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

[jaylew]

Not paywalled for me.

Depends on what country you're in (or have your VPN pointed to).

 

[Izzyeviel]

How it's done
In that first race, it came as a surprise to Faulkner how casual it all is—and how exposed. “I just pulled over, and you just jump off to the side of the road and pull your bibs down. It’s just… it’s just butts out. The follow cars are passing, but no one cares.”

A Girl’s Gotta Go—How Tour de France Femmes Riders Pee During the Race

Everyone pees, especially cyclists who hydrate properly while riding hundreds of miles at a time.

www.bicycling.com

How do they catch back on?​

There’s an art to it, Faulkner explains: “You have to wait for the right moment, when there’s a lull and things aren’t going too fast. Wait until no one’s really attacking, and the pace is pretty slow. And then if you want to be discreet, and you don’t want the competition to know that you’re stopping, drift to the back.”

@SDWorx - hopes this helps!

 

[Hugh Januss]

Vollering is Pog, Van Vleuten is Vingegaard. Just biding her time until the long climbs arrive. Given how close she already was on the explosive stuff, I think Van Vleuten should be fairly confident. I'm pretty sure her level has gotten a lot closer to Vollering since the Vuelta.

So Vollering to sprint for the bonus then?

 

[Hugh Januss]

Paywall. Who in the world subscribes to bicycling magazine?

Right? Let me go ahead and pay to read up on how women pee during bike races. I mean I could just ask one if I really had to know!

 

[Volderke]

I just found exclusive footage of the SD Worx strategic control room.

While it's the best team with the best riders, it's clear that they leave nothing to chance in this Tour.

 

[JR1012]

Today could be the only stage where a SD Worx rider won't be finishining in the top 2 of a stage.

 

[Didinho]

Today could be the only stage where a SD Worx rider won't be finishining in the top 2 of a stage.

Kopecky looks impressively strong so surely possible.

I'm hoping for a Chiara Consonni stage win today! But somehow she's never placed very well, lacks a couple teammates in the end.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Surprised not to see lots of debate about Vollering's time deduction here.

Was she hard done by, or did she get off lightly?

I would say the latter, but UCI are so bad at applying their own rules that, like Maciejuk, it seems irrational that they suddenly and harshly decide that they do believe in their own rule book.

 

[theyoungest]

Surprised not to see lots of debate about Vollering's time deduction here.

Was she hard done by, or did she get off lightly?

I would say the latter, but UCI are so bad at applying their own rules that, like Maciejuk, it seems irrational that they suddenly and harshly decide that they do believe in their own rule book.

Her DS Danny Stam has now also been banned from the Tour. Which seems ridiculously harsh.

(although to be fair, with their tactics it's maybe an advantage )

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I was gonna say, now if van der Breggen can get yanked leaving them with no DSes, things might improve. The only rider exempted from the chaos so far is Kopecky, largely because she does what she wants when she wants.

I think possibly a combination of the infringement, the dangerous driving as they took to the grass and started driving through the convoy while motorpacing Demi back to the bunch, and then throwing a public hissy fit about being rightly penalised for such a flagrant disregard of the rules, has led to the ejection. A bit like Mark Renshaw getting a straight ejection from the 2010 Tour for committing two separate warning/relegation offences within about five seconds of each other, or that footballer who got sent off because he committed a yellow card foul, the ref played advantage, and then he committed another to get a second yellow as part of the same passage of play.

I mean the problem is that the rules are so lazily enforced by the commissaires so often and the smallest of justifications given to avoid penalising big names in the interest of the competition that riders and teams think they can get away with taking it that far, then they throw the toys out of the pram when the commissaires say, actually, that's enough. Here I think it was blatant enough - and crucially, caught on camera enough - that they had no choice, like when the Vuelta organisers had to throw Vincenzo Nibali out of the race on stage 1 because of the blatant move by the Astana team car to drive him up from one chase group to another being caught on the helicam. SD Worx' infraction is not as egregious as that, which is why Demi has copped a time penalty and not an ejection, but it was still there for the world to see, and if the team was allowed to get away with that, then all authority of the race jury would be lost as any attempt to punish further infractions would see the precedent shown and lead to accusations of favouritism or preferential treatment for the bigger riders/teams; and if they back down and overturn the penalty, they look weak and ineffectual and easily bullied.

 

[Red Rick]

Her DS Danny Stam has now also been banned from the Tour. Which seems ridiculously harsh.

(although to be fair, with their tactics it's maybe an advantage )

You should read Stams interview after the race, zero self reflection, acting like a victim, calling the ASO and UCI all incompetent.

 

[Didinho]

After the race Stam said Vollering had nothing to do with it, not her fault. They should punish himself not the rider.

Today after his own punishment he said it's too harsh.

 

[Izzyeviel]

Surprised not to see lots of debate about Vollering's time deduction here.

Was she hard done by, or did she get off lightly?

I would say the latter, but UCI are so bad at applying their own rules that, like Maciejuk, it seems irrational that they suddenly and harshly decide that they do believe in their own rule book.

it was so openly brazen no-one can argue it. What is a surprise is that they acted immediately and not in six months time.

Is it true kick off for todays race is in an hour? are we getting to watch a full flat stage on tv?

 

[Samu Cuenca]

After the race Stam said Vollering had nothing to do with it, not her fault. They should punish himself not the rider.

Today after his own punishment he said it's too harsh.

Sure it's not the rider's fault. They should just have given Vollering a new bike, which she also expected to get. But they obviously have to punish the riders if they want the teams to stop doing these things.

it was so openly brazen no-one can argue it. What is a surprise is that they acted immediately and not in six months time.

Is it true kick off for todays race is in an hour? are we getting to watch a full flat stage on tv?

The stage starts in 10 minutes.

 

[theyoungest]

You should read Stams interview after the race, zero self reflection, acting like a victim, calling the ASO and UCI all incompetent.

If what he said is true (that only one of the jury members spoke English) that does make them incompetent, no?

 

[Pantani_lives]

Surprised not to see lots of debate about Vollering's time deduction here.

Was she hard done by, or did she get off lightly?

I would say the latter, but UCI are so bad at applying their own rules that, like Maciejuk, it seems irrational that they suddenly and harshly decide that they do believe in their own rule book.

In theory they were right. However it happens very often without the rule being applied. Last week we saw Carlos Rodriguez doing the same thing, and he didn't get a sanction. So it's pretty arbitrary.

 

[Izzyeviel]

Sure it's not the rider's fault. They should just have given Vollering a new bike, which she also expected to get. But they obviously have to punish the riders if they want the teams to stop doing these things.



The stage starts in 10 minutes.

I forgot about the time zones

If what he said is true (that only one of the jury members spoke English) that does make them incompetent, no?

No. (unless the rules are only available in English)

 

[roundabout]

In theory they were right. However it happens very often without the rule being applied. Last week we saw Carlos Rodriguez doing the same thing, and he didn't get a sanction. So it's pretty arbitrary.

Rodriguez got a 20 second penalty (I am assuming that the stage 20 of the Tour is what you are referring to)

 

[xo 1]

Her DS Danny Stam has now also been banned from the Tour. Which seems ridiculously harsh.

(although to be fair, with their tactics it's maybe an advantage )

Wow. The thin-skinned response of a banning suggests to me that Stam is more right than I had originally thought. Stam's comments were disrespectful but also not incorrect in that the rule is discretionary. Had the ban been limited to as a consequence of the unsafe driving, I'd be more sympathetic. The driving was boneheaded. But if Stam is banned, then the penalty on Vollering is even more harsh (and, in my view, unnecessary). The commissaires seem unbothered by the potentially profound consequence on the racing of the 20-second penalty.

 

[awavey]

You should read Stams interview after the race, zero self reflection, acting like a victim, calling the ASO and UCI all incompetent.

well hes not necessarily wrong on that take,after all the complaint is about consistency of applying the rulebook and we know countless times the ASO/UCI arent consistent about it at all, but maybe just needs to learn not to air it with the media

 

[Danskebjerge]

Riders and officials who get sanctioned are really good at downplaying their wrong-doings.

 

[Izzyeviel]

Someone needs to create a meme of Adam Hansen with lazers coming out of his eyes setting a moto bike on fire

 

[glassmoon]

Riders and officials who get sanctioned are really good at downplaying their wrong-doings.

that's true... but on the other side uci/aso ruling consistency is pretty much non existent.

 

[Danskebjerge]

that's true... but on the other side uci/aso ruling consistency is pretty much non existent.

Then inconsistency should be their argument (including references to specific examples that underline their criticism).

 

[Izzyeviel]

Ewers down. That was nasty.