Tour de France Tour de France Femmes 2023 (July 23rd-30th)

[Volderke]

Kopecky's tyre looks as flat as Remco's tire in the Vuelta on the stage where Roglic crashed

 

[Red Rick]

Kopecky's tyre looks as flat as Remco's tire in the Vuelta on the stage where Roglic crashed

...
Scars fade but the wounds never truly heal

 

[Libertine Seguros]

...
Scars fade but the wounds never truly heal

Bah gawd, King, that's CyclistAbi's music!

 

[Unterlenkerfahrend]

Vollering and Kopecky with a nice exhibition why Vingegaard was right not to take a pull for Belgian Pozzato.
Lippert SMOKING everyone with ease, SD Worx already resorting to fabricating flat tires in the aftermath in order to defend their underachievements, you love to see it!

 

[Izzyeviel]

 

[awavey]

Kopecky's tyre looks as flat as Remco's tire in the Vuelta on the stage where Roglic crashed

I was thinking, that looks just as good as my tyres normally are on a press test, though I run lower pressure than race bikes, maybe the sealant finally kicked in

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I'd like to hope that Movistar's fine was because Roelandts was supposed to be DSing in the rear car and he instead attacked and went to the front.

 

[awavey]

Well, it's gets them another stage win in the Tour De France and bonus seconds for the person far more likely to need them for the overall win. Honestly, with the race being only 8 stages Kopecky getting a stage and yellow is ALREADY pretty nice for her. Just my .02 anyway, definitely not trying to be combative here!

no, sorry if I sound combative about it Im not being, I just like digging into the detail alot sometimes and I can see merit in how they set it up and but for seemingly a minor mechanical, Lotte could have taken that win, then the plan works and everyones complaining SD Worx win all the time instead

 

[awavey]

Stage 3 Collonges La Rouge to Montignac-Lascaux,

its described as a day of gently rolling terrain, with 5 categorised climbs, but the last more than 50km before the finish, so a breakaway success seems unlikely and its time for the sprinters to shine in a bunch sprint

 

[ManicJack]

Well at least Vollering took at pull for Kopecky. That's more than Jonas did throughout the whole Tour, particularly stage 2 into San Sebastian.

Wrong race. We listened to the JV bashing for 3 weeks. Get over it already.

 

[Izzyeviel]

Still no further news about Eva... starting to get a bit worried.

 

[Izzyeviel]

https://www.observantonline.nl/engl...-cyclist-studying-provides-a-nice-distraction

On the subject of Eva, here's an interview from earlier in the year

When Eva van Agt (25) began competing in student races, she had no idea how the world of professional cycling worked. Fast forward two years and the UM master’s student has not just taken part in the Tour de France, but also signed a contract with one of the world’s most famous pro cycling teams – Team Jumbo-Visma. And yes, in case you were wondering, she is related to former Prime Minister of the Netherlands Dries van Agt.

 

[RedheadDane]

Still no further news about Eva... starting to get a bit worried.

There were news shortly after the stage that she had been briefly unconscious, but was conscious when taken to hospital.

Nobody posted a picture of Van Vleuten's absolutely brilliant facial expression?

 

[meat puppet]

Caption: seriously, did you see the beer selection at the bar next to our hotel? (But that's probably projecting from my personal experience.)

So, thinking ahead: am I being overly cynical thinking that the next 4 stages are designed to a) provide at least some action, if nothing more then at least a bunch sprint; and b) prevent (massive) GC time gaps so as to maintain the illusion of a tight race, when in reality AVV takes 5-10min on the Tourmalet on anyone not named Vollering?

Sure hope I am wrong, but these rolling/flat stages seem like the easiest for SD worx to control.

 

[Red Rick]

Van Agt has a lung contusion and some stitches. Nothing broken.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Caption: seriously, did you see the beer selection at the bar next to our hotel? (But that's probably projecting from my personal experience.)

So, thinking ahead: am I being overly cynical thinking that the next 4 stages are designed to a) provide at least some action, if nothing more then at least a bunch sprint; and b) prevent (massive) GC time gaps so as to maintain the illusion of a tight race, when in reality AVV takes 5-10min on the Tourmalet on anyone not named Vollering?

Sure hope I am wrong, but these rolling/flat stages seem like the easiest for SD worx to control.

These flat-rolling stages proliferate on the women's calendar. I am absolutely convinced you are right, that the entire premise is dedicated around as many people as possible still being in contention for the final weekend so the action is meaningful. It's essentially six stages of jockeying around for position but with a few slightly hilly stages so that there will be fights for seconds on the weekdays (perfect for evening highlights packages) before the stages expected to actually set the GC take place at the weekend.

It's backloading in extremis. I mean, I know that the TdFFaZ only has one week to play with rather than three, but starting in Clermont-Ferrand and ending in the Pyrenées you'd think they could have found at least a medium mountain stage somewhere. The two cat.2 climbs in the race are absurdly over-categorised. I mean, the stage around Clermont-Ferrand and the stage into Albi could both be beefed up into a medium mountain stage to give better balance and at least a bit more of a feel of a Grand Tour.

I think a good platform for what would feel like a genuine GT for the women in France over 8 stages would be a parcours along the lines of men's Paris-Nice. There's usually only the one 'true' mountain stage with an MTF but it ends with at least one more stage full of climbing, if there's a TT it's in the middle (unless they go back to the Col d'Èze TT, which I don't actually like all that much even if it is traditional), and in the middle there's usually a selective intermediate type stage.

 

[StryderHells]

There were news shortly after the stage that she had been briefly unconscious, but was conscious when taken to hospital.

Nobody posted a picture of Van Vleuten's absolutely brilliant facial expression?

That pic is screaming for a caption comp

 

[RedheadDane]

That pic is screaming for a caption comp

I'll... continue (meat puppet already started the fun)

"OMG! Biscep muscles!"

 

[yaco]

SD Worx showed their naivety in yesterday's stage - They should have attacked the intermediate sprint and the finish with Vollering to gain bonus seconds in the GC battle.

 

[awavey]

Eva provided an update via Instagram as reported earlier contusion,concussion and some stitches.

View this content on Instagram

View this content on Instagram

View: https://www.instagram.com/p/CvHIl0vsjWO/

 

[Izzyeviel]

There were news shortly after the stage that she had been briefly unconscious, but was conscious when taken to hospital.

We knew that, but theres far too many examples of in the world of sport where someone has appeared to be ok & then taken a turn for the worse.

 

[theyoungest]

https://www.observantonline.nl/engl...-cyclist-studying-provides-a-nice-distraction

On the subject of Eva, here's an interview from earlier in the year

Yes, in the Netherlands she's mostly known as "Dries van Agt's granddaughter". Let's call it the Urska Szigart-syndrome.

 

[yaco]

The women are doing themselves no favours with their passive riding SO FAr in the TDF.

When Van De Velde can gain 41 seconds in 1.6km on a short climb without going full, suggests they are soft pedalling - Realistically 20 teams should be in the break in each stage.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

The women are doing themselves no favours with their passive riding SO FAr in the TDF.

When Van De Velde can gain 41 seconds in 1.6km on a short climb without going full, suggests they are soft pedalling - Realistically 20 teams should be in the break in each stage.

Niewiadoma literally just attacked. There just aren‘t as many riders who can attack SD Worx because they‘re willing to put Reusser and Kopecky on the front.

 

[RedheadDane]

We knew that, but theres far too many examples of in the world of sport where someone has appeared to be ok & then taken a turn for the worse.

I worry a lot! But, usually, when there's been a serious crash, and the latest report is that the rider was conscious, then I usually draw a big sigh of relief.