Son of Sam
2:08 Tue Jun 27
Re: Tour de France 2017 (and Fantasy League)
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Has anyone won the Giro and the TDF same year since roche in 1987
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Vexed
2:18 Tue Jun 27
Re: Tour de France 2017 (and Fantasy League)
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Think Roche actually won the triple that year (giro, your and World Championship). Not many people have ever done that. I also reckon Indurain will have won the giro and tour in the early nineties and maybe Pantani in the mid nineties.
Didn't they move the dates of either the giro or tour closer together that now makes it even less likely that the double will be achieved again? Or did I dream that? Tour, Vuelta double is more doable, perhaps it was the Vuelta that moved? I forget.
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SurfaceAgentX2Zero
2:29 Tue Jun 27
Re: Tour de France 2017 (and Fantasy League)
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Just reading Pedro Delgado's Wiki page. You just have to love this:
'The ending of the 1987 Tour de France and the 1985 Vuelta a España and the whole 1989 Tour are among his more memorable participations in major competitions. Delgado tested positive for the known masking agent, probenecid, during the 1988 tour, was allowed to continue racing and was not charged with any doping offence.'
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devils advocate
2:42 Tue Jun 27
Re: Tour de France 2017 (and Fantasy League)
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Pantani did the double in 1998, coincidently the year of the Festina affair and numerous other drugs busts.
He was thrown out of the Giro in 1999 on 'health reasons'...
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bobbymoore
4:08 Tue Jun 27
Re: Tour de France 2017 (and Fantasy League)
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Just added my team.... 17 of us now. I have been brave and left Froome out this year. However I have the best team and will win this by a country mile :P
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Sarge
4:10 Tue Jun 27
Re: Tour de France 2017 (and Fantasy League)
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I'll be in - will take a look at this one evening. I'll be rivalling Def for last place in this though.
TBH I know dick all about the pro road racing field - and up until a few years ago I couldn't give a flying hoof about it.
But watching the Tour go through Kent - specifically Tonbridge (my family were amazed / appalled by the way I rattled off all the pubs from my youth between Hadlow and Southborough that were on the route) a few years ago + having the Olympic race & time trial pass virtually by my front door in 2012 pricked my interest.
Wind forward a few years and I've really got the cycling bug big time such that I am taking part in the Ride London for the second time this year (am riding for the Macmillan Cancer charity if you fancy sponsoring................)
There's no better way of spending 4-5 hours if you need to get away from it all - and can certainly appreciate the spectacle of the Tour if not get into the teams / riders.
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defjam
7:24 Tue Jun 27
Re: Tour de France 2017 (and Fantasy League)
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Sarge - AG's!
Slightly concerning how shit i am considering I've watched the TDF since pretty much day one around the late 80's, I think Richard Keys presented it then?
I've watched it twice in KENT, I remember being in Tonbridge years ago after the race me, my little bro (RiP) and a black mate tried to get served in a boozer for ages, the barman ignored us and served all the whiteys (True story) we ended up having to walk out.
I had a 5 gear racer back in the 80's a green raleigh, rode it for miles each day, then put king cow horns on it!
Good times.
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Sarge
7:46 Tue Jun 27
Re: Tour de France 2017 (and Fantasy League)
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Sounds like the Castle (now shut I think) just by the river.
The Carpenters Arms (3 elm lane off the A26 Hadlow Road) was run at the time by Liam Brady's nephew - possibly still is - and was the pub I "grew up in".
ha ha - a five gear racer - haven't heard that term in years.
my team's in.
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Dan M
11:43 Tue Jun 27
Re: Tour de France 2017 (and Fantasy League)
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Similar-ish for me Sarge. I've watched the coverage since the mid eighties but hadn't sat on a bike since my one got nicked at university in 1994.
When the Tour came through Epping in 2014 it was preceded all morning by hoardes of happy looking people riding the route themselves. Something clicked on my head that day and shortly after my 42nd birthday I went to Thurrock Decathlon and bought myself an entry level road bike. I'm now onto my second bike (a dayglo Specialized Roubaix), have ridden over 4000 miles, drink coffee and read Rouleur on the Tube. And by the end of the month I will have gotten through my first tub of chammy cream.
A lack of sportives this year though. Did one from Peterborough in February and nothing else planned until the Box Hill Original in October. Didn't get in the ballot for either the Prudential pair.
I certainly enjoy watching the pros more since I became a MAMIL. There's a new appreciation I now have when speeds, distances and climb percentages are mentioned. But as much as I enjoy the classics, the week long races and even the Giro and Vuelta, there's nothing like Le Tour. Every year something unprecedented will happen, the likes of which we've never seen before. And every year it gets bettered. An organised yet somehow disorganised melodrama unstoppably rolling at speed for three marvellous weeks. Can't fucking wait.
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Tomsdad
1:16 Wed Jun 28
Re: Tour de France 2017 (and Fantasy League)
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One down!
Wonder how many more will get caught!
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Vexed
1:54 Wed Jun 28
Re: Tour de France 2017 (and Fantasy League)
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One of Berties team getting popped for doping? I am both shocked and surprised by this news.
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Son of Sam
12:21 Wed Jun 28
Re: Tour de France 2017 (and Fantasy League)
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Used to love watching the beast that was Sean Kelly in the 80s but it was 1987 when I became hooked on the TDF I was working in Compiegne and it was a really open Tour. French favourite Charley Mottet Jeff Bernard Pedro Delgado and Stephen Roche, I think lemond and Fignon were out of it, but went down to Carpentras for the time trial with some ardent Mottet supporters and spent the last week following, absolutely awesome especially Roches performance when he looked down and out. Last day was Creteil into the Champs Elysees and the party started. Charlie Haughey shamelessly took all the accolades on the podium as if he had spent 3 weeks in the saddle and then we spent the night in Flann O Briens pub in the company of Paul Kimmage among others.
Since then follow it religously each year every minute i can get. So many highlights over the years, the dissappointment of Lance Armstrongs betrayal among them, the sprinting of Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, the climbing of Richard Virenque, the workhorses like George Hincapie and Gilbert Duclos Lasalle, the genuinely nice guys like David Moncoutie, the combativity of Nikolai Vinokourov and the daddy of them all Miguel Indurain. Granted many if not all of these have been tainted by doping but it made for great viewing.
This year it would be nice to see some of the younger riders do well, the likes of Guillaume Martin, Simon Yates or Louis Meintjes but have a feeling there could be a dark horse this year and for that reason among my TDF bets did the field at 2s against Froome and Porte and depending on how the first couple of weeks pan out would not bet against Thibaut Pinot being the first across the line into Foix on July 14th, so heres to Sunday and the Depart from Dussledorf and hoping this years will be an excellent vintage.
And would recommend two great reads for anyone just getting into the TDF Laurent Fignons - We were young and carefree and Paul Kimmages Rough Ride.
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Dan M
12:48 Wed Jun 28
Re: Tour de France 2017 (and Fantasy League)
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Good post that SoS.
It's hard to look back fondly on the riders as so many were at it. This month's Rouleur has a long article about Andy Schleck whose career was defined by coming second to cheats but has only been given one retrospective first place. Going back further, as you say perhaps everyone was doping, perhaps some (Ned Boulting said this week he reckons at its height it was "single figure percentage" clean) and it makes it hard to have a hero from back then (Even whiter-than-white Kimmage admits to the odd bit of end-of-season dabbling).
I like Pinot but he's an absolute flake who still can't descend. Going downhill is going to be a big factor this year with so few summit finishes.
Right, off to tweak the team again.
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medwayhammer1
6:44 Wed Jun 28
Re: Tour de France 2017 (and Fantasy League)
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Team all sorted and entered now...gone a bit left field this year! Wont make no fucking difference tho....I,ll still be shit, and thats coming from a full on, like to think i know a bit, road racing follower :-)
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Sarge
11:12 Wed Jun 28
Re: Tour de France 2017 (and Fantasy League)
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Looks a good event that box hill one Dan
I did much of that route at the weekend. Evans ran their north downs event out of polsden lacey NT and the last 10 miles were leith hill, whitedown lane (hence my team name) and chapel hill back up to polsden.
Bloody hard work but great fun and a good test 5 weeks out from the 100
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Dan M
12:50 Thu Jun 29
Re: Tour de France 2017 (and Fantasy League)
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I properly hate steep "iconic" climbs. Hauling 15 stone up 15% slopes has not been fun up until now. I've only done three of the 100 book (Ditchling Beacon, Swaines Lane and multiple Mott Streets) so climbing three more in one ride is going to hurt. However I have dropped two stone since April and hope to knock off another by then so maybe I'll dance up the diagonal fuckers.
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Sarge
11:37 Thu Jun 29
Re: Tour de France 2017 (and Fantasy League)
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I'm with you (well 14st 7lbs.....)
Box hill is no more than a long slope beautifully surfaced thanks to the Olympics. Excellent bacon baps at the top too if you are early enough. Take in the views on the way up.
Leith is a good test -stiff but manageable. The way down can be hairy in wet weather...........
Whitedown is an utter bastard. I did a PB up it on Sunday but only because I walked up it faster than normal.
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Dan M
12:29 Thu Jun 29
Re: Tour de France 2017 (and Fantasy League)
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I'm looking forward to Box Hill. As famous as it is I never have reason to be down that way and unless I'm doing an event I never get to cycle anywhere but Essex, Hertfordshire or London. In that vein I can recommend the New Forest sportives very highly. I also get to have another crack at Wellington, NZ at Christmas and this time I'm going to rent a bike for more than just one day.
As for the weight loss. Well as almost no-one reads this thread I can confess that I was recommended SlimFast by a mate earlier this year and so gave it a go. I can understand how it doesn't work for a lot of people, but fucking hell it has for me. Really has opened my eyes to how much I used to eat, portion sizes, grazing just 'cos I'm in the kitchen and eating through boredom.
I should be twelve stone something in the next ten days, which is my lightest since the 90s while being a starving student. Even today I weigh less than I did when I crossed the Marathon finish line in 2011.
As I've done the bulk (literally) of what I wanted to shed I now allow one or two days a week of eating normally and of course allow more calories if I have a ride over 25 miles.
If you fancy a kick-start Sarge get the seven day kit from Costco online and stick rigidly to the instructions. I did seven pounds the first week.
Back to the Fantasy League. The league is already bigger than last years which is good to see. The absolutely last change was made to my team yesterday and I shall be making some more absolutely last changes today. Is it worth having a time triallist? There are fewer kms than ever but a specialist could get the maillot jaune for a few days. Should the wildcard be an extra sprinter or grimpeur? What about a classics man? Will the ProConti teams have a man in the breakaway every single day like IAM did last year?
Team presentations at 5.15 on Eurosport today.
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Son of Sam
1:52 Thu Jun 29
Re: Tour de France 2017 (and Fantasy League)
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Dan M 12:48 Wed Jun 28
Pinot says in an interview in todays L'Equipe he would prefer more stages where the ascents come earlier in the stage but more importantly that he feels the TDF has come to quick after the Giro and he feels he needs another week of recuperation with the first major climb as early as stage 5. Hmmm might be time to get a new wildcard!
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Sarge
3:05 Thu Jun 29
Re: Tour de France 2017 (and Fantasy League)
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Thanks for the tips Dan
Living where I'm only 30 mins from the edge of the surrey hills and I don't think I'll ever get tired of the villages of Abinger, Holmbury etc. You're in for a treat.
As we're 30 days form the RL I might leave it until afterwards - I seem to have found a decent equilibrium for the longer rides fueling wise and I would be nervous of trying to shift too much at this late stage.
3 weeks with no booze worked well last time though.
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zebthecat
10:24 Thu Jun 29
Re: Tour de France 2017 (and Fantasy League)
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Dan M 12:29 Thu Jun 29
I have been wondering whether to go sprinter or climber for the wildcard and have changed the spot daily all week.
Finally made the choice today in the knowledge that whichever I I have gone for the other guy is going to be brilliant.
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