milhouse Posted July 20, 2017 Share Posted July 20, 2017 This is all very US Postal. Yawn. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiegoDiego Posted July 20, 2017 Share Posted July 20, 2017 22 minutes ago, peasy23 said: Would Barguil help Bardet to try and get a French win? Are cyclists that nationalistic? I've always felt that commentators make it out to be a bigger deal than it is. I'm sure Barguil will be thinking about his team and himself long before nationalities begin to come into play. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F_T_Y Posted July 20, 2017 Share Posted July 20, 2017 Barguil demolished that last climb. Amazing. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peasy23 Posted July 20, 2017 Share Posted July 20, 2017 Barguil apart, it sort of fizzled out in the last few kms. Aru looked gubbed, and although Contador looks to be finished as a genuine GC contender fair play to him for having a go the last two days. Uran has never really had a go himself in the Alps, thought he might have let AG2R and Sky do all the graft then have a shot at it late on. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiddy Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 Thought Uran gave everything to close Froome down & had nothing left at the end for the sprint.Both he & Bardet can only hope for cross winds today, as they're now in the last chance saloon.As I can't see the Sky rider shipping the time in the ITT, especially when he goes last & will know the time splits. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomohawk Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 16 hours ago, milhouse said: This is all very US Postal. Yawn. Brailsford's bizarre rant the other day aside, why do you say that? All my opinion, clearly, but tactically, Sky have been superb. Froome appears to have gone into this year's Tour slightly undercooked as evidenced by his results in the lead up to the start, most notable being his relatively poor performance at the Dauphiné. He and Sky, however, managed to make everyone else believe that he was in top form which resulted in the other teams failing to capitalise (or perhaps it's a case that they simply weren't able to). The one day that he did look in difficulty, Bardet managed to put some time into him. The rest of the riders have looked pretty average, Uran excepted: Quintana has once again struggled in the hills where he should be looking to gain time, Aru has generally looked like he's been holding on for dear life as opposed to going for a win and Contador appears to be past his best. It would be interesting to see how things would have looked had Porte not crashed out and Martin not been taken out in the same incident causing him to lose so much time. However, none of these is Sky's fault - they've just generally kept out of trouble and defended the slim advantage they have. I think the TT on Saturday is shaping up to be a cracker given it's one of Uran's strongest disciplines. Although Bardet will likely slip to 3rd, Froome is clearly worried about the threat that Uran poses and I think it's going to be a lot closer than he would like. At the end of the day, someone has to win the event and you could probably level criticism at almost any of the riders, particularly Contador who has tested positive in the past. However, as we all know, Sky have the largest budget out of all the teams and will therefore be able to afford the best riders. I don't really see it being much different to Madrid's Galacticos or Chelsea/Manchester City in the past few years. Once you've put together such a strong team, you've not only vastly improved the chances of winning but you've also weakened the other teams in the process. I like to believe that all of the riders are clean. Perhaps I am being naive but if you assume that they're all dopers then it calls into question the reason for following professional cycling. There will always be bad eggs in the world and some of those bad eggs will ride bikes professionally, just as they might play football, run marathons or lift weights. Cycling is clearly tainted by its past but we have to believe that it's cleaner now than ever and I think the evidence for that is shown in the suffering on the riders' faces as they climb some of these hills. Roll on Saturday's TT, I say, and let's see the shoot out between Froome and Uran. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salvo Montalbano Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 Was going to say something similar @Thomohawk but didn't want to be accused of being a seething mess or feeding the troll or whatever insult the flavour of the month is! Sky have been lucky in a sense - the crash that affected them most in the Giro which ended Thomas and Landa's hopes in GC meant they could be used as domestiques here; Porte crashing out leaving BMC with no real threat; Valverde crashing out and Quintana looking buggered after the Giro meaning Movistar were no threat; Martin being involved in the Porte incident and Quick-Step splitting resources between Kittel and Martin; Contador being past it at the very top level; Sunweb and Quick-Step (and even Bora-Hansgrohe yesterday for some reason) chasing down breaks allowing Sky's train to take it relatively easy in the main bunch; lots of sprint stages meaning less work for the big mountain domestiques (and negating the poor form of Nieve - until yesterday - and Henao); the rain on the first stage putting a lot of Froome's rivals off... about the only things Sky have done themselves to make it easier for Froome to win this year is to improve their time trialling and descending. Bardet and FDJ no longer have the edge when it comes to going downhill which negates a formelly huge advantage Bardet used to have over the others. Quite how that is like US Postal is behind me (obvious trolling aside). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milhouse Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 (edited) 4 hours ago, Thomohawk said: Brailsford's bizarre rant the other day aside, why do you say that? All my opinion, clearly, but tactically, Sky have been superb. Froome appears to have gone into this year's Tour slightly undercooked as evidenced by his results in the lead up to the start, most notable being his relatively poor performance at the Dauphiné. He and Sky, however, managed to make everyone else believe that he was in top form which resulted in the other teams failing to capitalise (or perhaps it's a case that they simply weren't able to). The one day that he did look in difficulty, Bardet managed to put some time into him. The rest of the riders have looked pretty average, Uran excepted: Quintana has once again struggled in the hills where he should be looking to gain time, Aru has generally looked like he's been holding on for dear life as opposed to going for a win and Contador appears to be past his best. It would be interesting to see how things would have looked had Porte not crashed out and Martin not been taken out in the same incident causing him to lose so much time. However, none of these is Sky's fault - they've just generally kept out of trouble and defended the slim advantage they have. I think the TT on Saturday is shaping up to be a cracker given it's one of Uran's strongest disciplines. Although Bardet will likely slip to 3rd, Froome is clearly worried about the threat that Uran poses and I think it's going to be a lot closer than he would like. At the end of the day, someone has to win the event and you could probably level criticism at almost any of the riders, particularly Contador who has tested positive in the past. However, as we all know, Sky have the largest budget out of all the teams and will therefore be able to afford the best riders. I don't really see it being much different to Madrid's Galacticos or Chelsea/Manchester City in the past few years. Once you've put together such a strong team, you've not only vastly improved the chances of winning but you've also weakened the other teams in the process. I like to believe that all of the riders are clean. Perhaps I am being naive but if you assume that they're all dopers then it calls into question the reason for following professional cycling. There will always be bad eggs in the world and some of those bad eggs will ride bikes professionally, just as they might play football, run marathons or lift weights. Cycling is clearly tainted by its past but we have to believe that it's cleaner now than ever and I think the evidence for that is shown in the suffering on the riders' faces as they climb some of these hills. Roll on Saturday's TT, I say, and let's see the shoot out between Froome and Uran. From the selfish point of view as a spectator, the tactics from Sky just don't make it a particularly thrilling race. Sly gains on stages here and there, which then get defended heavily by super domestiques in the mountains who shut down the race as a competition (which is a US postal-esque approach). The whole "marginal gains" mantra (although it hasn't been talked up as much in recent seasons) is just lacking in flair and excitement a bit. A race with kamikaze invidual attacking is more to my taste. Edited July 21, 2017 by milhouse 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaggyness Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 How do the rumours of landa leaving to join movistar tie in with his statement he was leaving to be a team leader? Given movistar have furiously denied quintana is leaving and until his crash valverde was having arguably his finest season to date 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peasy23 Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 Today's stage profile, looks like that climb could be an easy one to get wrong if you pick the wrong gear set. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joey Jo Jo Junior Shabadoo Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 Just caught he Peter Sagan advert for Bora. Magnificent in its awfulness. Some boi. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiddy Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 Think the climb is catching a good few riders out today.Short & very steep, you could ship time easily if your gearing isn't spot on. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiddy Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 Luke Rowe saying the 10% gradient felt more like 20! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joey Jo Jo Junior Shabadoo Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 St Mirren fans in full voice in Marseille. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Brightside Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 St Mirren fans in full voice in Marseille. Not much of a surprise, it's been a poor Tour. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGreenMonster Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 Bardet staying on the podium by 1 second from Landa 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiddy Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 Landa's move to Movistar justified by Sky's tactics, through the race, costing them/him a podium by 1 second.Felt for Kwiatowski, as he's had a great tour & just missed the stage win. But Bodnar also deserves it for posting a tremendous time & having been caught in the last 200m following a 200k break. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiddy Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 Not much of a surprise, it's been a poor Tour. Closest tour for decades, with 30 secs covering the top 3 going into today.Aye, right enough, it's been poor.[emoji102] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Brightside Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 Closest tour for decades, with 30 secs covering the top 3 going into today.Aye, right enough, it's been poor.[emoji102] Was the result ever in any doubt? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiddy Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 Boardman suggesting Landa to go for a time bonus tomorrow? [emoji87] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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