TdF........a couple of questions.

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Dave7

Legendary Member
Location
Cheshire
1. How is the winner decided?
As I understand it, they add the times for each rider for each stage and whoever has the best TOTAL time wins it..
Have I got it totally wrong ?
2. If (by chance) I am correct, how far down the leader board do they go to award places ie 10th/15th/40th place etc.
 

T4tomo

Guru
they go all the way .. oo er Mrs

https://www.letour.fr/en/rankings/stage-17
 
Location
Essex
1. Yes, correct. In a bunch sprint the comissaires award the same time to riders who are in the same bunch (usually less than a second's time gap iirc) and there are bonus seconds to be had for the first 3 in each stage except TTs (10/6/4 deducted from their total time) and selected KOMs/sprints which offer 8/5/2 seconds, as mentioned above to encourage even GC riders to go for it. They rank riders all the way down. For those who don't finish, their place is determined by the distance covered.
 

T4tomo

Guru
And what is the answer ??
I assume he did so badly in the other stages.
There are only a handful of riders looking to win the yellow jersey, Cav is after Green jersey

Most of the riders are not interested in winning anything at all, but instead help a team mate(s) in their aims / ambitions or occasionally try for a single stage win.
 

Smokin Joe

Legendary Member
Owen Money, a take on owing money.
 

Smokin Joe

Legendary Member
And what is the answer ??
I assume he did so badly in the other stages.
Stage races are decided on overall time taken for the full race. So if 20 of the 21 TdF stages finished in bunch sprints and Cav won the lot he would gain no time on the other riders, save for the handful of bonus seconds awarded to the winner. If he then finished last and an hour and a half down on the one mountain stage in the race, last place overall would be his finishing position.
 

steveindenmark

Legendary Member
We are really enjoying JONAS VINGEGAARD from Denmark in his first TDF. He is currently in second place. His parents appear on the evening show on TV every now and again. They are as normal as can be and talk more about what is going on in the garden or what they are cooking for tea, than they do about TDF. Its quite funny. In his spare time Jonas likes to keep his hand in by working at a fish filleting factory ^_^ Its not what you expect of a potential TDF winner. His mother in law is more famous than him in Denmark. She was in one of our bake off programmes. She did not win it but is a character and has gained the lime light on Danish TV.
 

Beebo

Firm and Fruity
Location
Hexleybeef
I think you will find he’s in first place in his particular competition. It’s a race within a race.

Radio Wales presenter Owen Money made a comment on the Tour last Saturday, wondering how Mark Cavendish had won four stages but was only in 125th place.
 

mustang1

Guru
Location
London, UK
Me: hey you wanna come and watch the TdF at my place?
Friend: sure, i'll bring some beers!
Me: cool
Friend: Has it started yet?
Me: Yeah, started couple of hours ago...
Friend: but aren't those people wearing white jerseys in a different team to those wearing orange?
Me: Yeah.
Friend: But they are chatting to each other. Aren't they supposed to be racing?
Me: Yeah, but it's a long ride so they have a little chat and get to know each other.
Friend: Uhm, so when are they going to ride fast?
Me: Well they already have a very high average speed.
Friend: But I was watching Formula 1 the other day. They have a high average speed but are still racing and trying to get in front of each other.
Me: TdF does not work like that. You have to ride the bike and then, uhm, sprint at the end.
Friend: Well why don't just they just cut out the 6 hour of ridinig and just have a one minute sprint, it will save a heck lot of time.
Me: Well, part of the fun is to watch how the riders draft each other.
Friend: is that when the rider behind is staring at the other rider's backside?
Me: Err, yeah
Friend: Then which part does the spectator find to be interesting?
Me: Well, the, uhm, tour parade comes along and chucks out packets of teabags and things like that and if you're lucky then you might get some.
Friend: some teabags?
Me: Yeah!
Friend: so we have to wait there for hours, the tour parade comes along, if you're lucky then you might get some teabags, and then what do the fans do?
Me: well they wait for the racers to go by, they're very fast ya know.
Friend: So let me get this straight. You have to wait for hours, you might get a teabag, you wait some more, then the racers go by in a flash, and you go home?
Me: well, er, yeah.
Friend: But that's only if you're there. What if you're watching it on TV like us? For example, the football is very exciting, the tennis is all-out action, netball, basketball, these are all great sports to watch. But I still don't get the cycling, I mean, these guys talk to other teams, stare at each other's asses, have a little sprint at the end. I think watching a chess tournament is more exciting than this.
Me: aha, well cycling is like chess, there is a lot of strategy going on here.
Friend: don't make me laugh. Chess requires real brain power. Cycling is just moving the pedals up and down. Oh, what's going on here?
Me: That rider had a puncture. See now watch this, the team car will come along, a mechanic will jump out and give the rider a new bike!
Friend: Ah, now this is more like it. So the rider has to catch up with the group he was with, he'll have to lay down some power!
Me: Mmmh, well, kind of. The lead group will slow down a bit so the rider can catch up.
Friend. Wait. What?
Me: Uhm...
Friend: are you sure they are racing?
Me: well actually, I'm pretty sure most fans don't know how bike racing works. They just go as they have nothing else to do.
Friend: shall we flip the channel and watch the cricket?
Me: sure.
 
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