2019 Le Tour de France

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Vader said:
Rohan Dennis would still be one of the favourites for the TT in Pau on Friday.
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He may even have a go tonight. Very outside chance but I think he wants a "real" stage win. Not that time trials are not real but he is already the world champion.
 

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Will be interesting to see when the climbers try to detach Bling - he’s got solid crew there with him.
 

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Reign Man said:
Here's a pic I took of Caleb a couple of years ago in the Herald Sun tour after he won stage 2, that blue helmet in 4th is Chris Froome.
View attachment 711101
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i remember him speeding past me one hot december day a couple of years ago on the princes hwy at waterfall (south of sydney). couldn't mistake the short-arse on his XXS scott and orica-scott kit. he was solo, as was I, but he was motoring on a fairly fast section of road. I may have sped up for literally 3" but gave up. he is 20 years my junior after all.

OT but this sub-forum has really taken a hit! i remember several years ago each stage had its own thread. i feel the popularity of the race in OZ isn't what it was a few years back. what do you guys think it is? lack of an aussie in real GC contention? Porte kind of annoys me. No drugs talk? Dare I say, no Phil & Paul? I've been watching the first hour or so of racing each night but not staying up like I used to, although I may do so for a couple of mountain-top finishes. Overall the coverage is frustrating with Mike Tomalaris' & Dave McKenzie's hyperbole introductions every night wearing thin and they generally take up the first half hr.

TBH, i'm also kind of out of the loop. i haven't ridden much in the past year, having fallen out of love with the bike, the scene, the roads (the danger), and some of the large early morning groups of newbies which resemble spread out road trains. it's as though more folks are riding zwift than actually getting out on the road, and when they do take the bike out, their road craft is abysmal. I think I'm rebelling against being a Mamil which is the territory I'm in now. Funnily, folks take it up at my age but after 15 years i'm kind of giving it away, going back to resistance training and field/court/running based activities like tennis for my activity. I have an Oltre sitting in the spare room, literally collecting dust and the tyre pressure is down to 20psi
 
I think the dominance of UK POSTAL, and their blatant doping without ever being caught, has turned a lot of people off watching the cycling. It's just so ****ing boring watching the Skybots botting up the mountains on every single stage, smothering the competition and boring the peleton (and viewers) to death.

Having a rider like Cuddles competing probably piqued peoples' interest, and you're right that Porte doesn't have the same charisma. But I think 6 years of Skybotting is what's done the real damage.
 
I don't know what the UCI can do to cull the dominance of UK POSTAL (now Eneos). Maybe they could introduce a salary cap. It's not exactly fair with one team having the same budget as the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th best funded teams combined. That would help dissipate the talent more evenly among the teams, creating a genuine competition, which doesn't currently exist.
 
mcgarnacle said:
i feel the popularity of the race in OZ isn't what it was a few years back. what do you guys think it is?
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For me it's mostly down to Team Sky taking the fun out of mountain stages. Between their slow and steady "ride to a certain wattage" method of climbing (instead of frequent small attacks like it was even just 5 or 10 years ago), Skybot trains zooming up mountains being lead by non-climbers and the suspicions of doping/generous use of TUEs, TdF is just not as interesting any more. It's the same on the Motor Sport Board and interest in F1 being decimated by the boring dominance of Mercedes.

Couple that with the fact that the spike in interest in Australia had a lot to do with Cadel, who hasn't been around for a few years, and that makes for a pretty good recipe for waning interest.
 
drd23 said:
For me it's mostly down to Team Sky taking the fun out of mountain stages... It's the same on the Motor Sport Board and interest in F1 being decimated by the boring dominance of Mercedes.
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I used to watch F1 religiously but haven't for around 15 years, instead of racing it became a couple of hours of a high speed procession with a couple of overtakes and the odd crash to liven things up. Sounds like it hasn't changed.
 
Unfortunately the Rohan Dennis thing is story of the day over Yates' win, perfect sprint from a GC rider is an uncommon result but scandals sell papers. His TT bike has been a problem all year but he chose to sign for them rather than follow BMC to DD, seems he took the biggest salary over his proven TT setup. When this is your specialty its funny riders keep making this mistake, Tony Martin going to Katusha had the same kind of result. I think there is something else going on but, Nibali being given the lead rider role after coming off the Giro is odd and after his time losses the other day its now obvious he had no hope here.
 
After reading that article by Rob Arnold I'm still confused. Dennis was apparently happy and joking around with members of the media and his team less than a week ago, so it's hard to believe he quit over Nibali being named team leader, or a problem over equipment (unless he was promised something and he realised yesterday that it won't eventuate).

Either way, this will surely create a massive dent in his reputation unless a good reason comes to light soon
 
The riders do have lives away from cycling, you know (strange, but true). I wonder if it is something personal and unrelated to the team?

Even if the bike wasn't ideal he's damaged his reputation more by not riding tonight than by riding and not winning, in my opinion.
 
Over The Post said:
The riders do have lives away from cycling, you know (strange, but true). I wonder if it is something personal and unrelated to the team?

Even if the bike wasn't ideal he's damaged his reputation more by not riding tonight than by riding and not winning, in my opinion.
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I'm not sure how much to say here, so i'll speak in very general terms. My understanding is that Rohan has been battling some demons for many years. He's a lovely guy, with a lovely disposition, but occasionally these demons surface. Now would appear to be one of those moments.
 
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