I was watching the finish of the Tour yesterday, which finished in Bern Switzerland, after a tricky cobble climb, then a drag race to the line.  Afterward, I was glancing at the results and they placed 59 riders with the leaders time.

I had watched the finish and knew the group was way smaller than that, so I went back and watched the finish again and there were somewhere around 30 guys sprinting.  A couple got dropped right at the finish, but whatever the number, it wasn’t 59.

I was wondering if there was a crash or something within the last 3 km where they would give everyone the same time.  I didn’t remember seeing a crash, or hearing the commentators mention one either.  So, I went back and watched the race from 5 km out.

I didn’t see anyone fall in the in the end, just guys getting popped.

My question, did they score the race somewhere out on the course and then let the leaders sprint for the placings?   I know they do that on the final stage in Paris, but I’ve never heard about them doing that in other stages much.

It seems like the guys in the groups behind were still riding hard to the line.  If there was a place where the officials said they assigned times 3 km out or something, then everyone would have just rolled in.  Let’s just use Ramunas Navardauskas (Lithuania) CANNONDALE-DRAPAC.  He attacks in the final, maybe 2 km out, then blows.  He is scored at the same time as the winner, when he rolls across the line 30 seconds back in the video below.  Weird.

It is sometimes strange what the officials at the Tour address, and what they don’t.  I’ve noticed that on all the finish climbs, team support from Sky, etc. are standing in the crowds, clandestinely, then the step out and hand out “illegal feeds”.  Then they disappear back into the spectators.   It seems weird.  They can get bottles from cars, at the feed zone, etc.  I’m not sure why they need to break the rules to get some liquid so late in the race?

How about Fabian Aru getting his sticky bottles a couple stages ago.  He didn’t even take a bottle, then when he did, he held on, what seemed like forever, then tossed the bottle off without drinking out of it.  Come on, it is towing.  Getting back on, after a problem, is hard sometimes, but he could have been drafting his team car easier than holding on.

There is no way that there are enough officials at a Tour stage to police the whole race. Obviously, the riders don’t police themselves.  I think the officials should use the TV footage, anytime they see fit, and levy penalties if guys are spotted breaking the rules.  I know this isn’t the answer to all the problems, but at least it would make teams think twice before, pretty much, blatantly/pre-planning,  breaking the rules.

*** Okay, I had the official Tour results forwarded to me from Sean Weide and it seems that they did split the field correctly.  It is weird that Velonews would post the results incorrectly for some reason.  I wonder if they had some preliminary results and never got around changing them.  I just looked this morning and they were still wrong.  Now I checked and they changed them.  I wonder if this had anything to do with that?  Anyway, real results below, which seem all correct to me.   Still doesn’t address the sticky bottle/sneaky bottle deals.

The group around 30 seconds from the finish.

This picture shows the gap to the next group.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4kqn18_tour-de-france-2016-hd-stage-16-final-kilometers_sport#tab_embed

Tucker was pretty done coming back from the airport last night.

I’m not around Topeka all that often.  When I’m riding better, I tend to be somewhere to race that is in line with my form. When I’m not riding so well, then it is best to be home and hang.  It is a nice situation to be in.

We have 3 evening rides that leave from our house.  Monday, Wednesday & Friday.  Tuesdays have turned into a rest day, sort of.  They meet at PT’s Coffeeshop and ride 20 miles on the bike path, then head back for $3 pints of beer.

A couple weeks ago, a small group decided to meet at the Governor’s Mansion and ride trails.  It is a hard time to do that, since it is in the heat of summer and off-road riding is a ton hotter than riding on the road.  It is supposed to be super hot here until the weekend.  There is a heat warning until Saturday night, which means that the heat index is supposed to be close to 110 everyday.

I rode over and did the MTB ride last night.  There were 7 of us, if you count Trudi riding over there and messing around some.   They have been working on the trails, they built a state park there and it is changing a lot, so I am sort of lost all the time.

It was hot, but not insanely hot.  It was only super uncomfortable when we stopped to regroup, etc.  That is when the sweat started pouring out.  I’m not a big sweater, but when it is so humid and hot, everyone drips.

I really enjoyed the ride.  I haven’t really just went and ride with a bunch of guys, in line, not going hard.  It was super fun honing my rusty singletrack skills, getting to learn my dual suspension bike some.  I was, sort of , dreading the ride, before and then it turned out exactly the opposite.  Nicely surprising.

My AWD van is over in Lawrence.  I’m going to ride over there to get it in a little bit, after the Tour finishes. A friend, Marcos, whose day job is fixing cars, looked at it.   I have to replace the AC clutch again.  I replaced it last December, so the clutch is under warranty.  But, there isn’t one here in Topeka, so that is a problem.

I’m not a bad auto mechanic, well that isn’t true. I have a hard time diagnosing non-obvious problems, which is 90% of being a good mechanic.   I don’t have any problems doing the work when I know the problem.

I’m not big on Ilnur Zakarin winning the stage today.  It all is in relationship to doping.  He has already served a 2 year suspension for doping.  Plus the whole Russian doping deal, that is going to be decided this week.   I don’t really have any desire watching him ride the Olympics either.    The race of the GC guys was interesting though.    At least they looking like they were hurting.   I did have to agree with Greg Lemond about his views about modern day racing and improvements.   “Miracles don’t exist.”

Chuck Magerl, the owner of FreeState Brewery, in Lawrence, sent me this photo. It is from 1983, I believe, at Kansas State Championships. My brother Kris is behind me.

Bill and Eric riding through the open fields at the Governor’s Mansion. Most of the ride is on great singletrack, on the river bluff.

Tucker is doing a good job staying in the shade.