Tour de France

I've been a huge cycling fan pretty much all my life. So I try watch the Tour everyday. Most of the time just snippets and a recap, but it's always summer holiday fun. I really like it this year. It feels like a more level playing ground and hey, we even have a few Dutchmen competing at the front. Mollema is third, Ten Dam fourth, wow!

What bugs me about the Tour is the timing. How on earth do you get the same time as the winner of the stage when your still 2 kilometer's behind? or 100 meters for that matter. Seems to me they could set up a large bar code reader at the starting line and the finish line, and scan the riders as they come through. They wear numbers on their backs, they could easily add a bar code to the number placard. That way they could time them down to 1000th of a second when they all come through in a pack.

The down side may be, they would all be trying to cram into the finish line and more crashes could occur.

Mont Ventoux today !

ukulegreg said:

Mont Ventoux today !

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Can't wait!!! :drool:

Mister Froom is one bad mofo! Yellow jersey and King of the Mountains...holy s**.

That was unbelievable what he did yesterday.

The peeps are talking...

http://www.sbs.com.au/cyclingcentral/news/50180/I-m-no-cheat-like-Armstrong-says-Froome

Skinny Money McGee said:

What bugs me about the Tour is the timing. How on earth do you get the same time as the winner of the stage when your still 2 kilometer's behind? or 100 meters for that matter. Seems to me they could set up a large bar code reader at the starting line and the finish line, and scan the riders as they come through. They wear numbers on their backs, they could easily add a bar code to the number placard. That way they could time them down to 1000th of a second when they all come through in a pack.

The down side may be, they would all be trying to cram into the finish line and more crashes could occur.

Click to expand...

The riders all have transponders on their bikes, which gives the exact time when they cross the line. The downside you mentioned is one of the reasons it works the way it works. When the riders are in the same group every rider gets the same time. It would be a total mayhem if this wouldn't be the case. They extended the rules a couple of years ago with the 3km-rule for flat stages: when a crash occurs within the last three kilometers of the race all riders that are involved get the same time as the winner. This prevents GC-riders to mix with the teams preparing the sprints, so their will be less riders trying to be at the front at the end of the race. Less riders means more room means less chance of a crash.

I've never been to the Tour De France, but I have enjoyed the Tour of Italy at Olive Garden, which is fettuccini Alfredo, lasagna and ribbon pasta, with unlimited salad and breadsticks.

Worth trying for any cyclists who have no desire to win.