2016 Tour de France, Stage 4: Saumur → Limoges (238km)

[DBotero]

Good one for Kittel.

 

[LaFlorecita]

What if Coq had sprinted in a straight line instead of a zigzag?

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

Hahaha Kittel silenced you all. He was by far the strongest one, the first to start his sprint and the only one not to fade.

Except Coquard made up like a 5m gap on Kittel.

 

[Billopoulos]

Re:

Hahaha Kittel silenced you all. He was by far the strongest one, the first to start his sprint and the only one not to fade.

Kittel did a beast of a sprint but Coquard came from far behind as well.
Really strong, both of them.

 

[CheckMyPecs]

Another one for Kittel.

 

[hfer07]

damn - Another photo finish !!! The sprinters competition is getting tight!!

have to recognize I wasn't expecting to see Kittel at the end, but -man- he did it. Nonetheless Coquard could have pinned him down with just 5 additional meters.

 

[gunara]

The bland monster's not dead, good

 

[kielbasa]

Re: Re:

Hahaha Kittel silenced you all. He was by far the strongest one, the first to start his sprint and the only one not to fade.

Except Coquard made up like a 5m gap on Kittel.

Interestingly, he did it in a harder gear, which I think is odd for a 128 pounder.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Very impressive from Kittel on a finish that was not ideal for him.
Coquard excellent, but that looks to have been his best chance to win a stage.
Sagan a little disappointing. Third is good for most people, but this should have been his territory.
Groenewegen finally in a position to actually sprint and does quite well.
Kristoff not looking like he has top form.

 

[Praying Mantis]

Not sure Coquard had the right gear there, he was labouring like crazy to turn the pedals. Had a great position for sure.

 

[70kmph]

By a nostril

 

[SeriousSam]

As predicted, when it isn't pancake flat Cavendish and Greipel fade away and versatile sprinter Kittel wins.

 

[Domulec]

Groenewegen had to come from quite far behind, he sprinted for like half a kilometre, really impressive stuff there!

 

[PremierAndrew]

Looked like Greipel chose the wrong gear again

 

[Gloin22]

As predicted, when it isn't pancake flat Cavendish and Greipel fade away and versatile sprinter Kittel wins.

Yet people will complain how Kittel is worse than either on hilly stuff. Some prejudices will never go away.

 

[KGB]

Sagan not that strong as everyone thought.

 

[sir fly]

Re: Re:

Cavendish faded unexpected.

as did Greipel what did he do????

No idea. I thought he had a plan missing the intermediate.
The gearing might've been the problem.

 

[Squirbos_19]

Coquard was sprinting as though he was trying to hang onto a flailing fish he just caught. His bike being the fish of course.
Nice consistency by Sagan with 3rd, slowly but surely extending his lead in the points classification.

 

[kwikki]

As predicted, when it isn't pancake flat Cavendish and Greipel fade away and versatile sprinter Kittel wins.

Cavendish was right up there on the line, 8th position. He was held up by people going backwards because he put himself too near the right hand side. It wasn't lack of strength, it was making a wrong decision.

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Re: Re:

Cavendish faded unexpected.

as did Greipel what did he do????

No idea. I thought he had a plan missing the intermediate.
The gearing might've been the problem.

I would guess Greipel and Cavendish went pretty deep in that close head-to-head yesterday

 

[BigMac]

As predicted, when it isn't pancake flat Cavendish and Greipel fade away and versatile sprinter Kittel wins.

Yet people will complain how Kittel is worse than either on hilly stuff. Some prejudices will never go away.

He was until last year, to be fair. And to me it just seems like Kittel is able to use his raw power to do well on these kind of finishes. Put a sequence of slightly inclined ramps throughout the stage and I think Cavendish and Greipel will do better than Marcel. But that's just über-prejudiced me speaking.

 

[portugal11]

Quintana finished behind contador... what a wheelsucker

 

[Gloin22]

As predicted, when it isn't pancake flat Cavendish and Greipel fade away and versatile sprinter Kittel wins.

Yet people will complain how Kittel is worse than either on hilly stuff. Some prejudices will never go away.

He was until last year, to be fair. And to me it just seems like Kittel is able to use his raw power to do well on these kind of finishes. Put a sequence of slightly inclined ramps throughout the stage and I think Cavendish and Greipel will do better than Marcel. My that's just über-prejudiced me talking.

There's difference between acknowledging that Kittel can cope with a single hill and not view him as some sort of one dimensional rider that is 1000% worse than Cav or Greipel vs constantly say how *** of a cyclist he is Some people here make him as such (even though yesterday it was clear his leadout messed up hence why I added ''prejudice'' in my first post), as shown yesterday, and on his day he truly isn't.

 

[Squirbos_19]

Am I seeing double or are there 2 eternal 2nd on the podium?

 

[Escarabajo]

Finally!

Coquard impressive sprint as well!!