71st Tour de Romandie - April 25th-30th

[dirkprovin]

Smart ride by SY; unlikely to be able to hold onto lead with tomorrow's TT but should be able to hold onto top 5-6 finish which he'd probably take given his season targets are now later season. ORS could end up with a couple of top 10s with Howson (currently 10th) & Kreuziger (15th) both significantly stronger TTers than SY and some currently in front of them. Haig (22nd) has also ridden a strong race, a top 20-30 finish at a race of this stature will be nothing to ashamed of

Porte certainly strong on final climb but needed to break clear of SY in order to win. COULD come away with a GC win tomorrow but far from a done deal as Porte's ITT form tends to be very uneven and frankly overrated.

Include me amongst those not rushing for the smelling salts re Froome. Am no UK Postal fan but let's leave it to Dauphine to see whether this showing is replicated .... or merely an indicator of a rider short on racing/peak condition.

Cudos to Felline for being able to hold on as well as he has. Can't be counted out of a podium finish

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Lol @ those who think Valverde will beat Froome at the TDF

Is it more lol to think Contador will beat him? I don't whether you think that, just a question

That is highly unlikely as well but Contador has better GT pedigree than Valverde.

 

[Jspear]

Re: Re:

Lol @ those who think Valverde will beat Froome at the TDF

Is it more lol to think Contador will beat him? I don't whether you think that, just a question

AC has a higher chance of beating Froome. That said neither of them will win.

 

[ferryman]

Re: Re:

Lol @ those who think Valverde will beat Froome at the TDF

Is it more lol to think Contador will beat him? I don't whether you think that, just a question

That is highly unlikely as well but Contador has better GT pedigree than Valverde.

I'll step in to prevent another Danish/Dutch, my fav Spanish rider is better than yours spat Quintana will win the TDF after finishing second to Nibs in the Giro Seriously though, nothing to see here from Froome. I expect a big TT from him tomorrow.

 

[johnymax]

So for the final GC is it between Yates and Porte? I think it is, with Yates being the favourite. 19s is not a small gap for such a TT, specially with Porte not being able to deliver top TT performances lately. Of the others Felline, Roglic, Izagirre, Jungels are all within striking distance but the ITT lacks a couple of flat kms for them to really have a chance. I hope Rogla delivers another strong TT performance like in PV but 53s to Yates and 34s to Porte is too much I'm afraid.

 

[May0maniac]

Roglic putting 34s into Porte wouldn't really surprise me, the guy's not the TT rider he used to be, the guy lost 24 seconds to Roglic in the prologue and hasn't ridden a really impressive impressive TT (without an uphill finish) in a stage race in years.

 

[Ikbengodniet]

Re:

Roglic putting 34s into Porte wouldn't really surprise me, the guy's not the TT rider he used to be, the guy lost 24 seconds to Roglic in the prologue and hasn't ridden a really impressive impressive TT (without an uphill finish) in a stage race in years.

I don't think now he can ride for the win he will lose 34s on a 18 km TT with this profile.

 

[johnymax]

Re: Re:

Roglic putting 34s into Porte wouldn't really surprise me, the guy's not the TT rider he used to be, the guy lost 24 seconds to Roglic in the prologue and hasn't ridden a really impressive impressive TT (without an uphill finish) in a stage race in years.

I don't think now he can ride for the win he will lose 34s on a 18 km TT with this profile.

Yeah the first half is practically all uphill and Richie is one of the best MTT riders in the World. The second half is mostly descending with only the last 3km being flat. I think the profile should suit S. Yates, too. Maybe I'm overrating him a little here but I think it's not a given Yates loses the jersey (watch now him lose a minute and a half and drop out of the top5 )

 

[hazaran]

Judging the three times repeat TdF winner by a single early season mountain performance :lol:

By this standard Nibali isn't fit for fetching bottles.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Lol @ those who think Valverde will beat Froome at the TDF

Is it more lol to think Contador will beat him? I don't whether you think that, just a question

That is highly unlikely as well but Contador has better GT pedigree than Valverde.

I think a lot of riders have a better GT pedigree than Porte, but I still believe he is one of the few who can actually win the whole thing.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Didn't follow much of the race today, but the scenery was magnificent.

 

[silvergrenade]

A really bad performance by Froome. I think everybody, including himself expected better. All the indications also seemed to lead to that conclusion. Wasting energy leading Viviani, sprinting to 5th...All these are general indications of Froome feeling extremely good.
Also, the base he showed at Catalunya was amazing. Today he was probably outside the top 40 riders.
It is worrying for sure.
Great ride by Porte. Sprinting up a mountain. Absolutely Crazy level.

 

[lenric]

Froome has some kilos to lose.
Also, his goal is to do win both the Tour and the Vuelta, so he has to take it easy.
With 2 months away, he still has a lot of time to improve, so I really don't see why so much fuss.

 

[Kwibus]

Lil' Richie Port smashed that climb gracefully I actually wanted him to win the stage, but AY took a free ride on him. As far as Froome- what folks aren't talking about about is the insane Yo-Yo pull he did in the last 2K to limit the damage - he was 3 minutes back when Richie took off

Froome was in the same bunch where Porte attacked from. Don't be ridiculous.
He did do a minor yo yo indeed, but not a Froome yo yo where he suddenly appeared at the front again. He only yo yo'd to Gesinks wheel.....

 

[rhubroma]

Froome is fat, needs to loose masive weight, or he won't be a factor at le Tour.

 

[Cookster15]

Re:

Froome is fat, needs to loose masive weight, or he won't be a factor at le Tour.

This reminds me of Jan Ullrich. He would put on weight in the offseason then leave himself too much to lose nearing the Tour which sapped his strength. Hopefully for Froome's sake that does not happen especially with Sky's attention to minor details.

I am more excited at Porte's form. In last year's Tour he proved could last 3 weeks so if he hasn't peaked too early he might finally silence the doubters.

 

[Jspear]

Lil' Richie Port smashed that climb gracefully I actually wanted him to win the stage, but AY took a free ride on him. As far as Froome- what folks aren't talking about about is the insane Yo-Yo pull he did in the last 2K to limit the damage - he was 3 minutes back when Richie took off

Froome was in the same bunch where Porte attacked from. Don't be ridiculous.
He did do a minor yo yo indeed, but not a Froome yo yo where he suddenly appeared at the front again. He only yo yo'd to Gesinks wheel.....

Froome was several meters off the back already getting dropped and then Porte went.

 

[johnymax]

Lil' Richie Port smashed that climb gracefully I actually wanted him to win the stage, but AY took a free ride on him. As far as Froome- what folks aren't talking about about is the insane Yo-Yo pull he did in the last 2K to limit the damage - he was 3 minutes back when Richie took off

Froome was in the same bunch where Porte attacked from. Don't be ridiculous.
He did do a minor yo yo indeed, but not a Froome yo yo where he suddenly appeared at the front again. He only yo yo'd to Gesinks wheel.....

Froome was several meters off the back already getting dropped and then Porte went.

Several meters=50m...so he was what 10-15s from Porte when he attacked, not 3 minutes back.

 

[lenric]

Re: Re:

Froome is fat, needs to loose masive weight, or he won't be a factor at le Tour.

This reminds me of Jan Ullrich. He would put on weight in the offseason then leave himself too much to lose nearing the Tour which sapped his strength. Hopefully for Froome's sake that does not happen especially with Sky's attention to minor details.

I am more excited at Porte's form. In last year's Tour he proved could last 3 weeks so if he hasn't peaked too early he might finally silence the doubters.

Jan Ullrich was ready to ride the Tour when he finished the Tour.

 

[Tonton]

Too early to ring the bell: Froome will be back. But for a "legend", that's a poor showing. Hinault would never been looking that bad. That's lousy. Gaudu beats Froome. Good for David. He's getting in the mix in every race he enters. Unapologetic.

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

Maybe THE chance for guys like Porte and Valverde to win Le Tour this year.

Quite embarrassing really to read that sentence above

In 2012 would you have suspected that Froome would be attempting his fourth Tour win in 2017 ? A bit of perspective please.

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

Aussie Horner it is. Over a decade too young though

Wow that's hilarious.

 

[Escarabajo]

Don't worry about Froome. He is delaying his peak because he wants to do the double but this time he will have more strength for La Vuelta. As fot the Tour, well, He knows Quintana will come with the Giro kilometers.

 

[rick james]

its like some have never Froome do this before, I'm sure he too it easy here last year as well? he looks overweight right now, maybe he was wanting the extra timber to help him in the colder conditions, and he hasn't done a lot of racing this year...

he will be fine, his big targets are the tour and the Vuelta , everything else is just a bonus.

nice climbing from Porte and Yates, Porte has been flying from the start of the year

And as others have said the roads looked amazing and the scenery was jaw dropping

 

[Alexandre B.]

It will be more interesting to judge Froome's form on today's stage.

Last year he was decent in the TT.