Tour de France 2012

[TRF_Olyy]

Discuss the lycra-clad hairless race(s) in here!

 

[Tony Manx]

Come on Mark Cavendish..........................at least four stages and then retire for the Olympic and a Manx Gold medal. Interesting that he is there to help Wiggins win the TdF when it was Wiggins that let Mark down at the Bejing Olympics - being overtired from his (Wiggin's) previous wins to do much to assist in winning the pairs!! Would also like to see another Manxman, Peter Kennaugh, prominent in the TdF............

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Great sprint by Cav to get his first win of the tour - in by a whisker!

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Sky are busy preparing their team shirts for the podium at the end of the Tour:

 

[Shovenose]

Tour De Dope

Wonder how many is going to banned for doping this time around.

 

[psychic duck]

I don't fully understand the Tour de France.

How come Mark Cavendish won the Sport Personality of the Year award last year for winning the race, but not actually winning the overall race? Am I right in understanding there are some tournaments and trophies within the big trophy?

Considering Wiggins looks like he actually is going to win the whole thing this year then he should be a contender for Sports Personality if Cavendish won it whilst not winning the entire thing.

 

[Shovenose]

I don't fully understand the Tour de France.

How come Mark Cavendish won the Sport Personality of the Year award last year for winning the race, but not actually winning the overall race? Am I right in understanding there are some tournaments and trophies within the big trophy?

Considering Wiggins looks like he actually is going to win the whole thing this year then he should be a contender for Sports Personality if Cavendish won it whilst not winning the entire thing.

Dunno if I am right but what I can remember is the blue jerseys is for the king of the mountains and the yellow for the overall leader. The one with the shortest time spent is the winner. That is why the good time trail guys normally are the contenders to win the thing.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

I don't fully understand the Tour de France.

How come Mark Cavendish won the Sport Personality of the Year award last year for winning the race, but not actually winning the overall race? Am I right in understanding there are some tournaments and trophies within the big trophy?

Considering Wiggins looks like he actually is going to win the whole thing this year then he should be a contender for Sports Personality if Cavendish won it whilst not winning the entire thing.

There are several "races within the race", so to speak.

Cavendish won the green jersey, which means best overall sprinter. The firs person across the line gets X amount of points, 2nd gets a few less etc. for the first 20 across the line (they also have an "intermediate sprint" halfway through, so basically first 20 across the halfway mark get a few points as well, to encourage competition throughout not just the last 1km). Sprinters are usually very specialised at this, and don't do too well at the mountain stages so while the sprinters win a lot of stages they don't do too well in the overall standings (yellow jersey) as they lose so much time on the mountain stages (for example in yesterdays mountain stage Mark Cavendish finished 30minutes behind the winner, and on the stages he's more likely to win he'll only beat others by seconds, if that, so isn't going to make that time back on his strengths).

Cavendish isn't having a great tour this year though - his weight is several KG different to his usual road racing weight as the Olympics is so close and he's wanting to win Gold on the track, which is different to road racing.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

That was just an insane sprint by Cavendish!

Illustrates my point as well: 30mins back in the mountains then wins on the flat stage.

 

[Shovenose]

They normally line up but I love how the teams manoeuvre themselves. They will have the leader and the sprinter and some chasers. So when a guy breaks from the peleton they go after him and try and keep him close to the peleton by increasing the pace where he will tire quicker for the sprinters to eat him alive

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Aye, Cavendishes sprint today was text book, he used the breakaway group to slip stream behind before just blasting past everyone - they showed an overhead of his acceleration, it's insane to think he'd already gone 200+km today, looked like he had a motor on his bike or something.

 

[psychic duck]

There are several "races within the race", so to speak.

Cavendish won the green jersey, which means best overall sprinter. The firs person across the line gets X amount of points, 2nd gets a few less etc. for the first 20 across the line (they also have an "intermediate sprint" halfway through, so basically first 20 across the halfway mark get a few points as well, to encourage competition throughout not just the last 1km). Sprinters are usually very specialised at this, and don't do too well at the mountain stages so while the sprinters win a lot of stages they don't do too well in the overall standings (yellow jersey) as they lose so much time on the mountain stages (for example in yesterdays mountain stage Mark Cavendish finished 30minutes behind the winner, and on the stages he's more likely to win he'll only beat others by seconds, if that, so isn't going to make that time back on his strengths).

Cavendish isn't having a great tour this year though - his weight is several KG different to his usual road racing weight as the Olympics is so close and he's wanting to win Gold on the track, which is different to road racing.

Why can't sprinters hold their own in the mountains then?

In cycling is there much difference between the bikes between teams like in F1 where the car not the driver wins, or all the bikes the same and the best cyclist wins?

 

[TRF_Olyy]

The bikes are all pretty similar, it's down to the riders. There will be slight differences in different companies frames, and they'll be set up slightly different for aerodynamic purposes, but they'll pretty much all use the same components, same tyres, and same/similar wheels.
It's down to the amount of muscle they have, type of muscle etc.
In the flat stages the better endurance riders (guys who specialise at the time trials and mountains) lead for the sprinters and the sprinters stay in their slipstream keeping (comparatively) fresh legs for the sprint - they can then put absolutely everything in to the last 500m or so. With the mountains you've got the work incredibly hard up the hills etc, and they're just not built for that kind of riding.
Suppose (in a crappy comparison) it'd be like putting Usain Bolt vs Mo Farah - Sure Usain Bolt could run 5km, but he's not going to beat Farah, and Farah could sprint 100m but he's not going to beat Bolt - it's all running but they specialise at different types.
Obviously with cycling it's different as they all ride the same distances, but yeah...

 

[Shovenose]

Why can't sprinters hold their own in the mountains then?

In cycling is there much difference between the bikes between teams like in F1 where the car not the driver wins, or all the bikes the same and the best cyclist wins?

Its all about the timing. Sprinters reserve their energy for last bit. But the mountain oaks are speciallists as well as you need lots of leg strength because you will be in a higher gear