Tour de France 2020 NO SPOILERS !

[Adam4868]

The key question!

Nah...sock length is the key !

 

[Adam4868]

Getting back to the Tour.According to lequipe , Team Ineos has 7 riders confirmed for the Tour Bernal, Sivakov, Thomas, Castroviejo, Van Baarle, Kwiatkowski, Geoghegan Hart.
The last spot will be awarded after Dauphine to one of Froome, Amador, Rowe or Dunbar..
So out of that choice you'd think Rowe..team captain and all that.
I want Froome just for the drama alone...😁
20 days to go !

 

[matticus]

I don't think there's sufficient precedent to guess what they might do.

I can believe that there is no precedent (apart from the much shorter Paris-Nice '20), but it may be a big part of the DS' job this year to make as educated a guess as possible!

 

[mjr]

Of those tours with very few stages, how many actually ended up with fewer stages than planned due to being shortened while in progress, and how many were planned that way. 1903 and 4 were the first two tours ever and they were making things up as they went along. How relevant is it that they only had 6 stages? Were more planned?

I don't think any were shortened unexpectedly (1903 saw some rules and routes change during the race, as you say), but the idea of a Grand Tour as having 21 stages over 23 or 24 days is a recent idea. Interestingly, the rules you linked say in 2.6.007 that a Grand Tour only has to last 15 days which means 14 stages because it would have to have a rest day (rule 2.6.012).

It would be very interesting to see what they would do if it were necessary to curtail an in progress tour. I suspect that nobody knows because it's never happened before and they would make it up on the hoof. Possibly abandon it all together. Possibly curtail it and make some changes to the remaining stages of they had advance warning of the necessity to shorten it. I don't think there's sufficient precedent to guess what they might do.

Paris-Nice and UAE Tour 2020 were both curtailed and the results stand, but both completed the majority of their stages, so I think that combines with the 14-stage minimum to mean results will almost certainly stand if it completes 14 stages. What happens if it's shorter is a bit less certain.

Edit: https://www.uci.org/docs/default-source/rules-and-regulations/part-ii-road/2-roa-20200612-e.pdf
No I don't see anything about a minumum number of stages in here. The nearest is the Extreme Weather Protocol which says "If it all goes horribly wrong we'll all get together and decide what to do. Trust us, we'll figure something out".

What about the incidents protocol in 2.2.029? Again, that seems to boil down to "trust us" as it allows the president of the commissaires' panel to cancel or let the results stand if the race is stopped. I would bet on the results standing if 6 stages are completed before cancellation and it's almost certain if it reaches the first rest day - but let's hope that doesn't happen. With a rest day offering the chance for so much to go wrong (in the country as well as the race), I expect some GC teams to try to take yellow on the col de Marie Blanque on the Sunday.

 

[Aravis]

The first two tours had both had six stages, but those races took considerably more than six days to complete. By 1906 they were racing on alternate days. It was a while before the race began to bear close resemblance to what we have now.

The 1946 race wasn't an edition of the Tour de France.

 

[Adam4868]

View: https://twitter.com/nedboulting/status/1292791053494484994?s=19

 

[matticus]

hehe! I saw that too - suspicious that he posted just a couple of hours after the questions was asked on CycleChat

 

[Adam4868]

hehe! I saw that too - suspicious that he posted just a couple of hours after the questions was asked on CycleChat

There's me thinking he followed you 😁

 

[Supersuperleeds]

I am Ned Boulting.

 

[mjr]

I am Ned Boulting.

And I claim my five pounds!

 

[Nomadski]

I am Ned Boulting.

No, I'M Ned Boulting (and so's my wife).

 

[randynewmanscat]

Perhaps Sean Bean could have be part of the team, could be there in his Sharpe uniform, be a new episode Sharpe's Tour it might win the Belgians over

He hears you and has been training hard.

 

[Adam4868]

Last minute shuffling around ?

View: https://twitter.com/laflammerouge16/status/1295624084856897536?s=19

 

[matticus]

Quick straw poll:
who think they'll have the Champs Elysees finale as (currently) planned? https://www.letour.fr/en/stage-21

(no changing your vote as events unfold!!! )

 

[Adam4868]

Quick straw poll:
who think they'll have the Champs Elysees finale as (currently) planned? https://www.letour.fr/en/stage-21

(no changing your vote as events unfold!!! )

How else they going to earn money from all those socially distanced VIP seats ?
Me I'm not really bothered I rarely watch it until the last lap.