It was a great night to be on the TT course !     

We had 7 TTers line up to battle their inner demons on the TT course.   Everyone pulled through with phenomenal efforts.    Tiago as the number one seed had the choice of start position.  He opted to be the first rider off the line. He rocketed through the course in a PR time of 21:21 (28.11mph) !   I believe that is the 4th fastest time ever on the course.  Bonnie eviscerated the course with a PR of 24:14 (24.77mph) - only 9 seconds off of the women's course record !   Ken ripped through the course in an impressive time of 25:48 (23.26mph) in the RoadAero category.  Phil just missed his PR (set in 2020) by only 1 second.   Paul V hadn't TTed the course in almost 4 years to the day.  He blew up his PR by 2:30 !   Way to go Paul !    Sean and Rich rode their best times of 2023.

A superb night for sure!

The TdF started off in a rather strange way this year with two rather difficult stages in the first weekend.  

Stage 1:  pretty cool that the Yates twins would finish in a breakaway  first and second.  

Stage 2:   a rare event -  super man van Aert loses at the line to Lafay. The French are ecstatic.

Stage 3:   Sprint finish - Philipsen wins.   but, he sure looked like he squeezed vanAert against the barrier.

Stage 4:  Sprint finish - Philipsen wins.  The final mile on the motor speedway looked like a human pin-ball machine as many riders hit the tarmac including sprinter Fabio Jakobsen.

Stage 5:   2022 Giro winner Jai Hindley  wins the stage.   Takes the yellow.  BUT, the bigger news is co-favorite reigning champ Vingegaard  takes over a minute out of Pogacar on mtn top finish !  

Gripes:

1.  Stupid fans !    They make and break the Tour.  Love the enthusiasm, but hate the idiocy.  Who are the morons that think setting off smoke bombs in front of the racers is smart?    Or the people that stick their banners in the face of the riders?    Then there's the guy that puts the flags/banners on a pole and dangles it in front of the riders.  Oops!  I just caught myself a podium contender !  Yahoooo!   

Can't tell you how many times I've screamed at the TV because a dumb fan got in the way. Not sure how the riders keep their cool.

2. The new "green" jersey is FUGLY !    and I can't find it when the sprint starts.  What the heck were the Tour organizers thinking?

3.  Someone needs to talk to Philipsen.  He is going to hurt somebody with his risky moves in the sprint.

I miss Alaphilippe mixing things up.  He doesn't have the legs to match his aggressive tactics.... yet.

Are we going to have a Sagan sighting in a sprint or slight uphill finish?

While Cavendish winning a 35th stage would have been note worthy and solidify his position as the greatest sprinter,  it wouldn't relegate the great Eddie Merckx as the most dominant cyclist ever.  He simply won every kind of race.  

That's all that's fit to print.

Brian

TT Directeur

315-727-1458

PS:  Apologies in advance for any typos.