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

[del1962]

Re: Re:

Wonder how much time Froome would have lost if he had crashed when he nearly got knocked off by the Katusha rider

You mean how he nearly knocked himself off when desperatly trying to find a gap between a cruising Katusha rider and the sidewalk.

Epic fail from you here BicMac it was clearly the Katusha rider at fault nearly throwing Froome into the gutter

 

[Ryaguas]

What you can get from today is that the dawg is in alien form... hope the others can resist until get the form to hold him and drop him if possible

 

[BigMac]

Re: Re:

Wonder how much time Froome would have lost if he had crashed when he nearly got knocked off by the Katusha rider

You mean how he nearly knocked himself off when desperatly trying to find a gap between a cruising Katusha rider and the sidewalk.

Epic fail from you here BicMac it was clearly the Katusha rider at fault nearly throwing Froome into the gutter

Not the impression I and most others got after watching it and then the replay. Can you find me a video?

 

[harryh]

Re: Re:

Wonder how much time Froome would have lost if he had crashed when he nearly got knocked off by the Katusha rider

You mean how he nearly knocked himself off when desperatly trying to find a gap between a cruising Katusha rider and the sidewalk.

Epic fail from you here BicMac it was clearly the Katusha rider at fault nearly throwing Froome into the gutter

Not the impression I and most others got after watching it and then the replay. Can you find me a video?

https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video/CJUfXfhWsAA7wgF.mp4

 

[BigMac]

Re: Re:

Wonder how much time Froome would have lost if he had crashed when he nearly got knocked off by the Katusha rider

You mean how he nearly knocked himself off when desperatly trying to find a gap between a cruising Katusha rider and the sidewalk.

Epic fail from you here BicMac it was clearly the Katusha rider at fault nearly throwing Froome into the gutter

Not the impression I and most others got after watching it and then the replay. Can you find me a video?

https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video/CJUfXfhWsAA7wgF.mp4

Fair enough, but still shouldn't ride with his arms so wide open and force his way trough such narrow path. There would have been no contact had he not had his elbows sticking out, because he clearly slowed on time.

 

[SafeBet]

Re:

Still it's obvious that Nibali really can ride cobbles really well, but he was pretty much the only one together with a few teammates that really tried it together with 2 efforts of Vanmarcke.

I know many will say one day races are different from stages in a GT, but it's a shame we have never seen Nibali riding cobble classics for real. He's amazing.

Decent stage today, but I was expecting much more. How many proper attacks? I understand most cobble specialists were babysitting their captains but still a bit of a letdown. Vanmarcke always very unlucky, but he didn't try that much before his puncture anyway. He must know he's not gonna win a 40 rider sprint.

Very happy for Panzer though. One truly deserved maillot jaune.

 

[Flamin]

Re: Re:

Still it's obvious that Nibali really can ride cobbles really well, but he was pretty much the only one together with a few teammates that really tried it together with 2 efforts of Vanmarcke.

I know many will say one day races are different from stages in a GT, but it's a shame we have never seen Nibali riding cobble classics for real. He's amazing.

Decent stage today, but I was expecting much more. How many proper attacks? I understand most cobble specialists were babysitting their captains but still a bit of a letdown. Vanmarcke always very unlucky, but he didn't try that much before his puncture anyway. He must know he's not gonna win a 40 rider sprint.

Very happy for Panzer though. One truly deserved maillot jaune.

Sep said most of those secteurs would get 2 stars in PR so it was pretty much 13k on easy cobbles. Add headwind and dry conditions to it and this is what we get, unfortunately.

 

[Poursuivant]

I really hate to be the guy who brags about a winning bet but I hardly ever bet this much (let alone on a 60-1 chance) and I'd planned to back Tony for this stage the first time I saw the course, so forgive me if I'm a little bit pleased with myself.

Fantastic

 

[manafana]

a good old battle today, just knew martin would win once he got the gap at the end.

 

[BYOP88]

Re:

What you can get from today is that the dawg is in alien form... hope the others can resist until get the form to hold him and drop him if possible

No chance. I don't think the Dawg is in top form yet. I'm guessing he wins this by at least 7 minutes.

 

[TMP402]

Maybe this has been noted but if you watch the penultimate or antepenultimate cobbled section, Nibali makes a big attack, and only three or four can follow, Froome is behind in a second group when a gap appears, but there is an Astana rider in between the Nibali and Froome groups, and he essentially drags Froome's group back to Nibali, Vandenbergh-like...

I doubt it would have stuck, because of all that we've heard about headwinds etc, but it could have been Nibali's best chance of gaining time possibly.

 

[Andro]

Re:

Maybe this has been noted but if you watch the penultimate or antepenultimate cobbled section, Nibali makes a big attack, and only three or four can follow, Froome is behind in a second group when a gap appears, but there is an Astana rider in between the Nibali and Froome groups, and he essentially drags Froome's group back to Nibali, Vandenbergh-like...

I doubt it would have stuck, because of all that we've heard about headwinds etc, but it could have been Nibali's best chance of gaining time possibly.

Yeah, I noticed that as well. I'm pretty sure it was Fuglsang. It seemed really weird.

 

[TMP402]

Just watched an interview with Vanmarcke, well he certainly was devastated. The fact he once again got a flat really seemed to bother him a lot.

Pffft, he thinks that's bad? He should meet Dan Martin

Well at least Martin has won two monuments. Vanmarcke has had five wins in his five years of pro cycling, yet has also been in the top 10 of 10 WT cobbled classics and been on the podium of both PR and RVV. While the to my mind quite similar GVA has never quite got that big win yet either, he at least has won stage races, won stages of WT races, and even won a GT points jersey too.

Regarding yet another puncture, I feel very sorry for Vanmarcke. If I was him I'd leave RabkinJumco for almost any other team. Literally any WT team bar Movistar would give him at least the same level of support, and if he went to Lotto-Soudal with Roelandts, Benoot, Debuscherre, Bak and Gallopin he would be a top top contender with an amazing team to support him.

 

[TMP402]

Re: Re:

Still it's obvious that Nibali really can ride cobbles really well, but he was pretty much the only one together with a few teammates that really tried it together with 2 efforts of Vanmarcke.

I know many will say one day races are different from stages in a GT, but it's a shame we have never seen Nibali riding cobble classics for real. He's amazing.

Decent stage today, but I was expecting much more. How many proper attacks? I understand most cobble specialists were babysitting their captains but still a bit of a letdown. Vanmarcke always very unlucky, but he didn't try that much before his puncture anyway. He must know he's not gonna win a 40 rider sprint.

Very happy for Panzer though. One truly deserved maillot jaune.

If I was Nibali I would turn my attention to the monuments. He has podiums in LBL and MSR already and a 5th in Lombardia, so those are achievable in his career. Not so crazy to think he could do a Wiggins and be a contender for the other two as well if he gained the right weight and trained more for them.

 

[movingtarget]

Good stage but not a great one. With some of the comments on here it seems some people expected Nibali to ride away from the field like Cancellara and win by two minutes. Happy for Martin to get the win and the Yellow. And no major accidents as well. Pinot's troubles continue. He should try to win a stage in the mountains. Top 10 at best now. I think racing the cobbles in the opposite direction and some sectors were also pretty short and mild made it easier than what the riders normally face in races over the pave'. The cobbles did shake not up the race this year and most of the GC riders will be glad about that.

 

[bassano]

Re: Re:

If I was Nibali I would turn my attention to the monuments. He has podiums in LBL and MSR already and a 5th in Lombardia, so those are achievable in his career. Not so crazy to think he could do a Wiggins and be a contender for the other two as well if he gained the right weight and trained more for them.

depends what Nibali prefer to ride, he still could win tour in Alps, I very doubt that he will be able to hold froome on pyrenees but when he will be able to limit loses there, he will be stronger in Alps because froome usually have problems in last week
and to be classic rider he is too slow in sprint and too much guarded by other riders, he can win LBL or Milano San remo but not really belgium classic

 

[Volderke]

In hindsight, this stage could and should have been a lot better with tailwind. The race organizers should have designed the state with a Western wind in mind...Now all we got was quite OK in terms of tactics etc. but the final result was a bit weird: you saw the guys in the front group relaxing in the last 5K as if they didn't care for the finish too much anymore! They were already happy they 'survived' the cobbles.

In that regard, the stage in Zeeland was better: the peloton got exposed and this should really be the main ingredient of an interesting stage: expose the riders to the cirucmstances, so they have to ride hard and cannot hide. Either in a windy stage, on cobbles or with some hills. But in that way, a windy stage or cobbled stage can be more interesting than a hilly stage it seems.

 

[harryh]

Re: Re:

Fair enough, but still shouldn't ride with his arms so wide open and force his way trough such narrow path. There would have been no contact had he not had his elbows sticking out, because he clearly slowed on time.

On the contrary, to protect himself even better than he did yesterday he should ride with his arms even more wide open. Just like Nibali does

https://40.media.tumblr.com/62cb002bae3183fef36d1e7542abd681/tumblr_nr4o8q3QyU1ropreyo1_1280.jpg

 

[ILovecycling]

Re:

What you can get from today is that the dawg is in alien form... hope the others can resist until get the form to hold him and drop him if possible

Im hoping for this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eiN2vfGKhk
..but with certain riders to be stronger than him

 

[franic]

Re: Re:

Wonder how much time Froome would have lost if he had crashed when he nearly got knocked off by the Katusha rider

You mean how he nearly knocked himself off when desperatly trying to find a gap between a cruising Katusha rider and the sidewalk.

Epic fail from you here BicMac it was clearly the Katusha rider at fault nearly throwing Froome into the gutter

Not the impression I and most others got after watching it and then the replay. Can you find me a video?

https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video/CJUfXfhWsAA7wgF.mp4

Ok, the Katusha rider was going on the right, but this type of things happen all the time. For instance, a Lotto Soudal guy was throwing Nibali in the grass in a cobblestone sector.
What is terrible is what happens afterwards when Froome points towards Purito, Boasson-Hagen and Sagan.
In that situation, if you are skilled enough you can jump on the sidewalk, or keep riding very close to it. When you start zig-zagging in the group, that’s when you have accidents.

 

[franic]

By the way, what’s even worse is the fact that Froome points to Purito and co. when he has already gained control of the bike. That means he can’t actually go straight.

 

[franic]

Re: Re:

Fair enough, but still shouldn't ride with his arms so wide open and force his way trough such narrow path. There would have been no contact had he not had his elbows sticking out, because he clearly slowed on time.

On the contrary, to protect himself even better than he did yesterday he should ride with his arms even more wide open. Just like Nibali does

https://40.media.tumblr.com/62cb002bae3183fef36d1e7542abd681/tumblr_nr4o8q3QyU1ropreyo1_1280.jpg

Nibali has his hands close to the center of the handlebar, meaning his elbows don’t pass the external line of the body by too much. On the contrary, Froome holds the brake levers meaning his elbows are sticking out.

 

[IlGrillo]

Re: Re:

when there´s nothing to say, and an hated rider does great, we are back to the jokes, right?

Hating a rider. That's really sad.

I thought that was funny, i actually like Froome especially since last Vuelta.

 

[Kwibus]

Re:

In hindsight, this stage could and should have been a lot better with tailwind. The race organizers should have designed the state with a Western wind in mind...Now all we got was quite OK in terms of tactics etc. but the final result was a bit weird: you saw the guys in the front group relaxing in the last 5K as if they didn't care for the finish too much anymore! They were already happy they 'survived' the cobbles.

In that regard, the stage in Zeeland was better: the peloton got exposed and this should really be the main ingredient of an interesting stage: expose the riders to the cirucmstances, so they have to ride hard and cannot hide. Either in a windy stage, on cobbles or with some hills. But in that way, a windy stage or cobbled stage can be more interesting than a hilly stage it seems.

True indeed, but it's hard to make everything perfect.
The headwind and easy sectors werent selective enough. We cant have an epic cobbles stage every year

 

[Kwibus]

Re: Re:

when there´s nothing to say, and an hated rider does great, we are back to the jokes, right?

Hating a rider. That's really sad.

I thought that was funny, i actually like Froome especially since last Vuelta.

The pic is great indeed, but the reasoning by pastronef is a bit sad.