2015 Tour De France Stage 4: Seraing - Cambrai, 223.5 km

[sultanofhyd]

Why didn't Valverde win on the Mur yesterday? Why did Nibali lose time on stage 2? Are we going to say Nibali will lose time whenever there is a hint of a crosswind? Why didn't Froome win the prologue?

It was just the one stage last year where Nibali gained time on Contador, and Froome didn't even make it as far as the cobbles. People here take it way too seriously. The sample size is too small.

Why doesn't Nibali ride Roubaix if he is so good on the cobbles?

He might or might not be better than the other GC riders, but last year's stage is nowhere near enough to make a judgment on that.

 

[franic]

Re: Re:

You all think he’s a great specialist in the cobbles. He’s not!
The only way he can gain time is if he sits 2cm behind Boom’s wheel and is escorted like one year ago with Fuglsang

If it's so easy, why didn't Contaor just sit in Nibali's wheel and got escorted too?

If you believe Contador (1) his gears/deraillur was clogged with mud and couldn't shift and (2) didn't want to take risks in the rain.

I bet everyone had problems with the rear derailleur…The fact is that he wasn’t able to handle his bike and Nibali+Fuglsang did an incredible job, because they happened to be 45” in front of specialists like Cancellara

 

[tomorrow]

Re: Re:

LOL Sagan

What did he do?

When he, Cavendish, Greipel and Degenkolb contested the sprint, having gone off the front of the bunch, he jokingly indicated they should work together to maintain the gap.

What was the results in the sprint, besides cav winning it?

 

[Rechtschreibfehl3r]

Re: Re:

LOL Sagan

What did he do?

When he, Cavendish, Greipel and Degenkolb contested the sprint, having gone off the front of the bunch, he jokingly indicated they should work together to maintain the gap.

What was the results in the sprint, besides cav winning it?

Actually Cav didn't win it put won the sprint for 5th place.
1.
DE GENDT T.
20pts
2.
BRUN F.
17pts
3.
WESTRA L.
15pts
4.
QUEMENEUR P.
13pts
5.
CAVENDISH M.
11pts
6.
COQUARD B.
10pts
7.
GREIPEL A.
9pts
8.
SAGAN P.
8pts
9.
DEGENKOLB J.
7pts
10.
DEBUSSCHERE J.
6pts
11.
TULIK A.
5pts
12.
SIEBERG M.
4pts
13.
RENSHAW M.
3pts
14.
CURVERS R.
2pts
15.
HERRADA LOPEZ J.
1pts

 

[franic]

Re: Re:

You all think he’s a great specialist in the cobbles. He’s not!
The only way he can gain time is if he sits 2cm behind Boom’s wheel and is escorted like one year ago with Fuglsang

If it's so easy, why didn't Contaor just sit in Nibali's wheel and got escorted too?

It’s not so easy. Of course Nibali can handle his bike pretty well, for sure better than any of the top 4. But bike handling skills matter much more with heavy rain than with no rain or light rain like today

So he's not a speacialist (which I agree with), but he's just much better handling himself on cobbles in difficult circumstances. So if the race was hard enough, why wouldn't he try to attack the other GC Contenders?

Unless you are a great specialist (e.g. Cancellara) you can’t go away on your own. Last year it was Nibali+Fuglsang+Boom, let’s see what happens now

 

[SeriousSam]

Re:

Why didn't Valverde win on the Mur yesterday? Why did Nibali lose time on stage 2? Are we going to say Nibali will lose time whenever there is a hint of a crosswind? Why didn't Froome win the prologue?

It was just the one stage last year where Nibali gained time on Contador, and Froome didn't even make it as far as the cobbles. People here take it way too seriously. The sample size is too small.

Why doesn't Nibali ride Roubaix if he is so good on the cobbles?

He might or might not be better than the other GC riders, but last year's stage is nowhere near enough to make a judgment on that.

Very well said. People around here, and in general can't help but believe in the the Law of Small Numbers.

 

[Googolplex]

1. BELDE GENDT Thomas 73 LOTTO-SOUDAL 20 pts
2. FRABRUN Fréderic 202 BRETAGNE - SECHE ENVIRONNEMENT 17 pts
3. NEDWESTRA Lieuwe 9 ASTANA PRO TEAM 15 pts
4. FRAQUEMENEUR Perrig 126 TEAM EUROPCAR 13 pts
5. GBRCAVENDISH Mark 112 ETIXX-QUICK STEP 11 pts
6. FRACOQUARD Bryan 122 TEAM EUROPCAR 10 pts
7. GERGREIPEL André 75 LOTTO-SOUDAL 9 pts
8. SVKSAGAN Peter 47 TINKOFF-SAXO 8 pts
9. GERDEGENKOLB John 81 TEAM GIANT-ALPECIN 7 pts
10. BELDEBUSSCHERE Jens 74 LOTTO-SOUDAL 6 pts
11. FRATULIK ANGÉLO 128 TEAM EUROPCAR 5 pts
12. GERSIEBERG Marcel 78 LOTTO-SOUDAL 4 pts
13. AUSRENSHAW Mark 115 ETIXX-QUICK STEP 3 pts
14. NEDCURVERS Roy 83 TEAM GIANT-ALPECIN 2 pts
15. ESPHERRADA LOPEZ José 56 MOVISTAR TEAM 1 pts

 

[Eclipse]

Re: Re:

LOL Sagan

What did he do?

When he, Cavendish, Greipel and Degenkolb contested the sprint, having gone off the front of the bunch, he jokingly indicated they should work together to maintain the gap.

What was the results in the sprint, besides cav winning it?

Breakaway 1-4

then Cav, Coquard, Greipel, Sagan, Degenkolb

 

[tomorrow]

Re: Re:

You all think he’s a great specialist in the cobbles. He’s not!
The only way he can gain time is if he sits 2cm behind Boom’s wheel and is escorted like one year ago with Fuglsang

If it's so easy, why didn't Contaor just sit in Nibali's wheel and got escorted too?

If you believe Contador (1) his gears/deraillur was clogged with mud and couldn't shift and (2) didn't want to take risks in the rain.

I bet everyone had problems with the rear derailleur…The fact is that he wasn’t able to handle his bike and Nibali+Fuglsang did an incredible job, because they happened to be 45” in front of specialists like Cancellara

well they dot 45 sec on canoellara and sagan because stybar left a hole and then everybody was looking ol sagan and cancellara to close the gap. and astana with boom. were 4on 2 which resulted fab and poter resignated. the sectors left weren't tough enough to close the gap and on ordinary road the 4 had advantage

 

[Kwibus]

Re: Re:

Will Nibali actually attempt to attack today?

I would wonder if not

You all think he’s a great specialist in the cobbles. He’s not!
The only way he can gain time is if he sits 2cm behind Boom’s wheel and is escorted like one year ago with Fuglsang

He's not a specialist, but he certainly did ride the cobbles great last year. It wasnt just following, he was just really good with placing himself and riding on the cobbles.

 

[TMP402]

Feels odd to see Konig, Porte and Roche leading on the flat. That's Skytrain for you.

 

[Cimber]

Rain coming soon
Latest weather forecast: some rain is expected during the last hour of racing in the area situated between Valenciennes and Cambrai, which coincides with the cobbled sections. The second section is located with 46km to go, in Famars, very close to Valenciennes.

http://www.letour.fr/le-tour/2015/us/live/aso/

 

[rick james]

stop scaring the cows bawbag

 

[TMP402]

Sky: where once-promising but ultimately anonymous top 10 GC riders come to lead out Luke Rowe.

 

[Rechtschreibfehl3r]

Re: Re:

You all think he’s a great specialist in the cobbles. He’s not!
The only way he can gain time is if he sits 2cm behind Boom’s wheel and is escorted like one year ago with Fuglsang

If it's so easy, why didn't Contaor just sit in Nibali's wheel and got escorted too?

It’s not so easy. Of course Nibali can handle his bike pretty well, for sure better than any of the top 4. But bike handling skills matter much more with heavy rain than with no rain or light rain like today

So he's not a speacialist (which I agree with), but he's just much better handling himself on cobbles in difficult circumstances. So if the race was hard enough, why wouldn't he try to attack the other GC Contenders?

Unless you are a great specialist (e.g. Cancellara) you can’t go away on your own. Last year it was Nibali+Fuglsang+Boom, let’s see what happens now

Fist of all, attaking can also mean force a split in grops an create a smaller/small one. Secondly I don't think a lot of people were claiming Nibali would pull a Cancellara or Boonen. There is a huge difference between being a specialist and being an absolute elite rider. Third, he could also attack the other GC-guys without competing for the stage at all.
I just think you are a littel bit to strict.

Anyway, it comes down to weather there'll be rain or not in the final.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Hope we get carnage. Please rain.

 

[BigMac]

Re: Re:

Costa in the 2nd group

3rd from the front mate.

he was in the second group like 6 km before the first sector, its funny you quote me 20 minutes after

Sorry, that was from the phone and didn't see the time stamp.

 

[burning]

Robbie McEwen
‏@mcewenrobbie
Worth noting every pavé sector will be crosswind #split2bits #sbstdf

I'm hoping that this will have an impact on pavé.

 

[skidmark]

Anyone got a stream to recommend? CyclingHub is good but too high quality for my internet connection, and I would love to avoid wading through the awful malware forest that is steephill around the TdF.

 

[DBotero]

Anyone got a stream to recommend? CyclingHub is good but too high quality for my internet connection, and I would love to avoid wading through the awful malware forest that is steephill around the TdF.

Try one of these:https://www.procyclinglive.com/livestream/

 

[Cimber]

Anyone got a stream to recommend? CyclingHub is good but too high quality for my internet connection, and I would love to avoid wading through the awful malware forest that is steephill around the TdF.

try one of these

http://www.steephill.tv/tour-de-france/#live

 

[spalco]

Scary roundabout there.

 

[Red Rick]

Thank god it's raining

 

[Cimber]

Thank god it's raining

= total and utter carnage Just hoping crashes wont decide the Tour

 

[Red Rick]

Wind seems really, really hard out there