Tour de France thread

I think that Sepp Kuss has a good future. Maybe a couple of more years as a super domestique for the high mountains and then on to team captainship.

Neilson Powless also did a good job getting into several breakaways.

 

Admittedly I didn't catch much of this year's tour, but what made it different to years past?

 

Delayed by the Covid pandemic.
Had to implement a metric tonne of measures around that.

 

As I saw it, the organizers put together routes that created turmoil and action, every single day. Roads, towns, and passes that haven’t been seen in the tour in many years, or ever, were utilized. The most climbing ever in a stage, on the toughest climbs ever, over the highest passes ever seen in TdF history. The days of team building that dominate the entire race are over. Riders that would’ve been a certainty, in the past, didn’t make the selection, this year. The best all-arounder, in recent history, wasn’t the best, this year. The foregone winner, this year, didn’t win. Just amazing, this year.

 

Good stuff , even the flat stages had some good action.

 

One thing that improved the racing was the fact the Sagan didn't run away with the Green jersey half way through the race. He and his team kept trying to find ways to get him back in that race. That made things interesting and made for some really fast stages that might have been boring ride along then sprint at the end stages.

 

Sagan got schooled this year.

 

I don’t know that he got schooled as much as he just didn’t look very motivated or invested in the race. It was like he was just making an appearance. The dude is worth something like $30M, so maybe he’s ready to be done with it all?