2013 Tour de France, Stage 13: Tours - Saint-Amand-Montrond (173 km)

[Winnen]

Your dislike shines right though. Riis never took advantage of a riders misfortune, he respect the unwritten rules, so to be honest, the only *** here would be...

Are we talking about the same Riis? The guy who cheated on everyone for over a decade?

 

[roundabout]

LOVE IT!

I have had my eyes on Mollema for quite some time but this was the final nail in the coffin! A new favorite!

After all the *****ing and whinging in 2011 Mollema can go **** himself.

 

[Lukenwolf]

This was so utterly epic
UK Postal insulted the peloton and the intelligence of the viewers by not even trying to hide how loaded on the juice Froome is. They deserved every second of what they were served today. There is a god after all...

 

[martinvickers]

This was so utterly epic
UK Postal insulted the peloton and the intelligence of the viewers by not even trying to hide how loaded on the juice Froome is. They deserved every second of what they were served today. There is a god after all...

Take it to the clinic, friend.

 

[Koba80]

LOVE IT!

I have had my eyes on Mollema for quite some time but this was the final nail in the coffin! A new favorite!

Seconded. Add TGBM to Kennaugh and BabyVino as TdF 2013 additions to my riders I like list.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Cav and Sagan - Whilst they didn't work for the win well it was lucky for Contador that Cav made that bridge or OPQS would have worked against them and that team has the biggest engines.

Yes, it was the perfect constellation in the front group:

Cav + Sagan with support riders.

Belking with the two captains.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

After all the *****ing and whinging in 2011 Mollema can go **** himself.

plus three.

 

[DenisMenchov]

Are we talking about the same Riis? The guy who cheated on everyone for over a decade?

Yeah, but those rules are written.

 

[sjonnie]

can someone explain why froome didn't follow the saxo break.

he was right behind cav, when cav was struggling to bridge the gap to the front group

In the post-race interview Cav says he only just made the split himself with a sprint around Kwiatowski. According to Cav, he reckons you only a few seconds to realize an echelon is forming and to join. Looking at the footage, you can see Froome is left following Kwiatowski after Cavendish has gone, so he just missed the split. Why Froome didn't try at that point to go across I don't know, he was without any team-mates, clearly the weakness of Sky didn't help there, but also Froome doesn't appear to ride a really attentive race, even in the chase group he was happy to sit towards the back of the group. Clearly this sort of echelon riding isn't something team Sky have put a lot of work into.

 

[fantomas]

Stannard interview said Stannard tried to close gap but Froome couldn't stay with him

Okay. Carsten Jeppesen, Sky's technical director, said it was down to a poor decision on Froome's part.

 

[autologous]

Do you take Riis on his words?!

Geez, you must be new to cycling.

1. It wasn't Riis that was interviewed and said they wouldn't work while Valverde had his flat, it was the Saxo DS
2. When did Saxo pull while Valverde had his flat?

You must be new to intelligence.

 

[DirtyWorks]

Poor decision making. Decided to wait for his team.

IMHO, no. The GC below him has changed and he's lost a little time, but nothing he can't take back on more familiar ground like Ventoux.

That first group drilled it hard, so some will probably pay dearly for the effort tomorrow.

 

[cineteq]

"However congratulations to those who had the courage to attack and those who were not caught surprised!!"

Just translating for who doesn't speak Italian.

The Shark hates Skyborgs!

 

[Bala Verde]

I am glad cancelara didn't neutralize the stage...

 

[rghysens]

That first group drilled it hard, so some will probably pay dearly for the effort tomorrow.

Or even more so the day after.

 

[theyoungest]

I am glad cancelara didn't neutralize the stage...

I gotta say you don't really live up to your nickname

 

[Zam_Olyas]

Tanja ‏@bambula 50s
My new sounds: Stannard Stage 13 #TdF http://soundcloud.com/roidub/stannard-stage-13-tdf … on #SoundCloud

 

[Arnout]

I am glad cancelara didn't neutralize the stage...

And we've got ourselves a winner

 

[Bala Verde]

I gotta say you don't really live up to your nickname

Lol.

I like bala, especially in the Ardennes classics. However, I like racing more...

 

[sjonnie]

Agreed, but the sky boys seemed to be blowing up all over the road, only 2 left at the end. It's going to be an interesting couple of days!

 

[Cookster15]

What a great stage that turned out to be. Being a flat stage I didn't stay up to watch it (stages finish about 1am here). However, during a brief bout of insomnia I snuck a look at the live feed on my iPhone so when I saw what was going on I quickly switched on the tv!!

Great work by Saxo but also very attentive by Cav - he deserved that!

I love it when you get stages that remind even boring stages on paper can turn out to be very exciting. Also a reminder the GC battle is not just Mountains and TTs - you have to be attentive every minute on the flat stages too. These GTs really are as much a test of mental as physical endurance.

 

[Pulpstar]

Nairo had a nice easy ride today despite all the carnage going off around him, and he is now team leader !

 

[sultanofhyd]

IMHO, no. The GC below him has changed and he's lost a little time, but nothing he can't take back on more familiar ground like Ventoux.

That first group drilled it hard, so some will probably pay dearly for the effort tomorrow.

He really couldn't have made such a decision at that time. If BMC and Katusha had not helped and Froome was forced to work, he could have easily lost the jersey and tire himself out at the same time, one simply can't take such a risk and let 7 riders (Saxo + Belkin) with incentive to work go.

Everyone drilled it today, for different reasons. Everyone will feel it tomorrow, some have just got something to show for today's efforts, and some, like Movistar who might have made the biggest effort have absolutely nothing.

 

[maltiv]

I said it early in the season. All Sky riders who went to the Mallorca training camp would collapse half-way into the season. That training camp was harder than a GT...

Now they're all completely out of form. Froome wasn't there (except from a few days towards the end) as he was training in Africa. The rest of them - Porte, EBH, Lopez, Sivtsov etc - are all completely empty and overtrained.

 

[Opalius]

That is the Lord of The rings, not the Hobbit. Sorry.

You missed the pun entirely...