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Tour de France 2015 |OT| It starts with a BOOM*

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B

bjaelke

Member
*Unless your first name is Lars.

Just under 6 hours until Grand Departure in Utrecht, so quickly threw together an OT by stealing all the content on letour.fr

The route
Running from Saturday July 4th to Sunday July 26th 2015, the 102th Tour de France will be made up of 21 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,360 kilometres.

  • 9 flat stages
  • 3 hilly stages
  • 7 mountain stages including 5 summit finishes
  • 1 individual time trial
  • 1 team time trial
  • 2 rest days
pHOA8Wn.jpg
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21 AND 6
This 21st Grand Départ from abroad will also be the 6th from the Netherlands which is a record. The Tour will then spend two days in Belgium before reaching France.

ONLY ONE TIME-TRIAL
14 kilometres in the streets of Utrecht to kick off. It’ll be the only solo effort of the 2015 edition, in other words the shortest mileage since the introduction of time-trials in 1947. However, the strong riders will have another opportunity to express themselves during stage 9, a 28 km team time-trial.

BONUS SECONDS ARE BACK
They had disappeared since 2008. Bonus seconds will again be awarded at the finishes of the 2nd to the 8th stage. The bonuses will be of 10, 6 and 4 seconds for the first three of each of these stages.

A MINI PARIS – ROUBAIX
Like in 2014, the peloton will have its share of cobbled portions during stage 4 between Seraing and Cambrai. There will be seven sectors over a distance of 13.3 kilometres.

MUR AND MÛR
Two final climbs will spice up the first week of racing. First of all, the climb up the Mur de Huy (1.3 km at 9.6%), which is the traditionnal finish of the Flèche Wallonne, where stage 3 will end. Then, the climb up the Côte de Mûr de Bretagne (2 km at 6.9% with some passages at 15%), known as the Alpe d’Huez of Britanny and already on the course in 2011, where the finish of stage 8 will take place.

L’ALPE D’HUEZ ON THE PENULTIMATE DAY
With its 13.8-km ascent and its famous 21 bends, the real Alpe d’Huez will be the final showdown of the 2015 Tour with the summit finish of stage 20. A mountain top finish on the eve of the finish on the Champs-Élysées had already occurred in 2009 with the Mont Ventoux and in 2013 at Annecy-Semnoz.
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GC Favorites
  • Chris Froome (Team SKY) - 2013 winner
  • Nairo Quintana (Movistar)
  • Alberto Contador (Tinkoff - Saxo) - 2007 & 2009 winner
  • Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) - 2014 winner
  • Thibaut Pinot (FDJ)
Video, previews, interviews, etc.
 
S

Shanks D Zoro

Banned
Nibali once again hasn't had a great start to his season, but he recently double up the Italian Championship so once again it looks like he is gonna peak at the right time.

I think he easily had enough to beat Frome and Contador last year, so hopefully he will show that on the roads this month.

Is the Mount Ventoux in it this year? Always my favourite French mountain

I am hearing Europe is going through a heatwave at the moment, is France getting it too? Will be interesting to see how it effects everyone. Maybe we will see slower races with mo one trying to over do it in the first week.

I don't think I can watch the TT today, but i think it is a great chance for Nibali to put some time on his rivals.

Forza Vincenzo
 
N

Nyx

Member
It's in my hometown so today I'll be joining 799.999 other people (approx.) to see it live.

And tomorrow they'll be cycling through my street, pretty unique and cool if you ask me.
 
C

Chris R

Member
Stealing letour.fr stuff is how I made some of the previous OTs lol.

DVR set, 17-20 look INSANE this year, can't wait!
 
i_am_ben

i_am_ben

running_here_and_there
Honestly, this is probably the best line up in like the last 5 years.



Hopefully Froome isn't the only one on the good drugs this year and it's actually competitive.
 
B

bobnowhere

Member
waypoetic said:
FINALLY someone made a thread. Thank you
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I thought about making one as well, but I assumed someone had it under control!

Should be an interesting race. How much did the Giro take it out of Nibali's team? It sure as hell looked like it hurt Contador and his team. Froome has form but his team were poor in Italy apart from Konig. Portes inevitable one bad day won't matter to much here though.

Is Quintana really good enough?

At what point will Tinkov accuse Sagan of not being worth his salary?

Which favourite will ride the cobbles like they're on a kids tricycle with a missing wheel?

Will Orica target the TTT? They did bring Tuft and Durbo but it might be a little late in the race.

Not much to be gained tonight but with the potential thunderstorms a hell of a lot to lose.
 
V

Vitten

Member
Contador, Froome, Nibali, Quintana.. finally an interesting year again without one sure winner before the thing even starts.
Expecting an epic Contador - Froome battle as the main contenders with maybe a Quintana or Nibali surprise offensive in the mountain stages to spice things up even more.

Just hope they all make it safe and sound through the first week without crashes, injuries and needless time loss though that's probably asking a lot.
 
M

mrklaw

MrArseFace
Someone from our office is doing a charity ride at the moment - following all the Tour de France stages a week ahead of the main race. Most people are doing one or two stages to raise money, but he is doing the entire tour (nutter). That included 175km under 35c heat.
 
L

LayLa

Member
Super stoked for this, whole race is wide open including the sprints.

Really interested to see how MTN-Qhubeka get on - first fully owned, managed and sponsored African team and it's the African riders and not the expensive European imports like Boasson Hagen that are in form - Teklehaimanot (Eritrea) won the polkadot jersey at the Dauphiné, Meintjes (South Africa) is being talked up as a future superstar.
 
K

Knit Your Own Porridge

Member
So hyped!

mrklaw said:
Someone from our office is doing a charity ride at the moment - following all the Tour de France stages a week ahead of the main race. Most people are doing one or two stages to raise money, but he is doing the entire tour (nutter). That included 175km under 35c heat.
Click to expand...

Does he have a JustGiving page? Pls PM me the link if so - that kind of madness deserves recognition.
 
H

His Majesty

Banned
Doubt Contador will play a big role after his Giro, he's free to surprise me though. For today I'd put my money on Dumoulin. Really looking forward to the 'classics' stages. Stybar for yellow jersey please.
 
Guileless

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
Great article about downhills and this year's Tour in the WSJ (probably paywalled but I'm not sure).

As they approach the corner, riders feather the brakes—mostly the front to avoid skidding—and begin to scrub some speed. Touch here is so important that many riders keep their fingers exposed, even in frigid conditions, to feel every vibration as the brakes judder beneath them. Shifting their weight to the outside pedal, they lean the bike in to corner, tracing an efficient line across the apex. Locking the brakes here is asking to crash.

When you lay it on the line and have your flow, ‘you can just feel that you’re not making mistakes,’ said Mr. Talansky.

“When you really do lay it all on the line and you have your flow,” Mr. Talansky said, “then it is like walking a tightrope, with that same mental engagement and focus…You can just feel that you’re not making mistakes.”

On the exit of the curve, riders begin to accelerate again and squirm back into the tuck. With their chests parallel to the ground, they absorb every bump in the road in the small of their back.

It boils down to technique, concentration—and cojones.

Take Janier Acevedo, a young Cannondale-Garmin rider from Colombia who is indiscriminately referred to as insane by his teammates. “I like the descents when they’re wet and slippery, when it’s more difficult for everyone else,” he said. He goes one step further than most on the straightaways, by taking his hands off the handlebars and gripping the stem below them. His face is practically stuck to the speedometer, which showed he once cleared 75 miles an hour.

“Sin miedo,” he said in Spanish. No fear.
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P

Pacbois

Member
hope Pinot will shine like last year, he did a pretty good Swiss Tour so it seems like he's in great shape.
 
B

Boem

Member
I was there just now, I live just a couple of streets away. I've given up for today, the heat is just unbearable. Combined with the crowd it's hell. I don't know how they manage to stay on their bikes like this. I'm just gonna go for a swim.

It's fun to see people coming over from all over the world though.
 
B

bluehat9

Member
Whatever happened to wiggins? he won one year, won at the olympics, then wanted to go against his teammate, and then disappeared, right? Is he retired or does no one want to build a team for him?
 
L

Loris146

Member
bluehat9 said:
Whatever happened to wiggins? he won one year, won at the olympics, then wanted to go against his teammate, and then disappeared, right? Is he retired or does no one want to build a team for him?
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He changed his goals. From Tour de France to Parigi Roubaix and hour record.
 
D

deathrowrecords

Banned
bluehat9 said:
Whatever happened to wiggins? he won one year, won at the olympics, then wanted to go against his teammate, and then disappeared, right? Is he retired or does no one want to build a team for him?
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He s done with road cycling and goes back to the piste for the last part of his career. Never liked wiggins tbh his style of racing is boring and def not what cycling needs. Dude just wins the tt and then just limits losses in mountains.
I m a nibali fan since he won the vuelta a coupla years back so i hope he can put on a good show and not just put himself on the sky train till paris. He needs to derail that train and im pretty sure froome will be in trouble.

Wiggins got his own team now btw team wiggins.
 
C

Cub3h

Banned
The tour has started, so summer has now officially begun! Since there are (as always) no Dutch GC contenders and since I really dislike and am very suspicous of team Sky, I'll be rooting for my boy Quintana.
 
M

MTE

Member
It begins!

Assuming I stay unemployed, this will be the first Tour I will be able to keep up with. Really excited. :)
Loving that the #1 time thus far is from an Australian :)
 
D

deathrowrecords

Banned
Cub3h said:
The tour has started, so summer has now officially begun! Since there are (as always) no Dutch GC contenders and since I really dislike and am very suspicous of team Sky, I'll be rooting for my boy Quintana.
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i dislike sky too as do many pro riders but theres no need to be suspicious about them. At least u got gesinck, ten dam and kelderman. The belgians have literally no one for the gc.
I almost forgot mollema although he s overrated. Still cant believe trek got him as a gc contender.
 
L

Laekon

Member
Utrecht is an awesome town, I wish I was there today. It's sad that Kittel hasn't full recovered cause it would make the flat stages a lot more exciting.
 
C

Cub3h

Banned
deathrowrecords said:
i dislike sky too as do many pro riders but theres no need to be suspicious about them. At least u got gesinck, ten dam and kelderman. The belgians have literally no one for the gc.
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I don't have the numbers, but I recall two years ago they were racing up mountains at the same speed that all the big EPO guys like Pantani / Virenque / Armstrong etc did. I've been watching the Tour for too long to give anyone the benefit of the doubt, sadly.

Still love the event though, because doping or not I assume all the top riders are either all on something or all are not, so in the end it's mostly an even playing field anyway.
 
D

deathrowrecords

Banned
Cub3h said:
I don't have the numbers, but I recall two years ago they were racing up mountains at the same speed that all the big EPO guys like Pantani / Virenque / Armstrong etc did. I've been watching the Tour for too long to give anyone the benefit of the doubt, sadly.

Still love the event though, because doping or not I assume all the top riders are either all on something or all are not, so in the end it's mostly an even playing field anyway.
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Yeh i know about these numbers and where froome is coming from but we cant always suspect pro riders of this and that because it hurts the sport too much i think.
teams have lots of problems securing sponsors nowadays and we need to stay positive. But yeh i cant blame ya for being sceptical
 
S

spekkeh

Banned
Laekon said:
Utrecht is an awesome town, I wish I was there today.
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Thank you.

Like Boem I live around the corner of the start and finish, there's a great atmosphere, but then my face started to melt and I'm pretty sure my hair was about to catch fire, so I too left again.

Anyway some pics.

dmWJVFy.jpg


zTrm9lK.jpg


FCz6TbX.jpg


I hope other Utrechters were able to get some better action pictures.
 
H

His Majesty

Banned
MTE said:
It begins!

Assuming I stay unemployed, this will be the first Tour I will be able to keep up with. Really excited. :)
Loving that the #1 time thus far is from an Australian :)
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You also have one of the most badass cyclists in the peloton. Adam Hansen is riding his 12th Grand Tour in a row. Such a likeable guy aswell.
 
H

HolyCheck

I want a tag give me a tag
On my way home now, bit of a headache and need sleep... but ill power through for the first stage.
 
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