Something both Tejay and Fabian said during their interview - I paraphrase:
From the standpoint of what fans will expect to see, I suppose they are right. We will not see Froome dominate the mountain stages like he has in the past couple of years.
But on the other hand, his sudden absence and the fact that Nairo Quintana sat out this year, really opens the field to a bunch of surprises. I know some will say Contador is a strong favourite now, but I feel like he doesn’t have the team support or the legs for a win.
The outcome seems much less predictable now and therefore much more exciting to watch.
My guess is that whoever wins now will not win by absolute domination in the mountains stages.
So true. How many times am I going to say, “WTF, Jens Voigt is out by himself again?” He said he was hanging up his bike last year and didn’t, so there’s hope he might stay for a few more years.
The crowds in England - insane. Almost as bad as some of the big climbs in France except that the masses went on for miles.
Great tour so far but too many accidents. While there are plenty of good sprinters to replace Cav and GC guys to replace Froome, the loss of the two best bikers in their catagories has to detract from Le Tour. At some point we are all going to be saying, “yeah, but [fill in the blank] couldn’t have done that if so-and-so were here.”
Froome might be the best climber, but really hasn’t been able to it more than once so far (in a grand tour). Even without the fall I would expect him to lose more on the cobbles than Contador.
If anything, it’s too bad Quintana isn’t there in the mountains.
I think Froome has shown his climbing abilities more than in just one tour. Sure, he won last year. But he dropped his team leader, Bradley Wiggins, the year before on the HC climbs. You could feel Froome’s frustration in having to slow down to let Wiggins catch him up.
It would be too close to call if Quintana and Froome were in contention this year.
You mean Van Garderen? Vande Velde is retired, so securing a place on the Tour podium would be quite an achievement.
I’ve come to the conclusion that Nibali isn’t actually concerned with winning the Tour. He just can’t bear to look at that abominable Italian national champion jersey Astana made for him. Did Vino design that thing after hitting the vodka too hard or something?
:smack: Yeah, I meant Van Garderen. Vande Velde secured himself a spot at the tour commentator desk.
Heh, that Italian flag on the front really looks like a vodka fueled after-thought.
After the Alps stages and with 5 minutes in his favour, I don’t think Nibali has much to worry about. Unless the top 5 riders make a miracle recovery over the next two days, all Vincenzo has to do is ride smart and not crack over the last week. How is his TT? Does he stand to lose much time to Valverde? That new french kid Romain Bardet; is he going to be a threat in the TT?
Oh, and just as an aside, I’m starting to be sick of that smarmy smirk perpetually on Sagan’s face. Sure he’s the point leader for the green jersey and sure he’s certainly a better all around rider than the other sprinters. But he seems to have become quite arrogant of late. Or maybe I’m just nit-picking.
I think that’s just how Sagan’s face works. He’s also been pretty grumpy at all his almost but not quite stage finishes. He’s still pulling wheelies at mountaintop finish lines for the fans though.
No one is going to get 4 minutes back on Nibbles in the TT. Bardet is pure climber. TJ and Peraud amongst the top 6 are probably most likely to pick up a bit of time in the TT, but they’re also the furthest back. For Nibali to lose he’ll have to crack somewhere in the Pyrenees. Or crash out of course.
Tejay commented that Vincenzo keeps attacking despite having a safe enough margin to win the tour. I guess he feels Vincenzo should slow down and let the other kids catch up. :rolleyes:
Epic stage today. Can’t wait to watch this evening.
I hope Valverde doesn’t crack and I want to see Frank Schleck continue to do well.
Nibali keeps attacking to shut up the people who keep saying, “But if Froome and Contador hadn’t crashed out…”
Big race for the lesser podium places in Saturday’s TT. On paper one would expect Valverde and Peraud to pass Pinot, but at the end of three weeks of racing “X is a better time trialist” is no guarantee of a better time.
Well, neither of my wishes came true: Valverde cracked and Schleck didn’t deliver either.
However, what a pleasure to watch Nibali dominate. Bastard didn’t even look back as he dropped his chase group and flew by the lead rider. He’s certainly put his stamp on this year’s tour as the undisputed champion. He’ll lose time in the TT but I don’t think it will be so much that he looses his yellow jersey now.
Over all a great tour this year and many new young riders to watch for next year.
I used to follow the TdF religiously from the Lemond through Armstrong eras. I loved it during the Indurain years, but got turned off when the cheating scandals became so prevalent. This year I finally began to follow it again but missed most of the early NBC coverage due to the World Cup and vacations. I noticed that there was no prologue, no team time trial (used to love watching that) and have left in only one time trial. I know that the TTT was not included in some years, but why all the changes?
Everything they do is to make it “more spectacular”. They lessened the ITTs because you had all these specialists who would just hang on in the mountains and then make the difference in the ITT.
This year it was pretty clear they included some of the tough stages in the beginning (especially the cobbles) so some big favorites would lose time and thus have to attack in the mountains… too bad most big favorites fell too often and left the race.
I agree I would love a TTT, but these mostly play in the hands of the strong and rich teams. Not too good for french hopes as well.
Well that sucks.