They let Van Avermaet go because he’ll lose the lot in the mountains in very short order.
The story of the day though was that Contador lost 30 seconds and Nibali lost over ten minutes on category frickin’ two climbs. Nibali must be in bad shape, and either Contador’s injuries are badly troubling him or he doesn’t have the form. In his heyday, Contador would have eaten any Cat 2 climb for breakfast.
Especially after he’s eaten some of that great Spanish beef for dinner. 
Yeah… I was surprised to hear that Nibali lost so much time. Bad day, perhaps.
Contador seems to have lost his nerve due to the two crashes. Even his descents are slow and cautious.
I’m wondering about Fabian Cancellara. He’s completely melted into the peloton. Often he’ll stick his nose out on the flatter stages in a break-away. It’s his last year as professional rider. It would be great to see him win a stage one last time.
Nibali losing time was a bit of a shocker and with Contador also down, it’s a bit sad that this has only really cemented the view that it’s Froome v Quintana. I’d like to see someone come up and make it a three way fight.
For Cancellara, I am hoping for conservation of energy, a big effort to win a TT and then sign off with a Gold Medal and a Rainbow Jersey by smashing all and sundry at Rio and in the World Champs in Doha in October. He deserves a glorious send off.
I think Richie Porte and van Garderen will do their damndest. Valverde usually has a couple of good mountain days in him as well.
You’re right that they are the two favorites, but as I said upthread, this route is designed to be a little more wide open due to the time trials. If Contador is telling the gods honest truth that he is starting to feel a little better, and he is able to survive friday, the first time trial is built for him. IF he is in fact feeling better.
There are a crop of three or four frenchmen, Aru, and Mollema who can all climb with the best of 'em. All you really need is one of those guys to have a good day during the time trial and there is your three. Mollema especially. I have high hopes for him this year. He had an aweful timetrial a few years ago on stage 20, but as memory serves, the team got brand new time trial bikes and if I recall correctly, they were brand new to the manufacturer, and the riders hadn’t spent a great deal of time on them. I’m chalking a chunk of his troubles that day up to that. Now he’s on a Trek, now I’m biased because I own a speedconcept, but the bike won’t be a problem.
I really think this could be wide open. Maybe I’ll end up being way wrong and Quintana/Froome will beat everyone by 15 minutes, but I doubt it.
Regarding Nibali…considering he just won the Giro, I always just assumed he was here for Aru. I’m sure they will let him go for a stage win or two, but that’s the play that made sense to me if you’re Astana.
I have nothing against Valverde, I just always assume he will end up in the 3-5 range.
I think he will have something planned. The early days aren’t the time for him to go, there are too many young guns trying to make their mark early. He’ll wait for a day with a rolling parcours.
Nibbles said all along he was riding for Aru. If he didn’t think he could keep up with the leaders, there was no reason not to sit up and save the legs. Plus he just won the freaking Giro; there’s no way he’s in Tour-winning shape.
And the rest of you can say what you please. I like Cav.
Team Tinkoff is fraying and Contador is an emotional wreck. I think it gets under his skin that Sagan has already worn the yellow jersey while he seems to be going backwards.
Sagan & Cavendish in the breakaway just before the climb. Should be an interesting day.
Fucking NBCSN. They’ve cut out the evening coverage of TdF. Now they can’t rush off the morning coverage fast enough. :mad:
Surprising finish to the race today. How did that 1km kite come down? Can’t even begin to guess what the weekend will look like.
Re: the kite - The ITV feed in the UK suggested that the generator responsible for keeping it inflated stopped working and it collapsed as a result.
Thought Van Avermaet was really good today. Got himself in the break to try and hang on to the jersey for another day. He’ll almost certainly have to give it up soon but the determination to hang on to it today was good to see.
Brilliant ride from Steve Cummings there - bold stage victory and he’s absolutely showed his arse to british cycling in the process. His omission from the British Olympic road race team was very controversial and hard to justify, they mumbled something about his ‘commitment’ , ie he doesn’t ride for Sky.
Remains to be seen how the rest of the race goes, but it seems like even the big teams are less and less able to dominate and control unexpected challengers like Van Avermaet and Cummings. I keep expecting Sky and Movistar and BMC to come out and cover the breaks, but nope. Makes for very interesting racing.
Froome looks remarkably strong.
Oh, and great to see Didi the Devil back in the tour. I thought he’d retired in 2014 due to some health issues with his heart. Hope he’s recovered.
I have historically not much cared for Froome, but his stunt today was a very nifty bit of riding. A bit disappointed that Bardet descended with the rest of the lead group instead of trying to bridge to Froome, but he may have been out of gas at that point.
Also, Rafal Majka is an ass. Promise to help out Contador, jump in the break anyways, don’t take any pulls letting Pinot do all the work, snipe just enough KOM points to pass Pinot for polka dots, then again fail to help Contador and instead sit up and finish 11 minutes back.
Everybody on Tinkoff is in it for themselves; They’re all riding for their next contract.
Barring illness or accident I just can’t see Froome losing this one. I predict more mountain stages that follow the same script. Quintana sits on Froome’s wheel and no serious contender is able to put any time on him. Froom and Sky are so dominant that it’s almost boring.
Almost boring? The only interesting things that happened today were Dumoulin showing that last year’s Vuelta performance was no fluke, and Pinot vs Majka fighting for KOM points. The GC race was utterly uneventful on a day that could have been decisive.
One thing I’ve always wondered is the production of the yellow and other jerseys. Since aerodynamics is a very important part of cycling, having a jersey that fits perfectly is important. Do the teams have the yellow, polka dot, green, etc. jerseys already made in advance for all riders? I would think that would be a huge waste of material. Or do they have the means to produce them on the spot as needed?
I think the tour provides blank yellow jerseys and the teams heat press their logos on them. And the jersey you see during the presentation is not the jerseys they wear during the stages.