Tour de France Tour de France 2023, stage 4: Dax - Nogaro, 181.8k

[Gratemans]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1676132766059057152

View: https://twitter.com/Watts_Occurring/status/1676132766059057152?s=20

Way better than the actual English commentators. Just watched the highlights on Youtube from the official Tour account (I believe it's the UK Eurosport soundclips they use?). With every crash today: "WOAAH, another HUUUUGE CRASH!!"

I mean wtf, have they never watched a Tour before? As far as crashes go, these were all very minor and each one of em only had two riders involved.

 

[Eclipse]

then how come wva placed in top 10 after being so so far back

Because WVA is quite good at freelancing?

Jumbo ran a train into the final couple of KM that was disintegrating with 2k to go. It's not riding for WVA it's very obviously keeping JV out of harms way (which was perhaps a good call given the chaos we saw). There's very few teams ever who can bring a stage in from 4k out but that's when Jumbo were hitting the front en masse.

Even at like at 6k out it's Benoot and Vingegaard at the front of the field, before the others then push up with nobody looking to carry WVA up in their wheels. A little while later you see Vingegaard gesturing Benoot up to push things on despite WVA not being there.

It's not a problem, Jumbo aren't a sprint train and maybe WVA is best off trying to surf on others wheels, but Jumbo were definitely not riding for him today.

 

[Danskebjerge]

I did expect the breakaway riders to have a hard time following the two tough opening stages with very little to gain for the sprinter teams, but I didn't foresee a stage with almost zero serious breakaway attempts. While I'm happy that we no longer see those 10 boring sprinter stages in the first half of the Tour de France, I tend to think that the combination of stages so far has left too little for the breakaway riders. Another factor playing a role here is that so many teams have a serious sprinter. That means that even a small team like Uno-X that would normally go for exposure by having a rider in a breakaway chooses a defensive strategy like the bigger sprinter teams.

 

[Ranagazoo]

I wish there were more stages like stage 8 where there's an equal possibility for a full bunch sprint, reduced sprint, breakaway or a late attack/puncheur finish. Nailed on sprints stages like today where no one even bothers going in the break just make the Tour look stupid

 

[Volderke]

Are there any roads in the world about 200k long, with no bends or corners, just straight as a rule? Asking for a sprinter or two.

There is a piece of road in Saudi arabia and one in Australia that go straight for even longer…!

 

[movingtarget]

Way better than the actual English commentators. Just watched the highlights on Youtube from the official Tour account (I believe it's the UK Eurosport soundclips they use?). With every crash today: "WOAAH, another HUUUUGE CRASH!!"

I mean wtf, have they never watched a Tour before? As far as crashes go, these were all very minor and each one of em only had two riders involved.

Two riders falling seems to be a huge crash now.............

Way better than the actual English commentators. Just watched the highlights on Youtube from the official Tour account (I believe it's the UK Eurosport soundclips they use?). With every crash today: "WOAAH, another HUUUUGE CRASH!!"

I mean wtf, have they never watched a Tour before? As far as crashes go, these were all very minor and each one of em only had two riders involved.

Two riders falling seems to be a huge crash now................