In sharp contrast to this.

I think that just for the fact that the competition involves putting sprints at the top of the biggest mountain passes in Europe makes it cool, regardless of the design of the jersey. I mean, have you ridden one of those passes? Sprinting is not what comes to mind at the top. At least not for me.

@PistolfromwarragulI thought those polka dot umbrella dresses were awesome! remember, they’re for pr purposes and meant to get your attention. They certainly did that. There’s really no need for any practical application unlike cycling gear where, I’ll admit, the tendency to make everything yellow, green, dotty, pink, WC bands etc, etc is bad.Sometime, just the jersey alone with regular team kit is enough. 9I’d post examples of this if I had the skillz.

Agree, love the Dotty Jumper and would love to jump a Dotty-Jumper-dressed-podium girl and play connect-the-dots as well!

Tourmalet baby! I’m excited just thinking about it.

And back to the digressions, think about all of the teams that have to destroy the custom kit they make “just in case” one of their boys gets a jersey! The bikes get paint jobs I’d reckon, but the clothes? Destroyed you’d think.

Teeny Bettini had classy Gold Ladies instead of White Ladies:

And, in a slightly less sexy light:

And, speakingof the Phil and Paul show, anyone else catch their interchange on the descent off Madeleine along these lines, re Sammy Sandshoe:

Phil: “Ooh, he’s not much of a descender is he? He’s really fighting it.”
Paul (diplomatically): “Actually, he’s normally a pretty good descender Phil”.
Paul (less diplomatically, but after five mintues have passed so that Phil will have forgotten his previous nonsense): “Sanchez is an extremely good descender – one of the best in the business” (or words to that effect).

On a slow day it would be amusing. On an action-packed day of drama like today it’s just silly.

But I digress. That was a class act, that frame. I love that the lugs were yellow. Stunning! As for your call on colors; leave it up to this sport – the toughest of all – to make the best riders wear rainbows, pink, dots, and yellow. Respect.

Re: Altitude, We lived at 2000m two winters ago and it took a month to adjust to it but the rides at lower elevation were pretty easy afterward. Top end speed, I can’t comment as I don’t have any unless we are talking descending.

Re: Spotted jumper to spotted bike; I love that shit. I love the pink Giro bikes too. I’m twisted. Too bad Cadel’s special yellow bike only lasted one day.

But, at this stage – like Andy is joking about – it’s pretty clear that they did that in conjunction with EPO and autologous blood transfusions; my pessimistic view would be that they probably used that to justify any suspicious changes in hematorit.

My own altitude training definitely shows what you’re talking about; go high and you can go at a large percent of your maximum for a long time. But I also notice that my top speed seems to drop when I do that; I can go long and hard, but not as fast. Anyone else notice that, too?

they don’t bother, they just use EPO

@Kermitpunk
Yeah, me too. There’s no other time you can ride at a consistent pain level like that. Like you say, “I climb well for my weight.”

I’m anxious to get out to John’s place and ride Haleakalakakakaloogie. But I won’t be sprinting for points at the top, that’s for damn sure.