Checking in for another year! Quite the eventful Stage 1. That cobblestone sprint crash looked gnarly.

I am thinking that Tadej takes home the yellow jersey again this year. Hope it's as exciting as it has been in recent years.

Remco, Almeida, and Roglic lose 39 seconds on Stage 1. Not ideal.

Stage 2 is going to pop off the last 10KM.

So excited for this years race.

Heck of a finish in Stage 2. Lots of late points up for grab in the stage made for a lot of jockeying.

MVDP is a beast. Glad to see him get another stage win, he's deserved one for the lead outs he has given his team.

Two in and two stage wins for Alpecin and Canyon bikes. Mathieu is a beast in his own right.

Where are y'all watching it? It seems every year it gets more difficult to watch

Rule Number 32 said:

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Where are y'all watching it? It seems every year it gets more difficult to watch

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usually just the 25 min extended highlights that NBC posts to YouTube. Unless it's the weekend. Then I think you have to have the NBC app.

We bit the bullet to get Peacock for this. We watch enough of it that it made sense to shell out $8 for the race.

Jasper going down really opens up the green jersey

What channel is this on

Peacock this year.

Tour is basically over now

Phat32 said:

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Peacock this year.

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Every year now

Ragoo said:

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Tour is basically over now

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Could be, or could not be. We haven't even gone to the mountains yet.

Jonas has really just been hanging around it seems, hasn't been too splashy yet. I am thinking that the mountains could offer up some real excitement, especially if we get some back and forth with the yellow jersey.

With the time gap it will be interesting if he is more aggressive. Could bring some fireworks to the tour.

MVDP almost took the stage wire to wire. Tough to see the peloton catch him at 1K left.

Ragoo said:

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MVDP almost took the stage wire to wire. Tough to see the peloton catch him at 1K left.

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[color=#333d42][font=-apple-system, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", sans-serif]In the post-race interview he said he's gunning for Rickaerts to win the Most Combative this year. What a unit and what a teammate.[/font][/color]

[color=#333d42][font=-apple-system, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", sans-serif]I'm manually typing this out and no idea why MacOS is throwing all the Java script at you guys. [/font][/color]

Ragoo said:

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MVDP almost took the stage wire to wire. Tough to see the peloton catch him at 1K left.

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Love watching MVDP ride, he is a beast.

Tadej crashes but looks to be ok.

The race has taken a definite turn the past couple of stages.

Very cool to see an EF rider in yellow, no matter how fleeting that may be.

Tadej puts 2:10 into Jonas and wins on Hautacam.

It looked brutally hot out there.

Tadej is too good. It's over if he stays on his bike.

Good thing Tadej Pogacar isn't American. Otherwise the sports media might have to ask questions how he's completely destroying the field.

Quite surprised there aren't more doping accusations/questions about Tadej. I am pretty sure Jonas/Visma were questioned when Jonas was winning. Maybe the organizers/reporters are afraid of the wrath that comes from questioning the Arab counties who use their unlimited money for sports washing.

Do you think Tadej is doping?

No but I am sure the all top teams explore the gray area of legality for fitness and recovery.
Almost every time a rider destroys the field in the TdF, you see accusations. Even more so with the all the classics Tadej has raced.

Tadej's been an animal ever since he came onto the scene. He does lose here and there, and we've definitely seen him blow up.

I think his first 2 that he won with lots of youthful exuberance instead of tactics. Saw Visma with regimental tactics win the next 2 and decided to work on pretour fitness and has turned into said animal.

He himself is racing with a lot better tactics too. He knows where the time is to be gained and he attacks into those moments.

100% agree.


Side note…. pretty sure if Visma (Kuss or Yates) had raced for the stage win from the breakaway, Tadej would have tried to chase him down. I think UAE has the mentality of anybody but Visma.

Ventoux.

Van Wilder saves the stage. Jonas makes Tadej look human for the first time this year.

Best stage this year. Also, Phil's episode on the KOM came out. Worth the watch!

MVDP is out.

I'm gassed up. Running today's intervals up Ventoux on Zwift.

Healy's ride: https://www.strava.com/activities/15199300734

Savage.

Slaughtered '21s ascent: https://www.strava.com/segments/39468128?filter=overall