GrainBrain

Nice Can't wait to catch that post win interview.

I'm following along "live" from texts on cyclingnews, really happy to see EF constantly taking the front. Was frustrating to see them caught out in past tours by stupid stuff. I'm starting to think Bettiol is the reason for a good season this year.

MinnMan

ruh roh

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/ine...our-de-france/

robertorolfo

"Tour de France organisers ASO and the UCI have confirmed that four staff members from the Cofidis, AG2R La Mondiale, Ineos Grenadiers and Mitchelton-Scott teams tested positive for coronavirus during PCR swab testing carried out during the first rest day."

Writing like this makes me want to smash my computer into a million pieces...

slcbob

Too factual? Is it the writing or the content?

A 5th guy, on DQS, popped positive with a flawed test and was negative on the re-test.

Those four teams are now one result from the two strikes and you're out ruled levied by French medical authorities. That will change the race in a hurry.

Prudhomme is positive, too. He's theoretically been outside the bubble and will go now go take a knee at home WELL outside the bubble and watch on TV for 8 days. Seems short.

diphthong

hoping formolo’s x-rays don’t confirm a
broken clavicle. that would be a blow to pogacar in the upcoming mountain stages. *edit....bleep. formolo's out*

halfway through the tdf and support staff positive covid-19 tests popping up. it is probably too optimistic to believe there won’t be more and the withdrawal of a team or teams.

BritishV8

Velogames scores for stage 10 are up... but with a pretty conspicuous mistake that'll surely have to be corrected.

2cam16

One good thing is not a single rider tested positive.

BritishV8

I thought it might be interesting to do a quick check on ROI-to-date.

Top-5:
Marc Hirschi: returned 509, cost 6... ratio = 84.83:1
Cees Bol: 583:8 = 72.875:1
Bryan Coquard: 578:8 = 72.25:1
Sam Bennett: 955:14 = 68.214:1
Mads Pedersen: 408:6 = 68:1

I wonder how the ratios will compare after stage 11.

diphthong

^thanks for that. bol stepped up his game and hirschi has been a revelation. hoping he rides the vuelta where less structure may play to his advantage.

diphthong

stage eleven horrible prediction..sam bennett again.

slcbob

The ROI calcs are both illuminating (for pro forma picks) and infuriating (for past clair non-voyance). I like them.

There's the guy in George's Twitter stream geeking around with a best team gonculator. He screwed it up royally in v1 but I think he'll tighten it up. I've done some of those hindsight analyses in the past. A similarly two-edged sword.

I'm still waiting for Marty McFly to bring me next week's sports book and market ticker.

slcbob

Since Ewan and Bennett are already picked (by the same guy but, OK, it's his Haus), I'm in for Cees Bol. Either that dominating sprint train of his & he will finally figure it out, or they'll put him in the dumpster behind the team hotel.

Sagan another top 3. But Bennett hangs onto green.

diphthong

methinx as well. sagan's demise has been much exaggerated. he's not coming in first but he's nearly always in the top five of straight sprint stages along with classics-styled (read uphill) finishes.
what i haven't seen lately...is sagan go into a break on a non-sprint stage. still think sagan manges to nab another green jersey after the race rolls through the alps and the mountains dump trentin, bennett, et al.
sagan will just need to calculate how many points he'll need in case bol, bennett, trentin, wout, etc, win on the champs-élysées and he has un jour sans.

diphthong

i'd pick wout ftw again but i think he may have enjoyed his last free breath for a while. second week looks difficult and roglic will want to conserve as much energy as possible
for the last week. thinking roglic would like to pass along the yellow jersey for a spell but, realistically, only higuita (down 6+ minutes), buchmann (down 11+ minutes) and chaves (down 12+ minutes)
can relieve him of the burden. all three of these riders know this, so expecting one and all to go a-hunting in the next few stages...especially stage 13. perhaps we have another gc contender drop out of the running
tomorrow and i'd throw them into the mix with the chaves/buchmann/higuita crowd. i'd say valverde as well being nearly four minutes down but methinx valverde still commands too much respect
(and is still too close to the second in command-dumou) for team jv not to continue to mark him within a five minute deficit.

slcbob

Free Wout van Aert

USAZorro

Rather a BS call relegating Sagan, IMO

slcbob

Wow. I missed the live feed. Kept scrolling looking for Sagan in the stage standings. Scrolled quite aways past Bol, which was already quite aways. Finally gave up and hit Ctrl+F.

Even though I've got skin in the game, I can't call it total and utter BS, but it is surely a blow to my plans for Tour domination.

Apparently, in this Covid tour one messes with bottles, barging, and Rule 87 at one's own peril.

GrainBrain

Nice to see a real green jersey competition. Since Wout is kept on Roglic's leash, I have a wild prediction that Ewan gets the green jersey in Paris. Wouldn't multiple DeGendt and Ewan breakaways be wild?

USAZorro

They'd need to invent an invisible tow-rope to get Caleb up over anything more than one cat 3 per stage and still have contact to be in the mix for points. Wout or Bennett could upset Peter's cart, but I think this will focus Sagan's motivation. It's clear he has almost completely regained his legs.

robertorolfo

The writing. It's poorly worded and leaves the reader confused as to how many team members tested positive (one from each of those teams, or four from each). And of course this detail makes all the difference in the world, considering that the latter would mean the disqualification of those teams (including Ineos).

slcbob

I'm mighty bitter to not close in on Velocrank with all those points Sagan lost.

I think Peter is, too. I'd love to throw out a Stage 12 prediction: Sagan wins from a small bunch sprint. That would be a Hirschi-esque or Froome-ish or dare I say Floydy performance (sans any implication of the artificial testosterone-fueled rage). I don't think we'll see it, although there is likely enough rage in his ball sack; perhaps another day. I'm going to throw out a Stage 12 prayer: will someone, anyone, from the break that takes the day beat Ahlaphilippe. Ideally one of my pointless picks in either league.

slcbob

Double Wow. I just realized that, in addition to relegating Sagan from the stage win, they went back to the intermediate sprint and penalized him the 13 points he picked up there.

That pushes things into the BS category for me.

Ed Wiser

Bump at the end of the race today. Could have been a messy crash.

diphthong

definite nonsense. punitive in nature, regardless of the rules. doesn’t make sense to penalize a guy for an accomplishment earlier in the race (unless it’s a doping offense) for something that happens later. might as well just dq the guy and eliminate him from the race...oh wait...too soon. still bitter about that...esp given cav’s propensity for argy-bargy bs.

USAZorro

I quit watching the Tour that year the stage after the DQ. He was the only thing that broke the monotony of Froome & Co staring at their power meters.