2012 Tour de France: Stage 8: Belfort → Porrentruy (157.5km)

[MrRoboto]

Radioshack having a team of GC candidates finally delivering.

Seems like VDB and Nibali have to be the ones to cheer for this Tour.

 

[Gloin22]

Yellow helmets for Radioshack.

Hello Gloin22...

Radioshack as the only team at Tour refused the new rule...

They won't have the yellow helmets...

 

[hrotha]

To chase down any attacks from the GC contenders.

dlwssonic, meet Froome. Froome, meet dlwssonic.

There was never going to be a situation where Wiggo needed more than that today. It was going to be a short chase, and Wiggo would be aided by other GC contenders anyway.

For now I definitely see it as an eyebrow lowering operation, but we'll know soon.

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

 

[dlwssonic]

Bruyneel will be very happy, he will get his teams classification

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Porte and Rogers came at 4:58 today.
They seemed quite beatable today.

Yet Sky had Froome and Wiggins there.

Evans - alone
JvdB - alone
Radioshack - with 3 but only by the skin of their teeth
Menchov - alone
Nibali - alone

what's your point?? Lol

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Cadel will surprise quite a few tomorrow.
The tour is on!!!!

VDB looks in great shape just super unlucky yesterday.

Please post what time relative to Wiggins you consider good, average and bad for Cadel.

Genuinely intrigued what you think would be surprising, if you think his prologue timeloss was good.

 

[dlwssonic]

Please post what time relative to Wiggins you consider good, average and bad for Cadel.

Genuinely intrigued what you think would be surprising, if you think his prologue timeloss was good.

Prologue time loss was decent for him.
I think anything below 45-30 seconds is good

 

[dlwssonic]

dlwssonic, meet Froome. Froome, meet dlwssonic.

There was never going to be a situation where Wiggo needed more than that today. It was going to be a short chase, and Wiggo would be aided by other GC contenders anyway.

For now I definitely see it as an eyebrow lowering operation, but we'll know soon.

I really hope it isn't, I want to see a fair race.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Prologue time loss was decent for him.
I think anything below 45-30 seconds is good

I would say less than 25, good, 25-50, average, anything over 50 poor.

 

[Unkown]

Nice Kessiakof just moves into the polka dot jersey with 21 points

 

[cineteq]

Another disastrous day for Raboteam

 

[El Pistolero]

How is that good? He can't drop Wiggins anywhere. He'll lose the Tour if he doesn't beat Wiggins in the time trials. Only real gaps in this Tour will be made in time trials, crashes and unfortunate mechanicals.

 

[dlwssonic]

Yet Sky had Froome and Wiggins there.

Evans - alone
JvdB - alone
Radioshack - with 3 but only by the skin of their teeth
Menchov - alone
Nibali - alone

what's your point?? Lol

Much better than yesterday when we saw like 3 sky riders out of 8.
Today gave us more hope that sky could be beaten.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Today was avery big victory for ASO who proved that they can create stages which can provide entertainment and selections without even including the hardest climbs.

Me, early in the thread:

This has the potential to be the best stage of the entire race. One of the few genuinely well-designed stages this year.

 

[Gloin22]

How is that good? He can't drop Wiggins anywhere. He'll lose the Tour if he doesn't beat Wiggins in the time trials.

+1

If Wiggins will gain that much in TT's - Evans is doomed with Wiggins in this form.

 

[dlwssonic]

How is that good? He can't drop Wiggins anywhere. He'll lose the Tour if he doesn't beat Wiggins in the time trials. Only real gaps in this Tour will be made in time trials, crashes and unfortunate mechanicals.

Who knows? The tour is still long. I think evans can gain time in the 3rd or 2nd weeks. Plus I believe he will be stronger by the last TT.

 

[cineteq]

He'll lose the Tour if he doesn't beat Wiggins in the time trials. Only real gaps in this Tour will be made in time trials, crashes and unfortunate time gaps.

It's a long Tour, Wiggins won't lose the race in the ITTs, but he will at some point, probably the 3rd week.

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

Nice Kessiakof just moves into the polka dot jersey with 21 points

Great to see him come out of the stage with something. Really enjoyed this stage.

 

[dlwssonic]

Tomorrow I hope its below 30 seconds but its gonna be tough for evans.
However at least today he showed that he is strong and was quite aggressive, a good sign.
Evans won't go down without a fight I'm sure.

 

[will10]

I was wondering why Radioshack weren't really chasing for Gallopin in the final, then I saw the faces of Schleck and Horner and it all made sense

Is it two or three minutes apart for the final riders tomorrow?

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

I really do dislike Mike Tomalaris.

 

[Ferminal]

Evans actually needs to beat Wiggins tomorrow... if he can't do it on a path which suits him then he's got no chance on the latter one.

 

[Frosty]

I was wondering why Radioshack weren't really chasing for Gallopin in the final, then I saw the faces of Schleck and Horner and it all made sense

Is it two or three minutes apart for the final riders tomorrow?

They were struggling to stay with the group on the flat at times.

 

[Froome19]

I would say less than 25, good, 25-50, average, anything over 50 poor.

Two things remember that tomorow's TT isnt towards the end of the Tour like last year's was. Also looking at the Dauphine TT you seem to be over rating Cadel a bit of course he may have been behind on form (though I dont think he was by much) but I find it hard to believe that that time gap will be eroded so considerably.