Saw Landis cross the finish, in 2006: little did we know he'd lose what he'd won... and watched Armstrong "crack" just below where your video started, after Virenque flew by. 😂 I lived on the Swiss/French border, 24.6km from summit of Col de Saxel ~ did it 300x in 12 years; combined with Col de Cou, at least 75 times (and a 75km loop).
I rode this descent last Sunday on the l’etape and it was very technical and I didn’t particularly enjoy it. What I would say is that it is very narrow alongside being technical and there is some interesting bumps on the surface. But at the end of the day I’m an amateur rider with poor descending skills and if Adam Hansen and the CPA deem it fine to race down, they have more knowledge and experience than me and I support their decision.
13:17 ~ where you hit that red light, is about as high as i ever got on Joux-Plane. It was too steep for me, after riding some 50-60km from home. It's a real climb from either south or north.
Still training for Triathlon Adam? - Looks a good surface for the stage, some ruttered sections in the middle around the corners. Unsure what surfacing they use in France but some of the newly laid SMA can be slippery for the first six months.
Why is it that some of those in lycra think traffic laws don't apply to them? Or that being respectful of other road users does not need to be a priority? There is a BIG difference between riding in a race and on a normal day out in traffic, buzzing by at high speed with little room left on a bike is just as bad as when a car goes by with little room - there must a be a safety margin. And the same thing goes for crossing over the road center in blind sections.
En termes de sécurité routière on repassera 😨🤢 : - Sur route ouverte, zigzags en empruntant toute la largeur de la route, régulièrement sans avoir la visibilité suffisante - Dépassement des limites de vitesse dans les hameaux et dans le village en fin de descente, - Un rond point pris à contresens tout à la fin !! Etc. Cette vidéo est un vrai scandale
Strange that this still needs to be checked by someone external. Pro cycling is a very weird community. And why again do the last kilometers in one of the stages that determines who wins the tour need to end with a downhill? Sounds to me you are asking for trouble. What if either Tadej or Jonas crashes here and needs to quit the race? What kind if bullshit excuse is Gouvenou then going to tell us? I really do not get this sport anymore and I have watched it for over 35 years now. It is a very weird sport. I used to love it. But I am more and more falling out of it.
The Tour has always been about being the most complete rider, it's why people complain when the time trialing is so limited on the route and a similar response would be seen in response to the complete removal of downhill arrivals as descending is a skill. There are risks, and I certainly prefer for ASO to avoid downhill finishes if they can't mitigate the risks on them with things like ski nets for safety on dangerous bends, but even if this were done the sport itself is dangerous and at virtually any point a rider can crash out on any part of the course regardless of whether it's a descent. In fact, sometimes we see descents earlier in the stage being raced more dangerously than the final one (Van der Poel on Thursday trying to create a gap from the others because he is a weaker climber and almost crashing in a bend, in 2020 Marc Hirshi on the descent of Col du Soudet and so forth.) The Tour would become a joke if the only mountain stages were single summit finishes.
