Tour de France 2024

Jeremy McCreary

Well-Known Member
Region
USA
City
Carlsbad, CA
Streamed Stage 1 of the 2024 Tour de France live on Peacock Premium this morning. Missed all but the last 20 km. Quite a finish.

Spoiler alert: Feel free to discuss results as soon as they become available. Come here only when you're ready to see them.

Relieved to see Jonas Vingegaard put in a strong showing (16th, +5 sec) after his serious crash earlier this year. Rib fractures, a punctured lung, and other injuries hospitalized him for 12 days and really cut into his training. To come back from that to 5 15 sec behind in the most brutal Stage 1 ever is mind-boggling.

Vingegaard's gain of 1:38 in the 2023 Stage 16 time trial was the stuff of legends. Would love to see him win the 2024 TdF to make it 3 in a row, but only time will tell.

But the best story coming out of Stage 1 is arguably that of 23 year-old newcomer Frank Van Den Broek, who took 2nd to his team leader Bardet but could have won it for himself. Green and white jerseys and high mountain points, too. Looks like he's 16.

From today's New York Times: What to Know About This Year’s Tour de France (Which Begins in Italy)
 
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The brother in law is following it, hes hired a car, two ebikes and a bike rack

A localish hero to us Mark Cavendish is going after a last stage win.
Hes quite a character, always in scraps, falls and controversy.
 
A localish hero to us Mark Cavendish is going after a last stage win.
Hes quite a character, always in scraps, falls and controversy.
Yes, a very complicated guy, but what a record! Had a very bad day in the heat today, might have been ill, but he made the time cut. Hope he gets his record-breaking 40th 35th stage win before it's all over.

Recently saw 2 excellent documentaries, one on Cavendish, and one covering every stage of the last 2 TdFs. Wish I could remember where — maybe Hulu, Prime, or Netflix. Great backgrounders for the current TdF.
 
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Yes, a very complicated guy, but what a record! Had a very bad day in the heat today, might have been ill, but he made the time cut. Hope he gets his record-breaking 40th stage win before it's all over.

Recently saw 2 excellent documentaries, one on Cavendish, and one covering every stage of the last 2 TdFs. Wish I could remember where — maybe Hulu, Prime, or Netflix. Great backgrounders for the current TdF.
Very relieved to see Cav make it home under the cut off. Phew. That would have been a horrible way to end his search for the last stage win. I hope he can recover overnight, vomiting on the bike etc must have dehydrated him terribly.

Was delighted for Bardet. Especially on his last season! Never knew that this is his first stage win or is it first time in yellow? Anyway great to see.

I’m keeping an eye on Ben Healy on his first tour. Kid only knows how to attack and attack. Explosive in last years Giro. Almost paid off today. And hoping Sam Bennett can win a sprint or two in his first tour back since winning Green jersey in 22 but the sprint stages are going to be bloody murder I think, going to be hard for Sam or Cav with all the young guns and their trains.

Exciting. Only downside is I had a subscription with GCN and Discovery killed that so I’ll be watching on ITV here in U.K. not as much coverage but better then waiting for snippets on you tube!
 
Another rookie took Stage 2 today with a commanding solo ride to the finish while yesterday's wonder-rookie, Frank van den Boeck, struggled at the back of the peloton after a spectacular 2nd in Stage 1.

But still have high hopes for van den Boeck. He really gave his all in brutal Stage 1, which got the best of some big names. He led most of the way, racked up lots of mountain points, pulled team leader Bardet to the win, and finished 2nd right behind. Nabbed white and green jerseys in the process, while Bardet got the yellow.

Still think he could have won Stage 1 if he hadn't deferred to Bardet out of team loyalty.
 
Have you followed the Bradley Wiggins story?
Hes completely bankrupt, marriage failed and sofa surfing.

It seems like its mostly partying and hedonism, which is the proper way to go of course.

He might be the next comeback kid in time

 
Have you followed the Bradley Wiggins story?
Hes completely bankrupt, marriage failed and sofa surfing.

It seems like its mostly partying and hedonism, which is the proper way to go of course.

He might be the next comeback kid in time

You could blow through £13M with a single yacht and still keep a "Le Gentleman" image, but sounds like he took a different path to broke. Will be interested to read the details — lest I fall into the same trap in my own cycling career.

20230220_115512.jpg

Training for breakfast at the beach
 
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A bit disappointed that NBC isn't doing the World Feed that is sans commercials this year.....It seems like coverage access for cycling in general since GCN+ went away has not done the Tifosi any favors and not just for road biking but MTB and CX as well.

One thing I do to supplement my knowledge of road bike racing is to watch Chris Horner on his YouTube's channel. He was a pro racer for years and has a good understanding of the tactical side of the sport to share. There are several different versions on YT but I find his to be the best.

As far as for this year I just hope that Covid and crashes don't decide the winner......it's a long road to Nice!
 
Just starting the Stage 3 replay. The riders appear to be staging the TdF version of a work slow-down off the official start — just ambling along, chatting, enjoying the overcast and the cool, still air. Hard to blame them after the toughest 2 opening stages since at least WWII.

Two guys broke out after a while, kinda half-heartedly, then got off their bikes and waited for the totally laid-back peloton to catch up!! The incredulous veteran TdF announcer said over and over that he'd never seen anything like it.

Apparently plenty of time for some racing down the road on this long, flattish 230 km stage that will likely be decided by a sprint.

Pogacar was well prepared for his new yellow jersey, showing up on a matching yellow EVNE Colnago bike with yellow and black accents. Words cannot describe the lust I have for that bike!
 
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Catch the last 50 km of today's high-altitude mountain Stage 4 — especially the last 20 km. The final Category HC climb and steep descent to the finish set the stage for some exciting riding — especially by 2020 and 2021 TdF-winner Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia.

This performance won Pogacar the stage, the yellow jersey, and many bonus seconds. You see why he's often described as "explosive". Explosion to take the lead once and for all near the summit of the last climb, explosions coming out of every downhill curve to stay ahead of pursuing main rival Jonas Vingegaard, explosion the whole last km or so just to build his lead.

Vingegaard, the 2022 and 2023 TdF-winner, kept up at first but ended up tailing Pogacar by a real 37 seconds. Bonus seconds bumped the official lead to 50 seconds.

The descents to the finish by Pogacar and Vingegaard were nail-biting. Fatal drops all along the upper part with snowmelt crossing several of the higher curves. Sheer artistry on 2 wheels, but unwanted visions of a 60-mph crash kept dancing in my head.
 
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My GF wants to watch the Tour. We have Peacock. Anyone know what time to tune in today if you live in CA?
 
You can watch any stage that’s already finished anytime you want, and if you turn it on during a stage you can back it up to the start or any other point. Today was sort of ride, ride, ride and then all of a sudden Tadej took off like a shot and the game was on! Great stuff.

Seems like the live start time is around 5AM eastern time, which would be a teeny bit earlier for you!
 
My GF wants to watch the Tour. We have Peacock. Anyone know what time to tune in today if you live in CA?
You can find the TdF live schedule on the Peacock website. I recall seeing start times in the 0600-0700 range Eastern Time.

Turning lemons into lemonade here in Pacific Time, I've been watching the end of the race live in the morning and then watching the rest later on replay to see how earlier parts of the stage led to that result. Kinda like it that way now.
 
Cav did it!
Career TdF stage wins after today's Stage 5:
Mark Cavendish, 35, new 2024 record
Eddy Merckx, 34, previous 1975 record

Overall (GC) standings unchanged for the top 10.
 
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