Tour de France Femmes 2024 (August 12th-18th)

[Samu Cuenca]

Grinczer abandoned

I know. I doubt she was fully fit, but getting involved in a crash before the race had even begun obviously didn't help.

 

[yaco]

Agreed. This is a VERY underwhelming route; I could have seen this as the first edition of the race but for a race that should be evolving it's disappointing. I did a double-take when I saw the TT, that's barely prologue length. I'm sure LS could speak to this much better than I but perhaps the Olympics had an impact this year, and my understanding is the route next year is supposed to be much better with more and tougher stages?

It could be a better route, but it is encouraging that a country has paid for a foreign start.

 

[awavey]

Wiebes saying someone rode into her derailleur and suffered a mechanical, lucky it broke cleanly as I've seen those fall back into the wheel and chuck the rider off as it mangles up.

Really only Lippert in the replays view when Wiebes appears to come together with a rider and then finds no power in the drive train.

 

[Keldergoat]

A part from the stage, which was as boring as expected, quite encouraging to see the massive crowds on the route for female cycling. Okay, it is holiday period in the NL, but even then it is quite cool to see every village coming out in full force.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Wiebes saying someone rode into her derailleur and suffered a mechanical, lucky it broke cleanly as I've seen those fall back into the wheel and chuck the rider off as it mangles up.

However the pictures clearly show that Wiebes follows her train and manages to hit Ahtosalo on the way, so it was her own fault.

 

[awavey]

However the pictures clearly show that Wiebes follows her train and manages to hit Ahtosalo on the way, so it was her own fault.

Sorry my mistake brain fade moment,it was Ahtosalo for sure. Was getting my Finns confused with Germans for some reason 🤣

 

[Valv.Piti]

So why are a team from Uzbekistan present again? Lmao

 

[RedheadDane]

So why are a team from Uzbekistan present again? Lmao

They barely are...

 

[QueenStagiaire]

4 DNFs on a pancake flat Stage 1 for the Uzbeks… I think they are maybe not at a Tour de France level.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

4 DNFs on a pancake flat Stage 1 for the Uzbeks… I think they are maybe not at a Tour de France level.

It is possible that some of those Tashkent riders were involved in crashes before or during the stage, but they were probably not going to make it to the top AdH anyway.

 

[yaco]

Anyway, I reckon Wiebes can win the ITT/prologue. And she will probably win the sprint stage.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

4 DNFs on a pancake flat Stage 1 for the Uzbeks… I think they are maybe not at a Tour de France level.

Reminds me of when Konya Törkü Sekerspor rode the 2011 Volta a Portugal. Yes, that Törkü-Sekerspor. This was before the comedy, however, and they were a brand new team that only did the domestic races and things like the Tour du Maroc. They got an invite to the Volta because it was when it first went to 2.1 status, the bottom had fallen out of domestic cycling in Spain following the financial crisis and successive doping scandals had resulted in many teams in both Spain and Portugal going to the wall, so the race was having trouble filling out its roster, and with Danail Petrov having raced successfully in Portugal for a decade, his contacts and reputation in Portugal got them an invite.

9 riders started for the team, but 2 riders DNFed stage 1, and 5 more DNFed stage 2. The last remaining domestique for Petrov - a certain Mustafa Sayar - would also climb off on stage 4, suffering in 40º heat on the Penhas Douradas climb. Petrov would soldier on - in fact he was 5th in that fourth stage and even managed 4th on stage 6 - but after the rest day he was literally riding the race on his own, like an old-fashioned independent from the 1920s.

Petrov earned himself a swansong run at Caja Rural, enabling him to enter his first ever Grand Tour, largely a token involvement due to Bulgarian bike brand Vivelo sponsoring the team. Losing the Vivelo contract and Petrov meant that Konya Törkü-Sekerspor would reduce the Bulgarian presence on the team for 2012, but they did sign the experienced rider that beat their guys in the Tour of Bulgaria mountains of 2011, so that he could teach their young Turkish riders and they could hopefully develop them to be competitive at their home race.

That man was Ivaïlo Gabrovski, and the rest was history.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

It is possible that some of those Tashkent riders were involved in crashes before or during the stage, but they were probably not going to make it to the top AdH anyway.

I did not watch so it‘s entirely possible to me that they had Djamolidine Abdouzhaparov drive the team car and he drove them all off the road during the stage.

 

[Izzyeviel]

COMMUNIQUE DU JURY N° 1

Article 2.12.007.4.7 – A/ Sheltering behind a vehicle
100 CHF & 20 second penalty
31 REALINI Gaia (LTK) - 10030303689
34 DEIGNAN Elizabeth (LTK) - 10004598891
203 COLES-LYSTER Maggie (CGS) - 10010998568

200 CHF d’amende aux Directeurs SportifsLIDL-TREK - BLIJLEVENS Jeroen – 10000820036ROLAND – KLIMOV Sergey – 10001591689

Article 2.12.007.8.3 – Rider discarding waste outside of the waste zone. 1st infraction – 250 CHF d’amende et 15 points aux Classements
6 VAS Blanka (SDW) – 10023656260
103 EMOND Clara (EOC) - 10120099825
250 CHF rider not identified)Directeur Sportif UAE TEAM ADQ - MARCHE Nicolas – 10009350477

Article 2.12.007.8.6 –Unseemly behaviour (urinating in public)
100CHF 186 DOCX Mieke (LDL) – 10009861951

In the fight against technological fraud, 56 bikes have been checked before the start.All bikes complied with UCI Regulations

.Article 2.6.027 – Riders involved or hindered by the crash in the final 5km have been credited with the time of the peloton.13 CHABBEY Elise,17 TOWERS Alice, 52 ADEGEEST Loes, 154 MALCOTTI Barbara

COMMUNIQUE MEDICAL
Chute au Km 80 203) COLES-LYSTER Maggie (CGS)- contusion épaule gauche.

So thats how Lizzie & Realini managed to get back.

 

[awavey]

So why are a team from Uzbekistan present again? Lmao

gamed the system enough, scored points in races others werent bothering with, still not sure really, given they get chosen ahead of the likes of Volker Wessels, its not really taking the rankings into consideration is it ? apparently they "qualified" for all WWT races this year if the organisers had picked them.

and they were at the Giro too, but only Yanina Kuskova made it to the finish, so thats 2 out of the 3 grand tours this year theyve been given spots at, I guess you could argue all teams need that opportunity once, to make the breakthrough, and alot of people saying well the new proteam setup will solve this kind of thing, but its not a great look imo.

I mean people keep raising the riders young ages as an excuse, but Im not entirely sure having Olga Zabelinskaya on the startline would have been an improvement.

 

[yaco]

Realini was extremely lucky not to be given a time penalty.

 

[Warhawk]

And Faulkner has received a nice new bike.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1822354887973466266

View: https://x.com/EF_Oatly_Cdale/status/1822354887973466266

I want her to win Worlds too just to give the people who design these things a damn headache.

 

[Izzyeviel]

Realini was extremely lucky not to be given a time penalty.

She did get one. You mean a bigger penalty?

 

[Samu Cuenca]

gamed the system enough, scored points in races others werent bothering with, still not sure really, given they get chosen ahead of the likes of Volker Wessels, its not really taking the rankings into consideration is it ? apparently they "qualified" for all WWT races this year if the organisers had picked them.

and they were at the Giro too, but only Yanina Kuskova made it to the finish, so thats 2 out of the 3 grand tours this year theyve been given spots at, I guess you could argue all teams need that opportunity once, to make the breakthrough, and alot of people saying well the new proteam setup will solve this kind of thing, but its not a great look imo.

I mean people keep raising the riders young ages as an excuse, but Im not entirely sure having Olga Zabelinskaya on the startline would have been an improvement.

They declined the invites to the remaining WWT races, because they don't have the budget to ride them all (the national federation did up its contribution this year, but not by that much). Their goal was to gain more Uzbeki spots for the Olympics, but they manage to score the automatic invites as a bonus.

It wasn't their fault that Jayco and Liv merged and old EF disappeared, and some other teams didn't care as much about scoring UCI points. However the new ProTeam tier will make something like this less likely to happen in the future.

 

[awavey]

It wasn't their fault that Jayco and Liv merged and old EF disappeared, and some other teams didn't care as much about scoring UCI points. However the new ProTeam tier will make something like this less likely to happen in the future.

maybe it wasnt, but it was their fault they exploited the rules for their own gain, to score more than a 1/3rd of their qualifying points at nationals by holding separate Elite & U23 races with the same riders eligible to score in both.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

maybe it wasnt, but it was their fault they exploited the rules for their own gain, to score more than a 1/3rd of their qualifying points at nationals by holding separate Elite & U23 races with the same riders eligible to score in both.

I do believe they ended up voiding at least some of those dodgy results from the NC and other Uzbeki races, but I also think the federation should have been punished for that.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Sorry my mistake brain fade moment,it was Ahtosalo for sure. Was getting my Finns confused with Germans for some reason 🤣

In distance classic, Finns always come to the fore.

/skiingjokes

 

[2WpK]

Wiebes saying someone rode into her derailleur and suffered a mechanical, lucky it broke cleanly as I've seen those fall back into the wheel and chuck the rider off as it mangles up.

Really only Lippert in the replays view when Wiebes appears to come together with a rider and then finds no power in the drive train.

Video is pretty clear. Wiebes rode her derailleur into someone's front wheel. Wiebes' fault, without a doubt.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Stage 2: Dordrecht - Rotterdam, 70 km

Start time: 10:00 CEST
Expected finish time: Around 11:38
Temperatures: Around 25 °C, but it might feel warmer.
Wind: 7-9 km/h from western directions. Gusts up to 18 km/h

Today's first stage is pretty much more of what we got yesterday. However it's only about half the length and with no QOM or points sprints along the way, so there won't be much point in attacking during the roughly 100 minutes of racing. It doesn't look like there will be a lot of wind, but the riders will have had their sleeps interrupted either way.

Will Wiebes keep her cool this time around, or will the Kool vibes shine through once more?

 

[Didinho]

Narrowing roads always results in a crash.