TDF Femme 2022

[AUbicycles]

In what automatically becomes the biggest women’s event of the year, it is good to see a real TDF forvwomen kick off (again) and this time with a lot more promise.

The format feels good… I like stage one coordinated with the final of the mens finale.

Weariness for fans and media is a challenge. 3 weeks is a long time and it feels like an extension on this time with the same audience and media.

[Thoglette]

Absolute carnage last night and one hell of a final sprint. Well worth watching

[MichaelB]

Absolute carnage last night and one hell of a final sprint. Well worth watching

Need to watch the last 20km.

Hope they all heal well.

[blizzard]

Entertaining stage, should make for a more interesting GC battle. I feel really bad for Marta Cavalli now out of the race, I think Nicole Frain was quite reckless in how she was riding.

[MichaelB]

Entertaining stage, should make for a more interesting GC battle. I feel really bad for Marta Cavalli now out of the race, I think Nicole Frain was quite reckless in how she was riding.

According to CN article, she thought there was a gap, but wasn't. Apparently pretty new to this level, but still an error of judgement. Hard to say whether reckless or not based on what is unfolding in front of you at the time.

Haven't seen it though, so judgement is reserved

Hope Cavalli is OK.

EDIT : https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/frain- ... mes-crash/

Frain later posted on social media apologising for the incident.

"No, today didn't go as I hoped. It was hectic and I didn't feel comfortable all day. After working hard to come back to the peloton in the convoy with my teammate, the speed [with which] we rejoined the pack would have matched their pace. Unfortunately, as I came off the wheel I was unaware [of] riders on the road from another crash.

"My teammate went left off the road but I didn't have the opportunity to do the same given I didn't see [the crash]. This meant I crashed overtop of the riders on the ground.

"Naturally, this was never my intention and I am sorry for those involved. I am sore as well and will monitor how I feel. I'm lucky I could get back on my bike.

Italian cycling site bici.PRO also reported that at the end of the stage Frain spoke to the sports director of FDJ-SUEZ-Futuroscope as well as Cavalli.

“I won't tell you what we said to each other, I prefer it to remain reserved but of course I apologized to them and to her,” said Frain in the bici.Pro report(opens in new tab).

There is a couple of twitter videos of the crash in the CN link. OUCH !

The 1st one is from behind and shows that she is a bit unsighted, whilst the 2nd (overhead) shows the speed as she was trying to rejoin.

[trailgumby]

Lots of "boot her out" comments being directed towards Frain on some cycling sites based on the overhead footage alone, but the last segment of this video shot from the rear shows her view was obstructed and she had little hope of pulling up.

The rider she was drafting breaks hard left without warning, locks up the back wheel and endos down the embankment, leaving Frain presented suddenly with a situation that changes in less than a second from a comfortably moving peloton to a blocked road with a rider down. You can see she is hard on the brakes trying to thread the needle and miss everybody, and she *almost* succeeds.

I'm amazed she still has any skin left on her back after leaving that dark mark on the road.

https://www.flobikes.com/collections/67 ... ng=7927614

So the controversial question is (I can't resist being cheeky ) ... would disc brakes have helped reduce the impact on Carvalli?

[Thoglette]

but the last segment of this video shot from the rear shows her view was obstructed and she had little hope of pulling up.

I was watching live and I’d have been utterly amazed if she’d not hit someone.

It all happened bloody quickly and they were flying. On very narrow, winding roads

[warthog1]

Saw a replay.
It was huge!
A good indication of just how fast they are travelling.

[AUbicycles]

Nasty incident. We had Nicole on video on stage one and she had a good placement in tge stage 1 sprint.

With this … carnage is a good description and it was far from malicious and clearly a difficult to judge situation (you don’t expect the peloton to stop) but also not being aware as much as possible. In retrospect everyone is smarter and she reached the back but the situation changed and she didn’t have a sufficient viewed.

Could she have slowed more… don’t know?

Are there lots of training and racing situations where you make assumptions and follow these and 99.9% of the time everything follows its natural course… yes.

[fat and old]

Yep, I'm a fan. Would be great to see her hold the yellow all the way.

There's a long way between the top and bottom teams, but the TDFF has been excellent.

[queequeg]

Wiebes came down hard last night but it wasn't shown on the broadcast (it happened during an ad break!), and I guess there were no media bikes there as we saw no replays. But, there was a photographer in the right place at the right time, with the crash happening right in front of them...

https://www.ridemedia.com.au/features/t ... -sequence/

[warthog1]

Great photos!
Thanks.

[Retrobyte]

Wiebes came down hard last night but it wasn't shown on the broadcast (it happened during an ad break!), and I guess there were no media bikes there as we saw no replays. But, there was a photographer in the right place at the right time, with the crash happening right in front of them...

https://www.ridemedia.com.au/features/t ... -sequence/

Amazing photos - and look at how gnarly that road surface is, based on the size of the gravel rash chunks

[AUbicycles]

No spoilers, but what a stage.

[MichaelB]

Wiebes came down hard last night but it wasn't shown on the broadcast (it happened during an ad break!), and I guess there were no media bikes there as we saw no replays. But, there was a photographer in the right place at the right time, with the crash happening right in front of them...

https://www.ridemedia.com.au/features/t ... -sequence/

Amazing photos - and look at how gnarly that road surface is, based on the size of the gravel rash chunks

Agree. That was nasty !!

Just found out that Vos wasn't great at something !!

AvV though ! Damn

[Thoglette]

No spoilers, but what a stage.

Agreed. Another amazing spectacle. Glad the QoM ended up the way it did.

Nice to see big crowds on the roadsides, too. Bodes well for the future

[foo on patrol]

Does anyone else notice how the so called past their prime riders have risen to the top, with this Tour?

Foo

[AUbicycles]

Pretty long race compared to many on the women’s which tend to be shorter. But there are star riders who are performing in both day races and stage races.

[blizzard]

Great work AVV, Giro - Tour double. I was pleasantly surprised to see ABC do a 5 minute segment on the Tour this morning on News Breakfast.

[warthog1]

Wth was going on with the yellow jersey team car?
She was riding a shorter team mates bike after a problem with hers for a while there.
Had to go to bed.

[queequeg]

Wth was going on with the yellow jersey team car?
She was riding a shorter team mates bike after a problem with hers for a while there.
Had to go to bed.

You were not the only one wondering that. The commentary team also could not figure it out. They only have one team car per team and there was talk the car might have been up the road providing supper to their rider in the breakaway, but that seems ridiculous given they held the yellow jersey. After the team car did eventually show up, it pretty much stuck to her like glue.

[warthog1]

Thanks, yeah Simon Gerrans was pretty vocal about it not being there.

[foo on patrol]

They only had one main car per team and had to rope in help from team workers for extra support, from what I recall them saying at the start of the Tour.

Foo