Tour de France Tour de France 2021, Stage 3: Lorient - Pontivy, 183.9 km

[wheresmybrakes]

How's Dawg?

6th on GC Oh wait..

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Nope, I'm implying it lent itself to good racing - however overeager riders ruined it by crashing.

If you're seriously blaming the riders for every single one of these crashes, delete your account. Like telling a kid he should cross a motorway and then blaming the kid for their death.

 

[titan31]

Apparently the riders petitioned for a time freeze at 8 km from the finish for todays stage. But they did not get a response for it. Expect a strike tomorrow after this carnage.

Did not know that. That makes it even worse. This will be fun

 

[Broccolidwarf]

I know, just feeling like it's the worse everytime it happens. Two biggest favorites, green jersey favorites, all went down in 3rd stage after horrible 1st stage are not really what you expect everytime though.

Yeah, but I can remember years, where more GC riders were out by this point.

 

[HelloDolly]

I don't get the complaining about the stage parcourse. This was like a cobbled stage but without actual cobbles. And most people seem to like cobbles in the TDF around here.

There is no comparison....The race is strung out in the classics

This is a sprint stage where there si a massive filed going at very high speed

This is the issue and its not a classic

 

[The pet snake of Froome]

Carapaz gifted the Tour today?

Gifted???? If it was Nibali you’d be telling us the voodoo is strong

 

[wheresmybrakes]

Apparently the riders petitioned for a time freeze at 8 km from the finish for todays stage. But they did not get a response for it. Expect a strike tomorrow after this carnage.

I'll walk away from this Tour and wait for the Vuelta if this happens

 

[Barnacle Bill]

Hope Rog is ok, otherwise I guess WVA is in 4th as plan B?

 

[bambino]

That one corner on the 2nd crash was pretty freaking dangerous. The house on the left hand side of riders felt like narrowing the road even further on the corner itself. Mohoric, as the bike handler he is, managed to avoid crashing to the wall of that house with quick move in front of peloton, but half of his team crashed behind a second later. The speed was just too high for the entire peloton to make out of it safe.

 

[Rackham]

Those non GC teams riding aggressively were riding aggressively for the stage win.

And narrow roads compounded the issue.

This disaster (which will unsurprisingly make the race worse because one of the two favorites is now totally messed up) is because A/sprint teams are nutters (no one gives a sh*t about a stage win in the Tour which will be forgotten tomorrow) & B/ASO have been adding extra "spice" with crash bait finales for a few years now.

Sorry, but people had better not complain when mountain stages are boring (because guess what? A bunch of GC contenders are banged-up already).

 

[Extinction]

Nope, I'm implying it lent itself to good racing - however overeager riders ruined it by crashing.

Or how about too narrow roads at unremittingly high speeds, with not difficulties to break up the bunch, in the early stages of a Tour that puts excessive performance presure on ALL riders...and you have the disaster scenarious we have witnessed thus far. Poor course design does nothing to mitigate the likelhood of mass crashes, rider presure and nerves do the rest.

 

[RedheadDane]

Ewan might be out...

 

[woodburn]

Dont agree with Eisel that roads are the problem or that organizer should plan it better.

I don’t want riders on motorways…

If anything is it necessary for all the GC guys to be up there with all the sprinters?

Teams and riders need to rethink how they race these finals. They are causing a lot of stress and intense racing that then causes the crashes. There are too many riders up there.

This is a problem with the new era of GT riding. More races are won by seconds than minutes, so staying up front is a huge deal to avoid even a small split at the end that causes a little bit of a loss. That makes the road more packed with GC and sprint teams.

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Dont agree with Eisel that roads are the problem or that organizer should plan it better.

I don’t want riders on motorways…

If anything is it necessary for all the GC guys to be up there with all the sprinters?

I completely agree.

On flat stages we could neutralise GC times at 5K, so that all the GC teams can roll easy without worrying about gaps, for the last 5K.

Slightly unfair for GC riders, that are also part of sprint trains - but much, much safer.

 

[Aimar16]

Sagan’s bike handling is amazing. The donkey falls in front of him but he still manages to protect himself without serious injuries.

 

[Big Doopie]

wiggins is an absolute tool.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Madiot, once again, with the correct take.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1409536600158183430

 

[Big Doopie]

absolutely no discussion of the solution:

6 man teams.

120-132 riders at the start.

i guess money talks over safety.

 

[titan31]

Yup, was just going to post that. Madiot is pissed

 

[Broccolidwarf]

If you're seriously blaming the riders for every single one of these crashes, delete your account. Like telling a kid he should cross a motorway and then blaming the kid for their death.

Wow dude, control your adrenaline please

No reason for that kind of tone, just because we disagree on route planning.

 

[saganftw]

if you have 10 different trains interested for different reasons to stay at the front a highway wont help you anyway, there are just too many people involved in finishes...and even if its just one line some dumbf*** will pick inside of a curve to try to overtake

 

[Sciatic]

What's up with all these Danes invading an English speaking forum? It's IX century Britain all over again.

Someone had to replace the Dutch Mafia on the forum!

 

[Rackham]

Madiot, once again, with the correct take.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1409536600158183430

He's right here.

Since Saturday this 'race' has been about attrition, luck & survival. That's not what cycling is.

 

[Red Rick]

Dont agree with Eisel that roads are the problem or that organizer should plan it better.

I don’t want riders on motorways…

If anything is it necessary for all the GC guys to be up there with all the sprinters?

Teams and riders need to rethink how they race these finals. They are causing a lot of stress and intense racing that then causes the crashes. There are too many riders up there.

They have rethought it. It went like this

Tricky stage > Riders try to stay safe, > caught behind crash > lose time > rethink > go to frontline with entire team > everyone fights for position > more crashes > more people lose time.

It's a 0 sum game. Nothing is gained from taking it safely.

 

[Leinster]

I don't get the complaining about the stage parcourse. This was like a cobbled stage but without actual cobbles. And most people seem to like cobbles in the TDF around here.

Yeah, none of those roads were narrower than the finale into San Remo, or the old finish of Paris-Tours. Roglic's crash came with 8-10 riders spread across the road, and he was just too close to the edge.

The only bit of course design I'd maybe take issue with is the Bahrain crash; with all the talk about the Tour of Poland stage finish that took out Jakobsen, I'm not sure why a TdF sprint stage had to have a fast downhill so close to the end, and certainly not one without a proper climb just before to stretch things out. But even at that, it looked to be a fairly standard left-hand bend, where someone just shot off up the driveway.