Incidentally, don't think many people have mentioned what a great job Geraint Thomas did yesterday - he took the initiative when Contador was weakening and gained Porte a very handy 40 secs.
The Pro Cycling Thread (Part 2)
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Originally Posted by Aftershow:
“I'd thought that too, but that was obviously on the assumption Froome would win/complete the Tour.
There's probably a good chance Wiggins will have signed a contract with another team for next year by the start of the Vuelta, so Brailsford will have even less compulsion to try and keep him happy.”
“I'd thought that too, but that was obviously on the assumption Froome would win/complete the Tour.
There's probably a good chance Wiggins will have signed a contract with another team for next year by the start of the Vuelta, so Brailsford will have even less compulsion to try and keep him happy.”
I'm interested in what Wiggins (and Cav) have as targets for the 2016 Olympics because I'm almost convinced that if they want to ride the track events, then they will have to start pulling off the road and concentrating more on track events to get the necessary qualifictions and team slots.
Originally Posted by grassmarket:
“Incidentally, don't think many people have mentioned what a great job Geraint Thomas did yesterday - he took the initiative when Contador was weakening and gained Porte a very handy 40 secs.”
“Incidentally, don't think many people have mentioned what a great job Geraint Thomas did yesterday - he took the initiative when Contador was weakening and gained Porte a very handy 40 secs.”
I'd have Geraint as team leader, to be honest.
Originally Posted by aggs:
“I'm interested in what Wiggins (and Cav) have as targets for the 2016 Olympics because I'm almost convinced that if they want to ride the track events, then they will have to start pulling off the road and concentrating more on track events to get the necessary qualifictions and team slots.”
“I'm interested in what Wiggins (and Cav) have as targets for the 2016 Olympics because I'm almost convinced that if they want to ride the track events, then they will have to start pulling off the road and concentrating more on track events to get the necessary qualifictions and team slots.”
Cav signaled his intent to try and do that at the back end of last year, but OPQS put a stop to it, if you remember.
I'm with you on Porte too, i'm not convinced he can get it done over three weeks.
Originally Posted by Aftershow:
“Cav signaled his intent to try and do that at the back end of last year, but OPQS put a stop to it, if you remember.
I'm with you on Porte too, i'm not convinced he can get it done over three weeks.”
“Cav signaled his intent to try and do that at the back end of last year, but OPQS put a stop to it, if you remember.
I'm with you on Porte too, i'm not convinced he can get it done over three weeks.”
Yes, but I dunno.
Now it's getting closer to the crunch time, I can see him trying to re-visit. That gold medal gap hurts him.
Pretty much flat today but it's still raining on and off and there are strong winds
Sean reckons that 50K of the course will be in cross winds and he predicts that the peloton will be smashed to pieces........
So it could be pretty exciting for a flat stage !........
Sean reckons that 50K of the course will be in cross winds and he predicts that the peloton will be smashed to pieces........
So it could be pretty exciting for a flat stage !........
Originally Posted by gemma-the-husky:
“Anyway, a bad stage for my best, except for my bet on sagan to win green. Mind you, I only got 8/15 - he had been a bit longer than that. He must be about 1/8 now.
Just checked. 1/12 lol”
“Anyway, a bad stage for my best, except for my bet on sagan to win green. Mind you, I only got 8/15 - he had been a bit longer than that. He must be about 1/8 now.
Just checked. 1/12 lol”
Sagan to win the green jersey was and still is the safest bet in the whole tour
No one has mentioned Andrew Talanski on here
he is in the form of his life and his mountain top stage win in the Criterium du Dauphine was spectacular over coming 39 seconds on Contador and took 5 minutes out of Froome
I can see him getting on the podium here
as much as I like Nibali he generally has one really bad day in the mountains after having a a run of great climbs.. I think Contador is the favourite he is far and away the best climber in the race
and Richie Porte for a top 5 finish
he is in the form of his life and his mountain top stage win in the Criterium du Dauphine was spectacular over coming 39 seconds on Contador and took 5 minutes out of Froome
I can see him getting on the podium here
as much as I like Nibali he generally has one really bad day in the mountains after having a a run of great climbs.. I think Contador is the favourite he is far and away the best climber in the race
and Richie Porte for a top 5 finish
Originally Posted by Party Animal:
“No one has mentioned Andrew Talanski on here
he is in the form of his life and his mountain top stage win in the Criterium du Dauphine was spectacular over coming 39 seconds on Contador and took 5 minutes out of Froome
I can see him getting on the podium here
as much as I like Nibali he generally has one really bad day in the mountains after having a a run of great climbs.. I think Contador is the favourite he is far and away the best climber in the race
and Richie Porte for a top 5 finish”
“No one has mentioned Andrew Talanski on here
he is in the form of his life and his mountain top stage win in the Criterium du Dauphine was spectacular over coming 39 seconds on Contador and took 5 minutes out of Froome
I can see him getting on the podium here
as much as I like Nibali he generally has one really bad day in the mountains after having a a run of great climbs.. I think Contador is the favourite he is far and away the best climber in the race
and Richie Porte for a top 5 finish”
The way Sky are going at the mintue, I think anyone actually making it to Paris will be a bonus.
Is there a minimum number a team must have or could a team end up with just one rider after the end of a tour '
Originally Posted by basdfg:
“Is there a minimum number a team must have or could a team end up with just one rider after the end of a tour '”
“Is there a minimum number a team must have or could a team end up with just one rider after the end of a tour '”
no there's no minimum.......
they can all abandon ..........
there is a Team Classification..........I guess if a team have all abandoned they'll just be at the bottom of that
Something went wrong for Kittel.........he was toodling along at the back of the peloton as they came into the last couple of Kilometres, don't know if he crashed or just got squeezed out around a roundabout
The predicted smashing of the peloton with cross winds never happened although one quite large group got dropped off the back
It seemed to me that with the rain and a few early crashes there was a gentlemen's agreement not to race until they reached the town........they just appeared to be coasting along stretched across the road .........
The predicted smashing of the peloton with cross winds never happened although one quite large group got dropped off the back
It seemed to me that with the rain and a few early crashes there was a gentlemen's agreement not to race until they reached the town........they just appeared to be coasting along stretched across the road .........
Originally Posted by swingaleg:
“Something went wrong for Kittel.........he was toodling along at the back of the peloton as they came into the last couple of Kilometres, don't know if he crashed or just got squeezed out around a .........”
“Something went wrong for Kittel.........he was toodling along at the back of the peloton as they came into the last couple of Kilometres, don't know if he crashed or just got squeezed out around a .........”
It said on the review after that he had a puncture
I just wonder if there is going to be anyone left for the final stage into Paris the way they have all been abandoning.
Well, Henri Desgrange did say that the perfect race for him would be only one rider completing the event 
Watching André Greipel during that last sprint makes him look like a man on a child's bike! He is so big and the bike so small, he's practically throwing it around trying to get as much speed as he can.
Originally Posted by James1953:
“It said on the review after that he had a puncture”
“It said on the review after that he had a puncture”
on ITV4 he said he didn't have a puncture, he said he couldn't keep up with the pace today (possibly due to his crash yesterday). Very dignified IMO.
I mentioned yesterday about the chances of Geraint Thomas finishing Top 10, is this realisitc.
There's a good chance that a sprinter will not win another stage until Paris now, possibly one a couple of days before. There looks absolutely nothing for them in well over a week now. Sagan or Kristoff might have enough to nick one but not in a bunch. Wouldn't be surprised if Kittel, Griepel etc gave it up before then.
And we should mention that Peter Kennaugh won the opening time trial in the Tour of Austria at the weekend, and is still in yellow after 4 stages so obviously the Sky team is working. Presumably it is hilly
Photograph of Peter holding a giant salami here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/28247086
Photograph of Peter holding a giant salami here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/28247086
Originally Posted by Jules 1:
“
I mentioned yesterday about the chances of Geraint Thomas finishing Top 10, is this realisitc.”
“
I mentioned yesterday about the chances of Geraint Thomas finishing Top 10, is this realisitc.”
Not if he is protecting Porte, he will be expected to work hard on the middle slopes of the big climbs and then lose time in the last few kilometres.
Originally Posted by grassmarket:
“Not if he is protecting Porte, he will be expected to work hard on the middle slopes of the big climbs and then lose time in the last few kilometres.”
“Not if he is protecting Porte, he will be expected to work hard on the middle slopes of the big climbs and then lose time in the last few kilometres.”
Unless Porte has his somewhat traditional bad day, and ships bucketloads of time.
Originally Posted by Cissy Fairfax:
“There's a good chance that a sprinter will not win another stage until Paris now, possibly one a couple of days before. There looks absolutely nothing for them in well over a week now. Sagan or Kristoff might have enough to nick one but not in a bunch. Wouldn't be surprised if Kittel, Griepel etc gave it up before then.”
“There's a good chance that a sprinter will not win another stage until Paris now, possibly one a couple of days before. There looks absolutely nothing for them in well over a week now. Sagan or Kristoff might have enough to nick one but not in a bunch. Wouldn't be surprised if Kittel, Griepel etc gave it up before then.”
Not sure about that. I think there's at least two of the three stages into St Etienne, Oyonnax and Nimes that will probably end up in a bunch sprint. The one into Mulhouse, to a lesser extent, could too although it might be one that the break could cling on to.
Eurosport just left the race for a moment to tell us about the 3 former TdF winners killed in the first world war.......
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