Tour de France

Scottjd1

Scottjd1

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I follow most sports and particulary with some Brits being in contention for this in the past few years I have been watching a bit.

However... i dont get it.

I assumed there were 20 stages and the time for each stage would be added up and the one with the quickest time would win, but for example yesterday, bradley was secone 7 seconds behind the leader and after the stage finished he was still 7 seconds back. Is that possible???

I am sure its quite simple, I know there a few keen cyclists on here and if anyone can give me a quick summary of how it works I'd be grateful !!


Thanks:thup:
 
They are not individually timed but timed as a group when they finish so can finish 10 seconds behind someone and record the same time as long as no gap between them. Also, if you are impeded by a fall in the last 3km then you are awarded the time of the group you were with when the fall occurred not your actual finishing time (as you have no chance to recover)
 
so you have to break away from the group which contains the leader to make up time? Makes sense..:whoo:
 
Yep thats correct. Ultimately over the course of the tour, the main yellow jersey contenders will only have a few days where they record different times, usually the time trials and the hard mountain stages, the race does really start until they get into the mountains
 
I love the tour.
Bradley is in fact favourite to win the tour this year.
His main rival is Cadel Evans.
As Scott says,the tour will start in ernest for the main
contenders as soon as the mountains come.
The good news is,if one of these two win,theres a very good
chance it will be a drug free win.
Im a big fan of Mark Cavendish,big crash yesterday,hopefully
he can win a few more stages this year.
 
Wiggins for me although I suppose I am biased being English. In my opinion this is by far the toughest sporting event of them all...over 100 miles a day for 3 weeks, much of it up hills that your car would struggle to get up.....if you're not a keen viewer wait until the mountain stages...all day live in Eurosport usually.
 
I really hope Evans doesn't win, last year was the most boring wim I've ever seen, don't think the guy attacked once. Wiggo is a fair bit lighter this year, seemingly without losing too much of his TT ability. I think (hope) he will put Evans to the sword in the Pyrenees and then seal the win in the last TT.
 
It does seem to me that its a question of who has the stamina to do well in the time trials, after all the other stages, providing no one has a brilliant time in the mountains.
 
louise_a said:
It does seem to me that its a question of who has the stamina to do well in the time trials, after all the other stages, providing no one has a brilliant time in the mountains.
Click to expand...

Kind of. Time trialling is a very important ability for a tour winner. They have to able to climb well, although there will generally be specialist climbers who are faster in the hills, they get blown away on the time trials.
 
Indurain used to win with awesome time trialling whereas Armstrong could do that and just ride until no-one could keep up mountain stage after stage. Its in the mountains and time trials where the team support is less helpful and each man has to dig deep. Been a fan since Lemonde pipped Fignon in 89

velo32.gif
 
Last edited:
Scottjd1 said:
However... i dont get it.

I assumed there were 20 stages and the time for each stage would be added up and the one with the quickest time would win, but for example yesterday, bradley was secone 7 seconds behind the leader and after the stage finished he was still 7 seconds back. Is that possible???
Click to expand...

I believed [though I may be wrong] that if there was a crash in the last 3Kms... Time gaps were annulled...
 
MegaSteve said:
I believed [though I may be wrong] that if there was a crash in the last 3Kms... Time gaps were annulled...
Click to expand...

Only for riders in the group where the crash happened. So if there was an earlier crash that split the race in two, then assuming the crash happened in the front group, the second group would still get their own time, if that makes sense
 
fundy said:
They are not individually timed but timed as a group when they finish so can finish 10 seconds behind someone and record the same time as long as no gap between them. Also, if you are impeded by a fall in the last 3km then you are awarded the time of the group you were with when the fall occurred not your actual finishing time (as you have no chance to recover)
Click to expand...

So it's not really a race then is it....????

If there's a crash in F1 then you're out (or a lap or 2 down), if you trip during a 10k running race the rest of the runners don't wait for you at the next bend, these days a jockey can't get back on his horse once he's fallen off.........
 
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