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

[JRanton]

Froome looked weak today (and obviously has a very weak team). I guess we'll find out for sure on Ventoux!

 

[phanatic]

To neutralize the stage?

well ok I guess

 

[cocteau_ireland]

Don't bank on it. I think Froome got his starting weight wrong... He will be burning muscle soon...

Don't riders usually lose weight over course of 3week tour? As it's all but impossible to put the calories back in that your using up. Froome has zero non-muscle weight to lose, I would suggest. Therefore, I agree.

 

[Aguirre]

There will be blood!!!!!:d

movistar kicking some xxxx like belkin and europcar in the alps.

Promise

 

[Cimber]

Here is the attack by the way:

http://sporten.tv2.dk/tour/2013-07-12-tv-her-knækker-contador-endelig-froome

 

[thehog]

How much would Froome love having Wiggins, Uran & Henao in his train? Having to keep Wiggins happy has cost Sky.

Maybe they need Matt Parker instead?

 

[The Sheep]

Here is the attack by the way:

http://sporten.tv2.dk/tour/2013-07-12-tv-her-knækker-contador-endelig-froome

Wish there was an aerial view of that

 

[spalco]

Btw., looking at the stage results, I find it hilarious that Greipel and JJ Rojas apparently thought it necessary to sprint for the "win" in their respective groups.

eta: Van Poppel too.

 

[theyoungest]

...Mollema's team is without fault in the past years? That is certainly rich.

Yes, Mollema's team is without fault in recent years. And certainly Mollema himself has nothing to do with guys like Boogerd or whatever.

Why do people keep blaming the Rabobank team for things that happened ages ago, and not (for instance) the Phonak team, currently BMC?

was that the final moutnainsatge in suisse right? mollema imo wasn't one of the strongets there, but still him being worse than costa prooves enough. costa himself isn't exaclty a guy for high long mountains either. suisse had horrible competition as usual

Mollema made the race explode on that climb, obviously he had to recover a little from it. Yes, long climbs aren't his forte, and he sure looked to be suffering on the long climbs last weekend, but who knows. He has never been on altitude training before, maybe it's a new Mollema we're seeing.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Don't riders usually lose weight over course of 3week tour? As it's all but impossible to put the calories back in that your using up. Froome has zero non-muscle weight to lose, I would suggest. Therefore, I agree.

how do you know? he's 186 and 69 kg. maybe 67 now. how can you know his fat%? he doesn't look anywhere near as bad as wiggins always does

 

[Carols]

Late to the party.....saw it on a recording. Geez poor Valverde can't get a break whenever there is wind. No one should lose a GC spot because of a flat

Losing Movistar from the GC will only hinder the race IMO. Very strong team with only stages and a white jersey to fight for. Plays into Sky's hands really

But what a Great Stage otherwise!!!!

 

[The Sheep]

how do you know? he's 186 and 69 kg. maybe 67 now. how can you know his fat%? he doesn't look anywhere near as bad as wiggins always does

Didn't walsh say he was 66kg?

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Didn't walsh say he was 66kg?

everywhere I look he's stated as 186 and 69 kg. also 186 and 66 kg is 1 kg more than schleck for instance, or kelderman

 

[Kokoso]

btw an important thing to keep in mind for final weke will be morale. I mean contador was pulling as hard as he could with his helpers, a leader to work like that motivates his helpers, especially the helpers that would be leaders in other teams(porte, kreuziger). but froome instead rode like a coward, killing whatever little energy his helpers had left. after today who do you think has more morale? froome's helpers or contadors? exactly. this will be fun

Hilarious to see you calling Kreuziger a leader. The world is really getting upside - down

 

[Cimber]

Late to the party.....saw it on a recording. Geez poor Valverde can't get a break whenever there is wind. No one should lose a GC spot because of a flat

Losing Movistar from the GC will only hinder the race IMO. Very strong team with only stages and a white jersey to fight for. Plays into Sky's hands really

But what a Great Stage otherwise!!!!

I expect Movistar to be fired up in the mountains and put the hammer down just in spite (they kinda indicated that after the stage too)

 

[theyoungest]

btw an important thing to keep in mind for final weke will be morale. I mean contador was pulling as hard as he could with his helpers, a leader to work like that motivates his helpers, especially the helpers that would be leaders in other teams(porte, kreuziger). but froome instead rode like a coward, killing whatever little energy his helpers had left. after today who do you think has more morale? froome's helpers or contadors? exactly. this will be fun

What's up with these guys anyway? They seem less motivated to ride for Froome than they did for Wiggo, who is supposed to be this ungrateful b.stard.

 

[Kokoso]

was that the final moutnainsatge in suisse right? mollema imo wasn't one of the strongets there, but still him being worse than costa prooves enough. costa himself isn't exaclty a guy for high long mountains either. suisse had horrible competition as usual

You didn't see the stage, did you? Qtherwise you wouldn't say such things. Mollema was first to attack hard. Costa won on the flat after Mollema lost contact in descent. Despite that he was still able to fight back to the TJVG and Costa who aren't exactly worst TTers. And certainly they didn't wait for him.
He was best there in mountains, better then Costa. Only lost time on third stage where he didn't manage to get into the downhill attack lead by Kreuziger. That was tactical mistake.

And competition there was strong actually...

 

[mc_mountain]

Anyone speculated about what Saxo would have done if Froome had put in a dig to get across as the break formed. Would they have backed off or kept riding knowing they'd isolated him and with the expectation they could still drop him.

 

[JRanton]

They got 5 metres on him but didn't even chase, relied on his team, surely he knows his team is weak

Have you considered that Froome knew he wasn't strong enough to close the gap? After what happened to Porte, his training partner, on stage 9 it shouldn't be a great surprise to see Froome cracking either. It might seem a strange thing to say given how much Froome took out of his GC rivals in the time trial but it was quite interesting that he noticeably cracked a bit in the last 5km.

I remember what Dr Ferrari said when he saw Froome's incredible condition (and how thin he was) before the Tour:

Impressive, but not surprising: this is the new unhealthy propencity in cycling. Upper body has lost fat and muscle: frontal area and weight is reduced.

I do not think he will lose a lot of power (watts), but he well be more fragile in front of cold, crashes, stress and fatigue.

Stress and fatigue. It's a three week race. I wonder what's going to happen to Froome in the Alps...

 

[pastronef]

Belkin explored this stage in May and noted down 4 spots where, if there was wind, they could pull hard.
p.s. RaboBlancoBelkin have always been the nice guys in the bunch and usually let themselves get screwed over. Good they screwed someone else for once.

thanks, I did not know they explored the parcours in May, so kudos to them!

very nice stage

 

[cocteau_ireland]

Have you considered that Froome knew he wasn't strong enough to close the gap? After what happened to Porte, his training partner, on stage 9 it shouldn't be a great surprise to see Froome cracking either. It might seem a strange thing to say given how much Froome took out of his GC rivals in the time trial but it was quite interesting that he noticeably cracked a bit in the last 5km.

I remember what Dr Ferrari said when he saw Froome's incredible condition (and how thin he was) before the Tour:



Stress and fatigue. It's a three week race. I wonder what's going to happen to Froome in the Alps...

Yes,find that interesting.Cold & descents got wiggins in the giro. Stress & fatigue to get froome here?

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Hilarious to see you calling Kreuziger a leader. The world is really getting upside - down

in other teams kreuziger would be a leader I mean.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

What's up with these guys anyway? They seem less motivated to ride for Froome than they did for Wiggo, who is supposed to be this ungrateful b.stard.

have you ever seen froome or hear him talk? would you ride your balls of for some nerd like him? at least wiggo has bravoure

 

[pastronef]

George Bennett ‏@georgenbennett 1h
Did anyone else just see the @TeamBelkin boys giving each other "knucks" when they realised there boys were ripping it?. #ganstasinLycra

lol

here they are

https://twitter.com/robin_qw/status/355709580908560384/photo/1

anyway, bravo Belkin team

 

[JRanton]

What's up with these guys anyway? They seem less motivated to ride for Froome than they did for Wiggo, who is supposed to be this ungrateful b.stard.

If you don't have the legs, you don't have the legs. It's nothing to do with a lack of motivation.