Tour de France 2016

[Hambeast 10]

A minority sport with bad drug use especially Lance Armstrong who I thought prior

to his coming clean was fantastic.

 

I am a Francophile so watch all the stages on tv and it has been great to watch, the big

bonus is we have Brits doing fantastic.

 

BBC do not mention it as they get nothing out of it, shame as it is worth watching for

the scenery alone, add the bikes and it becomes even better.

 

You mean apart from the live text they do of every stage and the live radio commentary they do of the last hour or so of each stage, and the podcasts?

 

BBC dont have the TV rights to it, apart from cover it in the sports bit of the BBC News channel what else would you like them to do?

[hyper 10]

Not on radio Sheffield it wunt.

Ah radio, yeh ok.

 

But then Radio Sheffield, say no more. I thought you were talking serious BBC. Radio Sheffield would be more interested in featuring a song written and sung by an ex-castle market trader with his tambourine.... or some such tat.

 

---------- Post added 12-07-2016 at 14:50 ----------

 

.... apart from cover it in the sports bit of the BBC News channel what else would you like them to do?

not seen that to be honest

[Hambeast 10]

Ah radio, yeh ok.

 

But then Radio Sheffield, say no more. I thought you were talking serious BBC. Radio Sheffield would be more interested in featuring a song written and sung by an ex-castle market trader with his tambourine.... or some such tat.

 

---------- Post added 12-07-2016 at 14:50 ----------

 

not seen that to be honest

 

Im sure they covered it in a Sportsday I watched at the weekend. Again you cant accuse them of not caring about it given the amount of online/radio coverage they give it.

[tzijlstra 11]

Channel 4's coverage (Freeview 24, whatever that channel is called) is pretty good. I like the commentators.

 

Very interesting tour so far, one of the roughest programs ever and the Ventoux right in the middle of it all, the kingmaker!

[Longcol 597]

We've been regular viewers since Channel 4 started covering it - as well as the racing we love the scenery - we like to see places were we've been (like tomorrow from Carcassonne through the Minervois) - and places we'd like to visit on holiday.

[Hambeast 10]

Channel 4's coverage (Freeview 24, whatever that channel is called) is pretty good. I like the commentators.

 

Very interesting tour so far, one of the roughest programs ever and the Ventoux right in the middle of it all, the kingmaker!

 

Channel 4 havent covered it for years, channel 24 on Freeview is ITV4

 

---------- Post added 13-07-2016 at 16:16 ----------

 

Chris Froome gains six seconds plus a 6 second time bonus over most of the rest of the field, on a flat stage. What a bizarre Tour this year.

Edited July 13, 2016 by Hambeast

[tzijlstra 11]

Channel 4 havent covered it for years, channel 24 on Freeview is ITV4

 

---------- Post added 13-07-2016 at 16:16 ----------

 

Chris Froome gains six seconds plus a 6 second time bonus over most of the rest of the field, on a flat stage. What a bizarre Tour this year.

 

There you go, I knew it had a 4 in it Agreed on the oddity of the tour...

[perplexed 10]

After the events of the last part of yesterday's stage, what can be done to reduce the interference of the 'fans' who present such a danger to the riders and others?

 

There's been arguments for extending the barrier section, but how practical is this on a long stretch?

 

I think I like the idea of some rigorous police action, by way of arrests and penalties - difficult at the time, the police are vastly outnumbered, but there is significant footage often.

 

I think the commissaries' decision was correct. Froome was clearly pulling away from Quintana, so for the Tour to be effectively decided by some probably drunken fool would be so wrong.

[medusa 16]

I think that after the yellow jersey has been taken down by a fan being an idiot they have no choice but to take action, and yes, I think that they were right to award the times as they did yesterday, and I'd think the same whether it was Froome or Quintana who was in yellow and in the crash at the time. The fact was that Froome had already beaten Quintana yesterday and was going away from him when the motorbike stopped suddenly and gave Geraint Thomas nowhere to go.

 

As for what action they take, specifically, I really don't know. Is it practical to put barriers up over huge distances of the course?

 

One thing that they definitely could do would be to have the forward caravan and intermediate vehicles passing closer to the front of each group, opening up the space for the riders to pass. If a car can't be interspersed then maybe two motorbikes could clear a channel?

 

The tolerance of fans getting closer and closer for years, particularly on some iconic stages like Mont Ventoux, has astounded me repeatedly. My heart is always in my mouth when some idiot fan steps out in front of a cyclist doing 50kph on a descent and I'm frankly amazed that this sort of crash doesn't happen more often. There really needs to be a fundamental change in the behaviour of the fans.

 

If I was a fan and thought that I'd managed to cause a crash that fetched the yellow jersey and another in the top 5 off their bikes in the last part of a stage I'd be mortified! Fans at plenty of other sports (golf, 3 day eventing, cross country and marathon races, for example) manage to show their support without putting the competitors and the result of the race at risk, so why not cycling? Surely you can show your support without being a total idiot?

[perplexed 10]

Agreed Medusa.

 

I think the only thing possibly practicable would to be have two motorcycle outriders protecting the lead riders - but the problem then arises when there are many splinter groups or breaks. For example, the top 10 riders on GC may be all together in the last few km, or spread about.

[foxy lady 10]

I think that after the yellow jersey has been taken down by a fan being an idiot they have no choice but to take action, and yes, I think that they were right to award the times as they did yesterday, and I'd think the same whether it was Froome or Quintana who was in yellow and in the crash at the time. The fact was that Froome had already beaten Quintana yesterday and was going away from him when the motorbike stopped suddenly and gave Geraint Thomas nowhere to go.

 

As for what action they take, specifically, I really don't know. Is it practical to put barriers up over huge distances of the course?

 

One thing that they definitely could do would be to have the forward caravan and intermediate vehicles passing closer to the front of each group, opening up the space for the riders to pass. If a car can't be interspersed then maybe two motorbikes could clear a channel?

 

The tolerance of fans getting closer and closer for years, particularly on some iconic stages like Mont Ventoux, has astounded me repeatedly. My heart is always in my mouth when some idiot fan steps out in front of a cyclist doing 50kph on a descent and I'm frankly amazed that this sort of crash doesn't happen more often. There really needs to be a fundamental change in the behaviour of the fans.

 

If I was a fan and thought that I'd managed to cause a crash that fetched the yellow jersey and another in the top 5 off their bikes in the last part of a stage I'd be mortified! Fans at plenty of other sports (golf, 3 day eventing, cross country and marathon races, for example) manage to show their support without putting the competitors and the result of the race at risk, so why not cycling? Surely you can show your support without being a total idiot?

 

Not to do adjust times simply encourages folk to bring down cyclists they don't want to win. I'd give the riders a cattle prod each. If the spectators are close enough to be zapped they are too close.

[tzijlstra 11]

Cavendish is rocking this Tour. What a man, to come back after the lean years in this way is amazing.