2015 Tour de France Stage 8: Rennes-Mur de Bretagne, 181.5km

[franic]

Re: 2015 Tour de France Stage 8: Rennes-Mur de Bretagne, 181

Froome looked strong, stayed with the main group and saved energy instead of closing down the winning move.

To be fair, it doesn’t seem he saved energy. Of course, Froome seems always to go full gas so it’s hard to judge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYKi0I5aGS4

 

[perico]

Kreuziger looks stronger than he did in the Giro as well.

 

[SafeBet]

Re:

Bardet also lost time again

Pinot as well. And Rui Costa even more.

 

[Pantani Attacks]

Re:

Chris froome was looking back, he is not weak lol.

He certainly wasn't strong anyway. Faded as the climb progressed

 

[franic]

Re: Re:

All that work and no Garmins near the front.

Embarrassing they only had Martin there at the end.

I don't get this. They worked hard for Dan Martin and burnt all their matches. Martin had to look after himself in the finale but it was pretty much the same for everyone. If they'd let the breakaway win people would be complaining that they lost out on an almost certain win by shirking their responsibility.

Classic Dan Martin today. He was in 8th position, about 15-20 m behind, when Vuillermoz attacked.

 

[goggalor]

BTW, 2nd former mtn bike winner on this finish. Now hopefully Vuillermoz will go onto win the Tour as well.

 

[Big Doopie]

Re: 2015 Tour de France Stage 8: Rennes-Mur de Bretagne, 181

froome pushed it when he was told nibali had lost contact. when he looked back and he realized that attacking might only gain a couple of seconds on the others, he stopped his push. not worth the effort.

dan martin just explained why he wasn't able to immediately follow v - made sense. and all those saying he is bad at tactics, please take another look at his LBL and lombardy wins (perfect tactical victories). he does not have a team that can hide any mistakes he might make like others do.

tjvg looking very good for podium.

bmc to absolutely kill it tomorrow.

 

[Pantani Attacks]

Re:

Kreuziger looks stronger than he did in the Giro as well.

That wouldn't be hard at all. Tommy V looks stronger than Kreu was in the Giro

 

[Fight.The.Power]

I honestly think lots of people have not seen the next two weeks. . . .

The mountain stages are hellish. Losing a little time by Nibali today or Contador last week is nothing if your battery is flat by the time you hit the Alpe d'Huez. You will lose minutes.

Froome's tactics have ALWAYS been questionable and going tete-a-tete with all the classics riders in this first week will bite him in the ass later.

 

[rick james]

Re:

Chris froome was looking back, he is not weak lol.

he looked back and slowed down, he knew the other GC guys were not going to get the better of him today

 

[willbick]

Re: Re:

Van garderen looking like a podium finisher to me

Mountains haven't started yet bro.

He looked good in dauphine, only a bit behind Froome. I think that form could well be good enough for a podium finish

 

[Anderis]

Re: Re:

[quote="He could have won if he had support at the finish. But Garmin never go all in for anyone. Hesjedal and Talansky should have been dragging him up there.[/quote]
Hesjedal was spent much earlier as he had to pull on flat since Bauer is out and Haas seems to struggle a bitin the last few days, probably due to crashes as he was ok on stage 3.

Talansky could do little here for Martin, he is not explosive enough for that kind of climb.

Koren was very good IMO, though.

 

[SeriousSam]

Re:

Marvellous Vuillermoz.

His nickname is Pikachu, by the way.

Instant fan. PIKA PIKA

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Marvellous Vuillermoz.

His nickname is Pikachu, by the way.

That's adorable

Great win for Vuillermoz, great rider

Contador looked good today, he was far back but still made it to the first group, and he just said he wanted to lead out Sagan but Sagan boxed him in

 

[phanatic]

Froome's gonna have to be better if he wants to win this tour by fifteen minutes.

 

[Lance Armstrong]

Re:

Kreuziger looks stronger than he did in the Giro as well.

He had diarrhea at Giro - couldn't eat anything.

 

[Amsterhammer]

I am confused. Something is askew in the world. Sagan has not finished second on two consecutive days. Does not compute.

 

[MikeTichondrius]

Top 10 considering climbers-only after the first week sans TTT:

1 - Froome
2 - Van Garderen +13"
3 - Uran +34"
4 - Contador +36"
5 - Barguil +1'07"
6 - Mollema +1'32"
7 - Gesink +1'39"
8 - Valverde +1'47"
9 - Nibali +1'48"
10 - Kreuziger +1'51"
(11 - Quintana +1'56)

What sort of changes can we expect to this pecking order tomorrow? It seems that the strongest TT team riders are already at the top. Maybe Astana to pull Nibali ahead of Valverde/Gesink/Mollema/Barguil? I'm struggling to admit Sagan has a real chance at yellow tomorrow. Is Sky really much weaker than Tinkoff in this terrain?

 

[rm7]

Re: Re:

Riis: Froome was total incompetent, riding like a headless chicken. Contador about to attack, but Sagan closed him on the inside (if anybody saw that). Nibali lost time, but Andy Schleck did the same in 2011 and still came strong in the mountains.

Where do Riis' musings come from? Don't tell me he's landed a Teevee contract.

Haha, he has. Danish Tv2 But he's good.

 

[Warhawk]

Re: Re:

Top 10

1. Styby
2. Sagy
3. Tony
4. Eddy
5. Froomy
6. Johny
7. Coqy
8. Pity
9. Danny
10. Bobby

No way, dude. Take a look at the profile again.

1. Martin
2. Vuillermoz
3. Purito
4. Gallopin (catch just before the final)
5. Dawg
6. Contador
7. Valverde
8. TJVG
9. Quintana

*10 secs gap*

Group Nibali.

Nice call on the gap.

 

[Guybrush]

Too bad Tony is out, otherwise Rigo could get yellow

 

[Big Doopie]

i always think they should have a couple of mountain stages before the first rest day. catches out those that seem to gain most from those days...

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Re: Re:

Bardet also lost time again

Pinot as well. And Rui Costa even more.

Well Costa is clearly injured

 

[MikeTichondrius]

Re:

i always think they should have a couple of mountain stages before the first rest day. catches out those that seem to gain most from those days...

Impossible with the geographical sequence ASO went for. With the start in Utrecht, the only way to properly have mountains in the first week would be heading south to the Vosges. Since they wanted to run along Normandy and head into Bretagne instead, most you'd ever get would be early hilly stages. In that regard, southern France starts like we had in Monaco in Corsica lets them throw a little curveball in if they want to.

Mind you, it's ASO, I can't actually rememeber actual proper mountains in any of their first weeks (Vizzavona mid-stage in Corsica doesn't count). I'm sure I'll be corrected soon though.

 

[Sem Travões]

I think Sagan will win a stage, but he does have to wear some sort of camouflage or disguise, on the otherhand he could watch vídeos of some Bettinis wins