I've got a punctured... thru-axle? Bizarre Fisherman's Friend ad; Cav jumps on NFT train; TDF crash like a "war zone" says race doc; Thomas crashes with reports of dislocated shoulder; Positive Twitter thread about London cycling & more on the Live Blog

Global Nomad wrote:

obviously hope that Thomas and others who crashed are ok.....but.....i think bad luck is not a sufficient explanation...you make your own (bad) luck to a significant degree -  no one else seems to fall as often as he does. 

So Thomas has a magical attraction to dislodged bidons?

Absolute rubbish. The water bottle that did for him last time was unavoidable, if this is a repeat then likely the same. Was it Barguil that used G as a crash barrier on a sharp right downhill at a previous Tour and took him over the side.

You'll see many riders demonstrating skills to avoid a crash, some great holds when it gets a bit loose on a corner. Suggesting because a rider has had a few incidents that he's a bit lacking on talent is very shortsighted.

all riders have strengths and weaknesses, at pro level they are unbelievably talented....but...its no good being at the top if you keep making errors...all riders come off for unavoidable reasons, but others also come off for errors of judgement or technique....

It's not bad luck when he keeps falling off - once or twice, then yes. I'm not sure what the issue is, but there is a pattern; he falls off alarmingly regular. 

The pattern is called a statistical fluke. Averages are averages, not numbers that every individual conforms to. Some riders will be lucky, some unlucky, if crashes are completely random.

There is no reason to think GT has a particularly notable record of crashing particularly often. He's just been unlucky about when it's happened.

Secret_squirrel wrote:

I do wonder how many yellow painted team bikes there are under dust sheets in the back of team trucks - just in case like, and what happens to them if they dont get used.   Do Ineos have 4 Dogma's painted up and will they end up on ebay?

I was reading about this on Twitter earlier, all teams carry a stock of all the kits and helmets they will need if one of their riders takes a jersey, which are returned to the manufacturers for distribution if they are not required. In terms of bikes, nobody carries ready painted bikes with them, partly because of the extra carrying capacity that would be required but also because most riders think it's bad luck to anticipate by having a ready prepared bike. Manufacturers also believe that apparently, Pinarello consistently refused to supply Chris Froome with a yellow bike in advance even when he was the hottest of favourites. Generally manufacturers will have staff on alert and if one of their riders takes a jersey they start re-spraying a frame in the factory the second they are over the line and have it shipped post-haste for the mechanics to build up for the next day. In the case of Froome he felt it was ostentatious to go straight for a yellow bike when he took the jersey (and also he didn't want the additional paint weight in the mountains) so he would ask for a little bit more yellow each day he was in the jersey, bar tape the first day, bottle cages the next and so on, and only ride the full yellow bike on the last stage into Paris.

Cool!  Thanks for the nice info!

But with the bus journey time, then you can read a book over several days or just mellow. It is the one thing I do miss on biking over bussing. I do listen to podcasts but don't think I could concentrate on an audio book the same way as reading them allows. 

Maybe there was a time where i would have done it more regularly. set a timer, put on some tunes and just doze my way to and from work for £1.30 each way (im not sure if bus fares have gone up, I think its like £1.80 now or something???)

But i find having to constantly wear a mask rather annoying unless its totally unavoidable so for me bicycle makes the most sense as im 'away from everyone else' in the loosest sense as in not sitting/standing right next to random people or tucked under their armpits like i would be on the tube (figure of speech, Im actually 6ft tall so its probably the other way round)

RoubaixCube wrote:

Maybe there was a time where i would have done it more regularly. set a timer, put on some tunes and just doze my way to and from work for £1.30 each way (im not sure if bus fares have gone up, I think its like £1.80 now or something???)

Where do you live?  Nineteen ninety?

London buses are really cheap per journey compared to the rest of the country as TFL initially subsidised the Oyster cards to persuade people onto them by halfing the cost if they were used £1 instead of £2 in 05ish. And now that is the only options for paying for journeys, the prices are still based on the initial costs plus rises per year or so. 

brooksby wrote:

RoubaixCube wrote:

Maybe there was a time where i would have done it more regularly. set a timer, put on some tunes and just doze my way to and from work for £1.30 each way (im not sure if bus fares have gone up, I think its like £1.80 now or something???)

Where do you live?  Nineteen ninety?

To be exact its currently £1.55 to hop on the bus but i do remember a time when the fare was £1.60 then £1.75 or £1.80 -- its been all over the place.

every new mayor for transport just keeps pushing fares up and down every time a new one takes over

RoubaixCube wrote:

But i find having to constantly wear a mask rather annoying unless its totally unavoidable so for me bicycle makes the most sense as im 'away from everyone else' in the loosest sense as in not sitting/standing right next to random people or tucked under their armpits like i would be on the tube (figure of speech, Im actually 6ft tall so its probably the other way round)

Last time I travelled by bus was the last week of February last year, when things were starting to get weird.  Someone stifles a cough on the bus and everyone on there noticeably and physically twitched...

Positive of Covid is it finally gave me that push back into regularly cycle commuting - haven't been on a bus since then, could count on my fingers how many times I've driven anywhere in a private motor vehicle since then...

You mentioned you had been cycle commuting for the last 6 years so I wasn't taking the 'current times' as your reason for not doing it. Anyway, it was just pointing out the options for such a journey to not be a time waste in normality.