re: 2020 Tour De France, UCI WC, Giro, Vuelta: The Offcial Thread

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Also, bought a road bike last week. Rode for the first time today. Incredibly enjoyable.

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Welcome. And welcome to the addiction.

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with me is that if you don’t shave your legs

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Rule #33 // Shave your guns.

Legs are to be carefully shaved at all times. If, for some reason, your legs are to be left hairy, make sure you can dish out plenty of hurt to shaved riders, or be considered a hippie douche on your way to a Critical Mass. Whether you use a straight razor or a Bowie knife, use Baxter to keep them smooth.

I had a bunch of these stickers made up and have them on the top tube of all my bikes.





I made the mistake of putting a pair on one of my wife's bikes and paid dearly for it. She only rides Bianchis and only in Celeste and she viewed it as sacrilege and made me remove it and polish the whole bike. She is also a Campy snob where I will ride anything... even SRAM. She was a cyclist before we met and she was looking through all my old vintage bikes and nearly had an anxiety attack when she found my old US built Cannondale frame with a mixture of Campy C Record (with Delta brakes), Dura-Ace and a Selle Italia Claudio Chiappucci El Diablo embroidered saddle. I think what finally broke her was the Campy rims on DA hubs.




ETA I keep meaning to post this but get off on a stupid tangent and forget.

I wonder how much Alaphilippe hates through-axles tonight? I know he appreciated the disc brakes on the descent but I think he has a bigger advantage over almost the whole peloton descending on rim brakes and it would have been a few second wheel change vs the horrible failed wheel change and having to take his other bike. I suspect at some point a stuck through-axle like that will result in an Andy Schleck dropped chain type scenario where it potentially costs someone the GC in a Grand Tour, but I guess Andy prevailed in the end when Alberto got stripped.

here come the mountains.

I enjoy a lazy Sunday morning waking up to the TDF being on tv!

Will they mark Allaphillipe today?

Skujiins just wants polka dots

ALLEZ JULIAN!!!!!!!

OP Updated w/ Complete Stage 1 results.

Stage 2 results will be posted. in the morning so those that recorded can catch up.

The Durango Herald has a nice article about hometown hero Sepp Kuss.

An unexpected climb to Tour de France debut for Sepp Kuss

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She is who give cyclist a bad name.

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Meh, she will only bust your balls if she knows you well. Plus she has gotten more people into cycling than most, certainly me. She leads a neighborhood group ride every week for the kids (she looks like the Pied Piper of cycling) but this year during COVID she had tons of parents riding too.

Interesting yesterdays ridiculously slippery roads may have been due in part to a soap manufacturer in the pre-race caravan spewing soap all over the roads...





While the day goes to Julian how about Marc Hirschi if he had been looking the right way and in the right gear when Julian jumped he probably would have won the stage.

Anyone else think a lot of riders look off? What I am saying is they don't look comfortable on their bikes. The posture and pedaling stroke of more than a few remind me of a Cat 5 race. Lots of upper body movement and they look like they are pedaling squares. The weird year seems to have taken its toll on their form and not just fitness.

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Damn I think I've broken nearly every one of those rules

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Rules are made to be broken and those are primarily there to give you cycling friends shite.

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Keeping my fingers crossed my meniscus doesn't start acting up again.

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If you have pain there are a couple of things to try. Each in slow increments and only one at a time.

1. Take the saddle up a little. Not knowing your prior experience newer riders tend to have their saddle too low and experienced cyclist if their height is wrong it is usually too high. A slightly higher saddle will take some pressure off the knees.

2. Move the saddle more aft and make sure you are sitting on the saddle not on the nose. This may require a slight lowering of the saddle at the same time (breaking my rule above to only move one thing at a time). The more forward you are the more knee pressure you have, great for power not great for knees with issues.

3. If you are using clipless pedals move the cleat farther forward on your shoe. This reduces the quad firing and increases the engagement of the calf muscles. Again not great for power but helps out the knees and builds some nice gasts and gives a visually nice separation between the heads.

4. Ride in a lower gear. This will be harder when you first get back on the bike but a nice high cadence will reduce the pressure on the knees.

5. Try to avoid much climbing until your body acclimates to the bike

6. I left this one until last since it costs money and depending on your bike may not be particularly easy. Use a shorter crankset. This reduces the pressure on the knees and helps you spin more easily at a higher cadence. For years there was a move to longer cranks especially if you were taller, today the trend is the other direction.

Good luck!!!