Glad to see that Puck has on proper maillot pois attire……red helmet and shorts to coordinate with the jersey. 
Looking at the start of the Vuelta tomorrow. Can anyone explain how starting order is determined when a stage race starts with an ITT? I Googled but didn’t come up with anything. I was surprised to see van Aert starting last and Kuss starting at position 154 as last year’s winner 
I may be wrong but I think previous winner/team get to choose when the riders in the team start, it’s why you sometimes see the favourites go early if poor weather is forecast?
2 Likes
They basically didn’t ride for her all year… Even last year her support was pretty limited considering how good of a GC rider she is… It is also strange because Demi seems to give back a lot letting Reusser win TDS last year fully working for Wie es 8n Amstel Gold and the Olympics etc… But SD works tactics were always a clown show they just have the best riders. Have to say was an entertaining start to the tour… And now the 2 mountain stages should be interesting.
1 Like
I don’t know if this is what was done for the Vuelta…but typically each team is given an even distribution of start times and they can select which rider goes in which slot
The teams make these placements based primarily on race conditions, so their GC or stage win contenders are more likely to race in the best conditions
1 Like
A pity that Justine Ghekiere couldn’t follow the fashion direction of Puck Pieterse and reverted to the hideous all-polka dot kit.
Stoked to see Vos secure the Maillot Vert.
All in for tomorrow……hoping Kasia can hang on to yellow!
1 Like
Disagree. Polka dots are so silly that they must be embraced to the maximum extent possible. I look forward to the addition of bike polka dots tomorrow!
On gc? I’m torn. I like a good fight and having someone else in contention rather than complete dominance, but for Demi to lose based on that crash? Ugh. This just solidifies for me that the TDF needs to be at least 2 weeks. More breakway stages. More sprint opportunuties, more real climbs, and they deserve to end with champagne too. It’s been way too short to really know who has the best legs and the best strategy.
3 Likes
Blocked and reported.
7 Likes
Agreed. I’d actually like to hear what the women riding have to say about the number of days and lengths of stages. Their individual TT was HALF as long as the men’s Vuelta prologue. That really doesn’t seem right to me.
In fairness the TT was done on a 2 stage day
1 Like
Last year’s TT was longer and hillier. But the whole event still should have been longer. IIRC, the women don’t want longer stages, but I haven’t heard any opinions on more stages. I’m fine with shorter stages generally, but this feels like there’s only 1.5 real GC stages in the whole event. It’s been a fun week, but in terms of GC, somehow it both starts and ends tomorrow.
1 Like
I hope that we get to 2 week races at some point for the TDF but I think it will still take time to make it commercially viable. The problem currently is that if you have someone like hollering if you have a hard mountain stage early the GC is basically done at that point. Honestly the Parcour was pretty entertaining this year.
I doubt niwiadoma can hold on to the lead if vollering isn’t feeling the crash… The Alp is just to hard andaybe even Glandon already…
1 Like
It just feels like a strange parcours.
Long stages cost money - road closures and logistics (harder to film, harder to supply etc) being a considerable proportion of the overall costs of running something like this. Obviously, we’d all love a longer tour and I’m sure when the financial model is proven it’ll come - bit by bit. But the money issue would make me think that more mountain stages (100-120 with 3500+ etc) would be a) easier to run and b) more entertaining.
But its jam packed full of sort of “hard, not hard, but also not super long” stages (160kish with 1500m etc) that would be bolt-on breakaway stages in any men’s tour, with only one or two real mountains in the whole thing.
Obviously, the people running it haven’t made this decision without consideration, but I can’t quite work out the logic. Is it that the depth of the field just still isn’t there yet to prevent a time cut (which could be extended?) from axing half of the “less professional” (aka not paid enough to be full time cyclists) when Vollering lights the touch paper? Is it that teams have less power and ability to control the peloton? Is there some way it “makes for more interesting racing” - and if so, why is this the case when it very much isn’t in the mens tours?
3 Likes
I think the current ideal duration of the TDFF is in the 9 day range. This number should gradually increase as the sport grows financially
Have to keep in mind that most of these teams are running much smaller rosters than the men’s teams (15 average I think) which means that individual riders are obligated to carry much higher race loads and that there is significantly less depth of talent
In addition, the continental teams are largely comprised of part time professionals and supported as such. Team bus = van, limited staff, etc. Look at the dnf rate for these teams over the flat start to this years race
The sport is growing by leaps and bounds over the last several years, but needs more time and money before a two week tour is viable for the teams and the riders outside of the top tier
Ideally, in my mind anyway, the TDFF grows slowly in conjunction with other stage races. Let’s get the giro and Vuelta to 9 days and then push the Tour to be 11, maybe by 2027 we have three 9 day races, etc
I think the length of the individual stages (double day stages aside) is great and wish the men’s races would follow their lead on stage length
4 Likes
Oh. My. God! If only they had ridden for Demi after the crash. Holy cow. Who has a contact at Netflix? Tragic they do not have a “unchained” for the women. They would not need to manufacture the drama.
5 Likes
Ouch. Demi was soooo close. If only she had help after the crash. 4s is brutal.
1 Like
What a stage and finish! After topping glandon it looked like Niwiadoma was done, incredible how deep she was able to go. I think demi startet to feel the injury more and more the longer the Alp went on. The problem for vollering was that she couldn’t break roijakkers… You would think Wiebes selling out after the crash would have saved those 4 seconds…
The bigger question is: does SD-Worx’s treatment of Demi Vollering negatively impact their future ability to attract talent? SD-Worx showed they were willing to give away a TDF win because one of their riders wasn’t part of the cool kids club within the team
Stage was awesome but yea if Wiebes had helped Demi after the crash instead of sprinting for 8th place that 4 seconds would have been saved.
Do they need to, or do they already have a talented clique that will last a while? Is it Fisher-Black or Kopecky (or dual leader strategy) next year?