2015 tour de france stage 3, Antwerpen-Hoei 159.5km

[Ryaguas]

In the first hill you could see that the Dawg is in really good form, I could see Contador struggling a bit with Majka pace. He needs more race to get into form, cuz I dont want to live 2013 all over again

 

[Ataraxus]

Contador looks the weakest of the four though (blame the Giro)

 

[franic]

Re: Re:

GVA, Sagan, Gallopin and to a lesser extent Stybar all have a good chance of yellow tomorrow. Not sure of Gallopin's cobbled form, and since Sagan will be looking after Contador, GVA and Stybar will have a good fight for that jersey.

I wouldn't rule out Martin though. Yes he doesn't have much cobbled experience, but he's a beast.

That’s what I was thinking about. There aren’t so many cobbles sectors, I guess Martin can make it to the yellow with some motivation

 

[blackmamba]

at one point froome was riding zig-zag almost causing havoc in the entire peleton with his *** style I almost fell on the floor for laughing so hard haha

 

[SafeBet]

Spectacular performance by the Dawg. Don't know what to do with Contador though, maybe he'll get in better shape as the days go by. I certainly hope so. Nibali will have to try something tomorrow.

 

[Red Rick]

Contador is almost as good as blowing himself up when he's not the strongest as going full *** and winning Grand Tours

 

[BlackWhiteEagle]

Kudus 30th 45 sec. Nice

 

[AlexNYC]

Froome 'looks' unbeatable at the moment; but how close to peak form is he? Can he sustain this form through three weeks? And what about the other 3 contenders, are they going to be flying higher than Froome by the time we get to the mountain stages?

How anyone can believe the GC race is over is a mystery to me.

 

[patrick767]

Re: Re:

Race is over for everyone else on GC. In the Physical sense. If Froome stays safe the race is in bag.

This is beyond ridiculous. How can anyone believe this?

I have no idea. Froome is looking like the strongest GC rider at the moment and obviously Nibbles and Quintana lost significant time yesterday, but it's a hell of a long way to Paris. It's absurd to say that any of the big 4 are out of it.

 

[SafeBet]

Very disappointing performance by Valverde too.

 

[DFA123]

Re:

Froome is insane. If he survises tommorow, he has this Tour in the bag. Only Nibali can match him if he does crazy well tommorow and on descents but stage 2 will hurt

I don't agree with this at all. Froome of 2013 for sure, would win from here. But in the last year or so he's shown that his form is very fickle and can change very quickly. He seems to be badly affected now by even minor crashes and has lost very big time on several climbs (something that didn't seem possible in 2012-13).

 

[Ramon Koran]

Why was the thread about the Tour being over shut? It was spot on.

 

[TMP402]

Re: Re:

GVA, Sagan, Gallopin and to a lesser extent Stybar all have a good chance of yellow tomorrow. Not sure of Gallopin's cobbled form, and since Sagan will be looking after Contador, GVA and Stybar will have a good fight for that jersey.

I wouldn't rule out Martin though. Yes he doesn't have much cobbled experience, but he's a beast.

That’s what I was thinking about. There aren’t so many cobbles sectors, I guess Martin can make it to the yellow with some motivation

Well to support that he came 17th, 2 mins behind Boom in the stage last year when OPQS were trying to set it up for Kwia. Perfectly possible.

 

[damian13ster]

Re:

Contador looks the weakest of the four though (blame the Giro)

meh, except for TT he looked weak in Giro as well. The jury is still out but as I said in other thread. By stage 11 we will know a lot more

 

[Vino's Mum]

Re:

In the first hill you could see that the Dawg is in really good form, I could see Contador struggling a bit with Majka pace. He needs more race to get into form, cuz I dont want to live 2013 all over again

Yup. I posted yesterday that Froome was first up Jenkin Road in Sheffield last year, and thought he was gonna win once Majka lifted the pace today. I wasn't surprised to see Bert (and Nairito) drop back, though I thought Nibali could hang on better than he did.

 

[DFA123]

Re:

Very disappointing performance by Valverde too.

Valverde seems to use the Tour nowadays as a warm up race so he can peak for the Vuelta, Worlds and Lombardia. A bit disrespectful maybe, but I guess he may as well plan a schedule to his strengths.

 

[Kwibus]

Re:

Very disappointing performance by Valverde too.

Its July
He will be back to his best during the Vuelta.

 

[SafeBet]

Re: Re:

Valverde seems to use the Tour nowadays as a warm up race so he can peak for the Vuelta, Worlds and Lombardia. A bit disrespectful maybe, but I guess he may as well plan a schedule to his strengths.

Of course he can. But with such a parcours, he could win 3-4 stages.

 

[rick james]

Re:

Froome 'looks' unbeatable at the moment; but how close to peak form is he? Can he sustain this form through three weeks? And what about the other 3 contenders, are they going to be flying higher than Froome by the time we get to the mountain stages?

How anyone can believe the GC race is over is a mystery to me.

well he is talking about peaking for the 3rd week

 

[reshp1]

Short, punchy climbs =/= high mountains. Froome certainly looked strong today, but I wouldn't give him the win until at least stage 12.

 

[arvc40]

Re: Re:

Race is over for everyone else on GC. In the Physical sense. If Froome stays safe the race is in bag.

This is beyond ridiculous. How can anyone believe this?

I have no idea. Froome is looking like the strongest GC rider at the moment and obviously Nibbles and Quintana lost significant time yesterday, but it's a hell of a long way to Paris. It's absurd to say that any of the big 4 are out of it.

I have £100 at 9/1 for Contador to do double. Put it on weeks ago. We shall see !

 

[Taxus4a]

Contador is an explosive rider that was 4th in flecha Valone and almost win in Mur the bretagne... That is well known..
Froome prefer long climbs, but froome is clearly the best of the world.

Nobody worked for Urán who rode the Giro as well and was better than Alberto in Tirreno, but he is better in GC.

Very good for Quintana as well, who even prefer longer climbs more than Froome.

 

[The Hitch]

I think Murito won the yellow for Froome there (though I doubt Froome wants it).

As he sat up right at the end, he decreased his gap over Froome from 3 seconds to 2 seconds. Froome finished something like 1.5- 2 seconds after Murito's front wheel crossed the line but as his gap to Murito's back wheel was judged to have been under 1 second, he got s.t, therefore saveing him that 1-2 seconds, costing TM in the end.

Contador weak weak weak. Lets see what happens tommorow. I don't think having the yellow is the best case scenario for Sky.

 

[Fight.The.Power]

Tony Martin finished ahead of Sagan

 

[Vroome.exe]

To me it looked like Martin's group finished at 39'' not 40''. It's like everyone is against martin to take MJ.