Tour de France 2016

kuro

what the hell are Movistar up to? Is it simply a case of NQ being out of form and Valverde being kept on a leash?
Expected more from BMC this time as well but Porte had bad luck with that mechanical and TvG just isn't good enough.

littlegreenman

My guess is Quintana's not well. Only takes a slight minor illness to keep riders at that level from performing at their best.

Agreed that van Garderen isn't up to the job this year. Porte's awful TT hasn't helped his cause either.

axisus

Porte is a good cyclist, but he isn't top 3 material. 

kuro

Damn, Sagan is a machine. Had Cancellara for this, ah well.

littlegreenman

They're all so well matched this year. Photo-finishes on the sprints, no-one able to bridge the moderately slender lead Froome has, or able to attack strongly enough to break him. Three first time Maillot Jaune wearers. Yates in 3rd leading the White jersey.

The only constant is Sagan in Green, again.

It's been a great Tour so far I reckon, so bring on the Alps!

axisus

I'm really glad that Peter Sagan is having such a good tour, he's my fave rider after the Brits.

kuro

Aye, he's got character, that makes him stand out from the media trained robots.
Glad to see Steve Cummings has got into the Olympics, should have been there in the first place. Tough for Kennaugh though.

littlegreenman

kuro said:

Aye, he's got character, that makes him stand out from the media trained robots.
Glad to see Steve Cummings has got into the Olympics, should have been there in the first place. Tough for Kennaugh though.

Steve-O, Froome, Stannard, Gee and Adam Yates. That's a pretty good team there.

Going to be tough to beat the Dutch this year.

the_jaffa

Cav has now abandoned in order to concentrate on Rio. Shame not to see him win on the Champs Elysees again but not a huge surprise

littlegreenman

4 days in the Alps would not be the best preparation for the track in Rio. Yep, not a big surprise.

axisus

Yeah, not really worth hard days in the mountains for 1 shot at a sprint. Not that he's won a medal in the two Olympics he's been in!

littlegreenman

He's in the Madison with Bradders, not the sprint. But I get your point.

BigLicks67

To be fair to Eddy Merckx, he is right there is no comparison between him and Cav. What Cav has done is impressive no doubt, but he cannot be compared to Merckx who is by any estimation the greatest cyclist of all time.

joneve

BigLicks67 said:

To be fair to Eddy Merckx, he is right there is no comparison between him and Cav. What Cav has done is impressive no doubt, but he cannot be compared to Merckx who is by any estimation the greatest cyclist of all time.

Yea, but there's no need to be a dick about it. He could have at least recognised that what Cav has done is no mean feat, and probably won't be matched in our lifetime. 

axisus

joneve said:

BigLicks67 said:

To be fair to Eddy Merckx, he is right there is no comparison between him and Cav. What Cav has done is impressive no doubt, but he cannot be compared to Merckx who is by any estimation the greatest cyclist of all time.

Yea, but there's no need to be a dick about it. He could have at least recognised that what Cav has done is no mean feat, and probably won't be matched in our lifetime. 

Yes, exactly! Cav has proved himself le Tour's greatest ever sprinter, I doubt that another sprinter will ever do as well again. It is a MAJOR achievement. To look at all the many thousands of Tour riders in history, he is the SECOND most successful in terms of stage wins. Merckx may be considered the greatest cyclist, but he's proved himself something of an ass as well.

mellowsun

I guess today is the last chance for Quintana to get on the podium.

He's been content to sit on Froome's wheel for the tour so far. Hopefully he will get a chance to attack today. If not, it's game over I think.

BigLicks67

Here's what Merckx said : "There's no point in making comparisons, I won stages because I needed them to win the Tour. It was very different," he argued when contacted by Gazzetta dello Sport. "It's difficult to say who is the best ever sprinter because there have been a lot of strong ones, including people like Mario Cipollini." Merckx remains as competitive as ever, despite being 71. However he admires Cavendish for his ability to race on both the road and the track. "I think he's back to his best thanks to his track training for the Rio Olympics. The track gives you speed, vision and timing. He's started a run of results now and there's no reason why it can't continue." Seems like a fair assessment to me.

littlegreenman

Great day for Yates, closing in on Mollema's 2nd place! Whether he can keep it going for another 3 days? We'll see.

Something's definitely not right with Quintana getting dropped like that, brilliant attack from Richie Porte though, reckon he just might get that podium place in Paris if he keeps that up.

littlegreenman

Scorching TT for Froome to deny Dumoulin and take a stage wearing Yellow, as he seems to like doing. 4 minutes give or take with 2 days to go is usually enough, but we'll see. No-one seems to have the measure of him or the Sky train though.

The battle for podium places is really hotting up now though. Yates moving away from Quintana and closer to Mollema, and Richie gaining pace. I can see Nairo losing more time in the next two days, with Bardet and Porte really trying to fight for a spot. Reckon Adam Yates will possibly drop off the podium but still win White by a fair whack, which with a team like Orica is a major win for him and them, and bodes massively for his career (Is Sir Dave waiting in the wings, cheque-book in hand for the future?).

I'm Paris bound in the morning, so I'll have to wait and see, making do with French TV coverage and my French can't keep up with their commentary! But hey, it's always worth it for that last day on the Champs, so I'll leave the thread as I started it.

Allez, Allez, Allez!!!

kuro

I do wish Froome would stop trying to make this interesting...