Afraid he's gonna drop some more seconds tomorrow. Needs to get to that 3rd week form, stat.
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Re:
The problem is, there are no MTF stages left, except tomorrow's very short, punchy climb, and the 65 km stage that will probably be raced almost like a TT. The two toughest mountain stages left both feature long downhill finishes, so any rider wanting to put time on the others would have to escape on the final climb (if not sooner), then hold the lead on the DH. Absent that, then, yes, Froome's chances come down to hoping Thomas and Dumo bonk.
Seems to me that the biggest advantage Froome has going for him is he shouldn't be afraid to risk everything to get into yellow. At this point in his career, another GT podium doesn't do much for him, so the risk-reward dynamic is very different. If some bold move gives you, say, a 20% chance of winning four GTs in a row and a fifth TDF, are you going to pass it up because if it doesn't work, you might not finish on the podium? I don't think so. The podium will mean much more to Dumo--a Giro-Tour podium double is still very impressive--and of course Thomas at this point would be very disappointed if he didn't podium. I don't think either of them would try anything that they felt would in the slightest threaten their podium position, though of course at this point, Thomas doesn't have to. But if, e.g., Froome tried another long-range solo as in the Giro, would either of those two try to follow him if they had doubts whether they could stay with him? I doubt it. They'd let him go and concentrate on solidifying their podium position.
spalco said:
The problem is, there are no MTF stages left, except tomorrow's very short, punchy climb, and the 65 km stage that will probably be raced almost like a TT. The two toughest mountain stages left both feature long downhill finishes, so any rider wanting to put time on the others would have to escape on the final climb (if not sooner), then hold the lead on the DH. Absent that, then, yes, Froome's chances come down to hoping Thomas and Dumo bonk.
Seems to me that the biggest advantage Froome has going for him is he shouldn't be afraid to risk everything to get into yellow. At this point in his career, another GT podium doesn't do much for him, so the risk-reward dynamic is very different. If some bold move gives you, say, a 20% chance of winning four GTs in a row and a fifth TDF, are you going to pass it up because if it doesn't work, you might not finish on the podium? I don't think so. The podium will mean much more to Dumo--a Giro-Tour podium double is still very impressive--and of course Thomas at this point would be very disappointed if he didn't podium. I don't think either of them would try anything that they felt would in the slightest threaten their podium position, though of course at this point, Thomas doesn't have to. But if, e.g., Froome tried another long-range solo as in the Giro, would either of those two try to follow him if they had doubts whether they could stay with him? I doubt it. They'd let him go and concentrate on solidifying their podium position.
Re: Re:
to go on a big long-distance attack, Froome must get catapulted for it after Sky does a massive drilling work, shredding the peloton into pieces. not sure they need it, having G in such an advantageous position. judging by the gap between Froome and a race leader at this point it's much more optimistic situation compared to what he was in after 13 stages in the Giro, but Thomas wearing the yellow jersey notably changes the dynamic.
to go on a big long-distance attack, Froome must get catapulted for it after Sky does a massive drilling work, shredding the peloton into pieces. not sure they need it, having G in such an advantageous position. judging by the gap between Froome and a race leader at this point it's much more optimistic situation compared to what he was in after 13 stages in the Giro, but Thomas wearing the yellow jersey notably changes the dynamic.
And thank you very much my lovely Froome's fan's. I have "my own vacation". Let's see in two weeks after 5th marvellous Froome's win at TdF.
Re: Re:
If things remain unchanged, and if his form magically gets better, look to see CF putting in monster attacks and G to sit on TD's wheel. Not sure if any other of the top 10 would be willing to chase CF down, but with so many contenders down, who knows what kind of alliances might form. It'll get really interesting if G sees his own lead slipping away ...
All this is fun of course, but this could turn out like Yates for G, and who knows what the alien will do.
It's funny to look at some of the bot comments at the bottom of the stories. Stuff like CF is the one with the natural progression, and TD is out of nowhere, the competition is crap, Sky has the best strategy but it's not because of the money, etc. It's actually good comedy
Merckx index said:
If things remain unchanged, and if his form magically gets better, look to see CF putting in monster attacks and G to sit on TD's wheel. Not sure if any other of the top 10 would be willing to chase CF down, but with so many contenders down, who knows what kind of alliances might form. It'll get really interesting if G sees his own lead slipping away ...
All this is fun of course, but this could turn out like Yates for G, and who knows what the alien will do.
It's funny to look at some of the bot comments at the bottom of the stories. Stuff like CF is the one with the natural progression, and TD is out of nowhere, the competition is crap, Sky has the best strategy but it's not because of the money, etc. It's actually good comedy
Thomas form has been excellent, though not dominating, whereas S.Yates was a level above at the Giro.
The problem for Froome is that with every day the riders get closer to Paris the part of Thomas that is lying when saying "Froome is the leader" gets bigger. If Froome is still as far down as he is now before the final two mountain stages and attacks I doubt Thomas will just let him go. At some point he will say f*ck loyalty, I'm not throwing this away.
The big question is though, at what point is sky gonna tell Froome to say bye to the double. As it stands dumo would probably catch Froome in the ITT so if Thomas spends himself for Froome and Froome doesn't drop dumo they don't only not get the double, they don't get the tour win at all.
The big question is though, at what point is sky gonna tell Froome to say bye to the double. As it stands dumo would probably catch Froome in the ITT so if Thomas spends himself for Froome and Froome doesn't drop dumo they don't only not get the double, they don't get the tour win at all.
Ofcourse.Gigs_98 said:
Right now, the threat of Dumoulin is probably Thomas' greatest ally. Sky can't dismiss Thomas as long as Dumoulin is in ITT striking range.
Gigs_98 said:
"For us, it's a pretty good situation: we have two cards to play. I always say that, but it's true," Portal told Cyclingnews. "Maybe at the beginning it was more about Froome, but now, to be honest, Thomas has shown that he's super-strong, and who knows how long he can hold it? He doesn't even know.
"It's the same for Froome, coming from the Giro. Who knows how long he can perform? He could pay the price. At the moment, it looks pretty good because we are in first and second, but let's see what the road brings. We need to support them both," said Portal.
Sounds like things have changed.
Tactics shouldn't really be an issue for Sky. Deploy super strong train, Froome to attack where he can, Thomas to stay glued to Dumoulin's wheel.
Re:
Froome is free to attack and make the race as hard as he can for Dumoulin.
If Dumoulin lets Froome go, Thomas won’t chase Froome. He can sit on Dumoulin’s wheel, safely keeping his 99-second cushion, which will be more than enough in the TT. If he senses the bug guy weakening, then he can attack, but he’ll only follow alone.
Yup. It’s pretty much this simple right now. Until/unless Dumoulin drops Thomas, Thomas doesn’t need to do anything.King Of The Wolds said:
Froome is free to attack and make the race as hard as he can for Dumoulin.
If Dumoulin lets Froome go, Thomas won’t chase Froome. He can sit on Dumoulin’s wheel, safely keeping his 99-second cushion, which will be more than enough in the TT. If he senses the bug guy weakening, then he can attack, but he’ll only follow alone.
I don't think there's been any chance between Thomas, Dumoulin and Froome relative from each other, apart from Thomas being clearly the strongest on La Rosiere
Singer01
BANNED
Re:
If Froome dont crash on stage 1 and Dumo dont have mechanical on Mur de Bretagne and they basically all within 30 seconds.
Red Rick said:
If Froome dont crash on stage 1 and Dumo dont have mechanical on Mur de Bretagne and they basically all within 30 seconds.
Re: Re:
They lost 1:10 to Sky, so 1:10 to Geraint and Froome, and 1:05 to Dumoulin. So he'd be on the same time as Froome more or less.
Red Rick said:
They lost 1:10 to Sky, so 1:10 to Geraint and Froome, and 1:05 to Dumoulin. So he'd be on the same time as Froome more or less.
rick james
BANNED
ok, watched the highlights from ITV this morning, why the hell did Thomas jump on Froomes wheel when he attacked? he should have sat on Toms wheel
rick james
BANNED
Re:
neither do I, he looks like he is labouring on the climbs and doesn't look good for next weekSinger01 said:
Re:
I think they wanted to work together to get Tom off. and initially they had taken a few metersrick james said:
Lucky for Chriss that Nibali crashed out
otherwise Sky would become toast this tour.
(takes a bow and leaves the thread)
otherwise Sky would become toast this tour.
(takes a bow and leaves the thread)
Re: Re:
Bet against him then.
I have done so often in the past, and my bank account is in dire need of a TUE.
rick james said:
Bet against him then.
I have done so often in the past, and my bank account is in dire need of a TUE.
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