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I somewhat agree and yes, it was pretty foreseeable altho I must admit I thought he wouldn't let anyone ride away from him on Galibier since he had a decent amount in the wheels by then. It would have interesting to see how it panned out with Mollema, but ultimately, for the spectacle and everything, I can't blame Trek and Contador at all. They at least tried something - more than you can say about just about any team.DFA123 said:But these things aren't unforseeable factors. We've all seen how Contador has been riding this Tour; it was inevitable that doing such a hard effort on the CdF would leave him near empty on the Galibier. Ultimately, the only real useful contribution Trek made to the stage was the work in the valley which ensured that Roglic won the stage ahead of the GC guys. Which I guess is something for the spectators, but not a great outcome for the team.Valv.Piti said:I think thats entirely too hard. I think they did the right thing considering he is their star rider and had confidence in Alberto on Gailbier, but as it turns out he never really recovered from the hard effort previously. You can argue Mollema should have went for it himself, but its a bit easy in hindsight really. They animated the stage the stage and thats also worth quite a bit in Tour de France. Still a better result than Quintana.... altho doesnt say much.
This is true, their intention at least was good in terms of trying to create something out of nothing. I just think they got their strategy badly wrong today. In one move they compromised two promising options in the break, while at the same time their 'star' rider was going above threshold for a long period to close a gap, with 100km of riding still left in the day. They were hoping for a miracle to win from that scenario.Valv.Piti said:I somewhat agree and yes, it was pretty foreseeable altho I must admit I thought he wouldn't let anyone ride away from him on Galibier since he had a decent amount in the wheels by then. It would have interesting to see how it panned out with Mollema, but ultimately, for the spectacle and everything, I can't blame Trek and Contador at all. They at least tried something - more than you can say about just about any team.DFA123 said:But these things aren't unforseeable factors. We've all seen how Contador has been riding this Tour; it was inevitable that doing such a hard effort on the CdF would leave him near empty on the Galibier. Ultimately, the only real useful contribution Trek made to the stage was the work in the valley which ensured that Roglic won the stage ahead of the GC guys. Which I guess is something for the spectators, but not a great outcome for the team.Valv.Piti said:I think thats entirely too hard. I think they did the right thing considering he is their star rider and had confidence in Alberto on Gailbier, but as it turns out he never really recovered from the hard effort previously. You can argue Mollema should have went for it himself, but its a bit easy in hindsight really. They animated the stage the stage and thats also worth quite a bit in Tour de France. Still a better result than Quintana.... altho doesnt say much.
De Gendt surely. Barguil has probably been the most aggressive, but he'll have the polka dots, a top 10 and stage win already. It seems a bit greedy to give him that as well. However Contador has a great chance as a sort of 'good effort, thank you for everything' award.LaFlorecita said:nah, Barguil will take it surely. And he would deserve it, as would De Gendt.Finn84 said:Contador has a good chance to be on the podium in Paris I think. And that's because he may well win super combativity award.
As much as I love Alberto, he has attacked twice in this entire race. He wouldn't be the most deserving winner of that award. And I don't think it'd give him any satisfaction either, so give it to De Gendt, he'd be happy with it.Brullnux said:De Gendt surely. Barguil has probably been the most aggressive, but he'll have the polka dots, a top 10 and stage win already. It seems a bit greedy to give him that as well. However Contador has a great chance as a sort of 'good effort, thank you for everything' award.LaFlorecita said:nah, Barguil will take it surely. And he would deserve it, as would De Gendt.Finn84 said:Contador has a good chance to be on the podium in Paris I think. And that's because he may well win super combativity award.
He's got the award twice this Tour so they might just give it to him anyway.LaFlorecita said:As much as I love Alberto, he has attacked twice in this entire race. He wouldn't be the most deserving winner of that award. And I don't think it'd give him any satisfaction either, so give it to De Gendt, he'd be happy with it.Brullnux said:De Gendt surely. Barguil has probably been the most aggressive, but he'll have the polka dots, a top 10 and stage win already. It seems a bit greedy to give him that as well. However Contador has a great chance as a sort of 'good effort, thank you for everything' award.LaFlorecita said:nah, Barguil will take it surely. And he would deserve it, as would De Gendt.Finn84 said:Contador has a good chance to be on the podium in Paris I think. And that's because he may well win super combativity award.
As far as I'm aware, for each week the most combative rider is selected on social media based on no. of Retweets (week 1: Calmejane; week 2: Barguil) and out of those the "super combative" rider will be chosen.bob.a.feet said:He's got the award twice this Tour so they might just give it to him anyway.LaFlorecita said:As much as I love Alberto, he has attacked twice in this entire race. He wouldn't be the most deserving winner of that award. And I don't think it'd give him any satisfaction either, so give it to De Gendt, he'd be happy with it.Brullnux said:De Gendt surely. Barguil has probably been the most aggressive, but he'll have the polka dots, a top 10 and stage win already. It seems a bit greedy to give him that as well. However Contador has a great chance as a sort of 'good effort, thank you for everything' award.LaFlorecita said:nah, Barguil will take it surely. And he would deserve it, as would De Gendt.Finn84 said:Contador has a good chance to be on the podium in Paris I think. And that's because he may well win super combativity award.
LaFlorecita said:As far as I'm aware, for each week the most combative rider is selected on social media based on no. of Retweets (week 1: Calmejane; week 2: Barguil) and out of those the "super combative" rider will be chosen.bob.a.feet said:He's got the award twice this Tour so they might just give it to him anyway.LaFlorecita said:As much as I love Alberto, he has attacked twice in this entire race. He wouldn't be the most deserving winner of that award. And I don't think it'd give him any satisfaction either, so give it to De Gendt, he'd be happy with it.Brullnux said:De Gendt surely. Barguil has probably been the most aggressive, but he'll have the polka dots, a top 10 and stage win already. It seems a bit greedy to give him that as well. However Contador has a great chance as a sort of 'good effort, thank you for everything' award.Finn84 said:Contador has a good chance to be on the podium in Paris I think. And that's because he may well win super combativity award.
Why would he?Beech Mtn said:I'd like to see Alberto take up Sagan's mantra - "I may not be able to win the race, but I can decide who doesn't win" - and have a little chat with Rigo Uran and try to take him up the road at an opportune time tomorrow.
LaFlorecita said:Why would he?Beech Mtn said:I'd like to see Alberto take up Sagan's mantra - "I may not be able to win the race, but I can decide who doesn't win" - and have a little chat with Rigo Uran and try to take him up the road at an opportune time tomorrow.
Nice pic. Such a shame they never got to race with each other at Discovery, although we some nice moments in 2015. Two of my favourite riders of all time.LaFlorecita said:https://twitter.com/IBdailyblog/status/887734152547663872
Alberto & Basso after today's stage
VayaVayaVaya said:Also, remember when everyone was bashing AC in 2015 for merely winning the Giro over Aru and Landa, who have proven to be pretty damn good, and getting 5th in the Tour? Quintana has put that into context a little bit.
VayaVayaVaya said:Also, remember when everyone was bashing AC in 2015 for merely winning the Giro over Aru and Landa, who have proven to be pretty damn good, and getting 5th in the Tour? Quintana has put that into context a little bit.
cipurian said:What happened to Contador, why is he no longer able to win TDF? Is he lacking recovery in his old racing age?