The Official 104th Tour de France thread

[Indurain's Lungs]

The commentators and riders were saying all day the wind couldn't make up it's mind down the very long home straight, either head or tailwind.
Also, by my rudimentary maths, G caught his minute man with 4 seconds to spare and his 2 minute man crossed the line only 6 seconds in front.
G maxed out his effort at 62.5km/h, which assuming that was down the closing straight he was a good 10km/h faster than Martin.

Good points, the minute-men would have made a significant difference. Certainly the difference between 1st and 2nd.

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[Stat Brother]

Good points, the minute-men would have made a significant difference. Certainly the difference between 1st and 2nd.

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Top statage, that's me done for 3 weeks.

 

[pb21]

Quite right, it does depend. Just seen someone tweet that petacchi was 4 months, Henao 9m and Phinney still struggling years later.

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Surely game over for Valverde? X weeks/months off at his age will affect his top end significantly, which he relies on so much.

Bad way to go if that's how it turns out, but he was supposed to riding solely for Quintana so why was he overcooking the corners like that?

 

[Indurain's Lungs]

Surely game over for Valverde? X weeks/months off at his age will affect his top end significantly, which he relies on so much.

Bad way to go if that's how it turns out, but he was supposed to riding solely for Quintana so why was he overcooking the corners like that?

I'm not sure he was really riding for quintana. Previous years when quintana has been in a stronger position he's insisted on "joint leadership". I think he was looking to take time out of quintana and try to secure leadership.

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[Motogull]

Surely game over for Valverde? X weeks/months off at his age will affect his top end significantly, which he relies on so much.

Possibly, and maybe probably, but we need to wait and see.

Anyway, today's stage was in Kraftwerk's home town.

 

[Fignon's Ponytail]

Just looked on the Bahrain Merida website, & Izagirre is having surgery as he fractured his lower back! :-(
Really hope he recovers well and is racing again when able.

 

[BNthree]

Not sure I am buying ITVs summation of Porte's ride there. Slower than Simon Yates is awful for a rider like Porte, he should be putting time in to him over that distance. Last time they were head to head in a TT (three weeks and a bit ago) Porte put a minute in to Yates. I am aware Porte would be taking no unnecessary risks but Yates said himself in his interview he was careful in the corners.

Porte went out in the team car behind Nicole Roche and watched Roche stack it. Think that put the heebeejeebees up Port and he decided not to lose the tour on the first day like ValVerde did.

 

[BNthree]

The Cycling Podcast, on soundcloud.com, do a great daily summary of the days stage as do ITV sport.

 

[Pantani]

Stage 1 Review

Result:

1 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 0:16:04
2 Stefan Küng (Swi) BMC Racing Team 0:00:05
3 Vasil Kiryienka (Blr) Team Sky 0:00:07
4 Tony Martin (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin 0:00:08
5 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:10
6 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 0:00:12
7 Jos Van Emden (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:00:15
8 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Team Sky
9 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:16
10 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Dimension Data


General Classification:

1 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 0:16:04
2 Stefan Küng (Swi) BMC Racing Team 0:00:05
3 Vasil Kiryienka (Blr) Team Sky 0:00:07
4 Tony Martin (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin 0:00:08
5 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:10
6 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 0:00:12
7 Jos Van Emden (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:00:15
8 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Team Sky
9 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:16
10 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Dimension Data


Pantani's GC contenders classification (I am being extremely generous with the definition of general classification contender for this to begin with)

1 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 0:16:04
2 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 0:00:12
3 Pierre Roger Latour (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:25
4 Simon Yates (GBr) Orica-Scott 0:00:37
5 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:47
6 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:00:48
7 Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:49
8 Andrew Talansky (USA) Cannondale-Drapac 0:00:49
9 Daniel Martin (Irl) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:49
10 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ 0:00:50
11 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:51
12 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:00:52
13 Alberto Contador (Spa) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:54
14 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team 0:00:54
15 Warren Barguil (Fra) Team Sunweb 0:00:59
16 Rigoberto Uran (Col) Cannondale-Drapac 0:01:03
17 Louis Meintjes (RSA) UAE Team Emirates 0:01:12
18 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-Scott 0:01:13
DNF Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar
DNF Ion Izagirre (Spa) Bahrain-Merida


What can you say? A fantastic day for British riders. So pleased for Geraint Thomas after his crash in the Giro. I think [MENTION=435]Stat Brother[/MENTION] got it right with the catching of the minute and two minute men right near the end. Everyone was tying up in to that head wind whilst G totally smashed it.


Good Day:
Team Sky obviously, a completely dominant display from them. Froome more than 30 seconds up on all of his main rivals, Thomas winning the stage and taking yellow and two others in the top 8 on the stage.
Simon Yates, his best ever display in a time trial, right when it mattered. You would never expect him to beat a lot of those other GC contenders in a flat time trial.
Pierre Roger Latour, smashed his team mate Bardet and is the leading Frenchman.

Bad Day:
Alejandro Valverde. Looked like a horrible crash. As others have said his career must be in doubt.
Ion Izagirre, have not seen his crash anywhere yet but it also sounds like a pretty bad one. I am especially saddened by this as he is one of my favourites.
Richie Porte, that performance just was not good enough. He knows it, we know it. His interview post finishing the stage showed so much weakness. He had built up some air of invincibility this season with his form and results. One TT and a bit of rain and we are back to the same old Porte, the Australian TJVG.
Jakob Fuglsang, same as Porte really. He is a much better time trialist than this result would indicate. Another terrible ride.

 

[Stat Brother]

[tweet]881247743720796160[/tweet]

 

[Pantani]

Stage 2 Preview

Düsseldorf to Liège 203.5km

Route


Profile


Final 5km



Pan flat bar some pretend climbs so they can actually present the Polka Dot jersey at the end of the stage. The first climb especially is basically a joke.

Expect:
A massive bun fight to win that first 'climb' and get the polka dot jersey. With it so close to the beginning we may even see a sprint style lead out to the top.
After that a bunch of no mark riders from the smaller teams will get in the break.
They will be reeled in at the end for a bunch sprint.
Watch the first half an hour or so, and the last half an hour.

Bets:
Not much value out there for this one. I have gone for Greipel 9-1. Kittel is way too short to make him worth betting on. I have also gone for a an accumulator on various match ups.
Cav is available at 10-1 if you are interested, not quite long enough odds for me with his lack of form.
Ben Swift at 250-1 is just too long so I popped a small each way bet on that as well.

 

[Pantani]

Well that did not take long.

Today's break Taylor Phinney (Can); Laurent Pichon (TFO); Yoann Offredo (Wan) and Boudat (DEN)

Particularly enjoyed the riders blocking the front of the peloton so it went away nice and quickly.

 

[Pantani]

Taylor Phinney takes the first KoM point. If he wants the jersey at the end of the day he might be wise to sit up and wait for the bunch now.

 

[banjo]

Sitting in the garden watching the Tour. Happy days.

 

[whitelion]

I've got this on Eurosport now - horrible weather hopefully there'll be no injuries.

 

[Driver8]

Does anybody know if they shut the whole route to traffic on the day the tour goes through or just in bits as the riders go past? I will be going through Troyes on Wednesday and am trying to work out if I need to find another route home.

 

[banjo]

Big crash. Ouch!!

 

[martin tyler]

Froome and some other sky riders down. Seems Thomas may of gone as well but he doesn't appear to be with groom at this time not sure if he's down still or up the road chasing the peleton

 

[Motogull]

Surgery for Valverde does not bode at all well for the rest of the season.

 

[Stat Brother]

Does anybody know if they shut the whole route to traffic on the day the tour goes through or just in bits as the riders go past? I will be going through Troyes on Wednesday and am trying to work out if I need to find another route home.

That'll be fine as the Tour finishes in Troyes on Thursday, there might be local diversions for 'events', but not wholesale closures.

http://letouratroyes.fr/gb/ - should help you out.