Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2022 10:34 am
by paulgould
JonT wrote: Mon Jul 18, 2022 10:05 am I finally caught up - well, I am always a day behind, watching Day X highlights on Day X+1.

Every single day is a gift. My personal highlights so far.
  • Obviously the master class that was Vingergaard taking the lead. Astonishing and riveting.
  • Tom Pidcock's stage win and the interview afterwards when he summarised the day overall as "Not bad". You can take the man out of Yorkshire....
  • The commentators losing the fact that Pogarcar was in an early breakaway and wondering why Vingergaard was pushing the peleton so hard :lol:
  • The astonishing win of Matthews when I was convinced he was broken.
  • Everything about Van Aert
  • The sportsmanship and spirit of Pogarcar
Jon
Got to agree with you on all of the above - Van Aert is a joy to watch, and Pidcock's descent off the Galibier will live long in the memory.
While I think it is brilliant that someone has emerged to challenge Pogacars incredible dominance (at such a young age too), I think with yesterday's Jumbo Visma setbacks and Pogacar's refusal to lie down, Vingegaard will lose the yellow late this week, maybe on the final TT.

My only complaint is with the commentary team's incessant dissing of that culinary treat, the Hawaiian pizza, in favour of those arty-farty rabbit food recipes they put forward :lol: :lol:

Paul G

Re: TDF 2022(Jon don't read unless you have caught up your viewing)

Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2022 3:44 pm
by Mike Channin
I miss Liggett and Sherwin.

Re: TDF 2022(Jon don't read unless you have caught up your viewing)

Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2022 3:51 pm
by Mike Channin
I'm hoping Ineos have something left to surprise everyone with, but it feels more like they're defending third place knowing it is the best they can get.
I agree with Paul, in that Pogacar looks to have recovered just as Jumbo Visma have a lot of riders damaged or out.
Van Aert has been very entertaining, Very different to the usual Green Jersey approach. Fear it might cost them the Yellow though, especially with Roglic sneaking off for the Vuelta.
And it was great to see Froome having a good moment, after what he's been through.

Re: TDF 2022(Jon don't read unless you have caught up your viewing)

Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2022 5:29 pm
by paulgould
Mike Channin wrote: Mon Jul 18, 2022 3:51 pm I'm hoping Ineos have something left to surprise everyone with, but it feels more like they're defending third place knowing it is the best they can get.
I agree with Paul, in that Pogacar looks to have recovered just as Jumbo Visma have a lot of riders damaged or out.
Van Aert has been very entertaining, Very different to the usual Green Jersey approach. Fear it might cost them the Yellow though, especially with Roglic sneaking off for the Vuelta.
And it was great to see Froome having a good moment, after what he's been through.
Interesting - I hadn't twigged that Roglic was keeping his powder dry for the Vuelta, but I see it now :D
Never been a fan of Ineos/Sky - they aren't doing so well when they don't have asthma :roll: - they call that whole TUE issue gaming the system, I call it cheating - no-one with asthma severe enough to require Salbutamol would last one day on the pace at the TDF!!
It's a tough one for Vingegaard losing two senior team members, but I prefer to see them racing "Mano a Mano", as interesting as the team tactics sometimes are.
Thomas has surprised me, doing better than his recent form would suggest, but the more riders being competitive, the better, and he looks a good bet for 3rd in Paris.

Paul G

Re: TDF 2022(Jon don't read unless you have caught up your viewing)

Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2022 9:21 am
by Tako
Thanks to your posts I started following the action again for the first time in years live on TV yesterday. What a great stage! It had a lot of interesting action.
Now let’s hope that this Dane was clean when winning this stage and hopefully the tour (as only bad luck can take it from him now).

When Riis won the same stage years ago he wasn’t clean, as he admitted late enough to not being deleted from the results lists, hence, still being officially a winner of the Tour.

You pointed out that V had lost helpers like Kruiswijk but damn what was that team strong and impressive yesterday. Especially that green Belgian

Re: TDF 2022(Jon don't read unless you have caught up your viewing)

Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2022 9:40 am
by paulgould
Tako wrote: Fri Jul 22, 2022 9:21 am Thanks to your posts I started following the action again for the first time in years live on TV yesterday. What a great stage! It had a lot of interesting action.
Now let’s hope that this Dane was clean when winning this stage and hopefully the tour (as only bad luck can take it from him now).

When Riis won the same stage years ago he wasn’t clean, as he admitted late enough to not being deleted from the results lists, hence, still being officially a winner of the Tour.

You pointed out that V had lost helpers like Kruiswijk but damn what was that team strong and impressive yesterday. Especially that green Belgian Image
I was thinking the same thing when they were going on about Riis winning in 1996 - Van Aert is simply amazing and it was nice to see the mutual respect between Pog and Vingegaard on that last descent - I'm already looking forward to next year's race :D :D .
It is quite remarkable to think that the best rider over 1200m + climbs comes from a country whose highest point is about 160m a.s.l :lol: :lol:

If you only started watching yesterday then you simply have to find coverage of Pidcock's decent off the Col De Galibier on Stage 11 last Wednesday - it was breathtaking.

It's a very good sport-watching period we are in now with the World Athletics champs on the go as well - a few surprise results, and some very quick 200m races.

Paul G

Re: TDF 2022(Jon don't read unless you have caught up your viewing)

Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2022 10:05 am
by Tako
Yes, great watching times. I really enjoyed England vs Spain to days ago. It was an amazing game to watch. Haven’t had that much fun watching football for quite a time. Probably likes the Sutch coach to win too ;-)

With regards to mutual respect. It is really nice to see.

Even though:

When V almost crashed in the decent P speeded up and tried to escape, probably as it was his only chance but still.

On the other hand V only won from waiting, he didn’t have to do hard work to stay ahead, kept control on P, had two helpers coming up from behind, had a comfy lead, showed on the climb he was strong(er) and he had vA in front.

So while I also loved the sportsmanship with thumbs up and thanks from P it was not as great as it looked.

Re: TDF 2022(Jon don't read unless you have caught up your viewing)

Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2022 6:12 am
by Tako
A friend of mine said the following yesterday and I have to admit that I had the same thought:
“When one team dominates the tour the way TJV does, holding the 3 main jerseys and winning that many stages, even yesterday with one of the work horses, the trust in that the sport is clean is really under attack by doubt”. I enjoyed watching it anyway as yesterday it showed that the sprinters didn’t have the energy&trams after the mountains to go for it and vA was still busted from the day before otherwise he would have gone for it I guess, so now he helped his helper and kept V safe.
I loved the moment when P went into the attack.

Re: TDF 2022(Jon don't read unless you have caught up your viewing)

Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2022 11:01 am
by JonT
Now that is quite a welcome home!Image


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Re: TDF 2022(Jon don't read unless you have caught up your viewing)

Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2022 1:54 pm
by paulgould
JonT wrote: Thu Jul 28, 2022 11:01 am Now that is quite a welcome home!Image


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Like the type of reception Prince Harry was expecting when he came back to the UK :lol: :lol:

Paul G

Re: TDF 2022(Jon don't read unless you have caught up your viewing)

Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2022 12:31 am
by Peter_S
We recorded all the stages, and since we have been busy and just finished watching stage 21 yesterday, we listened to Paul's advice and did not look at this thread.
paulgould wrote: Mon Jul 18, 2022 10:34 am
My only complaint is with the commentary team's incessant dissing of that culinary treat, the Hawaiian pizza, in favour of those arty-farty rabbit food recipes they put forward :lol: :lol:

Paul G
Mike Channin wrote: Mon Jul 18, 2022 3:44 pm I miss Liggett and Sherwin.
The USA coverage had Phil Liggett and Bob Roll as the "play by play" announcers (or something like "commentationers" or "commentationalists" in Liggerty-speak :lol: ). We did understand a lot of what Phil was saying.

Steve Porino and Robbie Hunter were on the road with the tour. Christian Vande Velde and Chris Horner were in the studio along with Paul Burmeister.

It was Phil Liggett's 50th year covering the TDF, a big achievement. We know, since our 50th wedding anniversary is next Friday.

Peter & Ann :fsbgrin: