Orbit501 said:
The big puzzle there for me is EBH getting dropped.
1) Feeling the effects of that broken collarbone?
2) Saving himself for stage wins here?
3) Just not strong enough?
Can't see how he'd be given the freedom not to contribute today, given how valuable he would have been to a decent TTT, so it must be a combination of 1&3, or did he have a mechanical does anyone know?
Lot of talk of Betancur losing big time, but did anyone really expect anything different from his team today? Definite stage hunting for him here I'd say whilst preparing for Worlds.
TTT's really aren't very fair in the grand scheme of things anyway are they.
Too me it looked like EBH struggled to get on after doing a shift. My guess is that he over estimated himself and took too long turns in the beginning. I remember in the tour when Thomas mentioned EBH and Froome being the big engines in the TTT, so I would expect him to have worked heavily up until he was dropped.
It's probably a combination of needing a few race km to get going and overestimating his own form on the first stage.
That's my guess anyhow. His coach Arvesen commented for Eurosport and joked that he is going to get nasty looks when he goes down to join the team in Spain as both EBH and Knees were dropped and they are his guys.
Arvesen thought he might need a a couple of stages, but really couldn't know what happened until he talked to him. Eurosport was in commercial when EBH dropped, but I switched to a different channel and saw EBH drop. I don't think the Eurosport commentators saw it happen.