The Official, 103rd Tour de France, thread

[Motogull]

Falling like flies down this last descent. Yellow just gone front wheel going from under him on the central white line, Mollema off, several riders going straight on into woods instead of going around the bends. Nothing like a bit of rain to liven things up!

That Froome / Nibs off was textbook motorcycle racing stuff. Makes me wince to see mind.

 

[pb21]

As Jens Voight said why did Froome cross the white line in the wet on a corner, schoolboy error

 

[1066familyman]

and I'm £40 up because of it.

Great riding today, in with a couple of nasty crashes.

Wout Poels did a fantastic job 12 months ago, and has done even better today.

One of the reasons I love watching cycling is for that kind of selfless riding.

Just finished watching the live coverage back. Hallelujah!!! We finally get a decent GC stage, and what a stage it was too!

To be honest I thought Bardet would go for more damage tomorrow rather than today because of tomorrow's descent finish. Attacks from Porte, Aru & Bardet were always nailed on, as per your prognostication, but I was gutted to see you'd backed Bardet as I thought that would do for him

Chapeau to yourself on your bet because it's always a treat to see one come in

But what an attack that was from AG2R! Only two men to play with and yet they pull that off on a super strong Astana, and Bardet then holds off other attacks coming from podium contenders behind. Perfectly planned as they know what a demon descender Bardet is and Cherel played his role perfectly. The crashes all helped too of course but the balls to go that far out deserved all the rewards it got. Barring the Froome attack over the top and his superb descent stage win, we haven't see any other GC rider or team have the balls to go for anything less than the now stock 3km out attack really ( although I think Mollema, Porte & Froome went from about 5km on the day of farce). Dan Martin is about the only other gutsy rider to attack all or nothing, with double balls seeing as he has no teams mates at the business end to help him.

Gutted for Mollema to lose podium because of a crash though, and sorry to see Porte suffer a bit because of that too. Top ride from Yates to hang in there, even if he does slip off podium. If he can hang in there tomorrow he might want to go for it on that final descent to see if he can claw back those 9 seconds on Quintana.

Almost best until last. Top top ride from Meintjes today (and in yesterday's TT too). Just getting stronger and stronger it seems, and although I doubt he'll get the jersey from Yates, he's having a great Tour, just as his Dauphine form suggested he would.

All to play for tomorrow still. Excited to finally have a race on our hands, even if Yellow is still done and dusted.

 

[Stat Brother]

Just finished watching the live coverage back. Hallelujah!!! We finally get a decent GC stage, and what a stage it was too!

To be honest I thought Bardet would go for more damage tomorrow rather than today because of tomorrow's descent finish. Attacks from Porte, Aru & Bardet were always nailed on, as per your prognostication, but I was gutted to see you'd backed Bardet as I thought that would do for him

Chapeau to yourself on your bet because it's always a treat to see one come in

But what an attack that was from AG2R! Only two men to play with and yet they pull that off on a super strong Astana, and Bardet then holds off other attacks coming from podium contenders behind. Perfectly planned as they know what a demon descender Bardet is and Cherel played his role perfectly. The crashes all helped too of course but the balls to go that far out deserved all the rewards it got. Barring the Froome attack over the top and his superb descent stage win, we haven't see any other GC rider or team have the balls to go for anything less than the now stock 3km out attack really ( although I think Mollema, Porte & Froome went from about 5km on the day of farce). Dan Martin is about the only other gutsy rider to attack all or nothing, with double balls seeing as he has no teams mates at the business end to help him.

Gutted for Mollema to lose podium because of a crash though, and sorry to see Porte suffer a bit because of that too. Top ride from Yates to hang in there, even if he does slip off podium. If he can hang in there tomorrow he might want to go for it on that final descent to see if he can claw back those 9 seconds on Quintana.

Almost best until last. Top top ride from Meintjes today (and in yesterday's TT too). Just getting stronger and stronger it seems, and although I doubt he'll get the jersey from Yates, he's having a great Tour, just as his Dauphine form suggested he would.

All to play for tomorrow still. Excited to finally have a race on our hands, even if Yellow is still done and dusted.

Just enough time to blow my own

'I pity the fool' that takes on 'driving' this thread next year.
Prognosticating Stat hasn't missed by much all race*.





*I know all that proves is it's been really predictable.

 

[1066familyman]

Just enough time to blow my own

'I pity the fool' that takes on 'driving' this thread next year.
Prognosticating Stat hasn't missed by much all race*.





*I know all that proves is it's been really predictable.

I'm glad you put in the T&C at the bottom. It's hardly been rocket science has it, unfortunately.

 

[Stat Brother]

I just had to check I was looking at today's on-board footage, as it's dishwatertastic.

1 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 4:14:08
2 Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha 0:00:23
3 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team
4 Louis Meintjes (RSA) Lampre - Merida
5 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:00:26
6 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:00:28
7 Daniel Martin (Irl) Etixx - Quick-Step
8 Wouter Poels (Ned) Team Sky 0:00:36
9 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky
10 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:53

General classification after stage 19

1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 82:10:37
2 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:04:11
3 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:04:27
4 Adam Yates (GBr) Orica-BikeExchange 0:04:46
5 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:05:17
6 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:06:00

Point classification

1 Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff Team 425 pts
2 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Etixx - Quick-Step 228
3 Michael Matthews (Aus) Orica-BikeExchange 163
4 Bryan Coquard (Fra) Direct Energie 156
5 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Team Katusha 152

Sorry [MENTION=588]8ace[/MENTION] this is just to prove I got close.
But it's hard to see Matthews keeping third place in the points competition after Sunday's Paris sprint.

 

[Stat Brother]

Just a quickie today.

Stage 20: Megève - Morzine, 146 km







Prognostication:-

A lesser version of yesterday, some squabbling for places but no big moves.
The remnants of the break will stay away.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

Massive break away group. If this stage isn't won by the GC riders I'm done with the TdF.

No point staying up late for borefests.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

C'mon Kreuziger, push all these arse clowns off the podium.

 

[Hamilton]

Nibali looks immense.


Sent from my iPhone in a non-Calde world :-(

 

[Hamilton]

This is a fabulous advert for Le Tour.


Sent from my iPhone in a non-Calde world :-(

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

This is a fabulous advert for Le Tour.


Sent from my iPhone in a non-Calde world :-(

Sarcasm!

 

[Hamilton]

Sarcasm!

I'm talking about the battle at the tete.


Sent from my iPhone in a non-Calde world :-(

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

I'm talking about the battle at the tete.


Sent from my iPhone in a non-Calde world :-(

And that there is why the event is a shower of shit now.

Last GC day, last mountain and it's a bunch of non GC riders going to fill the top 10 positions.

Only one stage has been won by a GC rider on the GC stages this year.

That's a poor advert for the Tour.

 

[Hamilton]

And that there is why the event is a shower of shit now.

Last GC day, last mountain and it's a bunch of non GC riders going to fill the top 10 positions.

Only one stage has been won by a GC rider on the GC stages this year.

That's a poor advert for the Tour.

Bollocks.

Because Froome and team have been brilliant in winning it and today is just a great one day race.

Yates battle will be interesting too.

Sorry I said bollocks.


Sent from my iPhone in a non-Calde world :-(

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

Bollocks.


Sent from my iPhone in a non-Calde world :-(

Truth.

GC is woeful.

GC riders love to put their teams in the way of the sprint teams to "keep their riders safe" yet when they get to the GC stages their riders don't do shit.

Bardet win only GC win on a GC stage that's not a TT.

 

[Hamilton]

Truth.

GC is woeful.

GC riders love to put their teams in the way of the sprint teams to "keep their riders safe" yet when they get to the GC stages their riders don't do shit.

Bardet win only GC win on a GC stage that's not a TT.

Cavendish has gone on record to disagree with that, especially with regards to Sky.


Sent from my iPhone in a non-Calde world :-(

 

[Hamilton]

As Sean Kelly just said, this was the 'Monument' stage.


Sent from my iPhone in a non-Calde world :-(

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

Another yawn of a stage over.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

Look at all the GC riders coming in together. Waiting for the last 500 metres to put in a sprint.

Gutless.