"...the aerodynamic reality of the peloton..."
That's Phil Liggett, the veteran Tour commentator explaining why yesterday's breakaway didn't succeed. Fantastic! Phil's the best.
As usual, I'm watching today's stage on TiVo. (Don't tell me what happens!) They just previewed the last 1 km, and it looks like a deathtrap. Two quick 90 degree turns over horrendous cobblestones that could be icy slick if wet.
Today they interviewed Fred Rodriguez, a lesser American cyclist who crashed out of the Tour last year and was in the big crash yesterday. He was blaming the Tour organizers for not looking out for the safety of the riders. Yesterday's crash, as Phil Liggett pointed out, was caused by a rider's error, not by a bad road. But if the road was wider, it wouldn't have caught so many riders and plugged up the entire peloton.
Phil just mentioned that today, on the tour's longest stage, the average speed is significantly lower than they've seen on the tour in recent years. I actually believe the massive crackdown on doping heading into the Tour might have worked. If someone said this was the cleanest Tour in 20 years, I'd believe it. The message that the Tour has sent to riders: you get caught doping in this Tour, expect no mercy whatsoever.
Allow me to put on my "reckless blogger making unfounded accusations" hat on for a moment. What if the Tour is making these finishes a little more dangerous to grab the attention back of casual fans turned off by all the doping? It will be interesting to see if there are more crashes this year. Of course, even that proves nothing.
As usual, I'm watching today's stage on TiVo. (Don't tell me what happens!) They just previewed the last 1 km, and it looks like a deathtrap. Two quick 90 degree turns over horrendous cobblestones that could be icy slick if wet.
Today they interviewed Fred Rodriguez, a lesser American cyclist who crashed out of the Tour last year and was in the big crash yesterday. He was blaming the Tour organizers for not looking out for the safety of the riders. Yesterday's crash, as Phil Liggett pointed out, was caused by a rider's error, not by a bad road. But if the road was wider, it wouldn't have caught so many riders and plugged up the entire peloton.
Phil just mentioned that today, on the tour's longest stage, the average speed is significantly lower than they've seen on the tour in recent years. I actually believe the massive crackdown on doping heading into the Tour might have worked. If someone said this was the cleanest Tour in 20 years, I'd believe it. The message that the Tour has sent to riders: you get caught doping in this Tour, expect no mercy whatsoever.
Allow me to put on my "reckless blogger making unfounded accusations" hat on for a moment. What if the Tour is making these finishes a little more dangerous to grab the attention back of casual fans turned off by all the doping? It will be interesting to see if there are more crashes this year. Of course, even that proves nothing.
Labels: Tour de France
posted by Prof. A at 11:01 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home