As well as the 1st weeks crashes there’s other things to consider, many teams are no longer interested in top 10 positions they are focusing on stage wins (Quick step and Bahrain being examples) without a dominant team leading the way this hugely changes stage dynamics.
The tour started earlier than usual (meaning its colder) also average temperature have been down 5°C on seasonal average this is enormous when added to the early start of the tour and we have seen that in the alpes.
I still think it has been an interesting tour mainly due to how hard break aways have had to work.
Yhe crashes were a real bummer, Ineos with a fit Thomas would be much more competitive with more potent attacks.
I have been loving what some French riders have tried, Allaphillipe, Gaudu, Ellisonde though my favorite Berquil has dissappointed (only as I want him to win all the time).
Pogacar is growing on me, TdF is really the only tour I take note of so he’s fairly new to me.
Anyway what’s happened to Bernal?
For me that is a disgusting move. Based on speculation from a director sportif of another team to the media (and remaining anonymous) and some other doubters. Police ‘raid’ a teams documents and stuff without a warrant (Over 50 officers I believe). I could understand if the dope tests were giving suspicious results however on hear say then all the teams should be raided all at the same time, otherwise it’s just victimiseation (particularly the team who’s director sportif has been casting the doubts in the 1st place, Why not concentrate on Pogacar? if your looking to victimise).
Anyway the team didn’t stand in the way even though there wasn’t a warrant probably because they have nothing to hide.
Don’t the police raid these teams every year? I seem to remember these stories being around forever.
Usually they have a warrant.
Not sure about every year I think it depends who is anominously spreading the rumors. 
Sky used to get close attention and US Postal before them but since they packed up I can’t remember another team getting much attention. It’s rare un ‘little’ team gets attention like this (they always used to get caught by the regular official dope tests. 
Mohoric from Bahrain Victorius won the stage and gave a zipping of the lips celebration gesture.
Well spoken to the reporter and talked about the “raid”.
At the moment I cant make my mind up on whether Pogacar is honestly that far ahead of everyone else or is everyone else simply a step behind in the preparation. I’m leaning towards the former as most of the main guys took part in the Dauphine or the Tour de Swiss. Overall though Ineos have been really disappointing. Flat as a pancake. never have they tried to do something outrageous to at least make Pogacar think a little.
What bums me most is the fact that the crashes were avoidable had the route planners done a better job. Everyone knows the first week is stressful so why put finishes in with extremely technical approaches? It was asking for trouble. That along with a yellow coat wearing lady have killed this years GC race. No Roglic and Thomas wrecked, Richie Porte anonomous along with Tao Geoghegan Hart. For whatever we were robbed of what the pre race line ups suggested. You had 2 super teams in Ineos and Jumbo against Pogacar, the lone monster machine. It never came to be. Jumbo lost half their team and Sepp Kuss didn’t show until yesterday while Ineos were just flat, both in the saddle and tactically.
I suspect that was simply because they all gave up on GC in the first week and it was all about 2nd and 3rd.
I think my main gripe is that it’s been too easy for Pogacar and I’m looking to blame anyone and everyone for that reason. Ah well Vuelta to come.
Mohoric is one of the teams most criticised riders as he has won stages this year. Some won’t be happy.
Clever riding by Mohoric - once again the break just can’t work together to chase this TDF.
Was surprised DQS sat up and didn’t chase the break as I thought Cav would have fancied the stage. Saw this afterwards too which doesn’t suggest that Cav was expecting a leisurely ride sat up in the peleton:
The development Mohric used was ‘enormous’ awe inspiring (old fashionned riding).
Mohoric rode away from the breakaway with great timing al la so many of the other solo winners this tour - aka clever riding. He didn’t win by pushing hugely higher watts like Wout did in the TT today.
Wout van Aert is such a talented rider. Slightly different skillsets but (especially in the absence of Peter Sagan) he reminds me of a diesel version of Sagan from four years ago. A unique talent.
Nice to see a strong performance from Vingegaard too and happy for Ben O’Connor to hold onto 4th.
What confused you?
Not sure what you meant re Mohoric. His clever tactic has been the tactic of the solo breakaway winner of this seasons tour; in fact the failure of the break away to chase down escapees is one of the defining features of TdF2021.
What confused you about my earlier post?
No I wasn’t confused, I didn’t see when he attacked but the commentators were saying how well timed it was.
I was commenting on the ‘development’ he was using (I was wondering if this was what was confusing you). I lose my english so as I watch in French use their terms. From what I understand gros development= gros bracket meaning very high gears. I.e lower rpm for greater speed. Mohric was at 50 to 60 rpm (which is old school) rather than the more modern 70-80 rpm (Froome could get upto 110 rpm perhaps even higher for short stints then that’s mainly when climbing).
It’s wonderous to see that power which is what I was trying to get across.
Not that I saw all the time trial today but there were some examples like Kung vs van Aert.
What did you understand from what I wrote?
Okay you meant low cadence. I think he had low cadence simply because he was cooked and just trying to hang on and ring out the last of his energy. After the stage he said his watts were very low and ask any pro and muscling a big gear at sub 60 rpm is a surviving rather than a winning strategy.
None of the TT guys will hold an rpm in the 60s for long if they are riding well; it’s just not optimised for power.
Yep your right. Most teams have been extremely tentative this tour. Sprint teams decimated perhaps?
I’ve often wondered about this and admit I know very little about the power side of cycling. But then I look at the likes of Froome, Armstrong etc. All dominating and rode with high cadence.
I admit I don’t know the relationship between power, cadence and speed.
Cadence refers to the number of revolutions of the pedals. The power generated by each of these revolutions depends on what gear the rider is riding in - a larger gear at the front and smaller cog at the back gives a higher ratio which means each revolution is generating more power. So more power will be generated by either riding in a harder gear or doing more revolutions of the pedals in a given period (increasing cadence).
Speed is driven by power output but is moderated by (most significantly amongst many other things) the coefficient of drag (CdA) and weight. The importance of CdA increases exponentially as speed rises - which is why drafting (hiding behind another rider) is so important in sprints where riders are accelerating from a 60kmh start speed but almost irrelevant on > 10% mountains where riders are going under 20kmh. Weight really only matters when going uphill but is not important on the flats and so riders watts per kilo is the factor that determines how fast they climb - >6 watts per kilo sustained for 60+ mins (or FTP) for the top climbers is common.
High cadence is by FAR the most efficient way to transfer the power you generate into moving the bloody bike forward.
Efficient for the human body. Although technically less efficient for the bike as a machine. But its the body that matters here.