The Official 99th Tour de France thread, 2012.

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

This is fantastic

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

Let Froome dog go...

 

[Indurain's Lungs]

Why the hell haven't they let Froome chase for the victory!!!

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

Its always annoying when you are better at your job than your boss

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

Nicolas Roche scores well

 

[Stat Brother]

It'll be interesting to know, who put the brakes on.

Did Froome want to go or stay.
Did Wiggins want him to go or stay.

 

[1066familyman]

Chapeau Valverde ! Good to see him hold out

Let all the Sky divisive talk begin though

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

Thats a sweat on Valverde, like he was being chased by a wild beast

 

[Pantani]

Froome

would have won that stage easy, if they had let him go. Why they didn't I'll never know, Wiggins still has the race in the bag.

3rd, 4th, 6th and 8th for me today I think.

 

[Stat Brother]

Chapeau Valverde ! Good to see him hold out

Let all the Sky divisive talk begin though

Kind of
They both rode ALL other contenders of their wheel.
They just fannied around for the victory.

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

Bigger picture its good.

However SKY seem conservative in tactics, must be annoying for Froome

 

[1066familyman]

Bigger picture its good.

However SKY seem conservative in tactics, must be annoying for Froome

Conservative is understandable when you're protecting Yellow. Sometimes they seem a bit naive I think. But I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Bigger picture its good.

However SKY seem conservative in tactics, must be annoying for Froome

Conservative is understandable when you're protecting Yellow. . But I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

I'm with 1066 on this.

Froome's day will come. For now he can stick to to job he signed up for.

Ultimately, in six month's time nobody is going to give a shit who the stage winners were. Its all about the GC, as it should be.

 

[Stat Brother]

4 separate riders and 1 team threw the kitchen sink at Froome and Wiggins and they still rode them off their wheels.
As Gary Imlach said 'whilst arguing'

I guess Brad isn't going to do all of that, and let his team mate swipe it off him in the last km.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Conservative is understandable when you're protecting Yellow. Sometimes they seem a bit naive I think. But I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

Looked good to me, protect your man in yellow, okay Froome may have won the stage, but would Wiggins have put that much distance into Nibali without him? Good solid team tactics IMHO.

 

[1066familyman]

I'd like to forward wind the clock and hear what people have to say when Wiggins is riding for Froome next year. So many people can't seem to ever take a long view (none on this thread thankfully). It's like the football manager sacking merry go round. Thank God we've got a manager and chairman who can see the long view and a winning British based road cycling team that can too

 

[Bozza]

Are there any team instructions when it comes to the time trial?

I know Wiggins is seen as a time trial maestro but if Froome had gone after the stage today, he could have ended up 30-40 seconds closer to Wiggins. If the time trial is a just-go-for-it free-for-all then there could still have been a chance that Froome could get very close to Wiggins, if not in front of him, on Saturday.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Brailsford; "teamwork, sacrifice, unity"

 

[Stat Brother]

I will say now there's no way Wiggins will win next year.

Will he have the heart to come back and swap roles with CF?

 

[1066familyman]

Looked good to me, protect your man in yellow, okay Froome may have won the stage, but would Wiggins have put that much distance into Nibali without him? Good solid team tactics IMHO.

I'm not talking about the stage finish in terms of being naive, I have no problem with how it finished today.

I'm talking about Cav leaving Porte today rather than riding him back on. Also a few stages back when they had the chance to really break everyone and didn't, and early into this Tour when they weren't riding as far at the front of the peleton as they should have been ( they soon rectified that though thankfully).

Edit: Generally though, throughout this Tour and when it's really mattered, their tactics have been superb.