Tour de France 2007 thread (5 Viewers)

This is very sad. Olivia Podmore (1997 - 9 August 2021) NZ track rider who was 2016 Olympian.
I remember reading about her. Her name stuck out as being a bit strange, probably that's what stuck.

Not sure what to say. That's very upsetting.

Sometimes I wonder about cycling being this last bastion of relief for people under horrible duress. Like, sometimes this last bastion helps, and things end up not fucked. And sometimes it doesn't. It jars a bit with the cycling is the new golf brigade, but at the core cycling is often about pain management. Sometimes pain wins I suppose.
 
rettucs was saying a few months back that he thought Dan was on the verge of stopping to spend more time with his family.

He's going out on his own terms - still a very good rider. what a career - he did pretty much everything he could have. He won regularly big races for over a decade, with many more high finishes and was often well up the World Tour rankings.

Dan always seems like a really good guy, no one ever had anything bad about him and I hugely enjoyed following his career. I don't think he owes cycling anything at this stage.
I know he's a private person away from cycling but the odd bit of punditry (hilly classics etc) would be cool.
Thanks for everything Dan.
 
for some reason I wasn't a huge Dan Martin fan. I respected the shit out of his riding, he had a really nice palmares, I was pleasantly amazed by his results, he was a serious pro.

Until some lowlife sack of shit Irish pundit had a go at him for being a "Journeyman". I forget who it was, some GAA dickhead.

I get cycling is a niche sport, probably more so when I was young than now, but no. A know nothing cunt talking shit about him wasn't OK. I went on a Twitter rant (apologies) informing said cunt about his cuntishness with lots of rude words, and Dan Martin liked one of the tweets. From then on like it or not I was on board the Dan train. I physically cringed when I watched his (TdF?) crash into a fucking rock. He was classy regularly, extremely dangerous, and when he made the comment about it probably not being worth it I agreed.

I hope he retires well and stays well.
 
for some reason I wasn't a huge Dan Martin fan. I respected the shit out of his riding, he had a really nice palmares, I was pleasantly amazed by his results, he was a serious pro.

Until some lowlife sack of shit Irish pundit had a go at him for being a "Journeyman". I forget who it was, some GAA dickhead.

I get cycling is a niche sport, probably more so when I was young than now, but no. A know nothing cunt talking shit about him wasn't OK. I went on a Twitter rant (apologies) informing said cunt about his cuntishness with lots of rude words, and Dan Martin liked one of the tweets. From then on like it or not I was on board the Dan train. I physically cringed when I watched his (TdF?) crash into a fucking rock. He was classy regularly, extremely dangerous, and when he made the comment about it probably not being worth it I agreed.

I hope he retires well and stays well.
if a golfer of Dan Martin's standard announced his impending retirement it would have gotten more than 15 seconds on Saturday's Six One sports bulletin.
IMO only Katie Taylor and a few major winning golfers had better careers in the last decade plus (and I am not into golf). Yet Dan was never once nominated for RTE Sports Person of The Year.
not even winning Liege, Catalunya and a Tour mountain stage in 2013 was enough for RTE.

Dan had a bit of all the things I love - hilly classics winner, top climber and one of the best in a short steep finish. so I would have been a fan regardless of him being Irish.
 
rettucs was saying a few months back that he thought Dan was on the verge of stopping to spend more time with his family.

He's going out on his own terms - still a very good rider. what a career - he did pretty much everything he could have. He won regularly big races for over a decade, with many more high finishes and was often well up the World Tour rankings.

Dan always seems like a really good guy, no one ever had anything bad about him and I hugely enjoyed following his career. I don't think he owes cycling anything at this stage.
I know he's a private person away from cycling but the odd bit of punditry (hilly classics etc) would be cool.
Thanks for everything Dan.
I just sensed his heart wasn't fully in it from reading between the lines in some of his social media posts. His twins are about 3 now and he obviously adores them so it must be tough for him to be away from them. I'd say he'll follow his aul lad to Girona and make a life for himself there.

Dan's old man was supposedly very unpopular. He always resented Stephen Roche because when Roche got the call to go to France (VC la Pomme, or something like that) back in the day, they were willing to take on one English speaking rider. It was between Roche and Martin's aul lad (Neil) and Roche got the nod.

I remember coming back from La Vuelta in 2011 and there was a lad from the Sky backroom team on the flight (head to toe in Sky gear). The following day in Dublin was the Sky ride, so he was over for that. I got chatting to him - nice lad - but it was him that mentioned to me that people were suspicious of Dan cos of his aul lad, but generally warmed to him once they got to know him.

I liked how he went about his business. He didn't suffer fools and there was no bullshit with him. He had no hesitation switching to an Irish licence once it was clear the Brits were gonna focus more on track than the road, and he bailed on teams, or declined to sign, if he wasn't happy with the setup. He was a rider who could have gone to any team, at any time, but he always did things on his own terms.

Dan also highlighted how fucking clueless the Irish sporting media is. In one interview he was asked if he thought he'd ever 'make it to the top' of the sport, to which he replied that he'd already won grand tour stages, 2 classics, and the fucking tour of Catalonia.

@flashback I remember that comment about him being a journeyman. I think it was a wanker Gah journalist (Damien someone). We've been spoiled in Ireland over the last decade with Roche, Deignan, Dan, Sam, Mullen, and now Dunbar. And there's some good lads coming up through the ranks too. Despite this, the Irish media (mostly RTE), remain completely fucking clueless about cycling. Such a shower of bluffing bullshitters - they're probably as clueless about every other sport too but they continually embarrass themselves when referring to Sam Bennett's GC position, or how Roche finished 67th (but was in the main peloton). Pricks.

Btw, I did a charity cycle that Dan and his aul lad did a few years back. His aul lad ended up blowing the field apart halfway in. I sat in that group with him for a while, but my mate got blown out the back so I had to drop back to him. Was chatting to the aul lad and he seemed a decent skin to me. tbh, it was probably brits that hated him, even though hes a brit. The enemies of our enemies are our friends, imo.
 
good stuff rettucs!
I knew very little of that.

Martyn Irvine was nominated for RTE SPoTY but Dan never was - that says it all.

that reminds me why was Eddie Dunbar not riding the Vuelta?
(I know he was injured last year)

Paul Sherwen, Graham Jones, Phil Anderson, Robert Millar, Stephane Roche, Sean Yates, Alan Peiper, Kimmage (for a while) etc etc were at ACBB in Paris in the late 70's - early 80's. it was a well trodden route to being a pro for English speaking lads.
they nearly all turned pro w/ Peugeot. you probably know these guys were known as 'The Foreign Legion'.
 
@flashback I remember that comment about him being a journeyman. I think it was a wanker Gah journalist (Damien someone). We've been spoiled in Ireland over the last decade with Roche, Deignan, Dan, Sam, Mullen, and now Dunbar. And there's some good lads coming up through the ranks too. Despite this, the Irish media (mostly RTE), remain completely fucking clueless about cycling. Such a shower of bluffing bullshitters - they're probably as clueless about every other sport too but they continually embarrass themselves when referring to Sam Bennett's GC position, or how Roche finished 67th (but was in the main peloton). Pricks.
right, for year there were either zero, or around zero WT riders. (Or whatever WT was called.) There were a few Conti riders knocking about, with few enough prospects. Now we've a rake of amazing riders, and these pundits taking the piss out of them, presumably because they're not Stephen Roche/Kelly, is embarrassing.

I saw Eddie Dunbar out in Oysterhaven a few weeks back now that you mention it, in an Irish Cycling car, looking fairly flash.
 
good stuff rettucs!
I knew very little of that.

Martyn Irvine was nominated for RTE SPoTY but Dan never was - that says it all.

that reminds me why was Eddie Dunbar not riding the Vuelta?
(I know he was injured last year)

Paul Sherwen, Graham Jones, Phil Anderson, Robert Millar, Stephane Roche, Sean Yates, Alan Peiper, Kimmage (for a while) etc etc were at ACBB in Paris in the late 70's - early 80's. it was a well trodden route to being a pro for English speaking lads.
they nearly all turned pro w/ Peugeot. you probably know these guys were known as 'The Foreign Legion'.
ACBB, thats the one. Breeding ground for future dopers!

Dunbar just wasn't picked, simple as that. Sean Kelly was saying they missed a trick there. I suppose he's still young and they might be minding him a bit. I hope we see a bit more of him next year.
 
feel sorry for Eddie, he's very unselfish and trojan did work for Ineos all year.
he got a slot on the Giro team as a neo pro 2019 at short notice when Bernal broke his collar bone and ended up finishing 22nd and was 3rd on a stage.
he was prominent in the classics (won u23 version of the Ronde). he won young rider prize at Tour de Suisse while helping Carapaz to victory in June.
still young...
 
feel sorry for Eddie, he's very unselfish and trojan did work for Ineos all year.
he got a slot on the Giro team as a neo pro 2019 at short notice when Bernal broke his collar bone and ended up finishing 22nd and was 3rd on a stage.
he was prominent in the classics (won u23 version of the Ronde). he won young rider prize at Tour de Suisse while helping Carapaz to victory in June.
still young...
I went down to Wexford a few years back to watch the national champs. Eddie was with that American team of Axel Merckx's (Axeon). The lap was mostly flat with just the one short, steep, hill. I remember a break went with Ryan Mullen and Conor Dunne (and Chris McGlinchey). Eddie was in a group about 20 seconds back with Nico Roche, but they just couldn't bridge. Mullen ended up winning.

Anyway, I was on the hill for the laps but headed to the finish line in time to see them crossing. When I was walking back towards the car, Eddie was there with some of his family and his ma was giving out to him. I heard Eddie tell her, 'but I only had 2 bottles for the whole race'. Thats 2 small water bottles for more than 4 hours of racing. He hadn't organised any roadside support for himself, and that sums him up. Raw talent, but naive and innocent as hell. He was supposed to go to Sky earlier but said he couldn't turn down the chance to ride for (P)Rick Delaney's AquaBlue team (with those disastrous single chainring 3T bikes). Eddie had signed up to Trinity management so had the McQuad lads looking after him. Thus, it was a sure thing that he was gonna sign for someone like Sky, Trek, or BMC (at the time). I don't like Sky but was delighted when he got that contract. They rate him highly there too.
 
when Eddie was 16 and again when he was 17 I saw the second cat or whatever it is called race in the Nenagh Classic.
both times Dunbar came through the finish line with a lap to go alone looking comfortable. while a group behind were killing themselves chasing with an hours worth of racing left. both times he won by the same 30 second margin while the guys going for second looked shattered.
 
when Eddie was 16 and again when he was 17 I saw the second cat or whatever it is called race in the Nenagh Classic.
both times Dunbar came through the finish line with a lap to go alone looking comfortable. while a group behind were killing themselves chasing with an hours worth of racing left. both times he won by the same 30 second margin while the guys going for second looked shattered.
yeah, it'll be interesting. You've got Sivakov, Pidcock and Bernal, all off the charts, all on the same team, and I think all of them are younger than Eddie.

That team is bonkers. Pidcock was in the Vuelta pulling like a train in the third week. The third week. He's 22. It's nuts. It'll be really interesting how Eddie does, he's stupid classy, but... like you're lining up with outlandish talent every morning, has to be pretty tough going.
 
As a rider can you imagine signing for DQS now?
Pat hasn't destroyed the team, they're obviously still a serious team, but Lefevere has made a very good argument to examine your logic extremely carefully if you're thinking of getting in bed with them.

If he gets up to this shite with another rider, and I'd be surprised if he doesn't, he'll become a meme pretty much.

Sam's won this thing, he's hammered Lefevere's reputation, he'll get paid properly, and be back on the road next year kicking ass, because he's fast as fuck. And PF will be a fully outed horrible shouty cunt, endured by the people around him.
 
A mate of mine is out cycling in majorca at the moment. Yesterday he passed Lance Armstrong on the road, and a bunch of auld lads.

Turns out they paid 30k a head for the privilege of cycling with that fucking prick.

 

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