SBR "U" (Page 79)

Hey Chris, take it easy and heal up.  Look on the bright side, at least you didn't pay to sign up for Whistler this year

Anyone else following the TdF.  Don't want to give out any spoilers, but the first 4 stages have been very entertaining.

I'm caught up to day 3 and it has been pretty wild. I'll catch up when I get home at some point today.

Lovin it so far.  Every stage has been different, lots of attacks, some serious surprises, etc.  Problem with the TDF has typically been the Sprinters stages that roll along for 180km on a flat road with the breakaway x min up the road, and you wait for the final 60km for them to be reeled back in, and then 10-15min of excitement at the end as the teams rush for the line.  Not this year!!

Those flat stages could also be really interesting with no race radio...

Agreed, it's been great so far!  Love how Stage 4 finished.  

Today's stage started in the town (Arras) that I stayed in the few times I was there for work and they showed the Canadian War memorial at Vimy Ridge on the broadcast which is where one of our offices is.  Kinda cool for me.  

i usually prefer watching the mountain stages but have enjoyed the coverage so far. Seeing how fast these guyes are on cobblestones is amazing. it looked like they were riding jackhammers. 

I have just been watching online at work.

If your cable provider has NBC Sports, I think you can watch it online for free and fast forward through it.  If not, I think they offer a package for around $30 (it decreases as the days go on) which will allow you to do the same thing.  Otherwise www.steephil.tv will usually have good links to the final 10-20km of each stage.

Is everyone okay with a 24 hour buffer for spoilers...or maybe 48 hours?

24 hours is good for me - it is pretty difficult to NOT find out what happened in the most recent stage, even if you haven't seen it. I agree that despite the big crashes this year's first week has been better designed than most, and has thus far been great to watch. The group that I ride with on Wednesday morning  runs a "Shadow Tour" every year. We each select a tour rider or two and put 2 bucks in the pot for each rider. Then each Wednesday the usual route gets modified to better emulate whatever stage is going on that day. For instance, this morning the route finished with a long, slightly downhill sprint. Next week will feature some twisty hilly bits and a "mountaintop" finish. If one of your riders wins the stage AND you rode that day, you win the pot. This group also keeps up with sprint points every week and has prizes, etc. So if their is money left in the pot whoever has the most points at the end of the week takes it home. Fun Stuff.

we are encouraged to select riders that race with our "style," so this year  my number one selection is Canadian and Orica Green Edge's own Svein Tuft, the 2014 Tour Lanterne Rouge. My second pick is Movistar's Columbian rider Winner Anacona. He was supposedly named after Peter Winnen, but due to a typographical mistake his name got entered on his birth certificate as "Winner" instead of "Winen." As the only way I would ever get named a winner would be through some sort of clerical error, I figure he suites my style fairly well also. FWIW Anacona did win off the front on stage 9 of the 2014 Veulta to grab a mountaintop finish and was only 9 seconds out of first place. Our last two Wednesday stages are sandwiched in between some big hard days, so they miiiiiiiight just be won by someone way off the podium who decides to take a flyer. I think I got this one in the bag. Ha.

Well that doesn't sound SO bad? So what is the word these days, Chris - how you doing? From my own experience I am guessing that right about now you are at the stage where you are simply officially tired of being hurt?

Rusty - I need some proper bike friends...no-one to talk to about this stuff, although my 10 year old sat and watched with me the other night, but he might have just been trying to get out of going to bed.

I've decided that I really need to start my quest to get more aero.  When the velodrome re-opens after Pan Am I'm pretty sure the AlphaMantis pricing will increase, and likely not be affordable, which is a pity because position is likely my biggest aero killer.  But I took the first step and ordered a new tri suit - Castelli body paint, but without sleeves.  I know I'll likely give up a little something but the sleeves may annoy me on the run, and I didn't want to take that chance.

Next, a helmet, and this is where I struggle to drop the money because everything I read is helmets (and positions) can be so individual.  I'm leaning towards the P-09 because it seems to test well across a broad spectrum of folks, but if anyone has other options, let me know.

I need a new cockpit as well, but similar to aero testing, I likely won't have the dollars for the ultra sleek, ultra bling bars/setup (think tririg).  So I'm open to options.

In line with the new cockpit is consideration of replacing the BTA bottle, and maybe moving towards something like the Torhans 20.  Seems the key is to get it as close to the frame as possible to mimic the bayonet front ends.

Perhaps new shoes in the future as well - but this is likely further down the line, but seems you can save quite a few watts based on your footwear.

What are you watching?  A live feed?

Yup.

http://www.steephill.tv/tour-de-france/#tv-schedule

One of those Eurosport feeds, some days I have to try a few of them to get one that works.

I don't know if I could just sit and watch an entire leg but I have a laptop at my desk streaming it and I have an earpiece in one ear just to listen while I work and if something happens I can just glance over.  

I just recently added a Torhans 30.  Having a hard time getting it as close to the frame as I would like.  I've had to order a different stem that has a different faceplate on it that will let me bring it in a bit closer and once I have that, the dremel will come out as well.  I am liking having the bottle with the straw (trimmed of course) right there, it certainly encourages me to drink more.

I'm with you on the cockpit, not sure I want to drop the coin for that.  I think the Vision bar I have is supposed to be decent anyway.

Agreed. 24 works for me.

I'm not sure how I felt about the cobblestone stage. It seems almost like a gimmick, although I do believe there is a historical aspect to it as well.  And I will say this, it looks tough as can be.

I know they can't control the weather, but I do think cobbled stages in reasonably dry weather is good for the tour.  When it's pouring rain and really dangerous, not so much.  

I do think that the winner of any grand tour should have all or most of their cycling skills put to the test.  A cobbled stage is one good way to expose a weakness to the rider and their team, but not really if guys are just crashing all over the place on wet cobbles.

That's what I think I'm struggling with. It seems like the cobbles should be a good test of handling and such, as well as toughness. But looking at them at the end of the stage, they seemed almost too dirty and beaten up to be a road race.  Yet in the end, if you can last in this race and be relatively close to the front when we get to the mountains, that is where the race seems to be won. Froome is a case in point. One year he goes up like a mountain goat on crack. The next year, the cobblestones take him out. But I guess it is no different then some of the bad luck some others have had. Mechanicals, bad luck to be in a wreck caused by someone else, etc. It all takes a toll and if you are standing on the podium at the end, then you really did do something pretty dang cool.

My bars are bog standard for the original SC 7 series - zero aerodynamics built into these things.  But I'm not sure what price point I need to look at to make it worthwhile to make a switch.  Originally I'd been looking at the cost of a low end Zipp Alumina bar, but after seeing some of the TriRig comparisons to their new cockpit it was pretty astounding what the differences were.  Made the Zipp look like a bit of a sail, even though it would be more aero that my current setup.

TorHans 30 - looks like that's the one a lot of people seem to like, and mess around with to get closer to the headtube.