The Hotel End

Any Cycling fans out there?

Who's going to win? (Schleck or Contador obviously) But just for discussion

Hoping Wiggins gets a top 3 or 5 place and Super Cav going for the green jersey,..this is his year...finally!

I used to be a fan of the Tour De France & have seen a few of the final days in Paris but used to like the character named The Devil who was a bearded old man who would dress in black & red with the three pronged fork & would appear on the mountain stages & had a bit of a cult following back in the 90's.

I just don't understand it. I can't get along with a sport where there are so many rules or parts within the overall game/race.

I know what the yellow jersey is but whats the green and the other one with spots on all about?

Can get a bit confusing if your new to it...but its basically a team sport with one leader of a team going for the yellow jersey to win the overall race and riders called 'domestiques' helping them do it.

The green jersey is for the sprinters giving them something to go for as they can't win overall as they can't climb as well as the climbers who go for the poke a dot jersey

The best climbers don't go for this as its pointless when they could win yellow....bit confusing, but thats the best way I can put it hahhaha

He's still about Tyro, see him every year when the race gets into the mountains.

The white jersey is for the best placed young rider, currently worn by Britain's Geraint Thomas of Team Sky.

Team Sky is the British team although not all riders are British.  It is run by David Brailsford, who masterminded the British Cycling success at Beijing.  They won their first ever stage victory today.

Thanks for that guys. A little less confusing now.

Don't get the poke-a-dot jersey though if the riders still don't go for it.

So, do the team get points for every stage they win or where they place on each stage like motor racing? Then the captain of the team wins the Tour?  ???

The overall position is determined by the amount of time taken to ride the route by each rider.  So the person who completes the route in the shortest amount of time is the winner and it's typically someone who can ride up a hill without having to climb off and chuck their guts up.  Points do not matter for the overall, but having a good team who can pace you does

With regards to the other jersies, the green is actually for the most consistent rider with points awarded for where you finish at the end of each stage, the higher up the more points you get and ergo the more consistent you are.  Tends to be more points on offer on the flatter stages which is why sprinters do well in this competition but there aren't that many pan-flat stages this year so Cavendish still might not take the jersey even if he does win the most stages.  The polka-dot jersey is for the best climber, points awarded for your position when you get to the top of a hill/mountain both during the stage and at the finish (hence why flat stages get more points for the green jersey so that the climbers don't win everything).  Lastly the white jersey is for the best overall time for U23 riders (I think it's U23).

This year looks like it could be interesting, Contador still the favourite for me but he is already over a minute down after so misfortune early on in the race, which means he has to attack in the mountains, could lead to some fireworks.  Schleck junior hasn't done much so far so hard to judge his form.

I don't think Wiggins will podium, top 10 is the best he can hope for which is still a good achievement.  Think he peaked too early by winning the Dauphine a couple of weeks back.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooo :( :( :( :( Wiggins crashed, broken collarbone...out of tour :(

Bad news for Wiggo, but well done to Cav winning at the same place where he got his first Tour stage win.

Who gives a crap about a sport so full of doping and fixing. It is a travesty to call an individual winner when we all know that he has been protected by his team lackies all the way and is full of illegal performance enhancing drugs.

Who gives a crap about a sport so full of doping and fixing. It is a travesty to call an individual winner when we all know that he has been protected by his team lackies all the way and is full of illegal performance enhancing drugs.

Well, millions of people. Actually.

Strewn with crashes yesterday, especially when the team car took out the lead cyclist!  ::)

I shouldn't really dignify this with a response but why do you give a crap about football as well when you've got doping scandals there (Rio Ferdinand, Kolo Toure, couple of Scottish players banned this season, Juventus blood transfusing a few years back, not withstanding the "unnamed" Spanish clubs supposed involved in Operacion Puerto which also caught a lot of cyclists too).

Yeah cycling got a drug problem and it's not great, but it's naive in the extreme to believe any professional sport is squeaky clean.  You just hear more about the cycling problem because the Italian's and French are pretty good at trying to clean the sport up.  Besides, this year is looking slightly less drug-fuelled judging by the shoddy GC performance on Saturday.

Back to the race, Allez Tommy V.