Tour de France
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So Bardet makes up some time on Froome.
I still don't get cycling at times. Froome runs himself of the road and the peleton sits up and lets him catch back up. WTF is with that?
I can understand the toilet stop thing and kind of why they do it when it is a mechanical (although that's tough shit in other sports), but this is a cycling race. Crash or misjudge a corner by yourself and you should pay a price. -
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@Crucial said in Tour de France:
I haven't seen the video yet but it looks like Aru and Bardet have Bennett to thank for breaking Sky.
Bennett jumped early but that made Landa have to close the gap and Froome was left without support.Not quite the case but Bennett's early jump does look to create an opportunity for a second break once he came back. Pity he didn't save himself for the last 100 metres though.
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Another great stage to watch. What a finish!
Bennett was awesome.
Too bad about Dan Martin crashing the other day, he could have been in yellow.
Good to see team sky being dropped by Aru, Bardet, Uran, Landa Meintjes, and Martin on the final climb, losing Geraint Thomas means Froome looks a little more vulnerable.
Also, love seeing this on the cycling news live feed: "There seems to be some disagreement in the Sky camp after that stage. Mikel Landa tells the Spanish press that he could have been a contender for the victory today if he'd been allowed to go for it. "
Aru looks to have the best climbing legs this year. He really pulled away in the last 1.5K (that last few hundred meters was steep as hell), and is now wearing yellow by 6 seconds. Are there enough climb finishes for him to take more time on Froome?
At this stage Froome probably takes it back in the team time trial before Paris. But at least it's not the procession of previous years
Bastille day tomorrow, my money is on Bardet!
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@Crucial The commentators were saying that when Froome ran off the road that in that case it is perfectly acceptable to attack him - they thought it was a mistake for them to have sat up and waited and were speculating that there weren't any/enough experienced heads to take advantage. Probably a pity that Aru followed Froome off the road. As it turned out, I suspect Sky had enough resources to ride him back into the Group - but, the additional effort might have killed them/Froome on the climb.
I wonder whether Aru and Bardet are kicking themselves that they didn't attack earlier or are just happy with the eventual outcome. It's a pity that Fuglsang got injured, because Sky just has so much weaponry to protect Froome from individual attacks. If Astana had two riders in the leading mix, they might be able to burn off some of that protection.
I think George did great! Even launching that attack - he said afterwards it wasn't very realistic to think about beating those guys but he had to try. Great attitude! I hate it when people just sit at the back of the bunch and trail along without firing a shot (I discussed this with some others re. the lesser NZers running the 1500 metres in Rio).
I don't think George had anything to lose, really. If he'd sat at the back he might have finished the day a spot higher in the general classification, maybe even be 10 seconds ahead of Quintana - but, that time difference likely won't be decisive. Either Quinata will crack again or George will get cracked somewhere - or they'll shoot things out in the time trial.
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Fucking French refs!
George gets a 20 second penalty as does Uran - French rider (Bardet!) who also takes a bottle of water doesn't.
Not to be trusted!
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Froome is quite difficult to distance. He rides to his power metre so if he is dropped early on a climb he can often get back on as long as he keeps a consistent output going. I think Froome still has to be the favourite given how strong is team is and how good he is in the time trial. I think the mountain top finishes seem to be the best opportunity to put time into him.
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@hydro11 said in Tour de France:
Froome is quite difficult to distance. He rides to his power metre so if he is dropped early on a climb he can often get back on as long as he keeps a consistent output going. I think Froome still has to be the favourite given how strong is team is and how good he is in the time trial. I think the mountain top finishes seem to be the best opportunity to put time into him.
Given that Froome has a formidable team defending him, won't the attackers have to work as a team to break him? One person trying to do it alone is likely to destroy himself but if Aru, Bardet, Uran all took it in turns to attack then it might work. Can't see it happening though.
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@hydro11 said in Tour de France:
Froome is quite difficult to distance. He rides to his power metre so if he is dropped early on a climb he can often get back on as long as he keeps a consistent output going. I think Froome still has to be the favourite given how strong is team is and how good he is in the time trial. I think the mountain top finishes seem to be the best opportunity to put time into him.
I think he cracked a little today though, Landa was trying to drag him up the final climb and had to slow down quite visibly to do so.
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@KiwiPie said in Tour de France:
@hydro11 said in Tour de France:
Froome is quite difficult to distance. He rides to his power metre so if he is dropped early on a climb he can often get back on as long as he keeps a consistent output going. I think Froome still has to be the favourite given how strong is team is and how good he is in the time trial. I think the mountain top finishes seem to be the best opportunity to put time into him.
Given that Froome has a formidable team defending him, won't the attackers have to work as a team to break him? One person trying to do it alone is likely to destroy himself but if Aru, Bardet, Uran all took it in turns to attack then it might work. Can't see it happening though.
Yeah especially as Aru has lost Fugslang.
Armstrong discussed this possibility on his podcast today, was sceptical it would happen as most of the other teams are not very fond of Astana. Would be great to watch though.
Tonight's stage should be great to watch, only short but with 3 catagory 1 climbs and virtually no flat terrain. It's made for a crazy attack from Contador
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@KiwiPie Further to Sammy's comments - I guess none of them will want to be the first sacrificial lamb to attack and all of them will want to be the third guy who attacks and possibly gets to win.
I'd like to see more of these cross-team alliances form, but they seem to be temporary and often untrustworthy - unless people happen to be old friends.
Interestingly, I was reading that Bennett and Bauer use to ride together for the little Ta$man Wheelers club in small South Island/NZ races - they sat together on one of the TdF flights taking them from A to B and were reminiscing about how weird it is that they're both now in the bigtime.
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@KiwiPie said in Tour de France:
@hydro11 said in Tour de France:
Froome is quite difficult to distance. He rides to his power metre so if he is dropped early on a climb he can often get back on as long as he keeps a consistent output going. I think Froome still has to be the favourite given how strong is team is and how good he is in the time trial. I think the mountain top finishes seem to be the best opportunity to put time into him.
Given that Froome has a formidable team defending him, won't the attackers have to work as a team to break him? One person trying to do it alone is likely to destroy himself but if Aru, Bardet, Uran all took it in turns to attack then it might work. Can't see it happening though.
Aru is in yellow now though. I don't see why other teams would bother helping him.
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@jegga said in Tour de France:
There's a prominent story on stuff about our tour rider, is that a sign I should be jumping on the bandwagon or is it still too soon?
I think a more accurate metric for "when to jump on the bandwagon" would be the length of the relevant TSF thread.
If/when this thread gets to 100 posts, I'll consider re-evaluating my views on bicycling, and I'll be on that bandwagon with some hastily compiled knowledge and opinions. -
@Kruse said in Tour de France:
@jegga said in Tour de France:
There's a prominent story on stuff about our tour rider, is that a sign I should be jumping on the bandwagon or is it still too soon?
I think a more accurate metric for "when to jump on the bandwagon" would be the length of the relevant TSF thread.
If/when this thread gets to 100 posts, I'll consider re-evaluating my views on bicycling, and I'll be on that bandwagon with some hastily compiled knowledge and opinions.Don't forget to brush up on your mechanical expertise and geography.
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Looking like today's results could be interesting as well.
Contador and Landa have 2min lead on the yellow jersey group, with Quintana, Kwiatkowski and Barguil about 10 seconds back.
Aru has no friends and is stuck in the Peleton covering Froome while Landa is looking to grab the Yellow.
