2016 TdF, Stage 9: Vielha → Andorra Arcalis (185km)

[Zinoviev Letter]

Disaster day for Aru. Not up to it at the moment.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re:

Either Froome is not as strong as last year, or he has planned to peak slightly later this year, knowing in the previous editions his form was declining significantly during the third week.

He's said all year he planned to peak later this year. As he wants to be competitive in Rio too.

If Quintana waits until the final couple of stages like he usually does he may be disappointed.

 

[gunara]

Quintana will win this tour, he might TT like never seen before from him, and people will root for him again when he goes berserk in the 3rd week....all after wear such an annoyingly mysterious persona, I mean really really annoying.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Re: Re:

Wow Quintana is super super strong; he is so so easily covering attacks and catching up to Froome. I think good decision by him not to attack, especially he got to see who are the key players in form in the tour - Froome, Porte, Martin, Yates.

I think he can bring the hammer down in the 3rd week easily but hopefully he doesn't wait till the last day. I now consider that he is the favorite for the Tour.

Yep, very impressive by Quintana. No need to attack when everyone else is riding strongly and on pretty gentle gradients. Just match them and make the decisive attack in the third week.

Wait a second, I thought Quintana didn't like gradients like 9+% and last km's were like 7.5%. But Quintana can only shine in stages with 4 long mountains and that stage has to be in 4th week because he has the best recovery.

Last 5km average about 6% - too gentle for Quintana. He needed to get away earlier and go long from Beixalis - which was presumably why he had men in the break. But Sky train was too strong at that point, so he sensibly changed plan. He easily looked the strongest rider at the end there - would be amazed if he doesn't win this race.

No way did it ever cross Quintana's mind to attack on Beixalis.

 

[BullsFan22]

Maybe Quintana couldn't attack? Though he looked quite ok when covering the Froome accelerations to get up to Porte, Yates, Martin, Mollema...Not sure what his deal was today. He knows full well that anytime there is a mountain finish he needs to try and do something, unless he is leading the race by a comfortable margin.

 

[Kokoso]

Who dais Froom will pay for yesterday? On the contrary, he got paid

 

[Richeypen]

Dont understand the Porte hate. Even with his time lose from early in the race he is BMCs best option for the podium. Aru, Jrod, Valverde all dropped off, of course he was going to pull.

 

[burning]

Re: Re:

Wow Quintana is super super strong; he is so so easily covering attacks and catching up to Froome. I think good decision by him not to attack, especially he got to see who are the key players in form in the tour - Froome, Porte, Martin, Yates.

I think he can bring the hammer down in the 3rd week easily but hopefully he doesn't wait till the last day. I now consider that he is the favorite for the Tour.

Yep, very impressive by Quintana. No need to attack when everyone else is riding strongly and on pretty gentle gradients. Just match them and make the decisive attack in the third week.

Wait a second, I thought Quintana didn't like gradients like 9+% and last km's were like 7.5%. But Quintana can only shine in stages with 4 long mountains and that stage has to be in 4th week because he has the best recovery.

Last 5km average about 6% - too gentle for Quintana. He needed to get away earlier and go long from Beixalis - which was presumably why he had men in the break. But Sky train was too strong at that point, so he sensibly changed plan. He easily looked the strongest rider at the end there - would be amazed if he doesn't win this race.

Unless I forgot how to add 5 numbers, last 5km averages around 7% and his fans always says that he's not that good in very steep climbs, so he's pretty much useless

 

[TomLPC]

Nothing wrong with levi, the tour de Suisse is a highly prestigious race.

 

[Punkan]

Quintana will win the tour. He will attack hard in the 3rd week and make Froome look silly. And then todays boring ride will be forgotten. Quintana just saves energy so he can unleash harder later (and when the slopes are steeper).

 

[Escarabajo]

I never thought Dumoulin would get it. Good job and well deserved. Maybe the rain helped him.

What is all this bashing about Quintana, Porte and everyone else. Grab a bike ride on those high temperatures then ride to the end in hail. That is tuff. I saw the faces in everyone, they were on the limit completely.

I wish I had seen an attack by Quintana or other cyclists but they were completely tired. And Quintana is letting Froome do all the chasing which is not bad TBH. Froome having the yellow jersey is working on Quintana's favor IMO.

 

[GJB123]

Quintana looked imperious, all the more puzzling he didn't try anything. Froome definitely less strong uphill than last year (at least for the first MTF). He couldn't shed the likes of Martin, Porte and Yates (let alone Quintana), that is telling.

 

[hoolaparara]

Still a chance for a Bardet podium!

 

[Gigs_98]

IMO both Quintana and Porte rode absolutely disgracefully today. Quintana didn't attack one single time, and Porte (although he attacked earlier on the climb) just pulled the group without even trying to drop anyone although, or because, his teammate was in troubles.

Porte may have been trying to solidify the team roles, making it clear to Tejay that he is now the strongest and will need his support later.

It was absoultely obvious he was stronger than Tejay, but pulling Froome and Quintana so his teammate looses time is just a disgrace. Porte himself knows that he often has a bad day and he knows that he is already far back in gc. What if he looses minutes in the alps but his teammate is out of contention because he pulled other riders to the finish.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Porte isn't going for the win. He's going for a podium. So why should he attack Froome and Quintana instead of just riding to distance his rivals for the podium?

 

[huge]

Re:

Quintana is waiting. He has Froomes measure. Froome knows it.

And how that is supposed to be a smart move, someone please explain it to me!

If he is feeling strong, what's the point not to try and attack?
It's not like if he had tried today, he wouldn't have had any energy left for the third week.
There is not even a single reason that makes his decision not to attack today a good decision. Very very poor cycling.

Definitely agree with whom is hoping him not to get a podium spot. Disgrace!

 

[sir fly]

Podium battle should be exciting.

Tinkov!

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

Wow Quintana is super super strong; he is so so easily covering attacks and catching up to Froome. I think good decision by him not to attack, especially he got to see who are the key players in form in the tour - Froome, Porte, Martin, Yates.

I think he can bring the hammer down in the 3rd week easily but hopefully he doesn't wait till the last day. I now consider that he is the favorite for the Tour.

Yep, very impressive by Quintana. No need to attack when everyone else is riding strongly and on pretty gentle gradients. Just match them and make the decisive attack in the third week.

Wait a second, I thought Quintana didn't like gradients like 9+% and last km's were like 7.5%. But Quintana can only shine in stages with 4 long mountains and that stage has to be in 4th week because he has the best recovery.

Last 5km average about 6% - too gentle for Quintana. He needed to get away earlier and go long from Beixalis - which was presumably why he had men in the break. But Sky train was too strong at that point, so he sensibly changed plan. He easily looked the strongest rider at the end there - would be amazed if he doesn't win this race.

No way did it ever cross Quintana's mind to attack on Beixalis.

Of course it did. The three men were in the break to go long if Froome showed any signs of weakness after his hard effort yesterday. He didn't, so they held fire. It was an option, not a plan set in stone.

 

[dacooley]

Re: Re:

Wow Quintana is super super strong; he is so so easily covering attacks and catching up to Froome. I think good decision by him not to attack, especially he got to see who are the key players in form in the tour - Froome, Porte, Martin, Yates.

I think he can bring the hammer down in the 3rd week easily but hopefully he doesn't wait till the last day. I now consider that he is the favorite for the Tour.

Yep, very impressive by Quintana. No need to attack when everyone else is riding strongly and on pretty gentle gradients. Just match them and make the decisive attack in the third week.

Wait a second, I thought Quintana didn't like gradients like 9+% and last km's were like 7.5%. But Quintana can only shine in stages with 4 long mountains and that stage has to be in 4th week because he has the best recovery.

Last 5km average about 6% - too gentle for Quintana. He needed to get away earlier and go long from Beixalis - which was presumably why he had men in the break. But Sky train was too strong at that point, so he sensibly changed plan. He easily looked the strongest rider at the end there - would be amazed if he doesn't win this race.

you are putting it like quintana being by far the strongest climber in third week is something 200% guaranteed.

 

[Alexandre B.]

First time in his GC days that Froome is unable to drop the hammer in the first Tour summit finish.

 

[Jelantik]

BMC duo. two prong attack? LOL. Now, none of them even in top 10. and lost more than a minute. Porte could have leap frog, some of the GC to get him closer.

 

[DFA123]

IMO both Quintana and Porte rode absolutely disgracefully today. Quintana didn't attack one single time, and Porte (although he attacked earlier on the climb) just pulled the group without even trying to drop anyone although, or because, his teammate was in troubles.

Porte may have been trying to solidify the team roles, making it clear to Tejay that he is now the strongest and will need his support later.

It was absoultely obvious he was stronger than Tejay, but pulling Froome and Quintana so his teammate looses time is just a disgrace. Porte himself knows that he often has a bad day and he knows that he is already far back in gc. What if he looses minutes in the alps but his teammate is out of contention because he pulled other riders to the finish.

Are you sure he wasn't trying to disrupt the front group? Seemed to me like he was doing short hard attacks then easing right off - which would actually be beneficial to a rider trying to get back on, rather than letting someone else ride away at tempo.

 

[ILovecycling]

Re:

I never thought Dumoulin would get it. Good job and well deserved. Maybe the rain helped him.

What is all this bashing about Quintana, Porte and everyone else. Grab a bike ride on those high temperatures then ride to the end in hail. That is tuff. I saw the faces in everyone, they were on the limit completely.

I wish I had seen an attack by Quintana or other cyclists but they were completely tired. And Quintana is letting Froome do all the chasing which is not bad TBH. Froome having the yellow jersey is working on Quintana's favor IMO.

This.
I was laughing so hard when Froome was chasing Mollema

 

[Richeypen]

Re:

First time in his GC days that Froome is unable to drop the hammer in the first Tour summit finish.

Previously the first MTF have been one climb stages, this stage didnt suit him as well.

 

[huge]

Re:

Quintana will win the tour. He will attack hard in the 3rd week and make Froome look silly. And then todays boring ride will be forgotten. Quintana just saves energy so he can unleash harder later (and when the slopes are steeper).

Total non sense.

An attack in the last 3-4kms today wouldn't have had any impact in his form for the coming hard stages! He is just a coward.

Not to mention the fact that everyone else would have been forced to work as hard.