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I've got a punctured... thru-axle? Bizarre Fisherman's Friend ad; Cav jumps on NFT train; TDF crash like a "war zone" says race doc; Thomas crashes with reports of dislocated shoulder; Positive Twitter thread about London cycling & more on the Live Blog

With Dan Alexander on his holibobs, Liam Cahill takes the wheel of Monday's Live Blog...
28 June 2021, 16:04
It's going to be busy on the X-Ray bus

Picking today's stage apart is going to be a tricky business but one thing that we know for sure is that the X-ray truck that follows the race will have a bit of a queue forming.

Thomas is on his way there now after his crash early in the stage while Roglic, who came down really hard with 10km to go is also headed for a scan. He's got a sore coccyx according to his DS.

28 June 2021, 11:14
I've got a punctured... thru-axle? Cyclists bemused by bike-themed Fisherman's Friend lozenges ad

We're not sure how much the Fisherman's Friend social media person knows about bikes, but that ooks like it could be a puncture. Of course, it could be that Laura did indeed forget her front thru-axle (we've been there) but took the above picture as it was easier to frame.

Commenting on the caption, Paul Murphy said: "Except that's the back wheel and the tyre being soft is nothing to do with the quick release axle..."

Adrew Hooper added: "They’ve [Fisherman's Friend] helped out on many a situation, like that time stuck in a blizzard on snowdon, and the soothing lozenges got us through it." 

Whatever the case, Laura had her strong menthol Fisherman's Friend lozenges to make everything better. Extra points for colour-matching them with the Hope brakes too!

28 June 2021, 15:43
It was quite a finale...
Jack Haig Crash TDF Stage 3

Today's stage has been another crash-filled one. Jack Haig is out, he was an outside bet for the GC and Caleb Ewan has reportedly not finished after crashing around 100m from the line. His teammate says that he's gone to hospital.

Meanwhile, speaking to Sporza, Deceuninck Quick-Step's Tim Declerq has said that the riders asked for GC times to be taken at 8km to go, but officials didn't respond. 

28 June 2021, 14:31
Saturday's crash left "unimaginable breakage and bodies everywhere"
Screenshot 2021-06-26 at 15.25.40

Gilbert Versier, the surgeon working on the Tour de France as one of the in-race doctors has described the mass peloton pile-up on the first stage of this year's race as looking like the scene from a war.

Versier, speaking to l'Equipe, told of how he arrived on the scene to find "the same chaos, the same moans, bodies everywhere, and tangled machines."

The crash, the first of two big incidents within the first stage, was caused by a fan who was holding a cardboard sign out into the road. The woman, who the police are yet to identify, was facing away from the road, trying to catch the attention of the passing TV motorbike.

Versier says that when a large crash happens in the peloton "you can't imagine so much breakage. In the midst of the commotion, the riders are getting up and wanting to start again, the most serious cases must be identified. 

"In general, these are the ones who are furthest from the accident site, because they have been thrown."

Thankfully, despite the two high-speed crashes taking down countless riders, only three riders were unable to finish. Marc Soller, meanwhile, finished with two broken arms and did not start stage 2.

28 June 2021, 12:20
Another crash at the front of the bunch, and this one takes Thomas and Roglic down
Thomas crash via GCN/Eurosport
GCN/Eurosport

We're not entirely sure what happened there, but a crash at the front of the bunch has taken down pre-race favourites Geraint Thomas of Ineos Grenadiers along with Primoz Roglic of Jumbo Visma.

Thomas and Roglic were riding right at the front of the peloton when suddenly 

Thomas appeared to jolt upwards, suggesting that he could have hit a water bottle which would be the same way that he crashed out of the Giro last year.

Roglic remounted soon enough, but his teammate Gesink is out of the race. Thomas took longer to remount, with Bernie Eisel saying that he saw Luke Rowe signal that is was over for Thomas.

Reports from the race suggest that it was a dislocated shoulder that was put back in at the side of the road. Thankfully, Thomas is making his way back to the peloton, though he has around 2 minutes to make up.

28 June 2021, 11:30
No white bib shorts 😒

Want a pair of custom bib shorts made for you last minute and then overnighted to you, all so that you don't have to colour clash navy blue with yellow? You just need to be one of the best bike racers on the planet.

This also answers our earlier question as to whether Van der Poel would go full yellow or break out his much-loved white bib shorts. 

28 June 2021, 09:49
Van der Poel's bike gets the yellow treatment.

The Aplecin-Fenix mechanics probably had this one hidden away in the team truck and they'll be rather pleased to be able to use it. 

The Canyon Aeroad CFR gets a full Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 groupset, Dura-Ace C60 tubular wheels, Vittoria Corsa G2.0 tubular tyres, and what looks to be a fully repaired front end.

The big question is, however, what bib shorts will Van der Poel don for today's stage? He's a big fan of white, but he could also go full yellow. Time will tell.

28 June 2021, 09:34
Whisper it quietly... *positive Twitter cycling thread*

Looks like we've converted another one. One at a time, people, one at a time.

28 June 2021, 07:58
Cav has hopped on the NFT bandwagon

Mark Cavendish has announced that he is set to launch a series of NFTs (Non-Fungible-Token) which celebrate his 30 stage wins at the Tour.

The NFTs include "exclusive drops, art collaborations & new drops", though we're not entirely sure what you'd virtually be the owner of.

The comments on Cav's Instagram post aren't all positive, with several pointing to the less than favourable environmental impacts attached to the digital art. 

Cavendish joins Bahrain Victorious in the crypto-art world. His former team turned up at the team presentation in shiny new jerseys, but they were then destroyed and one virtual copy will be auctioned to raise money for diabetes charities.

Back in the real world, Cavendish will be hoping to take a win in today's stage, which we'll have a look at in just a little bit.

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17 comments

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Global Nomad | 2 years ago
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obviously hope that Thomas and others who crashed are ok.....but.....i think bad luck is not a sufficient explanation...you make your own (bad) luck to a significant degree -  no one else seems to fall as often as he does. 

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Kapelmuur replied to Global Nomad | 2 years ago
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Global Nomad wrote:

obviously hope that Thomas and others who crashed are ok.....but.....i think bad luck is not a sufficient explanation...you make your own (bad) luck to a significant degree -  no one else seems to fall as often as he does. 

So Thomas has a magical attraction to dislodged bidons?

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alansmurphy replied to Global Nomad | 2 years ago
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Absolute rubbish. The water bottle that did for him last time was unavoidable, if this is a repeat then likely the same. Was it Barguil that used G as a crash barrier on a sharp right downhill at a previous Tour and took him over the side.

 

You'll see many riders demonstrating skills to avoid a crash, some great holds when it gets a bit loose on a corner. Suggesting because a rider has had a few incidents that he's a bit lacking on talent is very shortsighted.

 

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Global Nomad replied to alansmurphy | 2 years ago
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all riders have strengths and weaknesses, at pro level they are unbelievably talented....but...its no good being at the top if you keep making errors...all riders come off for unavoidable reasons, but others also come off for errors of judgement or technique....

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Velophaart_95 replied to Global Nomad | 2 years ago
1 like

It's not bad luck when he keeps falling off - once or twice, then yes. I'm not sure what the issue is, but there is a pattern; he falls off alarmingly regular. 

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Dave Dave replied to Velophaart_95 | 2 years ago
1 like

The pattern is called a statistical fluke. Averages are averages, not numbers that every individual conforms to. Some riders will be lucky, some unlucky, if crashes are completely random.

There is no reason to think GT has a particularly notable record of crashing particularly often. He's just been unlucky about when it's happened.

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Secret_squirrel | 2 years ago
1 like

I do wonder how many yellow painted team bikes there are under dust sheets in the back of team trucks - just in case like, and what happens to them if they dont get used.   Do Ineos have 4 Dogma's painted up and will they end up on ebay?

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Rendel Harris replied to Secret_squirrel | 2 years ago
5 likes

Secret_squirrel wrote:

I do wonder how many yellow painted team bikes there are under dust sheets in the back of team trucks - just in case like, and what happens to them if they dont get used.   Do Ineos have 4 Dogma's painted up and will they end up on ebay?

I was reading about this on Twitter earlier, all teams carry a stock of all the kits and helmets they will need if one of their riders takes a jersey, which are returned to the manufacturers for distribution if they are not required. In terms of bikes, nobody carries ready painted bikes with them, partly because of the extra carrying capacity that would be required but also because most riders think it's bad luck to anticipate by having a ready prepared bike. Manufacturers also believe that apparently, Pinarello consistently refused to supply Chris Froome with a yellow bike in advance even when he was the hottest of favourites. Generally manufacturers will have staff on alert and if one of their riders takes a jersey they start re-spraying a frame in the factory the second they are over the line and have it shipped post-haste for the mechanics to build up for the next day. In the case of Froome he felt it was ostentatious to go straight for a yellow bike when he took the jersey (and also he didn't want the additional paint weight in the mountains) so he would ask for a little bit more yellow each day he was in the jersey, bar tape the first day, bottle cages the next and so on, and only ride the full yellow bike on the last stage into Paris.

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Secret_squirrel replied to Rendel Harris | 2 years ago
1 like

Cool!  Thanks for the nice info!

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RoubaixCube | 2 years ago
5 likes

It used to take me around 40-50mins to commute to work every day on public transport.

Ive been commuting by bicycle since 2014/2015  about 8miles each way and the same journey now takes me 28mins on a really good day or 32-35mins on an average day.

Its saved me a fair chunk of money not paying TFL fares. But to be brutally honest that money often ends up being spent on more junk for the bike anyway. Its a disease i tell you.

But yeah... Rush hour on the tube sitting/standing on packed carriages where its hot next to sweaty smelly people. If i jumped on the bus to work it would have been super cheap but the trip takes 1hr-1h15mins and i honestly dont have enough patience to sit on the bus that long there and back every day. Thats a lot of time wasted.

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to RoubaixCube | 2 years ago
3 likes

But with the bus journey time, then you can read a book over several days or just mellow. It is the one thing I do miss on biking over bussing. I do listen to podcasts but don't think I could concentrate on an audio book the same way as reading them allows. 

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RoubaixCube replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 2 years ago
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Maybe there was a time where i would have done it more regularly. set a timer, put on some tunes and just doze my way to and from work for £1.30 each way (im not sure if bus fares have gone up, I think its like £1.80 now or something???)

But i find having to constantly wear a mask rather annoying unless its totally unavoidable so for me bicycle makes the most sense as im 'away from everyone else' in the loosest sense as in not sitting/standing right next to random people or tucked under their armpits like i would be on the tube (figure of speech, Im actually 6ft tall so its probably the other way round)

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brooksby replied to RoubaixCube | 2 years ago
3 likes

RoubaixCube wrote:

Maybe there was a time where i would have done it more regularly. set a timer, put on some tunes and just doze my way to and from work for £1.30 each way (im not sure if bus fares have gone up, I think its like £1.80 now or something???)

Where do you live?  Nineteen ninety?  3

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
0 likes

London buses are really cheap per journey compared to the rest of the country as TFL initially subsidised the Oyster cards to persuade people onto them by halfing the cost if they were used £1 instead of £2 in 05ish. And now that is the only options for paying for journeys, the prices are still based on the initial costs plus rises per year or so. 

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RoubaixCube replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
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brooksby wrote:

RoubaixCube wrote:

Maybe there was a time where i would have done it more regularly. set a timer, put on some tunes and just doze my way to and from work for £1.30 each way (im not sure if bus fares have gone up, I think its like £1.80 now or something???)

Where do you live?  Nineteen ninety?  3

 

To be exact its currently £1.55 to hop on the bus but i do remember a time when the fare was £1.60 then £1.75 or £1.80 -- its been all over the place.

every new mayor for transport just keeps pushing fares up and down every time a new one takes over

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brooksby replied to RoubaixCube | 2 years ago
0 likes

RoubaixCube wrote:

But i find having to constantly wear a mask rather annoying unless its totally unavoidable so for me bicycle makes the most sense as im 'away from everyone else' in the loosest sense as in not sitting/standing right next to random people or tucked under their armpits like i would be on the tube (figure of speech, Im actually 6ft tall so its probably the other way round)

Last time I travelled by bus was the last week of February last year, when things were starting to get weird.  Someone stifles a cough on the bus and everyone on there noticeably and physically twitched...

Positive of Covid is it finally gave me that push back into regularly cycle commuting - haven't been on a bus since then, could count on my fingers how many times I've driven anywhere in a private motor vehicle since then...

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to RoubaixCube | 2 years ago
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You mentioned you had been cycle commuting for the last 6 years so I wasn't taking the 'current times' as your reason for not doing it. Anyway, it was just pointing out the options for such a journey to not be a time waste in normality.

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