Tour de France Tour de France 2023, stage 12: Roanne - Belleville-en-Beaujolais, 168.8k

[zlev11]

two things

1. Not everything is about GC , Racing hard at the beginning has a better element of unknown than a break going early and everyone sitting up. Its the anticipation of the unknown and an element of chaos (though one could do with the constant 'this is chaos, this is brilliant' commentary on GCN). Plus its nice to see a different cast at the front of the peloton chasing for their own reasons. And it all is after all a wearing down process so days like today will effect alot of riders further into the race

2. Some people on here are never satisfied. Their default setting is complaining. A break goes it boring, and break takes ages to go its just 40 GC irrelevant riders throwing attacks . Its a boring sprint day or a breakaway of irrelevant riders win . Whats really annoying is the constant moaning . And calling teams or riders losers or irrelevant ? This by people who probably sit on their asses all day and couldn't even ride 30km up a mountain. WTF are the best riders in the world supposed to do if you are not entertained ???

firstly
this is all im talking about:

(though one could do with the constant 'this is chaos, this is brilliant' commentary on GCN)

im not complaining. i only called it overrated. i said it was fun to watch. but the commentators make it sound like it's the most incredible thing to happen every time it happens. it's not that good.

second
as far as calling teams losers, riding to protect 8th place is loser mentality. sorry. they're famous and on television and make lots of money to play a sport, they can take my criticism. i did not call anyone "irrelevant", i called them "GC-irrelevant" which is not subjective, it's a fact. riders 50 minutes down are GC-irrelevant. maybe if the Ineos DS didn't spend 99% of his career sitting at the back of the peloton he would be able to think of a better tactic.

 

[Lequack]

Half of the Aukeria Berriak gang have now won a stage in this Tour

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggxfZlheUHU

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Watching it back I'd completely forgotten that Izaguirre was dropped on the penultimate climb and (with the help of Stuyven) only regained contact with the Benoot group just before the start of the final climb. He looked to just be riding for Martin then as he towed that group up to VDP, Pinot and Jorgensen. However, after a ceasefire for a few minutes he takes off with VDP initially in his wheel and then he's gone. Some recovery!

 

[proffate]

Also the riders are not GC irrelevant, e.g Bilbao, Hindley. Ok Pogacar wasn't in the break, sorry you had to endure that.

The cool thing about these stages to me is seeing random riders competing. Climbers against classics specialists.

Watching the break form is only boring if you don't care at all about the tactical aspect of road biking. How can you find it boring to watch these guys throw attack after attack? If all you care about is who can pedal the hardest or whose team can pedal the hardest then why are you even watching road cycling? Stick to zwift. If all you care about is the final GC then why are there even 200 riders in the race?

 

[RobertCrawley]

Also the riders are not GC irrelevant, e.g Bilbao, Hindley. Ok Pogacar wasn't in the break, sorry you had to endure that.

The cool thing about these stages to me is seeing random riders competing. Climbers against classics specialists.

Watching the break form is only boring if you don't care at all about the tactical aspect of road biking. How can you find it boring to watch these guys throw attack after attack? If all you care about is who can pedal the hardest or whose team can pedal the hardest then why are you even watching road cycling? Stick to zwift. If all you care about is the final GC then why are there even 200 riders in the race?

I think we are being told we are enjoying the races too much and we should stop it.

 

[tobydawq]

the posts in the thread are fine but the way the commentators and "experts" react to stages like this is so annoying to me, it's like they've never seen a bike race before. "watching the breakaway form" is the most overrated thing in cycling.

I really don't imagine Wiggins, Nibali and Van Garderen being part of the breakaway formations for 100 kilometres in many stages in 2012.

 

[zlev11]

Also the riders are not GC irrelevant, e.g Bilbao, Hindley. Ok Pogacar wasn't in the break, sorry you had to endure that.

The cool thing about these stages to me is seeing random riders competing. Climbers against classics specialists.

Watching the break form is only boring if you don't care at all about the tactical aspect of road biking. How can you find it boring to watch these guys throw attack after attack? If all you care about is who can pedal the hardest or whose team can pedal the hardest then why are you even watching road cycling? Stick to zwift. If all you care about is the final GC then why are there even 200 riders in the race?

are you responding to me? because i never said any of this ***. i called it overrated, not boring. i even said i had fun watching it! but also, there's nothing tactical about riders an hour down going into a breakaway unless they're there to help with GC attacks later on. every stage like this starts with a billion hopeless attacks until a group of riders is allowed to go up the road. then some numbskull team limits any real GC threat (yes, like Bilbao and Hindley. the Hindley stage was rare, it was great, but it was also a real mountain stage).

 

[zlev11]

I really don't imagine Wiggins, Nibali and Van Garderen being part of the breakaway formations for 100 kilometres in many stages in 2012.

no but do you remember stage 9 in 2013? then Movistar ruined it.

 

[tobydawq]

no but do you remember stage 9 in 2013? then Movistar ruined it.

Yes, and I think that stage is completely unique in modern Tour history. And yes, it was heartbreaking that nobody managed to capitalise on what happened. Froome has said that he really had to play an act of someone who wasn't the least bit troubled, and that Movistar walked right into that trap.

 

[KOM]

Also the riders are not GC irrelevant, e.g Bilbao, Hindley. Ok Pogacar wasn't in the break, sorry you had to endure that.

The cool thing about these stages to me is seeing random riders competing. Climbers against classics specialists.

Watching the break form is only boring if you don't care at all about the tactical aspect of road biking. How can you find it boring to watch these guys throw attack after attack? If all you care about is who can pedal the hardest or whose team can pedal the hardest then why are you even watching road cycling? Stick to zwift. If all you care about is the final GC then why are there even 200 riders in the race?

Literally noone has called it boring or any of the other things you are haluzinating... the objection was with the exaggerations implying the tour de france gc is gonna be decided any second here, because the break formation was a bit more chaotic than usual.

 

[Gratemans]

Literally noone has called it boring or any of the other things you are haluzinating... the objection was with the exaggerations implying the tour de france gc is gonna be decided any second here, because the break formation was a bit more chaotic than usual.

I know it's cool to act all blasé, but both Pogacar and Vingegaard seemed pretty anxious that it might have been though, considering the way they rode.

 

[ManicJack]

So just to put a finalization to the discussion, are WvA an MvP still the two stupidest bike racers alive!

 

[Izzyeviel]

Next time you feel useless, remember AG2R paced for ages to protect their 16th on GC.... and still lost time.

 

[proffate]

are you responding to me? because i never said any of this ***. i called it overrated, not boring. i even said i had fun watching it! but also, there's nothing tactical about riders an hour down going into a breakaway unless they're there to help with GC attacks later on. every stage like this starts with a billion hopeless attacks until a group of riders is allowed to go up the road. then some numbskull team limits any real GC threat (yes, like Bilbao and Hindley. the Hindley stage was rare, it was great, but it was also a real mountain stage).

You said it's fun to watch "I guess" and made a snide remark about "hopeless" attacks. Then you said "it's not that good." So you contradicted yourself several times but obviously the overall tone of your posts is pretty negative.

I'm sure that Izagirre will be surprised to learn he didn't need tactics to win today and his efforts were hopeless all along.

 

[Kaptain Kool]

Next time you feel useless, remember AG2R paced for ages to protect their 16th on GC.... and still lost time.

And what's worse is that the team confirmed what they were doing while it was happening, without any hint of acknowledging how shameful it was. If you're willingly going to be a pathetic loser, at least apologize for being a pathetic loser.

Edit to add: Ineos is nowhere in AG2R-patheticness category yet, but team decapitalization's drop-off is pretty amazing. Using your former TdF winner to chase down a breakaway so that that you can preserve 8th place for their cyclocross rider with 9 stages left is pathetic, too.

 

[Peter von]

It's tough being a GC team when you don't have Pogi or Vingegaard, you bring a decent team, but you never get to use it