Tour de France 2018 **SPOILERS**

[smutchin]

If it's a straight fight for a wildcard place, Cofidis and Fortuneo must be twitchy. Wanty and Dirct Energie were more apparent.
Barguil irritates me.

Cofidis are somehow 2nd in the Europe Tour rankings - not that you'd know it from their showing at the Tour (though as noted a while ago, they left their two top UCI points scorers out of their Tour squad, for reasons best known to themselves).

Direct Energie are currently 4th and Fortuneo are way down in 16th - presumably the main reason they got selected is because they had last year's spotty jumper winner. And because they're French, of course. But Barguil currently sits down in 642nd place in the individual rankings, so unless he bucks his ideas up, maybe they'll be in danger of losing their wildcard next season.

Mind you, there probably aren't that many Europe Tour teams who actually want a wildcard place in a Grand Tour because it would be such a big drain on their resources, plus the fact that they don't have any riders who are experienced at that level and might struggle to get round the full three weeks with any riders left.

 

[GuyBoden]

I'm still missing Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen, apparently they're doing the TdF on NBC in the USA.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

Super GeeTee has made the A list; appearing on tonight's The One Show.

 

[smutchin]

Super GeeTee has made the A list; appearing on tonight's The One Show.

Interesting that he mentioned not having signed a new contract yet. Very interesting indeed...

 

[Bollo]

I'm still missing Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen, apparently they're doing the TdF on NBC in the USA.

I bet they’re all round to Lance’s.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

Interesting that he mentioned not having signed a new contract yet. Very interesting indeed...

Good Lord man! I didnae actually watch it.

 

[smutchin]

Good Lord man! I didnae actually watch it.

I didn’t know he was going to be on - caught it by chance because my wife flipped over to BBC1 just as it started. Only saw your post about it afterwards.

The questions were as inane as you’d expect but that little nugget from Mega G-Man made it worthwhile.

 

[Bollo]

Good Lord man! I didnae actually watch it.

 

[Crackle]

Good Lord man! I didnae actually watch it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bcpclx/the-one-show-30072018

1.06 to 8.50

I thank you...

 

[brommers]

Cofidis are somehow 2nd in the Europe Tour rankings - not that you'd know it from their showing at the Tour (though as noted a while ago, they left their two top UCI points scorers out of their Tour squad, for reasons best known to themselves).

Their sprinter Christophe LaPorte had 4 top 5 finishes.

 

[smutchin]

Their sprinter Christophe LaPorte had 4 top 5 finishes.

Apart from the one where he was comfortably beaten into second place by Demare, I don't remember any of them.

Still, I guess top 5 places are how you rack up UCI points, even if no one notices you doing it.

 

[Crackle]

Apart from the one where he was comfortably beaten into second place by Demare, I don't remember any of them.

Still, I guess top 5 places are how you rack up UCI points, even if no one notices you doing it.

Are they still going for the relegation thing this year, I've kinda lost track of that. As you'd guess, DiData are still propping up the bottom?

http://www.uci.ch/road/ranking/

 

[BalkanExpress]

WGG are currently top of the Europe Tour team ranking and Andrea Pasqualon is top of the individual ranking, besides which they're a French outfit, so it's a pretty safe bet they'll get one of the wildcard slots next year. Having Guillaume Martin and Yoann Offredo on their books also helps - two very popular riders.

Err....WGG are Belge..and before anyone asks, no, it is not a region of France

 

[BalkanExpress]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bcpclx/the-one-show-30072018

1.06 to 8.50

I thank you...

I love that he fell asleep in the dressing room. I suspect he got very little sleep last night.

 

[smutchin]

Err....WGG are Belge

Yes, of course. Sorry!