Tour de France

General Discussion
1

I’ve loved watching the Tour de France on TV, often nail-biting stuff, spectacular scenery from across the whole country, beautiful young athletes of both genders, the whole fascinating caboodle.

But understanding how the competition works is like trying to decipher a cryptic crossword in a foreign language, in five dimensions, and under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs. The Wikipedia entry is as thick as burned porridge. Does anyone have a clue about what is going on? What’s with the pink polka-dot jerseys? :upside_down_face:

2

If you could just stop taking the hallucinogenic drugs Peter, I’m sure the pink polka-dot jerseys will just disappear…:slightly_smiling_face:

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3

There are several competitions going on at the same time.

Tour de France 2017: Stage-by-stage guide


Scroll down to the section of jerseys. It explains it all in a very straightforward manner.

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4

Thanks for that David, it’ll make watching next year’s Tour more enjoyable. Do you know if all the bikes and tyres have to be made to the same specification?

5

If you’re watching the time trial at this moment you will see that the equipment used today significantly different from that used yesterday.

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6

I believe Peter that the cycles have to be built to a common standard set by the UCI the international governing body.

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7

Watch these Peter :slight_smile: :biking_man: :ram:

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8

I’d need an hour or two to explain everything to you, to be honest you can’t really understand everything that’s going on until you’ve ridden at club level and raced yourself. I’ve spent hours trying to explain to non cyclist friends and family and given up in the end, or they lost the will to live before I’d finished explaining :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:
Just watch it and enjoy the spectacle, that’s what most do :wink:
and here’s yours truly with a couple of blasts from the past taken last Sunday :smiley:

1836×3264 1.43 MB
2576×1932 1.4 MB

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9

We are not cycling fans, but we love watching and it is not too difficult to work out from the commentary on Eurosport that each stage has points for the first three at each climb, time trials and the different jerseys.
I could try and explain the rules for polo and you would probably find those just as baffling.
It looks as though were having a great time. Good for you.

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10

Well, thank you Andrew! That makes me feel throughly involved with someone who’s something of an insider and that’s quite a thrill :star_struck:

Thanks also to other star contributors of valued input :trophy:

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11

… and don’t forget that if you’re missing your Tour De France fix The Vuelta (the big tour race in Spain) starts in FRANCE this year! Through the old city in beautiful Nimes, Saturday 19 August. It’s a TTT - a team time trial, over a very short course so it should be fantastic to watch in person if you can get there. x teresa

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12

Exactly, Teresa, what many don’t realise is that the Tour de France is just one of a complete season of international level pro-tour bike racing. Although the biggest:most famous of the top three 3-week stage races (France, Italy and Spain) it’s not always the most difficult and is just one race amongst soooo many. The season is now year round with almost no break due to the Tour Downunder and other Southern hemisphere and middle east races :smiley:

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13

Many moons ago I remember the Milk race coming to Morecambe and having time trials on the prom.

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14

In the 90s the tour had a UK stage that came through Crowborough, where I was working. Most of the company went to watch. Crowds of people and very exciting, but I didn’t really have a clue what it was all about at the time.