Just to clarify the LeMond and Hinault classification battle even though they were on the same team was 1986 where LeMond won the tour with just over 3 mins on Hinault. It was 1989 in LeMondās come back tour after his shooting accident that LeMond beat Fignon by 8 secs. Also in 3rd place that year was Delgado +3.34 who was famously late as defending champion for the start of his prologue TT by 2mins 40 secs.
Clarified 3 days agoā¦but thanks anyway.
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Apologies misread the reply which I read as Hinault was 3mins behind in the same year as the LeMond beat Fignon by 8 secs.
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Understood.
Louis Vervaeke missing from presentation?
What hasnāt been clarified is whether Fignonās trendy ponytail caused an aerodynamic disadvantage to the tune of over 8 seconds in the ITT, and which caused him to loose the 1989 tour (?) 
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Well, the Grand Depart is almost upon us, and this has all the makings of being a great Tour.
My prediction is that Pogacar will win from Roglic and I think fitness issues will hinder Vingegaard and Evenepoel.
It will be fascinating to see who Ineos build their GC challenge behind. My main hope, though, is that Cavendish manages to get a record stage win, though I think it may prove to be a tall orderā¦
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I think if PogaÄar wins the Giro-Tour double in the same calendar year he will be the first person to do so since IndurĆ in in 1993.
Edit. Stand corrected Pantani did it in 1998
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Would be the first ācleanā rider to do it for quite a while. Hinault last?
Saturday 29th June 2024
Stage 1 : Firenze - Rimini (206km)
The first four days of this TdF in Italy, like we are still at the Giro!
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Hi Debs thanks (again) for the thread and Iām looking forward to stage 1 tonight. Also look forward to your daily updates.
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That really is a bonkers first stage !
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and theyāre away. 
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I am super excited especially the profile of the first week
I love how international it is and has nothing to do with the Euros in the football and all that nationalism with a bunch of obsenely payed players
And unlike football its free to watch and seeing beautiful scenary on the stages
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Very unpredictably hilly 1st stage - all the jerseys up for grabs, whoever wins today will wear yellow tomorrow and this could be a opportunist stage hunter, however none of the GC hopefuls will want to loose time today so we can expect a closely marked pointy end of the race front.
The KOM (aka mountains classification and polka dot jersey) maybe fought over, and Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) last yearās TdF KOM winner, and who sadly couldnāt ride the 2024 Giro due to a crash injury, may plan to make some amends today, and especially as he is riding on home ground
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Fascinating opening stage so far, and weāre only at the top of the first categorised climb of 2024ās race!
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Cav struggling for some reason. Unexpected.
Shocked anyone got dropped on that 1st climb, hardly HC, the peloton dilly dallying along and it is day 1ā¦.pace must have been higher than it looked.
UAE demolishing the peloton on later climbs.
Gee Cavendish is in trouble, tough start for the sprinters.
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