Tour de France - spoilers allowed

[AppleTree]

Andrew Talansky - wow! What grit he has! Chapeau! I wonder if he's going to start tomorrow.

That was harder to watch than a crash in slow motion, Talansky sitting on the side of the road with his team director and obviously in physical and emotional distress. My heart was just breaking for him. I went riding before the stage finished, and I didn't think he'd still be in it when I got back home. I am gobsmacked that he finished the stage, how amazing is that? He is a hero in my book.

[Helene2013]

It must be so hard to abandon at their level so they just push it.

I can feel some of his pain when last June we had to quit after riding 60km in horrible weather conditions. I could not stop crying on/off. You train, set goals and now that you are there you have to quit. Not easy! Hopefully he will be able to get some back relief to keep going. But normally, those pains cannot be ignored for too long.

[BikeDutchess]

Now I'm reading on Twitter that he was penalized 10 seconds for assistance from his team car? If that is true it's ridiculous.

[ny biker]

Pain is temporary, quitting lasts forever. Some guy named Lance used to say that. I'm glad Talansky was able to finish the race, and that he made the time cut. I know what it's like to pull over to the side of the road and want to just quit because you're just that miserable. Sometimes you need to stop for a few minutes and take a few deep breaths.

Speaking of Lance, it occurred to me the other day when Contador had to drop out of the race -- whatever else he may have done, he certainly had a lot of luck in his seven tours, with no serious crashes. Some of that luck was because of good preparation. I remember one stage where he suddenly rode ahead of the pack for no apparent reason, and shortly afterwards the peloton crossed a railroad track. One guy hit the track at the wrong angle and went down, causing everyone around him to crash. Lance knew the tracks were coming up and got out of the crowd so he could cross them safely, because someone on his team made a point of knowing all the possible hazards on the route. They may have set new standards in cheating, but they also showed that there were plenty of legal things you could do to gain an edge and reduce your risks. Of course that preparation only goes so far, and you still need a healthy dose of good luck to keep you upright for so many miles.