Tour de France Tour de France Femmes 2022 (July 24th-31st)

[Jumbo Visma Fan :)]

why isn't there a race on these roads?

The poor gravel condition, there needs to be some serious clean up on the last two gravel sectors before even having a discussion of having a race on these sectors again.

 

[OlavEH]

I was wondering before the stage today if these sections could be used in the men's Tour on a later occasion. But as now, the answer is clearly no.

 

[Axel Hangleck]

I was wondering before the stage today if these sections could be used in the men's Tour on a later occasion. But as now, the answer is clearly no.

Use a Gravel bike and wider tyres....that's what they're for.....I can't see the problem; mechanicals, punctures, bad luck are all a part of sport. Otherwise we may as well race on Zwift. If you know there is rough gravel, you prepare your equipment accordingly.

As for this stage, it was raced more like a one day race - and not a stage race; no effort to put time into rivals......

 

[BR2]

I think maybe SD Worx are just too strong, similar to the Dutch national team. There's arrogance and there are too many riders who need to be pleased and they seem not willing to push for a clear hierarchy unless it shows itself clearly.
Or they are just tactically clueless.
I hope it comes back to bite them because I really dislike super strong teams that think they don't need to behave smart anymore.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I think maybe SD Worx are just too strong, similar to the Dutch national team. There's arrogance and there are too many riders who need to be pleased and they seem not willing to push for a clear hierarchy unless it shows itself clearly.
Or they are just tactically clueless.
I hope it comes back to bite them because I really dislike super strong teams that think they don't need to behave smart anymore.

This is the other side of backloading the course, lol. SD Worx will continue to get in each others' way until a clear hierarchy can be established. If there was an early mountain stage or TT that meant Demi or Ash or whoever was a couple of minutes ahead of the other, then roles would be reappraised on the fly, but at the moment both of them have just cause to ride for their own aims, and it could be to their detriment in the long run.

 

[Stelvio]

By getting Hoogerlanded, apparently...

It's next level when it's done by your own boss.. Team meeting about as fun as EF after stage 5.

And the DS says: "The problem is that she moved [across the road]". Yikes.

 

[Lequack]

Good to see:
"F1 star Valtteri Bottas has been spotted helping out his girlfriend Tiffany Cromwell at the inaugural Tour de France Femmes on Tuesday.
The Alfa Romeo driver, who is used to living life at speed, was seen at the side of the road at the heart of the action, helping out his girlfriend's team, Canyon-SRAM. Bottas was filmed handing out bottles to the passing peloton."

F1 star Bottas spotted working for cyclist girlfriend at Tour de France Femmes

F1 driver Valtteri Bottas has taken some time away from behind the wheel to help out his girlfriend, who is a proffesional cyclist, at the inaugural Tour de France Femmes

www.dailystar.co.uk

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Urshka not doing well, it seems. Maybe it's not her diet that powers Teddy after all.

 

[RedheadDane]

It's next level when it's done by your own boss.

Surely, if it's your own team car, the technical term is "Getting Madrazoed." Or is that only when the rider in question goes on to win?

 

[JosefK]

Van Vleuten looked a little better, today. No time lost to GC rivals, despite getting dropped (slightly) a couple times. Curious, they didn't seem too focused on putting more time into her.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Urshka not doing well, it seems. Maybe it's not her diet that powers Teddy after all.

Or perhaps they're just nothing left for her when he's done eating.

Good to see:
"F1 star Valtteri Bottas has been spotted helping out his girlfriend Tiffany Cromwell at the inaugural Tour de France Femmes on Tuesday.
The Alfa Romeo driver, who is used to living life at speed, was seen at the side of the road at the heart of the action, helping out his girlfriend's team, Canyon-SRAM. Bottas was filmed handing out bottles to the passing peloton."

F1 star Bottas spotted working for cyclist girlfriend at Tour de France Femmes

F1 driver Valtteri Bottas has taken some time away from behind the wheel to help out his girlfriend, who is a proffesional cyclist, at the inaugural Tour de France Femmes

www.dailystar.co.uk

But to be fair, he's been to other races as well. Same for Pogi. And Amy Jones definitely is not amused by the coverage it gets.

Is the Tour de France Femmes actually about Valtteri Bottas?

Somehow, it's still all about some bloke.

cyclingtips.com

Surely, if it's your own team car, the technical term is "Getting Madrazoed." Or is that only when the rider in question goes on to win?

We'll have to wait and see, but I think it will be very hard for her to win now.

 

[RedheadDane]

We'll have to wait and see, but I think it will be very hard for her to win now.

I think it would be a "on the day" thing.

 

[Pantani_lives]

Marlen Reusser turns out to be quite interesting. She's a doctor and she wants to talk to Lappartient about a BMI threshold, to counter anorexia.

 

[Stelvio]

Surely, if it's your own team car, the technical term is "Getting Madrazoed." Or is that only when the rider in question goes on to win?

I think it counts.. (Fortunately for Herrada he missed the rock face so no verb for him.)

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Or perhaps they're just nothing left for her when he's done eating.

Yea, Tadej Pogačar clearly eats way too much, just look at the size of him.

 

[sir fly]

Stage 5
Bar-le-Duc to Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, 175.6km

BAR-LE-DUC AND CYCLING

On the edge of the Bourg district, Bar-le-Duc celebrates its most ingenious child with a sculpture: Pierre Michaux who, by adapting a crank to the front wheel of a draisienne, became the first manufacturer of the "pedal cycle" in 1862. However, the homeland of the father of the bicycle had to wait until 2001 to welcome the Tour de France, on the big gear from Verdun, with the arrival of a memorable team time trial won by the Crédit Agricole team and its Yellow Jersey Stuart O'Grady.
Bar-le-Duc also saw Ethan Vernon win the 2021 Tour de l'Avenir.
It is up to the women to pay tribute to the man who created their strange machines. One of the best French track riders of the 1990s, Magali Humbert-Faure, twice medallist at the world track championships, was born in Bar-le-Duc fifty years ago.

TO EAT:

Seeded redcurrant jam with goose feather
The gastronomic speciality of Bar-le-Duc is the seeded redcurrant jam with goose feather, known as "Bar caviar". The first mention of this recipe dates back to 1344 and its fame quickly spread to bourgeois and aristocratic circles. Queen Mary Stuart of Scotland compared the jam to "a ray of sunshine in a jar". Alfred Hitchcock would only stay in hotels that served it for breakfast. French President Raymond Poincaré introduced it to the tables of the Élysée Palace. Winston Churchill and Victor Hugo were very fond of it. Today, this jam is exported throughout the world.

Saint-Dié-des-Vosges gave America its name
It was in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges that the New Continent "discovered" by Christopher Columbus took the name America in 1507. The Vosges Gymnasium, a group of scholars led by Canon Vautrin Lud, was entrusted by Duke René II of Lorraine with the account of the expeditions of the Florentine navigator Amerigo Vespucci and the Portuguese maps.
The members of the Gymnasium decided to create a new world map incorporating these discoveries. It was German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller who, commissioned by the Vosges Gymnasium, decided to name the new continent America in honour of Vespucci, which he had inscribed on a planisphere of 1513. Waldseemüller later regretted his choice when he discovered that others, including Columbus, had set foot on these unknown lands. But his map was so successful that the name stuck.
A Florentine living in Seville, Amerigo Vespucci took part in four voyages between 1497 and 1504. He is said to have been the first to establish that the lands discovered by Columbus were not the Indies but a new, unexplored continent. This finding was confirmed a few years later by conquistador Vasco Nunez de Balboa, who landed in Panama and discovered the Pacific by its eastern coast.
Long ignored, the role of Saint-Dié-des-Vosges in the naming of America was finally established in 1875 and events of friendship between the town and the United States have been organised ever since. The discovery of the Vosges Gymnasium led to the creation of the International Geography Festival of Saint-Dié-les-Vosges.

SAINT DIÉ DES VOSGES AND CYCLING

Saint-Dié-des-Vosges has already seen some of the biggest names in the women’s peloton in the Route de France in 2010. Dutch rider Marianne Vos won the race ahead of her compatriot Annemiek Van Vleuten and German rider Judith Arndt. Between them, it amounted to eight world champion titles between them, on the road or in time trials... Former cyclo-cross specialist Nadia Triquet-Claude is also a native of Saint-Dié.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Col du Haut du Bois:

 

[Pirazziattacks]

Use a Gravel bike and wider tyres....that's what they're for.....I can't see the problem; mechanicals, punctures, bad luck are all a part of sport. Otherwise we may as well race on Zwift. If you know there is rough gravel, you prepare your equipment accordingly.

As for this stage, it was raced more like a one day race - and not a stage race; no effort to put time into rivals......

No team would go to the trouble of sourcing gravel bikes that their riders wouldn't otherwise have just for 10% of one stage. Not every manufacturer even makes them, and a lot of gravel bikes also aren't exactly ideal for road racing.

 

[yaco]

Urshka not doing well, it seems. Maybe it's not her diet that powers Teddy after all.

Urska is a limited rider and is riding on the back on purpose - She is WT standard when it comes to hilly/mountainous routes but otherwise she lacks power on flat courses in crosswinds, while she is uncomfortable riding in the middle of the peleton - You'll see her in a break in stage 6,7 or 8.

 

[yaco]

I wonder hoe hard teams will ride to try to put Wiebes out of contention in the last 30kms - Teams have failed to do this at other races and then were upset that Wiebes won the stage. 80% chance it ends in a field sprint.

 

[Cyclotron]

It's next level when it's done by your own boss.. Team meeting about as fun as EF after stage 5.

And the DS says: "The problem is that she moved [across the road]". Yikes.

I thought they were both at fault. The car could have eased a bit but she did seem to move towards the left front of the car.

 

[Stelvio]

I thought they were both at fault. The car could have eased a bit but she did seem to move towards the left front of the car.

The rest of the group is hugging the right side of the road so she quite naturally is heading to the slipstream. And it’s not like she throws herself to the right. The driver had plenty of time to react.

Edit: That said, considering that she at another point in the race knocked another rider of her bike she does not seem like the most aware rider… (I think it was her at least)

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Today's stage is one of the longest stages ever in women's cycling. Stage 4 of the 2020 Giro Rosa, won by Lizzy Banks, had a longer neutralised zone that puts into contention for the title as well. The old Grande Boucle also had long stages, for instance a 160 km cobbled stage from Bruxelles to Valenciennes in 2002, which was followed by two other stages above 150 km (one of them also started in Bar-le-Duc). The 2001 edition had a 164 km stage.

 

[Cyclotron]

Edit: That said, considering that she at another point in the race knocked another rider of her bike she does not seem like the most aware rider… (I think it was her at least)

It was her. She had a mechanical and laid her bike down in the road rather than on the grass to swap bikes IIRC. I thought: "what are you doing?"

Actually I didn't as the following rider hit it almost immediately.

There's some poor decisions being made in this tour.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I can't believe Coralie Demay didn't win the red bib nummer yesterday. It's not like Reusser and SD Worx needed the honour, and Demay did a pretty good job not to get caught earlier, althouh she was also furtunate that racing stopped in-between the gravel sections. The extra exposure and the 500 Euros prize would mean much more to a team like St Michel - Auber93.