[mp417]

All,

Found this link with English commentary. Video quality is better as well.

http://tiz-cycling.racing/stream/

Noticed this link to be choppy.


Peter Sagan wins Stage 3

[mp417]

Stage 3 Results

Part 1 - Tour de France enters Spa-Francorchamps

For the first time the famous Formula 1 circuit of Spa-Francorchamps (apparently my favorite race track as well) was part of the stage 3 route Combination of two of my favorite sports. Magical moment.

It was amazing to see cyclist going through the famous Eau Rouge corner. It was completely different than the V powered F1 cars but worth a watch. The riders completed almost a lap on the famous. On the downhill part of the circuit, riders touched 75 kmph. See video. On the cycle it took almost 10 minutes to complete the lap as compared to 1.5 minutes taken by F1 cars.

https://youtu.be/hqBdDxx3rIA

Part 2 - Stage 3 analysis and result

Stage 3 finish was the perfect setting for Peter Sagan (the world champion). And boy oh boy he didn't disappoint. The last one kilometer had sufficient uphill gradient so it was out of reach for typical sprinters like Geripel or Kittel. Peter Sagan brings a very special combination of sprinter with dynamic abilities. All the general classification top contenders pulled away from main peloton with 2 kms from finish line. Richie Porte and Contador were at the front of the group. Everyone reacted to this move including Sagan. At around 500 meters from finish line it was Sagan, Michael Mathews, Dan Martin were at the front and Sagan unclipped his right pedal. I thought it's end of Sagan but the champion was still abel to pull off one of the most spectacular finish.


A relatively straightforward day ended in a high stakes shoot-out that even saw Richie Porte (BMC) pulling for team-mate Greg Van Avermaet (BMC).

Sagan had timed his move well coming to the front of the bunch with just 200m to go, however a mechanical saw his right foot come free from his pedals. The world champion had was able clip back in quickly enough though and push on.

It was a close affair in the end with Team Sunweb’s Michael Matthews just half a bike’s length behind as the pair crossed the line.

Dan Martin (Quick-Step Floors) finished third and gained valuable bonus seconds on his yellow jersey rivals.

As the race approached the tough climb towards the finish, Bora-Hansgrohe and BMC pushed the pace hoping to the get their riders into position but as the roads started to file down in width, it soon became clear that the finish would be chaotic.

With Richie Porte leading out Olympic champ Van Avermaet, and Peter Sagan seemingly stuck behind a bunch of rivals, it wasn’t clear who was going to win.

However, Sagan’s superb bike riding soon saw him out in front of everyone, looking back.


















Video of last Km.

https://youtu.be/ZpThWGelq6o

Sprint comparison video

https://youtu.be/w_a3s805XtE

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Stage 4 : 4-July-2017

Stage Map



Stage Profile



Start City/Location: Mondorf-les-Bains, Luxembourg

End City/Location: Vittel, France

Local start time: NA

Total Distance: 207.5 kms

Type of stage: Flat

Mountain passes

• At Km 170.5 - Col des Trois Fontaines 1.9 kilometre-long climb at 7.4% - category 4

TV Schedule for India: Not available

Stage Summary

Stage 4 will honor Luxemburger champions of the Tour de France from François Faber to Andy Schleck, the latter having the privilege to attend the start only 200 metres away from his home in Mondorf-les-Bains. It's a flattish race in the east of France with a finish in Vittel. The thermal station is famous for producing the official water of the Tour de France. It also made history for hosting the Grand Départ of the 55th edition in 1968 under the tagline “Le Tour de la santé” (the Tour of the health) one year after the tragic death of Tom Simpson on the Mont Ventoux. This time around, it looks like a stage dedicated to sprinters but the last visit to Vittel saw the solo victory of Nicki Sorensen in 2009. But it was stage 12 and the sprinters were already tired. Now on stage 4 they are still fresh. Marcel Kittel who wears the green jersey is hungry for more, so is French champion Arnaud Démare who was the runner up in Liège and finished sixth atop the climb of the Religieuses in Longwy yesterday. The enfant du pays is a sprinter as well! Nacer Bouhanni hails from Epinal in the Vosges province that Vittel is also part of. He's yet to win his first ever stage at the Tour de France.

[rajcs]

Should I now remove my Peter Sagan wall paper after stage 4 incident? I feel pity for him though. Such things have happened in bunch sprint before, but it's usually glazed over, but for the disastrous consequences this time.

[amitoj]

Sagan disqualified. Cavendish out. This tour is Froome's for the taking.
There's a lot of debate going on whether Sagan was at fault or Cavendish but it seems a unanimous opinion that the DQ was harsh. Some are also saying that UCI is biased towards the French. That's why Sagan got the stick.

[rajcs]

Watching some more analytic video on youtube, it appears to me that organisers were hasty in announcing Sagan's DQ. It looks like Cavendish was behind Sagan and was heading for barriers anyway, when he turned into Sagan's line to save himself. Sagan himself was drifting left with rest of the bunch and was about to close the door on Cavendish. If there was a contact it would be Sagan's shoulder and not elbow as perceived earlier. Flinging of elbow seems to be a reflect action to balance himself and is clearly ahead of Cavendish. Shouldering is fairly common in bunch sprints while jostling for line. In fact a few meters earlier, Griepel can be seen heavily shouldering Bouhanni. Fortunately for Griepel there was no crash.

The Tour should have clinically analysed all available footage, even from spectators, before disqualifying the world champion. As of now I am keeping my Peter Sagan wall paper.

[Aditya]

Ridiculous that no TV channel is showing the Tour this year. It's been a very eventful start. Valvarde, Cavendish, Sagan - all gone in the first week. Quintana is nowhere in sight and Tom Dumoulin is not taking part. Looks like it's going to be Team Sky all the way. Hope Richie Porte can put up a fight.

[mp417]

Following linked worked like charm yesterday. And I was able to catch all the live action for last 50 kms. This channel also aired lot of behind the scene interviews and analysis during and post race. This was not available on TV broadcasting.
Posting the link again:

http://tiz-cycling.racing/stream/


Stage 4 Results

What a stage. It had all the drama during the stage and after the stage.

Part 1 - Arnaud Démare wins Tour de France stage four

Arnaud Démare stormed to victory in stage 4 of the 104th Tour de France as he fended off Peter Sagan and Alexander Kristoff in a bunch gallop in Vittel. Two crashes in the last kilometer prevented some sprinters from contesting the victory. Geraint Thomas retained the yellow jersey for the fourth consecutive day ahead of the first summit finish at La Planche des belles filles. Arnaud Demare grabbed the green jersey for showing consistency and also winning stage 4.

The day began quietly with another route of 200 kms on the cards ahead of the first summit finish on Wednesday’s stage five.

From the drop of the flag, only one man, Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) was willing to get away into the breakaway, and was perhaps surprised by the lack of other riders wanting to join him.

With no movement behind, the Belgian then pushed on alone with still more than 200 kms to go on the flat, 207.5km route. He was caught by Peloton around 16 kms to finish line.

When Geraint Thomas received the yellow jersey after stage four, Britain equalled Germany in the number of days its riders have spent in the Tour race lead. Each country now has 75 yellow jerseys in the 104 editions since the race began in 1903.

The past five years of the Tour have been dominated by British riders: out of the 109 yellow jerseys presented, British riders have received it on 63 occasions.

Solo ride for 200+ kms



Lung to the finish line



The winner



Another day in yellow. This year is turning out to be Team Sky race to lose.

https://youtu.be/XXI0rjW0aEQ

Part 2 - Two crashes in final kms. Mark Cavendish taken down in heavy crash near finish line

A relatively quiet day saw the final 10km ramp up in speed as the sprint teams began to setup their main men for victory.

But with all the fighting for position and some tricky corners in the closing 2km, there were two big incidents that saw riders hit the deck on the approach to the line.

The first crash came just before the flamme rouge and saw much of the middle of the peloton come down on the left hand side of the road, with race leader Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) getting caught up in the incident.

Green jersey Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step), who was hoping to take his second stage win of this Tour, was also caught up in the mayhem and was dropped as the sprinters at the front of the group continued on at a ferocious pace towards the line.

Those who avoided the first crash included Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis), John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo), André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) as well as Cavendish, Sagan, Kristoff and Démare among others.

But as everyone began to launch their sprint and move towards the right hand side of the road, Cavendish attempted to move around Sagan from the back of the group close to the barriers with 400m to go.

It appeared that the world champion caught Cavendish with his elbow as he edged to the right, sending the Manxman flying into the barriers and crashing to the ground.

That incident took down Degenkolb and Ben Swift (UAE Team Emirates) who both appeared to get back up shortly after. However, Cavendish remained on the ground and it looked likely he wouldn’t be able to continue.











Watch this video explaining the sprint crash.

https://youtu.be/GZ-dvVH811k

Part 2.1 - Peter Sagan disqualified from Tour de France

Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) has been disqualified from the 2017 Tour de France after crashing with Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) on stage four.

The double world champion clashed with Cavendish in the final few hundred metres of the stage to Vittel, sending the Dimension Data rider tumbling to the tarmac at high speed.

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Mods: Posting back to back post to maintain continuity and keeping updates separate to replies.

Originally Posted by rajcs

Should I now remove my Peter Sagan wall paper after stage 4 incident? I feel pity for him though. Such things have happened in bunch sprint before, but it's usually glazed over, but for the disastrous consequences this time.

If you watch the race in real time it appeared Sagan was at fault. I had the same feeling.

Originally Posted by amitoj

Sagan disqualified. Cavendish out. This tour is Froome's for the taking.
There's a lot of debate going on whether Sagan was at fault or Cavendish but it seems a unanimous opinion that the DQ was harsh. Some are also saying that UCI is biased towards the French. That's why Sagan got the stick.

Originally Posted by rajcs

Watching some more analytic video on Youtube, it appears to me that organisers were hasty in announcing Sagan's DQ. It looks like Cavendish was behind Sagan and was heading for barriers anyway, when he turned into Sagan's line to save himself. Sagan himself was drifting left with rest of the bunch and was about to close the door on Cavendish. If there was a contact it would be Sagan's shoulder and not elbow as perceived earlier. Flinging of elbow seems to be a reflect action to balance himself and is clearly ahead of Cavendish. Shouldering is fairly common in bunch sprints while jostling for line. In fact a few meters earlier, Griepel can be seen heavily shouldering Bouhanni. Fortunately for Griepel there was no crash.

The Tour should have clinically analysed all available footage, even from spectators, before disqualifying the world champion. As of now I am keeping my Peter Sagan wall paper.

IMO, the decision was too hasty.

• Cavendish was trying to overtake where there was no space available.
• He eventually was trying to lean on Sagan.
• Sagan's reaction was natural. And he was trying to fend off Cavendish.
• Cavendish had already lost the balance.
• It appeared as if Sagan did it on purpose in real time however his elbow came out when Cavendish was already going down.

I felt really sorry for Dekenklob and Swift who were victim of Cavendish crash and they came down heavily.

In the past Cavendish have had blows with other sprinters as well. And it's natural for sprinters to jostle for space.

Originally Posted by Aditya

Ridiculous that no TV channel is showing the Tour this year. It's been a very eventful start. Valvarde, Cavendish, Sagan - all gone in the first week. Quintana is nowhere in sight and Tom Dumoulin is not taking part. Looks like it's going to be Team Sky all the way. Hope Richie Porte can put up a fight.

TV Channels have lost a major TRP this year.

Yes, looks like others are making Team Sky victory easy. Richie Porte looks in good shape this year and hope BMC has all the tactics in place. Otherwise it will be boring race to watch.

[rajcs]

Originally Posted by mp417

TV Channels have lost a major TRP this year.

Le Tour official site indicates Dsport has the rights to telecast the Tour in India this year. Some of the press releases when Dsport was launched in Feb this year also said that Le Tour will be telecast.

However, all that Dsport is showing is a watered down highlights of previous day's stage at 1730 each day. By then better videos are available on Youtube. I have indicated my frustration to Dsport on their facebook page as well their website (which, Dsport has kept on hold for moderation!). Probably more fans should post comments to Dsport so that next year we don't have the same fate.

[mp417]

Stage 5 : 5-July-2017

Stage Map



Stage Profile



Start City/Location: Vittel, France

End City/Location: La Planche Des Belles Filles, France

Local start time: NA

Total Distance: 160.5 kms

Type of stage: Mountain

Mountain passes

At Km 107.5 - Côte d'Esmoulières 2.3 kilometre-long climb at 8% - category 3

At Km 155 at finish line with 8% gradient (reaching to 20% at few bends)




TV Schedule for India: Not available

Live streaming (free): http://tiz-cycling.racing/stream/

Stage Summary

After three consecutive stages being longer than 200km, a shorter one will lead to a brutal uphill finish. La Planche des belles filles is a 5.9km long climb with an average gradient of 8.5% and a very steep top end that was asphalted for the first visit of the Tour de France in 2012. It was meant to not be a one-off when the road to the charming little ski resort of the Haute-Saône became part of the route. It is the third visit in six editions indeed. Chris Froome took his first ever Tour de France stage win at La Planche des belles filles the year he helped Bradley Wiggins to triumph in Paris and he remains unbeaten up there as he didn't reach that point in 2014, being forced to withdraw on stage 5. Vincenzo Nibali was the second stage winner of La Planche and that's where he took the yellow jersey for good. Three years ago, Thibaut Pinot was second to the Italian. The Frenchman is the enfant du pays in the Haute-Saône. Having poorly recovered from the Giro d'Italia (4th overall), he purposely lost some time (almost four minutes) on stage 3 in order to have the freedom to make a breakaway before the final climb. At the difference of 2014, there's no serious hill before the Planche des belles filles but a lot of false flat sections favor offensive riders. It'll be a tense last third of the stage and an opportunity for Richie Porte to threaten the dominating position of Team Sky but also a strong possibility for Chris Froome to be back in the yellow jersey.


In the News

The UCI race jury explains decision to disqualify Peter Sagan from the Tour de France

The UCI jury decided to set the boundaries early with Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) after having warned the sprinters it would be looking closely at every finish in the 2017 Tour de France.

Sagan and Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) collided and Cavendish crashed in the Tour’s fourth stage on Tuesday in Vittel.

“There was a very long discussion, it’s not an easy decision to take, it’s not because it’s about Sagan, but it’s about the act that a rider made,” UCI Jury president Philippe Marien said.

“We are at the beginning of the Tour de France. Before the Tour de France, we warned the sprinters that we would look very close at every sprint. And that is what we did today.

“The jury decided to disqualify Peter Sagan because of the very serious manoeuvre in the sprint. I didn’t know anything about the first crash [at 1.5km out], it’s only about this crash,” Marien continued.

“This article 12.1.040 says that the jury can decide to send a rider home after a very serious violation.

“Because of the fact that we decided we can apply this article because it’s a very severe violation, it doesn’t matter if it’s the name Sagan, this disqualification is qualified and justified.”

Sagan appeared to close to the right and leave no room for Cavendish and the world champion’s elbow came out to the right when doing so.

Bora-Hansgrohe make official protest against Peter Sagan’s disqualification from Tour de France

Peter Sagan‘s Bora-Hansgrohe team say they have made an official protest to the UCI about the expulsion of the world champion from the 2017 Tour de France.

Sagan was disqualified from the Tour after stage four for “very serious manoeuvre in the sprint” in the final 250m of the race to Vittel, which resulted in Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) crashing against the barriers and to the floor.

Mark Cavendish out of Tour de France 2017 with broken shoulder blade

Mark Cavendish will not start the fifth stage of the Tour de France on Wednesday after scans showed he has broken his shoulder blade in a crash on stage four.

“Mark suffered a fracture to the right scapula,” Dimension Data team doctor Adrian Rotunno said in a team statement on Thursday night.

“Fortunately, no surgery is required at this stage, and most importantly, there is no nerve damage. He’s been withdrawn from the race for obvious reasons, and we’ll continue monitoring him over the coming days.”

[rajcs]

For some reason much of the media (social and official) following Le Tour DQ France seems excited about Aru riding away with stage victory from the Tour favourite Froome. Good to see some competition emerging. Race for Green Jersey however appears to have lost any charm with major contenders out.

[amitoj]

I, for one, really enjoyed Fabio Aru's sprint to the finish.
The climb to the finish line was brutal!

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Stage 5 Results

The last climb provided all the drama as expected. It was a brutal climb with gradient increasing to 20% at few places. The climb was also difficult as it was flat for few meters and usually riders like to go into a rhythm.

Aru wins stage 5 with excellent attack. Froome takes yellow.

There were attacks and counter attacks. Few names clearly stood out and looks like the GC will be fought by these men.
1. Chris Froome
2. Fabio Aru
3. Dan Martin
4. Richie Porte
5. Romain Bardet

Overall disappointing show by Quintana and Contador.


Three years after Vincenzo Nibali imposed himself with the Italian champion jersey, Astana's Fabio Aru soloed to victory at La Planche des belles filles. In the overall ranking, Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome swapped positions. The three-times winner is back in the yellow jersey.

I think BMC's strategy did not work out. Since they were catching up the break away for 150 kms, they wasted valuable resources. And when the need was there to support Richie Porte, BMC struggled. In contrast, Team Sky proved again who is the boss

Aru attacks with 2.4km to go

Team Sky took the command of the peloton just before climbing. They reeled Gilbert and Bakelants in with 4km to go. Fabio Aru (Astana) attacked with 2.4km to go. He caught the right moment. Chris Froome (Sky) reacted, followed by Dan Martin (Quick-Step Floors), Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale) and Richie Porte (BMC). It cost the yellow jersey to his team-mate Geraint Thomas. Five years after taking his first Tour de France stage victory at La Planche des belles filles, Froome is back into the lead of the overall ranking at the same place.

Eight man break away




BMC chasing hard

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Stage 6 : 6-July-2017

Stage Map



Stage Profile



Start City/Location: Vesoul, France

End City/Location: Troyes, France

Local start time: NA

Total Distance: 216 kms

Type of stage: Flat

Mountain passes

• At Km 69.0 - Côte de Langres 1.3 kilometre-long climb at 6.3% - category 4
• At Km 154.0 - Côte de la colline Sainte-Germaine 3.1 kilometre-long climb at 4.4% - category 4

TV Schedule for India: Not available

Stage Summary

Another very long flat stage on the cards. All the Sprinters (minus Sagan, Cavendish) will have a clear go at the finish line

We wont see change in GC and Yellow should stay with Froome.