Le Tour 2018
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And it's sagan. Becaus he's awesome
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@williethewaiter said in Le Tour 2018:
@chris-b said in Le Tour 2018:
... keep an eye on RoglicYeah, I am, because I've got a Slovenian friend that I've discussed Roglic and George with - and because I'm watching Lotto-Jumbo.
Unfortunately, if he and Kruijswijk do too well then next year George might end up riding as a super-domestique rather than team leader. And right now Roglic is doing very well.
He managed to "win" last night against the other GC riders, breaking away on the short final climb to pick up 8 seconds on Thomas, Froome and Dumoulin and more over everyone else. If Lotto-Jumbo hadn't lost a minute to Sky in the team time trial, he'd be right up there with Froome and Dumoulin.
An advantage Roglic has over George is that he's also an excellent time trialist - silver in the World Champs last year.
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@chris-b A team can have two GC contenders, because only one can be on top form at a time.
Plenty of guys support their leader in the Tour, but are given their own chance at the Vuelta. LottoNLJ have let George have the Tour off, so I don't think he's expect to support Roglic.
What team should he ride for? The good ones have higher ranked GC contenders or sprinters, and the ones he would be outright leader for aren't good enough to support big time wins.
Movistar have three guys at this Tour with bigger names than George. Teams cope.
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@chester-draws George just re-signed with Lotto Jumbo for three years - for what's likely to be most of the peak years of his career - so that die is cast.
No doubt teams can have two contenders - and even co-leaders, and they can switch horses during the race. In this year's tour, for instance, it's Kruijswijk who is the designated leader of LJ, not Roglic (though I reckon horses wouldn't be far from being switched).
According to George, he's being given the leadership for the Vuelta (which I'm sure he'll get) and then next year's TdF. But, if Roglic holds onto fourth or even improves to a podium spot, I reckon George would need a pretty good Vuelta to stop a re-think on that plan.
Probably better for George's aspirations if Roglic has a bad day and fades to eighth.
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I know the result was basically decided last week, but is this the best tour for ages? Every stage seems to be great fun to watch. The mountains were good, the cobbles were carnage, last night was mental at the start, with no breaks being able to form due to a ridiculous pace from the peleton. The racing just seems to be really hard this year.
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@mariner4life said in Le Tour 2018:
I know the result was basically decided last week, but is this the best tour for ages? Every stage seems to be great fun to watch. The mountains were good, the cobbles were carnage, last night was mental at the start, with no breaks being able to form due to a ridiculous pace from the peleton. The racing just seems to be really hard this year.
Agree, in recent years its been so boring compared with the Giro and Vuelta.
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@mariner4life I think there's still some intrigue to come.
Dumoulin is only 11 seconds behind Froome and Froome is riding for his legacy - I'm pretty doubtful he's going to be happy to let Thomas win for Sky. So Froome's got to put more time between himself and Dumoulin before the final time trial.
If I'm Dumoulin, I'd be thinking I can't cover both of them, so I'd just ignore anything Thomas does and sit on Froome - ask him if he's willing to let his team mate win.
Sky's to lose, but they could fuck it up by trying to engineer the win for Froome.
Of course, Froome's probably going to unleash a blistering ride like he did in the Giro and blow everyone away, but that's still to happen. The pundits are expecting it on Stage 17.
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And Sky lost a rider last night for being a bit too fighty
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Rest days are shit. What am i supposed to do tonight? Go to bed at a decent hour with the wife?
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@mariner4life said in Le Tour 2018:
Rest days are shit. What am i supposed to do tonight? Go to bed at a decent hour with the wife?
Look at the bright side. At least she won't have to spend as much on batteries.
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@crucial said in Le Tour 2018:
@mariner4life said in Le Tour 2018:
Rest days are shit. What am i supposed to do tonight? Go to bed at a decent hour with the wife?
Look at the bright side. At least she won't have to spend as much on
batteries.Diesel.There. Fixed it for you.
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Latour might be giving the GC peleton a nervous moment.
Currently eaten into his 17:30 deficit by 12:00 and in a decent group of climbers. Nearly at the top of the Col de Mente and less than 50km to go.
If he has the legs he has an opportunity to have a real crack at catching up on the GC board. -
At most Latour will take 7 or 8 minutes out of the leaders now, the peleton never really put the foot down but the chance was missed. After all of that effort he doesn't look like extending his white jersey lead either as Martin has tracked him
Yates having a crack at the stage win with Alaphilipe chasing him
Edit: Yates crashes about 5km out.
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Good stage. Pace at the front for the first 100km or so was ridiculous. A protest stops the race. This tour has every thing.
If anyone is planning on having a go, they are starting to run out of time.
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@mariner4life said in Le Tour 2018:
Good stage. Pace at the front for the first 100km or so was ridiculous. A protest stops the race. This tour has every thing.
If anyone is planning on having a go, they are starting to run out of time.
Tonight is the night according to the pundits! I think there's an expectation that Froome will try something similar to what he did to win the Giro - ride away from everyone on the first climb.
Not sure it will work this time - because he needs to fragment the chase and everyone will be watching for him.
Might be someone else who makes the big long range attack?
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@chris-b To win a stage like that alone from the start requires not only that you can climb, but that you can descend better than everyone else too. Otherwise all the work on the way up will be destroyed on the way down. I don't see Froome able to do that alone, so he'd need to take a domestique who can descend, and will Sky splinter the team on a long-shot to beat their own man?
Also I reckon Dumoulin will haul in such an attack by sticking to exactly the right pace and not wasting energy on bursts. It's his m.o. and Froome hasn't been able to shake him all race. Thomas will mark Dumoulin, knowing that he sets the best pace. Provided a decent descender goes up behind them, they'd haul in Froome.
Also I'd put money that Alaphillipe and Barguil will attack the first climb. They'll be too knackered to wait till the last and they'll want the early points. Well, Barguil will go, and Alaphillipe will mark him. Others will follow. Too big a group like that and it'll never get away.
So my pick is that everyone will charge out of the gates and it will be a massive sprint from the get-go. Halfway up the second climb it will be leaders only as everyone else won't be able to keep up. The big time gainers will be the best descenders from the second peak.
Roglic to do well. Thomas to beat Dumoulin by 10 seconds and Froome by 30. Bardet and Quintana to fade badly.
Nice thing about precise predictions is that I'm bound to be wrong though. Cycling is like that.
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Is quintana a massive cat or just not that good?
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@mariner4life said in Le Tour 2018:
Is quintana a massive cat or just not that good?
He's bloody frustrating that's for sure. He always looks like he's waiting to pounce but never does.
There's no way that Froome is going to not have a crack. He wants the Giro/TdF double to go with last years TdF/Vuelta.
His problem is that he knows Dumoulin can erase the current deficit between the two on the TT so has to break well clear of him. DuMoulin will just stick to him.I think there is still some hope that Thomas will crack. Sky can't afford to try and engineer a Froome win in case Dumolin comes over the top of him. Classic 'dog with two bones' situation.
Today's stage is an odd one. Grand Prix Grid start so that the leading GC contenders are at the front and their teams will have to jostle forward to reach them and get organised. Also a very short stage apparently designed for attacking.
