LBL type of profile

Racing in Britanny, northern France and central massif.

Cobbles and downhill Mountain stages?

Steep hills with uphill finish, downhill mountain stages, and hilly TT.

There was a comment by David Miller where he claimed that this year's edition was planned with Bardet in mind. He wasn't really at his best despite winning the mountain classification. From the outside looking in it seems that the form of France's best riders can be a tad indifferent year to year. Compare that with Sky / Ineos where the GC contender[s] usually manage to put in their best performance of the year at the tour. Geraint being just the latest example.

Drugs innit.


.... sorry.....











Marginal gains

Such a shame that one of the most competitive and dramatic tours in living memory ended in such an anti-climax halfway through Fridays stage. We will never know if Bernal's breakaway would have been bought back or if the originally planned Saturday stage would have forced a shake-up in the GC order.

Kudos to Bernal and Ineos for getting it done.

Bring on the Vuelta...

So you're saying the french riders take them on alternate years?

Aye we woz robbed of a really definite showdown. I feel the same with Pinot's injury. How good could it have been with him firmly in the mix all the way to the end.

I think the loss of Pinot hit the race harder than the loss of the 3 cat 1 climbs that got scratched off the list. Even in day 1 in the Alps where we waited for his attack that never came.

TBF I was including him in the "anti-climax halfway though Fridays stage" comment even if the timings don't work

I just can’t shake the suspicion that Pinot is a bit of a Chabal type. Impressive highlights reel and you love to see him at his best, but ultimately lacks ticker and goes missing when the chips are down.

Do you know why he had to abandon the race?

The bloke could hardly walk and he completed a mountain stage.

You are correct.
For armchair, he took a handlebar to the leg and made it worse the next day riding.
He is very unlucky, certainly not as you describe.

However, one of the French posters stated he is quite an insular lad who sticks to his local area and doesn't like long training camps, etc. That might suggest that he does not ultimately have what it takes to take that extra step.

I remember when Geraint broke his pelvis on the opening stage of the Tour and rode right through to Paris. He had to be lifted on and off his bike. That's what TDF Champs are made of.

Yeah seems a very odd conclusion to come to really after smashing up his leg. Chap fought back in the mountains from serious bad luck and 4 or 5 minutes down to put himself into a position to challenge the strongest rider in the race.

Lads I know Pinot took a knock but nobody in the media had a notion he was injured until he started to pull up, so it seems unlikely that the injury was as severe as people are making out. Maybe it’s too many years of French riders flattering to deceive, I just think he has all the class in the world but not necessarily the grit of a guy like Alaphillipe.

Hey DOB and Bullettyme, video behind the scene of Thibault Pinot, if you speak French watch it or if not go directly to 30'.


https://www.france.tv/france-2/tour-de- ... pinot.html

He doesn’t do altitude training camps. To get into the condition he was clearly in through the Pyrenees, you have to be putting in the work.

G rode a tour with a broken pelvis, and Dan Martin rode one with a broken back, and Lawson Craddock finished last year with a broken collarbone, but I’ve never heard of anyone finishing the Tour with a muscle tear in their leg.

The lesson here is that, for cyclists, bones are sticks that hold the engine upright on the bike. The muscles and lungs are the engine.

Yes, it is really a mystery for Bardet, who usually is on top for the TDF.

I think Pinot was in top form this year, that tigh injury was unfortunate but possibly the result of excess training?

The tour was designed for climbers to challenge, which I think is a good idea. The outcome was a climber winning over a big diesel engine. Shame Landa, Quintana or Bardet didn't have their best climbing legs with them.

Random quality... cheap stuff purchased via internet.

He was already feeling his injury at that point. In the evening, at the hotel, he could barely walk. The next day, he had to give up.

Didn't the team say that he whacked his thigh against the handle bars in avoiding a crash on the Tuesday?
Possibly one of Geraint Thomas's crashes.

Rode through the pain on the Wednesday but had to pull out on Thursday when it got worse.




Such a shame, cause he was looking the best climber at that point and possibly the favourite.
At least the only one who could have stayed with Bernal on the climb (though maybe not the decent).




edit: see now that the injury was covered further up a page I didn't read

Two of the biggest diesels Dumoulin and Froome (he is both) were not at the tour. So we never knew how diesels would do.

I like my cyclists to be able to cycle fast - its why I'm not a fan of most of the Colombians, they are generally just excellent climbers.

Except Gaviria. He can't climb for shit.

Exactly, but we didn’t know at the time. As they climbed the Galibier and Bernal escaped, but Thomas was clearly in trouble, it was hard to see why Pinot wasn’t attacking Thomas to try and catch the Colombian. A day later we found out why.

And he is fast

Real stretch to say Thomas was clearly in trouble considering where he ended up on GC.

It is great to see these harder mountain stages where the GC teams get worn down early and the breakaways have more tactical relevance, but it’s still a three week race. Ineos will have been riding to control things on the climbs that got taken out and we will never know how close the climbers were to breaking them.

Not in trouble but he didn't have the legs to follow Bernal, or to drop the rest of the bunch, including an injured Pinot.

I think Pinot and Bernal were the strongest riders in this tour, and Alaphilippe the key entertainer.

The only rider who was clearly stronger than Thomas was Bernal. What is his motivation to attack the bunch with two or three massive days to come, a team-mate up the road and an advantage on GC over everyone he is riding with?

The rest of them either burnt themselves out, got injured or both. It is a massive stretch to say Pinot would’ve been stronger over 2 more stages considering he doesn’t like training at altitude.

Thomas did attack with Bernal up the road, and Pinot on one leg brought back the reduced bunch on him.

Frenchies,

Apparently there was a documentary done on Pinot's tour that was broadcast near the end of the tour that is supposed to be really interesting. You kind chaps wouldn't happen to have some links to a digital version our friends could take a look at would you? Hopefully my French is up to scratch enough in order to follow it,

I put it 2 weeks ago on my last post above, but some prefer to ignore it and rants about how Pinot faked his injury.

merci. I must have missed your earlier post.

Yes, I watched it. It was good. It showed his emotional side going through the tour. I think it was called Thibaut.