**** Tour de France 2017 ****

[hornetrider]

Cav has broken his shoulder.

[Yipper]

mcelliott said:

Kinky said:

Unexpected Item In Bagging Area said:

Yipper said:

Without Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen in the commentary box, the TDF on telly has lost all its sparkle. The new commentary team are terrible. It's completely ruined the TV coverage.

Really?!? They were dreadful, they just kept on trotting out the same old clichés and missed half of what was going on. IMO Boulting is good as the lead commentator and Millar is excellent at the technical and tactical stuff.

Totally diagree I think Millar is totally flat and dull

The EuroSport coverage, especially with Sean Kelly is second to none (imho).

But hey, each to their own eh?

I think the combination of Ned and Dave works quite well - Boulting conveys a nice man in the street style whereas Dave is there for the more professional analysis. Good combo. Far better than Liggett and Sherwen - Liggett turned into some deranged mentalist for his love of Armstrong. The bloke completely lost the plot. Kirby and Kelly are both appalling for Eurosport, apparently Sean Kelly is the only man to have nodded during a radio interview.

Liggett and Sherwen had a tone of voice that is easy to listen to and a clear passion for the TdF that can be sensed in their commentary. Think of them as Clarkson and May for cycling. Not the best reviewers, but defo the best light-entertainers for their chosen profession (as measured by the record >100m TG audience).

By contrast, the new ITV TdF commentary team today are uber-serious, monotone, cycling geeks and they make the race and scenery sound exceedingly dull. For casual massmarket viewers, who bring in the big audiences, they are absolutely rubbish. It has ruined the Tour on TV.

[Equilibrium25]

Some Gump said:

Kinky said:

Unexpected Item In Bagging Area said:

Yipper said:

Without Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen in the commentary box, the TDF on telly has lost all its sparkle. The new commentary team are terrible. It's completely ruined the TV coverage.

Really?!? They were dreadful, they just kept on trotting out the same old clichés and missed half of what was going on. IMO Boulting is good as the lead commentator and Millar is excellent at the technical and tactical stuff.

Totally diagree I think Millar is totally flat and dull

The EuroSport coverage, especially with Sean Kelly is second to none (imho).

But hey, each to their own eh?

Each to their own indeed =)
Only bad bit of Eurosport coverage is Sean kelly's voice. His insight is good, but he's just dull / horrid to listen to.

Used to not like Millar at first but he's grown into the role brilliantly.

Oh, and IMO the DQ is purely to create a French green jersey.

I really enjoy Millar's insight too, he brings the viewer into the heart of the race. Similar to Brundle with F1 when he started in the commentary box.

Agree on Kelly, terrible to listen too although the content is good.

Good in their day, but Sherwen and Liggett were simply comedy in their later years. Listening to them was an exercise in spotting the errors, so that you had a chance of really understanding what was going on. If you took what they said as gospel, you were watching a different race.

Boulting and Millar are perfect, in my view.

[blade runner]

Granfondo said:

pablo said:

France have two in form sprinters, Cav and Degenkolb go down, injuries TBC, commissaires realise a French green jersey winner is possible, throw out the one man who can challenge them. wkers.

As I saw it, Sagan saw Demare fly past and thought I'll have that wheel not realising Cav was there, at 60kmh Sagan has no time to react or take any mitigation action, elbows came out to steady himself and Cav goes down, common sense disappears...

Yep,I saw the elbow coming out as him steadying himself also!

Edited by Granfondo on Tuesday 4th July 22:51

I think the elbow is largely irrelevant - the move across by Sagan was what caused the crash. In the overhead footage you can clearly see that Sagan switched his line, moving over to the right as Cav was making progress to contest the sprint on his (until then) clear line. You could say it was risky for Cav to take an inside right line right next to the barriers, but it was entirely his to take as it was completely clear until Sagan decided to switch and move across. By the time Sagan made the move, Cav was alongside and had nowhere to go other than into the barriers.

Decision to DQ Sagan was probably the correct one to take in the circumstances.

[S100HP]

So on to todays stage. Who is your money on? I'm going for Porte.

[Unexpected Item In Bagging Area]

Dan Martin should be good today

[Vocal Minority]

Porte crossed my mind - I think his need is greatest.

Voeckler has made his move - he may fancy one for old times sake.

[danpalmer1993]

Money is on Porte as well, he will want to claw back some time on froome and the 10 bonus seconds will help here.

[CoolC]

Unexpected Item In Bagging Area said:

Dan Martin should be good today

Dan's in my fantasy league team this year, so hoping he'll do me well today.

[ferrisbueller]

Equilibrium25 said:

I really enjoy Millar's insight too, he brings the viewer into the heart of the race. Similar to Brundle with F1 when he started in the commentary box.

Agree on Kelly, terrible to listen too although the content is good.

Good in their day, but Sherwen and Liggett were simply comedy in their later years. Listening to them was an exercise in spotting the errors, so that you had a chance of really understanding what was going on. If you took what they said as gospel, you were watching a different race.

Boulting and Millar are perfect, in my view.

I think Millar has improved over the last couple of years. He wasn't great early on - mumbling away at a million miles now. I find the context he can provide around situations really improves my understanding of what is happening in the race. It's a complex beast and much of what goes on completely passes by the untrained eye.

[BrotherMouzone]

Just watched yesterday's highlight show.

Chris Boardman was spot on when he said they punished Sagan on ' consequences ' rather than the infringement.

Cav was very fair to Sagan in the two post-race interviews so well played to him.

Shame, two of the most entertaining riders out of the race.

[ferrisbueller]

Interesting to see whether the breakaway can stay away today.

And when Porte is going to come out swinging.

[S100HP]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[ferrisbueller]

S100HP said:

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Really?

I thought that was exciting.

Each to their own I guess.

[S100HP]

ferrisbueller said:

Really?

I thought that was exciting.

Each to their own I guess.

To be fair it got better in the last few k, I just get bored of seeing "the train".

[louiebaby]

1. Chris Froome
2. Geraint Thomas, 0.12
3. Fabio Aru, 0.14
4. Dan Martin, 0.25
5. Richie Porte, 0.39

As it stands now in the GC.

[danpalmer1993]

Really strong break from Aru at the end and interesting last 5k. Shame for Porte as BMC put a big shift in!

[Katzenjammer]

[ferrisbueller]

Katzenjammer said:

Sadness

I suppose you're one of the halfwits abusing Mark Cavendish and his family on social media?

Race officials decided to DQ Sagan, not Cavendish. They obviously have their reasons for doing so.

Sagan has been denied the opportunity of pursuing records in terms of green jerseys for a year.

Cavendish may have been denied the opportunity to be the all time record stage winner in the TdF.

[smack]

A nice little statistic, and a good indication of the success of UK riders (and Sky) of the last 5 years - at the start of this years race, UK riders were ranked 8th in days in the Yellow Jersey, equal with the Dutch at 72. As Thomas and Froome are the only riders to lead the race so far this year, UK has overtaken Switzerland and Germany, and now have a rank of 6th. Prior to 2012, UK riders had only won the Jersey 11 times (Bordman x6, Millar x3, Simpson x1, Yates x1)

Froome himself is ranked 5th, currently holding the Jersey 45 times. Armstrong was ranked 2nd with 83, until he got erased from the record books.