Me, currently watching various Uno X riders…
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I’ve heard more that he should have been regulated than gifted. It would take a multi-team collaboration so doubtful anything was planned. More likely they saw him out front and kinda mentally let it go. More human nature than anything isn’t it?
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,and the NBC commentators dropping an F bomb live on the air lol
their commentary really is subpar compared to Eurosport.
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I caught that. I say the F-Bomb elevates them. 
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Nightmare scenario for Girmay…green jersey now in more jeopardy than it should have been.
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Brake levers completely shattered, teammates bringing him across the line…he seems OK, but who knows.
Just awful circumstances for Bini.
ETA - if he is not too badly injured, he may be able to pick up mid-race points the next two days.
Likely to be a big fight tomorrow as a break tries to go clear and Alpecin tries to keep it together to at least the first Sprint point.
ON Stage 18, Girmay may be able to get clear on the Cat 3 climb and then pick up some points.
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If the incentive is there, people will. We are talking about $20-500M contracts for athletes. As for taxes, for the middle income person the incentive isn’t there. But for anyone with decent income, they do, well, pretty much everyone cheats on their taxes. Business expenses and stuff you know. I hate to break it to you.
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They keep that up, they’ll end up earning my respect and admiration.
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No doubt Eurosport is better.
That being said, I found the NBC commentary very entertaining today. The back and forth about what the polka-dot jersey means and how the points to be allocated between TJ and Bobke was quite entertaining. TJ saying to Roll (paraphrasing): “You don’t know how hard it is out front”, Roll responding: “Did my ears deceive me? Did you say that I don’t know what it’s like to be a pro rider?” and TJ backpedaling: “I mean you - the public audience” (which TBF, is what I think he actually meant). Of course, earlier, Roll throws TJ some shade at some point saying “If TV announcing doesn’t work out for you, maybe you can work with ASO” (again paraphrasing). "
I do think that TJ is still learning the art of sportcasting. LOL - I said the same thing when he was in the peleton (but about GT racing) He’s not the most polished but he’s OK IMHO.
Meanwhile, on the course, the uno-x driver fails to mount his bike, stepping in front of one of the cars that has to brake to not hit him; then several minutes later, the uno-x car team cars almost hit each other through a roundabout (one of them while pacing the fallen rider from earlier).
Then Roll drops the F-bomb, which was great.
Essentially, it felt like everything was falling off the wheels for the moment. I loved it. Discordians Unite!!!
F bombs make the world go round
So since no cyclist makes anything near this range, they are all clean? 
Sorry. I couldn’t help myself
And let’s thank good old Bling Matthews for getting Girmay relegated in an otherwise innocuous intermediate sprint to keep the points closer
I think lots of cyclists have made way more than 20M in their career. But even a 1/4 if that for most of the peloton is a good career for biking around the world for a living.
I’m going on record that I’m really enjoying the SBS commentary. Other than the commercials I have no complaints.
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I don’t get this. Girmay pretty clearly was in the wrong. Sure, he was surprised someone was contesting but that doesn’t give him free reign to cut someone’s wheel
Also, think he lost like three points. As long as he isn’t too hurt from yesterday he’ll still win the green jersey at a canter 
Unrelated to your post, but can anyone explain to me why it’s selfish for UAE/visma to pace for a stage win on a mountain stage but it’s fine for all the sprinter teams to pace for a stage win on a flat stage?
Such a strange narrative when the breakaway teams complain about other teams riding in (what they perceive to be) their own self interest
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It’s just a change to how things were for quite a long time. GC teams tended to be fine letting breaks stay away if there was nobody that was a threat. Through the 90s, 00s and 10s Grand Tour winners tended to not win all that many stages. The template was often to take time on the TTs and/or 1 or 2 big mountain days, and then defend. E.g. Froome “only” won 7 Tour stages during his 4 GC wins and 2 podiums. Contador had 10 GT stages alongside 7 GC wins and won the Giro twice without winning a stage there.
So if you didn’t have a top class sprinter or GC guy in your team it was a legitimate strategy to take a strong team of all rounders and go stage hunting in the knowledge that there’d be a decent number of stages where the break would stick. So can understand why the teams that followed this approach are getting annoyed that there are fewer and fewer stages now where the break sticks. Guess it’s also resentment towards the big teams as one of the reasons they’re able to chase the break down every day is the concentration of talent that they’ve been able to buy. I wasn’t around at the time but I assume there was also resentment when teams started turning up with dedicated sprint trains and hoovering up all the flat stages.
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Instead of adapting they complain. Checks out😂
Still a completely illogical complaint IMO, this isn’t new to this tour or this season
I like that we have an era of GC riders with a finish that’s competitive from small groups that include puncheurs. To my memory rog ushered this in, and I love that nearly all of the top guys have this ability
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From my view I didn’t even think Girmay saw him and they just happened to launch for the apex at the same time. I am sure it at least caught Girmay off guard, bc in a sport of so many unwritten rules, who does that?! But admittedly my view is colored by not wanting Jasper to get green and generally not caring for Matthews’ style.
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He was certainly the master of it. Think it also came about with race organisers reintroducing (or maybe just increasing) time bonuses. Guess in the absence of time bonuses there is less incentive for a GC team to burn matches chasing the break. Winning a stage was a bonus, but arguably not worth risking GC for. But if you’ve got a guy like Rog who can punch at the end and pick up time bonuses consistently, that again becomes a pretty good strategy for building a lead without all the risk of attacking early on the climb and hoping to crack your rivals.
Here is a nice overview of some of the TdF rule changes over time.
Fascinating stuff. Time bonuses went out in 2008 and came back in 2015 (with smaller bonuses). Intermediate sprint time bonuses came into play in 2018, gone in 2022, returned in 2023 with an update.
And of course the other grand tours do their own thing.