Tour de France Tour de France 2024, Stage 10: Orléans > Saint-Amand-Montrond, 187.3km

[Nick2413]

I don’t mind these stages if they actually race hard on the non sprint stages.

Should be a decent battle for green, Girmay and Philipsen by far the top 2 sprinters here.

 

[Brullnux]

"Sprinters have to have their stages"

Why again?

Partly because they already exist in the sport, partly some people enjoy watching them, and also because 21 difficult days would turn the GC battle into a bit of a war of attrition which may not be the most entertaining spectacle (other stages will likely just become rest days, but breakaway days). This Tour is hugely overkill, but five easier days provide a good balance.

I think the Giro first week was a demonstration, though, in how to design first week sprint stages. Make them work for it, and try to create 10km of tension at least (or 30km with the Napoli stage).

 

[kingjr]

They had a restday YESTERDAY! Some of you people are such simps its really annoying. What happened today is bad for the sport and this is by far the biggest stage for it.

I watched only the last km, it was very entertaining. I just had the sound on prior to that, on the off chance there would be echelons. That's the beauty of cycling, sometimes you get several hours of action, other times hours of suspense, with or without proper payoff, or, like today, just a short but intense adrenaline boost. Fortunately, there is always enough information to get a good idea beforehand what it's going to be.

 

[CyclistAbi]

All in all a beautiful stage, one can really reach a deep state of serenity.

 

[Barkintheeye]

I watched only the last km, it was very entertaining. I just had the sound on prior to that, on the off chance there would be echelons. That's the beauty of cycling, sometimes you get several hours of action, other times hours of suspense, with or without proper payoff, or, like today, just a short but intense adrenaline boost. Fortunately, there is always enough information to get a good idea beforehand what it's going to be.

Agree! Too much salt to every meal makes everything taste the same. That’s why stage 9 was a good idea. It’s the mix that makes the soup!

 

[Brullnux]

On another note, is this one of the weakest spring fields in recent Tour history?

 

[Didinho]

Arnaud de Lie got lost in the bunch. He needs to find and fight for Jasper's wheel, which is Bini's strategy at the moment.

He’s really bad at following wheels and positioning. They had 3 guys with him at 2-3km, the 2 in front of him went all the way to 2nd place in the bunch and De Lie was still 5 rows behind. Guess it’s hard for a Toro to swerve in the peloton.

Hope he still can get his stage win.

 

[jono]

I don’t mind these stages if they actually race hard on the non sprint stages.

Should be a decent battle for green, Girmay and Philipsen by far the top 2 sprinters here.

I think the relegation put paid to any real drama in this battle, unless Girmay crashes or is relegated himself on one of the remaining sprints.

 

[red_flanders]

Complaining that flat stages can be boring is like complaining that grass is green. Yeah, wind might happen. Usually not. Every stage can't be a battle, a 3-week race against the best riders in the world is a brutal ask of the riders. That there are some down days is just the nature of the beast. These are athletes, not robots. They're already doing themselves a lot of damage going through this kind of effort and prep.

Maybe ride your bike on the sprint days and catch the highlights on YouTube?

Tomorrow will likely be quite interesting.

 

[Kaptain Kool]

Too bad I didn't bother to watch the stage and missed out on all of the "beauty." Guess I'll just have to remember to forget to watch the next sprint stage.

 

[kingjr]

On another note, is this one of the weakest spring fields in recent Tour history?

It's definitely missing Merlier and Milan and that's a real shame.

 

[RobertCrawley]

Complaining that flat stages can be boring is like complaining that grass is green. Yeah, wind might happen. Usually not. Every stage can't be a battle, a 3-week race against the best riders in the world is a brutal ask of the riders. That there are some down days is just the nature of the beast. These are athletes, not robots. They're already doing themselves a lot of damage going through this kind of effort and prep.

Maybe ride your bike on the sprint days and catch the highlights on YouTube?

Tomorrow will likely be quite interesting.

I've said it before. It always amazes me when people tune into watch the Tour de France and are unhappy that it's the Tour de France.

 

[James M]

Went out to fish couldnt stand watching it anymore came back what did i MISS give it to me raw?

 

[red_flanders]

Went out to fish couldnt stand watching it anymore came back what did i MISS give it to me raw?

Mostly you missed people complaining.

 

[jono]

Went out to fish couldnt stand watching it anymore came back what did i MISS give it to me raw?

Nice try Jonas

 

[red_flanders]

It's definitely missing Merlier and Milan and that's a real shame.

On the other hand, everyone targets the Tour as their A race, and nearly everyone shows up in top form. So even if ALL of the best "on paper" aren't here, what you get in the Tour is generally the highest level of sprinting you'll see all year.

 

[Peyroteo94]

This is the type of stages we need more and we can finally get rid of boring gravel and cobbles...

 

[Tricycle Rider]

Went out to fish couldnt stand watching it anymore came back what did i MISS give it to me raw?

Did you catch anything?

 

[pmcg76]

Because you want a bit for everyone in the biggest race in the world, and to give the GC guys a bit of a rest day

Yes, but 5,6,7 plus stages is way too many. The first few Tours I watched there were 2/3 full on bunch sprints. The issue is teams have become stronger and more dedicated to riding to set up a sprint finish. Combined with race radios, stages are way too easy to control. The modern sprinter is not more talented than before(pre-90s), they just get way more opportunities thanks to their teams.

The organisers can shake things up by putting in more challenging terrain near the finish or more uphill finishes without making them full-on GC stages, just enough to make the sprinters have to actually do something other than just sprint.

 

[svit]

Calm before storm...

 

[Berniece]

They had a restday YESTERDAY! Some of you people are such simps it’s really annoying. What happened today is bad for the sport and this is by far the biggest stage for it.

This stage was supposed to have echelons…

 

[Brullnux]

On the other hand, everyone targets the Tour as their A race, and nearly everyone shows up in top form. So even if ALL of the best "on paper" aren't here, what you get in the Tour is generally the highest level of sprinting you'll see all year.

Definitely not the case this year, all three of the sprint winners from the Giro this year have a claim to being faster than everyone bar Philipsen (Merlier definitely has a claim to being even faster than Jasper, Milan perhaps also). Lidl's leadout was also better than any we have seen here, I think.

 

[Kaptain Kool]

If the ASO really wanted this to be an echelon stage, they should have invested in a mobile wind machine travels alongside the peloton.

 

[jaylew]

Not bad for an aging supermodel.

QS curse

 

[KZD]

As Cavendish would say, a piss poor stage. Hope that we get less of them in the next Tours.

Van der Poel back at doing great leadouts for Philipsen.