2014 Tour de France, Stage 18: Pau–Hautacam (145.5 Km)

[pastronef]

As for the quote of the day:

Fuglsang: 'Today's stage was horrible, horrible, horrible. My team mates were riding like they had stolen their bikes'

wow. yes, Astana rode hard from km 0. Nibali wanted the stage!
I preferred big Mig

 

[Pricey_sky]

So Cavendish finishes outside the time limit whenever he feels like it in 2011 and gets to keep the green jersey (nevermind being thrown out the race) in front of Rojas, but Rojas gets expelled the minute he allegedly gets a little too much help from his team car. Talk about double standards
Don't get me wrong, what Rojas did was silly but he was always going to finish well inside the time limit so why not just fine him and give a time penalty like usual in this instance. Surely, he wasn't even close to Meersman's Paris-Nice level in regards of using the team car for drafting and even Meersman wasn't thrown out.

Didn't Cavendish nearly always finish in groups big enough so they could be reinstated? He also got points deductions otherwise he'd have won the jersey well before Paris.

 

[Rollthedice]

The most fun part remains the "attack" of Horner. What was it, 9Ks to go? What was he thinking? And then, bam! Nibali goes after him just like on Angliru.
Orgoglio e passione. The rest is history.

 

[pastronef]

Vino on French TV, WTF are they even talking to that low life...

Nibali's team manager bad
Nibali good

 

[T-Nielsen]

Anyone have a link to the video clip where Nibali hits the woman with the phone? I'm blocked out of the Eurosport clip.

http://tour2014.tv2.dk/2014-07-24-nibali-torpederer-kvinde-farvel-telefon

 

[Kwibus]

http://tour2014.tv2.dk/2014-07-24-nibali-torpederer-kvinde-farvel-telefon

Sigh... so depressing.

Oh a motorbike with a cameraman. Let's lean onto to road and wave because it would be really strange if that cameraman was actually filming a cyclist.

 

[yespatterns]

Anyone have a link to the video clip where Nibali hits the woman with the phone? I'm blocked out of the Eurosport clip.

That girl was an idiot. i was watching with half an eye at home before work, and i thought she was just talking to her friends and stepped out. my 10 year old daughter who has had to sit through every tdf since she was three, was like "no dad, she talking on her cell, that's not a very smart thing to do". Kids grow up too fast. And make thier dad's feel silly about lack of observation.

 

[Flamin]

Best mountain stage of the Tour (which says a lot about the others). Magical performance from Vincenzo, and a great battle for the podium.

I have Nibali at 37'38" btw, not 37'23".

 

[Netserk]

Didn't Cavendish nearly always finish in groups big enough so they could be reinstated? He also got points deductions otherwise he'd have won the jersey well before Paris.

Not to mention that Rojas was with him one of the days outside the time limit...

 

[lactictac]

The idiot on the cell phone:

http://zippy.gfycat.com/ImpassionedShamelessCapybara.webm

Why is she there? The yellow jersey, solo, is powering by a climb. So, talk on your cell, turn your back and waive and set into the yellow jersey.

Idiot.

 

[maxmartin]

The idiot on the cell phone:

http://zippy.gfycat.com/ImpassionedShamelessCapybara.webm

Why is she there? The yellow jersey, solo, is powering by a climb. So, talk on your cell, turn your back and waive and set into the yellow jersey.

Idiot.

it is actually a funny moment, glad nothing serious come out of it.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Didn't Cavendish nearly always finish in groups big enough so they could be reinstated? He also got points deductions otherwise he'd have won the jersey well before Paris.

Cavendish finished in big groups yes but should that prevent the organization from enforcing their own set of rules ?
Cavendish got a fraction of his enormous lead in the green jersey deducted, wow what a penalty, it's as bad as getting thrown out of the race

Not to mention that Rojas was with him one of the days outside the time limit...

Rojas climbs more than well enough to finish inside the time limit. He was outside the time limit only because he couldn't be bothered after Cavendish had already been reinstated on the previous stage. If he had been in green because Cavendish hadn't been reinstated, ther's no way Rojas would have been caught outside the time limit.

 

[UpTheRoad]

it is actually a funny moment, glad nothing serious come out of it.

Why is it funny? IMO, a spectator interfering with a sporting event is not funny.

 

[Netserk]

Cavendish finished in big groups yes but should that prevent the organization from enforcing their own set of rules ?
Cavendish got a fraction of his enormous lead in the green jersey deducted, wow what a penalty, it's as bad as getting thrown out of the race


Rojas climbs more than well enough to finish inside the time limit. He was outside the time limit only because he couldn't be bothered after Cavendish had already been reinstated on the previous stage. If he had been in green because Cavendish hadn't been reinstated, ther's no way Rojas would have been caught outside the time limit.

They were in the same group in the Galibier stage, the first time Cavendish was outside the time limit...

Not to mention that Rojas would've got 20 points on Cav if he finished ahead (and would've been in green on the Champs-Élysées during the stage), so I call BS on your "couldn't be bothered".

 

[pigoonse]

Why is it funny? IMO, a spectator interfering with a sporting event is not funny.

Nibs is boss on the road, even with the spectators he handled the situation.

 

[pigoonse]

Ah, and I finally had time to relax and watch the final of this stage in detail. Wow, am I impressed with the explosive riding of Pinot and Bardet - both had a kick left at the end. Also Majka showed real fight getting across the finish line in 3rd - even TJ laid everything on the road in the end. And kudos to old Peraud and Valverde....even Frank Schleck was good

Great MTF: Nibali bossed the road with such a show of dominant climbing form! Very happy with the stage.

Time trial will be very interesting

 

[gregrowlerson]

A little ashamed to say that I didn't even watch it!

A true boss of the road though is Nibbles. I am interested to see if he can extend his lead to beyond ten minutes after the time trial. That would surely be a record winning margin in the modern era? I can think of Ullrich by nine minutes in '97 and nothing else since then that beats that...

 

[Dazed and Confused]

The Shark pushed himself quite a bit more today:

I think he could have done it even faster if pressured hard.

Pics: http://www.steephill.tv/2014/tour-de-france/photos/stage-18/

 

[barmaher]

Another very exciting stage.

Nibali battling with Froome and Contador. The more impressive his win, the more people will think he could have done them.
Majka battling for dots.
Peraud battling for second. But he couldn't ride in front to bring Pinot away from Bardet. And maby he was too tired anyway.
TJVG and Pinot fighting against Bardet and Valverde for 5th/3rd.
Bardet couldn't ride in the Valverde group, as it would have brought Valverde up to Peraud.
Not sure what the Belkin boys were playing at. Maybe just tired, which is cool.

A very exciting stage. I had a few quid on Horner, but I had to laugh at how easily Nibali closed him down.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

They were in the same group in the Galibier stage, the first time Cavendish was outside the time limit...

Not to mention that Rojas would've got 20 points on Cav if he finished ahead (and would've been in green on the Champs-Élysées during the stage), so I call BS on your "couldn't be bothered".

They weren't in the same group on the Galibier stage. Check again if you want but Rojas finished 31'17'' down (inside the time limit) and Cavendish was 35'40'' down (outside the time limit).

Saying that Roajs couldn't be bothered after that stage isn't that big of a stretch considering he didn't really compete in the sprint on the Champs Elysées.

 

[Netserk]

They weren't in the same group on the Galibier stage. Check again if you want but Rojas finished 31'17'' down (inside the time limit) and Cavendish was 35'40'' down (outside the time limit).

Saying that Roajs couldn't be bothered after that stage isn't that big of a stretch considering he didn't really compete in the sprint on the Champs Elysées.

Yeah, my mistake I looked up the two Alpes stages in the wrong order :O

My main point still stands. Rojas also finished outside the time limit, and if he hadn't, he would've been in green, so he had a very strong incentive not to finish in the grupetto.

I also don't see the big problem in Cav being permitted to continue. 79 riders that day were inside the time limit, 88 weren't, and the rules (which has been in place for as long as I can remember, and certainly isn't something done just for Cav) permits riders outside the time limit to continue if more than 20% of the field is in the grupetto. 52.7% of the field was outside the time limit that day.