What do you guys think of this bike?
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I rented the 2020 version a few weeks ago and loved it. Thinking about getting one. Some Giant dealers will let you demo one for around $75 / 24 hours and apply that to the purchase. I got along with the single chainring fine. It looks like the 2021s all have front derailleurs. A lot of bike for the money IMO. The hardest part is finding my size M/L locally. Nearest is 350 miles.
Edit: there are some negative reviews about the seat post slipping. My riding buddy got that out of the way early. He said from the factory, that the seat posts don’t come lubed. CF is slippery, so the trick is put use some assembly lube or grease on the seat tube that has grit in the composition. Worked well for me.
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Two days until the start of the Tour de France!!! I’m so excited. I’m currently watching the recorded Critérium du Dauphiné from a couple weeks ago (only on Stage 1 - so please…no spoilers!). It is great seeing all the familiar faces back on the road.
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Lance wins!
Wheels
Good idea. Will try to catch the recap. Are you using an NBC Gold cycling pass?
Yes…love the app except for the fact it doesn’t remember where you are when you shut down an iPad or something.
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Sitting on my hands… don’t start watching the tour live.
Hard to believe that Ineos is leaving Froome and Thomas off the Tour squad. I guess that they didn’t Zwift enough during the lockdown LOL.
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Thought that might need a spoiler alert for Beach… 
from a Brit’s point of view it’s going to be weird without Froome and G.
Numbers don’t lie though. Froome has been struggling massively since his crash and was rightly left out. Thomas I’m not sure. He led a stage of the Tour de Zwift I joined in, so he’s not been injured. It looks like they’re saving him for later in the season?
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Speaking of Zwift, I’ve been continually impressed. I don’t quite have my cycling legs back yet, somewhat hindered by the summer lacrosse league. But with that finished this past weekend, I can start focusing on regular cycling.
But a couple of weeks ago, had a pretty awesome experience. I had stated up Ventoux, but bailed at the first cutoff since my phone began displaying text messages like “where are you” and “can you help with the kids dinner?” 
So, I pulled off leaving it for another day when I would have a couple of hours in peace. Began the shallow decent to a somewhat flat route, and with about 10 miles to go, jumped on to the back of a group of 5. I went to nearly 500 watts trying to get on, barely did, then was in the red zone for the next 10 minutes. Sitting on the back and ever so gradually, I began recovering. They didn’t seem to mind and gave me some Ride Ons for joining. Once I recovered, I was trying to rotate to the front, but couldn’t quite get the hang of it. Once I got near the front of the group, I seemed to be going too fast, and the last thing that I wanted to appear like was hammering on the front, since I had sat in for too long. So, I never quite got to the front. It was rather confusing anyway, with everyone’s avatar moving more or less in a circling blob, rather than a pace line.
Regardless, as the thing wound up heading to the end of the route, it felt very real. The effort reminded me so much of many group rides over the years. It was hugely satisfying to hang on and finish with a higher average than would have been possible solo. Ride-Ons were handed out all the way around at the end and I realized that Zwift is tapping into the phenomena that suffering as a a group is far better than suffering alone. Good stuff.
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@chipwich - that is my experience of Zwift. It’s pushing me the same as group rides, once I find a group at my pace.
The draft modelling is very good, needing enough watts/effort to stay in the pack. A ride I did recently I was with a good group averaging a bit above my average W/kg and I switched off for 2 seconds on a climb and was spat out of the back. As we were on a descent I couldn’t catch the draft back and watched as they pulled away. RideOns coming in as they could see my effort, but just couldn’t catch.
I’ll PM you my Zwift handle in case we’re ever sync’d up in riding/time zone.
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So I binge watched Stages 3-5 of the Dauphine and starting the Tour today (starting the recording / NBC SN Gold replay now). Since I rarely have time to keep up with the Tour day-for-day, I’ll likely get a few days behind over the span of the Tour, so I might check out of this thread for a month unless we can wrap pertinent discussion in spoilers maybe.
I’m enjoying the first bit of commentary between Christian and Horner in the prerace show. They bring up some great points about the COVID conditions that the various team members have to train under. The Colombians, able to train at home at altitude, definitely have a great advantage. Some of those European countries with no altitude, on strict home lockdown…those guys might be hurting in the mountains.
Definitely pretty amazed that Ineos is leaving Geraint behind. Not surprised that Froome is not on the team.
Sepp Kuss - that dude kills it. Enjoyed watching him in the mountains of the Dauphine and Stage 5.
I guess the commentators are picking Roglic as the main contender. I was hoping Rigoberto Uran might be a contender…I think that guy is awesome and by all accounts a really nice guy.
Enjoy the next few weeks guys!
Reminder - please wrap stage results or clues in spoiler tags…maybe with a title such as:
Stage 1 SPOILER - Bozo the clown won Stage 1 today after leaving a trail of banana peels up Alp de Huez…
Anyone know if WEDU is going to be doing Stage by Stage analysis?
I would also love to see him go for a stage win. But unless Roglic is having a bad Tour, Kuss will most likely be protecting his captain in the mountains.
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Stage 1 Spoilers - Don’t read if you haven’t watched Stage 1!
Wow. What an insane stage. One of the craziest I’ve ever seen. The conditions were brutal…and some of those wrecks were nuts. And I disagree with Bob Roll…it looked like Astana was putting the hammer down when they lost their GC guy. Amazed that guy got up from that wreck and continued.
And how about that wreck under the 3K banner…?? Thibaut Pinot was pretty lucky that the wreck happened directly under the 3K banner. With all the discussions going on in the peleton it looked like all of the riders were Italian (speaking with their hands…LOL…).
Watching Alaphilippe going nuts on that downhill in the rain was terrifying. That dude has ice running through his veins. Great stage. I think we should also take bets on when Chris Horner and Vande Velde drop the pretense and engage in hand to hand combat. LOL…
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I know some aren’t fans, but listening to George and Lance riff on Lance’s fanny pack was great. Good to see JB, George, and Lance all together giving their take on the race (between advertisements for Power Dot and Oura…LOL…)
Spoilers obviously within The Move Stage 1 breakdown:
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“It was as predicted, total carnage.”
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I’m surprised that Lance liked the drill front skewer device. LOL…I would have thought he’d be more old school.
Not related to the TDF…but…
Sad to hear that Tyler Phinney retired from pro cycling in October 2019. He was a highlight of the “behind the scenes” coverage of the Tour a couple years ago.
The speed these guys descend is frightening. I know they know the roads are closed, so can take the perfect line through corners, but their bike handling is incredible.
Alaphilippe deserved the win today. Is he a contender for GC? Interesting Yates in 3rd, not sure he can hold that in the mountains or the time trials.
The plan for today is to jump on the trainer to watch today’s stage. I guess that I could run Zwift in the background, or just use the Wahoo app on my phone. Anyone else do this?
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