Tour de France 2023

[mr.bluesky]

Last two of days of the tour this weekend finishing tomorrow in Paris. Looks like barring any disaster Danish rider Jonas Vingegaard will be this years winner as he has been leading the tour for most of the past 3 weeks. Hopefully British rider Adam Yates will finish on the winners rostrum in 3rd place behind his team mate Pogacar and his twin brother Simon Yates will finish 5th so we have 2 Brits in the top 10. Just a shame Mark Cavendish crashed out before setting a new stage wins record.
Adam Yates has had to play support to his team mate Pogacar otherwise who knows he could have been challenging for the overall Tour win.

[chrishornx]

and Cav has been offered a life line to race again next year so fingers crossed

[mr.bluesky]

and Cav has been offered a life line to race again next year so fingers crossed

That's good to know but he's not getting any younger, will it be a step too far for him in 12 months time, assuming he doesn't get injured in another tour before the Tour de France 2024

[chrishornx]

That's good to know but he's not getting any younger, will it be a step too far for him in 12 months time, assuming he doesn't get injured in another tour before the Tour de France 2024

a question only time can tell but he may only do a couple of events, no 3 week Grand Tours, and just see

[I like natural boobs]

It's a pity the coverage of the Ladies Tour de France is so poor. It isn't on TV like the mens race was. I'm wondering if 40 year old Dutch cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten can defend her title. She's currently 51 seconds off the lead with 4 stages still to ride. Saturdays penultimate stage looks good. The riders will climb the Col d' Aspin and then the Col Du Tourmalet to the finish. Then the final stage on Sunday is a time trial.
 
Annemiek van Vleuten first came to my attention when she suffered a terrible crash at the 2016 Olympic road race whilst way out in front. She would have won. Her list of wins since then has been very impressive though. She's probably been the best female cyclist in the world.

[mr.bluesky]

The women's tour isn't on free to view tv but it is on the Eurosport channel and discovery+
It was good to see the Yates brothers finishing 3rd and 4th in the men's tour

[I like natural boobs]

The women's tour isn't on free to view tv but it is on the Eurosport channel and discovery+
It was good to see the Yates brothers finishing 3rd and 4th in the men's tour

Indeed it was good to see that. Both great riders. They have both won some good races. Simon probably has a marginally better overall record because he won the Vuelta a España in 2018. That's bigger than anything Adam has won so it was nice to see Adam being marginally the stronger of the two on this occasion.

[yandex]

It's a pity the coverage of the Ladies Tour de France is so poor. It isn't on TV like the mens race was. I'm wondering if 40 year old Dutch cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten can defend her title. She's currently 51 seconds off the lead with 4 stages still to ride. Saturdays penultimate stage looks good. The riders will climb the Col d' Aspin and then the Col Du Tourmalet to the finish. Then the final stage on Sunday is a time trial.
 
Annemiek van Vleuten first came to my attention when she suffered a terrible crash at the 2016 Olympic road race whilst way out in front. She would have won. Her list of wins since then has been very impressive though. She's probably been the best female cyclist in the world.

Agree about AvV, she always looks completely knackered and yet still manages to defeat most all of the opposition. Don't shout too loudly about her being the best though, the Marianne Vos fan club will destroy you   

I think age is catching up with her (AvV), along with an impressive team roster on SD Worx. The tactics are still a bit naïve across the peloton though, which makes for better racing. The Tourmalet will decide all!

Meant to add, good to see Lizzie Deignan getting back to some form too.