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2014 Tour de France July 18, Stage 13: Saint-Étienne - Chamrousse 197.5km

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jaylew said:
Yes he did some work but Valverde was on the front the majority of the time while also being the one who made the attack.

I just think people are way too hard on the guy because they dislike him. For all we know the group would have stayed together until just before the finish if he hadn't blown everything apart. He could have sat up then but instead he led the group the vast majority of the time. But of course people only focus on him attacking Pinot. And it wasn't at all like he had been sitting on right before the final attack. They had been swapping turns for awhile at that point.

Indeed. Valverde gets some unjust (IMO) abuse here! He was the one with the balls to go all in from 11km. But people will still say whatever they will. Just let it go :)
 
maxmartin said:
he was the front when the Movei weak train was drilling hard. I think people criticizing his cunning and selfish racing style. But too be honest, his style is very effective. But clearly he is not racing for the win but for the second place otherwise he would work together with TP.

He's definitely racing for 2nd now. He tried to drop Nibs and failed and thereafter he worked to put time into 3rd (Bardet). He couldn't go with Nibs when he attacked and unless Nibs shows a clear sign of weakness, I guess he'll strictly be racing for 2nd from this point forward.
 
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alin.constantin89 said:
Maybe Oleg is crazy but we need to show him respect because he invest money in this beautiful sport.

He is the first one to bash AC when he failed to win 2013 Tour. Who know what's going on in his cunning businessman head? Maybe he is even having a secrete meeting with Nibali's agent as we are speaking. LOL
 
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jaylew said:
He's definitely racing for 2nd now. He tried to drop Nibs and failed and thereafter he worked to put time into 3rd (Bardet). He couldn't go with Nibs when he attacked and unless Nibs shows a clear sign of weakness, I guess he'll strictly be racing for 2nd from this point forward.

yep very practical racing style, but most people won't like that. I think AV should have a meeting with Sagan to discuss racing strategy.:D
 
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TANK91 said:
Haha lol, yep their should be a note top 2 favs were out of race for first time in decades too. Oh i pray Nibali does the TDF next year. And i know Froome at least will shut the Nibali fans up. How dumb can they be, eh hello this is 2014 Froome is better than Nibali so is Contador did you not know? Their logic though is their not in the race, hilarious.

Exactly. Cant believe anyone seriously believes Nibali is ever going to beat Froome or Contador at TDF. If he does I will celebrate him.
 
kurtinsc said:
How well do Pinot and Badret TT?

If Van Garderen can avoid losing much time to them the rest of the way, does 3rd look reasonable for him?

It was interesting to hear LeMond discount TJVG's chances for the podium on the postrace show. Besides the obvious one in Nibali, he seemed like one of the big winners on the day. He and Bardet made a real nice push at the end to limit the deficit to Valverde and Pinot. TJVG doesn't always pace himself the best in TTs, but I think he has timed his peak really well and should make up ground next saturday.
 
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Oleg spoke the truth today. At least he has the guts to say what he feels to anybody.

Certainly more realistic than Kirby saying Nibali would have beat Froome and Contador today. Total bollox
 
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djpbaltimore said:
It was interesting to hear LeMond discount TJVG's chances for the podium on the postrace show. Besides the obvious one in Nibali, he seemed like one of the big winners on the day. He and Bardet made a real nice push at the end to limit the deficit to Valverde and Pinot. TJVG doesn't always pace himself the best in TTs, but I think he has timed his peak really well and should make up ground next saturday.

TJ still has hope for the third place, if he can hang on. He should be able to put mins into guys like TP in the ITT.
 
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alin.constantin89 said:
Maybe Oleg is crazy but we need to show him respect because he invest money in this beautiful sport.

I don't see it in that way,that guy is just another Becali who wants to get the maximum audience and that's it,i don't think he cares to much about his riders.The reaction against Contador,last year was horrible at least.
 
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MBotero said:
I don't see it in that way,that guy is just another Becali who wants to get the maximum audience and that's it,i don't think he cares to much about his riders.The reaction against Contador,last year was horrible at least.

absolutely
 

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