Tour de France
-
George Bennett moves into the top 10. I gather he crashed in the initial time trial and lost about a minute, so arguably he could have been even better placed.
Hasn't quite managed to stick with Froome in the mountains, but he's in the next small group of riders (with Quintana).
-
@Chris-B. said in Tour de France:
George Bennett moves into the top 10. I gather he crashed in the initial time trial and lost about a minute, so arguably he could have been even better placed.
Hasn't quite managed to stick with Froome in the mountains, but he's in the next small group of riders (with Quintana).
Great stage last night, at one point you had a group of probably the top 6 contenders all attacking each other up the mountain.
Kind of looks like Froome has this wrapped up already... looks like a dumb decision for Quintana to do the Giro, he looks rooted already. Losing his right hand man Valverde in the first Time Trial probably the final nail in the coffin for him
Bennett has done really well, have watched a few stages in full... another kiwi, Jack Bauer is getting a lot of TV time at the front of the pelaton as leadout man for Marcel Kitttel who has been killing everyone in the sprints.
-
-
-
@SammyC I usually watch a few stages, but haven't done so this year. Might try to watch the last couple of hours of this one since the highlights packages lose most of the subtlety - and waste a lot of time showing all the winning presentations - guy in coloured jersey stands on stage with two attractive girls in matching dresses - it's very predictable.
-
@Chris-B. said in Tour de France:
@SammyC I usually watch a few stages, but haven't done so this year.
I hadn't watched anything up until last night's stage and it was entirely predictable. I won't bother watching the rest.
-
It was over on the first climb stage earlier in the week where Froome cruised up surrounded by the Sky machine.
Aussie hope Richie Porte had a really nasty crash last night, and is gone.
Sagan was my favourite guy to watch in the tour as he did a bit of everything, and then won the sprints. But he's gone for poleaxing Cavendish.
But I'll watch for the scenery
If this was 15 years ago and Sky were dominating like this, you would have to cut down entire forests to print all the conjecture about them...
-
@mariner4life I reckon Sagan was hard done by. Cavendish looks like he was already going down before Sagan stuck out his elbow, which I don't think ever makes contact with him.
Cavendish tried to ride a dangerous line and paid the price.
Sagan will be agreeing with us about French refs!
-
@antipodean said in Tour de France:
@Chris-B. said in Tour de France:
@SammyC I usually watch a few stages, but haven't done so this year.I hadn't watched anything up until last night's stage and it was entirely predictable. I won't bother watching the rest.
I thought it was awesome.... Uran taking the stage win was not predictable at all.... I can't remember a stage win for him in at least 2 years (and he did it riding the last 13km unable to change gear) ..
Barguil in second also a major surprise.
Contador getting dropped a couple of times and fighting back hard, sketchy descents in the rain causing havoc, Bardet's attack was daring as always
I am tired of the "don't attack the yellow jersey stuff though". It's a race, part of the race is having your shit together.
Froome etc didn't wait for Dan Martin after the crash and they all knew about it .
Also why were fulsang and aru pulling for froome on that last climb. Watching the last 10-14k, froome's longest pull was 20-25 seconds. all his other pulls were short compared to everyone else.
Happy to see Quintana drop in the standings. He's boring as fuck in stage races. Just waits and waits and waits.
-
Last night's stage was amazing. If you don't like that, I feel you will struggle to like cycling. It was a very well designed stage. Too often they just put the biggest mountain at the end of a stage - it gives you an exciting final climb but the rest of the stage is just boring. Last night we had a kiwi doing well, attacks on the descent, crashes etc. We probably won't get a good GC battle in this tour now that Porte is out. Froome is still too strong.
-
@hydro11 said in Tour de France:
Last night's stage was amazing. If you don't like that, I feel you will struggle to like cycling
Nonsense. I've followed cycling for years. Last night was entirely predictable. Breakaway doesn't work together, splinters and gets caught. Check. Tempo riding gets rid of stragglers. Check. A couple of attacks while Quintana and Contador get blown out the arse. Check. A mechanical and crash. Check. Froome loses no ground and the Sky Train continues on its merry way to Paris. Check.
Seen it all before.
-
@SammyC said in Tour de France:
@antipodean said in Tour de France:
@Chris-B. said in Tour de France:
@SammyC I usually watch a few stages, but haven't done so this year.I hadn't watched anything up until last night's stage and it was entirely predictable. I won't bother watching the rest.
I thought it was awesome.... Uran taking the stage win was not predictable at all.... I can't remember a stage win for him in at least 2 years (and he did it riding the last 13km unable to change gear) ..
Barguil in second also a major surprise.
Contador getting dropped a couple of times and fighting back hard, sketchy descents in the rain causing havoc, Bardet's attack was daring as always
I am tired of the "don't attack the yellow jersey stuff though". It's a race, part of the race is having your shit together.
Froome etc didn't wait for Dan Martin after the crash and they all knew about it .
Also why were fulsang and aru pulling for froome on that last climb. Watching the last 10-14k, froome's longest pull was 20-25 seconds. all his other pulls were short compared to everyone else.
Happy to see Quintana drop in the standings. He's boring as fuck in stage races. Just waits and waits and waits.
The difference was when Aru went they were all riding tempo at the time. Froome signalled a mechanical and Aru blatantly attacked from immediately behind Froome and then lied about not knowing Froome ways in difficult. When Porte and Martin crashed they were were mostly just descending (albeit v quickly). They didnt decide to go any quicker immediately after the crash. Bardet then opened a gap which forced Froome to chase. If he had waited for Martin, then Bardet would be in yellow. There are subtle differences.
-
@scribe said in Tour de France:
@SammyC said in Tour de France:
@antipodean said in Tour de France:
@Chris-B. said in Tour de France:
@SammyC I usually watch a few stages, but haven't done so this year.I hadn't watched anything up until last night's stage and it was entirely predictable. I won't bother watching the rest.
I thought it was awesome.... Uran taking the stage win was not predictable at all.... I can't remember a stage win for him in at least 2 years (and he did it riding the last 13km unable to change gear) ..
Barguil in second also a major surprise.
Contador getting dropped a couple of times and fighting back hard, sketchy descents in the rain causing havoc, Bardet's attack was daring as always
I am tired of the "don't attack the yellow jersey stuff though". It's a race, part of the race is having your shit together.
Froome etc didn't wait for Dan Martin after the crash and they all knew about it .
Also why were fulsang and aru pulling for froome on that last climb. Watching the last 10-14k, froome's longest pull was 20-25 seconds. all his other pulls were short compared to everyone else.
Happy to see Quintana drop in the standings. He's boring as fuck in stage races. Just waits and waits and waits.
The difference was when Aru went they were all riding tempo at the time. Froome signalled a mechanical and Aru blatantly attacked from immediately behind Froome and then lied about not knowing Froome ways in difficult. When Porte and Martin crashed they were were mostly just descending (albeit v quickly). They didnt decide to go any quicker immediately after the crash. Bardet then opened a gap which forced Froome to chase. If he had waited for Martin, then Bardet would be in yellow. There are subtle differences.
Haha, yeah I kind of like Aru because he doesn't give a shit.. not the first time he's pulled a move like that and lied about it afterwards
Watching him argue with Porte afterwards was hillarious.
For those of us that don't find the Tour boring and predictable I highly recommend listening to Lance Armstrong's podcast called "stages". It airs about 1 hour after the finish off each stage, he definitely doesn't hold back.
Here's the one where he discusses the mountain stage above:
-
Marcel Kittel has won 5 of 11 stages this year. Ridiculous. Isn't the record 8?
Obviously all down to Jack Bauer.
-
@mariner4life said in Tour de France:
Marcel Kittel has won 5 of 11 stages this year. Ridiculous. Isn't the record 8?
Obviously all down to Jack Bauer.
Armstrong reckons he will win 8 stages. He's so much faster than everyone else.
Couple of boring stages last 2 days, most exciting moment was Nacer Bouhanni punching Jack Bauer..... French showing their bias again by fining him 200 swiss francs and a 1 minute time penalty.
Meanwhile Sagan is kicked out of the race for what could be seen as incidental contact in a sprint finish
-
@SammyC said in Tour de France:
@mariner4life said in Tour de France:
Marcel Kittel has won 5 of 11 stages this year. Ridiculous. Isn't the record 8?
Obviously all down to Jack Bauer.
Armstrong reckons he will win 8 stages. He's so much faster than everyone else.
Couple of boring stages last 2 days, most exciting moment was Nacer Bouhanni punching Jack Bauer..... French showing their bias again by fining him 200 swiss francs and a 1 minute time penalty.
Meanwhile Sagan is kicked out of the race for what could be seen as incidental contact in a sprint finish
the fucking French. Blow up our boats. Try to ban our dairy. and rob us of rightful test victories. Ignore assaults on our cyclists. Their treachery and villainy knows no bounds!
Back in to the mountains soon aren't we? Should liven things up for a second (until the Sky train just cruises the rest of the race)
-
@mariner4life said in Tour de France:
@SammyC said in Tour de France:
@mariner4life said in Tour de France:
Marcel Kittel has won 5 of 11 stages this year. Ridiculous. Isn't the record 8?
Obviously all down to Jack Bauer.
Armstrong reckons he will win 8 stages. He's so much faster than everyone else.
Couple of boring stages last 2 days, most exciting moment was Nacer Bouhanni punching Jack Bauer..... French showing their bias again by fining him 200 swiss francs and a 1 minute time penalty.
Meanwhile Sagan is kicked out of the race for what could be seen as incidental contact in a sprint finish
the fucking French. Blow up our boats. Try to ban our dairy. and rob us of rightful test victories. Ignore assaults on our cyclists. Their treachery and villainy knows no bounds!
Back in to the mountains soon aren't we? Should liven things up for a second (until the Sky train just cruises the rest of the race)
Back in the mountains tonight, it's a really tough stage with a really technical descent and an uphill finish.
If Aru etc are serious they have to attack Froome on this stage.
