2016 Tour de France, Stage 20: Megève → Morzine (147km)

[Pricey_sky]

Re: Re:

So we still have no show of who best GC climber was, no real clarification anyway.

I think the fact that the only time Froome was in trouble on this Tour was a mistake on a wet descent tells you all you need to know. He was never in any trouble going uphill apart from that stage. He kept as much energy in reserve as possible for a shot at a gold medal in Rio, There was plenty more left had he needed it but he didn't.

I agree with you, would have preferred to see it though. Watching a good MTF battle is what its all about for me. Like I said it is what it is.

Yes I agree, it was a shame we didn't see much GC action, especially today. Purito's attack I think showed that the pace Thomas set on the final climb wasn't really that high, perhaps it was just guys like Quintana, Yates, Porte ect were knakered and didn't have the form.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

So we still have no show of who best GC climber was, no real clarification anyway.

I think the fact that the only time Froome was in trouble on this Tour was a mistake on a wet descent tells you all you need to know. He was never in any trouble going uphill apart from that stage. He kept as much energy in reserve as possible for a shot at a gold medal in Rio, There was plenty more left had he needed it but he didn't.

I agree with you, would have preferred to see it though. Watching a good MTF battle is what its all about for me. Like I said it is what it is.

Rewatch all the MTFs in 2013, they were immense. Even the worst, Alpe' d Huez, was better than all of 16's combined. Like seriously some good stuff, no looking around, full throttle all the time. Froome's only train? Richie, full ham

 

[Gigs_98]

Re: 2016 TdF, Stage 20: Megève → Morzine-Avoriaz (147km)

I honestly think the teams should go all out on the first two climbs. Right now besides of course froome only Bardet can be happy with his position but I doubt AG2R could cause carnage anyway. The point is that we don't know if Froome might be affected by the crash today. He at least lost a few seconds on todays mtf but we don't know if that wasn't just because of the other bike. So why shouldn't Astana and Movistar give it a try and test him. If he really feels pain, the tour might not be over yet. Contador lost almost a minute on a 3rd category climb on stage 2 because of his crash. If Froome can't follow the high pace early on he might lose minutes and since the gc around the podium is still relatively close absolutely no team with a gc contender would have an excuse if they don't work against froome.

Obviously that wouldn't be gentleman style, but it's racing and the stage could be absolutely superb especially if it rains. The whole "Froome cracks" scenario is however of course still very unlikely.

I think it will be touch and go for Froome. His knee was bandaged in the presentation, if that stiffens up he's in the sh*t. The other teams will attack full bore, should be a classic stage. Hopefully Froome isn't totally crocked so it's a good contest.

This could be carnage with the rain, if people decide to risk it all for yellow, after Froome's crash today

I didn't pay close attention, did Froome really come down that hard?

Tough call as to who will be strongest tomorrow. I was quite shocked today when Porte and Aru weren't able to keep up with the Movistar duo today.

no but he had quite a lot of road rash on his right side plus his shoulder was bleading through his jersey.


Other teams have to test him immediately tomorrow

Go all out from the start. Froome must feel his fall today tomorrow, they need to put him under pressure as quickly as they can. (But then again, if he loses 1-2 minutes in first two climbs, he has his team to bring him back on the flat). But one can only hope for some spectacle!

Seems like a few people here (including me) had slightly too high expectations

 

[Ruby United]

Re:

Only way to stop Sky tactics is to reduce teams to 6 or 7 riders

So Froome will have Thomas, Landa, Poels, Nieve, Henao and Stannard. Like that will make much difference, especially seeing as all other teams will also be 2 riders weaker.

Froome would anyways have won this Tour even if he had only 7 riders in his team and ALL other teams had 9. Sky could easily have dropped Rowe and Kiri (who were amazing) and still been the strongest (or close to the strongest) team and anyways Froome was by far the best rider in the race.

Changing team size will do very little. Budgeting teams will change things somewhat, but other than that not much will stop Sky.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re: Re:

Only way to stop Sky tactics is to reduce teams to 6 or 7 riders

So Froome will have Thomas, Landa, Poels, Nieve, Henao and Stannard. Like that will make much difference, especially seeing as all other teams will also be 2 riders weaker.

Froome would anyways have won this Tour even if he had only 7 riders in his team and ALL other teams had 9. Sky could easily have dropped Rowe and Kiri (who were amazing) and still been the strongest (or close to the strongest) team and anyways Froome was by far the best rider in the race.

Changing team size will do very little. Budgeting teams will change things somewhat, but other than that not much will stop Sky.

Nobody says froome only won because of his team but it's a fact that the dominance of sky made the race in the mountains boring. 2014 was even more dominated but the other riders at least fought for the podium because the team of nibali didn't control complete stages.

 

[Valv.Piti]

And Nibali was manly enough to *** on everybody when he wanted to and win stages in dominant fashion, something Froome unfortunately hasn't been able/wanted to. Shame.

 

[Ruby United]

Re: Re:

Only way to stop Sky tactics is to reduce teams to 6 or 7 riders

So Froome will have Thomas, Landa, Poels, Nieve, Henao and Stannard. Like that will make much difference, especially seeing as all other teams will also be 2 riders weaker.

Froome would anyways have won this Tour even if he had only 7 riders in his team and ALL other teams had 9. Sky could easily have dropped Rowe and Kiri (who were amazing) and still been the strongest (or close to the strongest) team and anyways Froome was by far the best rider in the race.

Changing team size will do very little. Budgeting teams will change things somewhat, but other than that not much will stop Sky.

Nobody says froome only won because of his team but it's a fact that the dominance of sky made the race in the mountains boring. 2014 was even more dominated but the other riders at least fought for the podium because the team of nibali didn't control complete stages.

Your post doesn't seem to take into account the focal point of my post, where I wrote:

So Froome will have Thomas, Landa, Poels, Nieve, Henao and Stannard. Like that will make much difference, especially seeing as all other teams will also be 2 riders weaker.
Changing team size will do very little.

 

[difdauf]

Re: Re:

Only way to stop Sky tactics is to reduce teams to 6 or 7 riders

So Froome will have Thomas, Landa, Poels, Nieve, Henao and Stannard. Like that will make much difference, especially seeing as all other teams will also be 2 riders weaker.

Froome would anyways have won this Tour even if he had only 7 riders in his team and ALL other teams had 9. Sky could easily have dropped Rowe and Kiri (who were amazing) and still been the strongest (or close to the strongest) team and anyways Froome was by far the best rider in the race.

Changing team size will do very little. Budgeting teams will change things somewhat, but other than that not much will stop Sky.

In London 2012, GB couldn't lose. They had the best sprinter in the world and the best TTers in the world on a perfectly flat stage. I am not sure there were a british rider in the top 50.

Yes number counts. If you do Sky vs Astana, 7 or 9 change nothing, but if you do Sky vs rest of the world 7 or 9 change everything.

 

[Andy262]

Re:

So we still have no show of who best GC climber was, no real clarification anyway.

Um, wasn't it Wout Poels?

 

[blaxland]

Thank god cycling is free to watch cause after this tour, if i was paying"I'd want my money back"very boring TDF.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

Love the fact Meintjes and Martin lost their place in GC in favour of Purito. Attacking pays!

Dan Martin did many attacks this race; the well just ran dry....

Agree, Martin could perhaps have finished several places higher if he would have ridden a bit more conservatively. His attacks were explosive and he got a reasonable gap at times, but didn't have the power to sustain them. Should have saved them for the last km instead and just been content to pick up 10 seconds each time.

Martin's GC campaign is a real lesson in the realities of Tour de France riding in the era of the mountain train. His instinct is to roll the dice and see if he can get away early enough for it to make a significant difference. But that is simply not an optimal strategy for a GC rider when there are super strong teams, with relatively fresh domestiques, dedicated to grinding attacks back. If he had approached the race in the way that Purito approached a number of GTs when in his pomp as a GC rider, hiding in the favourites group right up until the flamme rouge and then doing that crazy puncheurs one minute effort on every climbing stage, he'd have finished sixth at worst and possibly higher.

Everyone used to grumble about Purito relying on the "puncheur charge", but it's hard to argue against that tactic in these kind of circumstances.

 

[spiritualride]

Re: Re:

Well he either thought the risk was not worth it or he was cooked and just hanging on. He is only 23 so I am sure it won't be the last time he does well in a GT.

"Why bother to succeed when I have more opportunities to succeed in the years ahead?" Loss aversion bias has an annoyingly widespread influence in professional sport, and this Tour has been full of it. Interesting how many people are openly stating that they have that bias without even realizing that it's a cognitive bias. Combine that with the UCI points system and you have racing that is far less entertaining than it otherwise would be.

 

[Escarabajo]

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Quintana on the podium of the Tour is a disgrace. Or maybe this is very appropriate for this terrible edition.

Well, nobody even tried to dislodge him. It is not his fault. That shows the poor competition in this Tour.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re: Re:

Quintana on the podium of the Tour is a disgrace. Or maybe this is very appropriate for this terrible edition.

Well, nobody even tried to dislodge him. It is not his fault. That shows the poor competition in this Tour.

This. I mean, how often did yates attack?

 

[TMP402]

Re: Re:

Quintana on the podium of the Tour is a disgrace. Or maybe this is very appropriate for this terrible edition.

Well, nobody even tried to dislodge him. It is not his fault. That shows the poor competition in this Tour.

This. I mean, how often did yates attack?

He attacked a few times. That's why he was hit by the 1km banner, for instance.