Is this the biggest team in Tour de France history?

[More Strides than Rides]

Because Sky can and should do that job for them.

Yellow jersey is worth a hell of a lot more than 10th on gc, or in BMC's case 12th with Cadel possibly losing time in the alpes anyway

You act like i am not looking at it from their perspective. I am. These teams would be far better off letting sky do the work and resting their domestiques, and only taking over when Sky REALLY cant pull.

I'm counting a total of one sky rider(s) finishing in the second group. Stannard, Thomas, and Siutsou were there at one point, but dropped off throughout the last 15k or so. I think its splitting hairs to try to decide exactly what Km sky was really on the limit, whether that happened with 25k or 15k to go. Even harder for those teams to make that calculation in the moment of "go. go, Go!"

Did it make sense 5k from the end when the break had a minute already?

Every second counts

 

[Izabera]

You named David Lopez is this guy at the tour?

 

[Miburo]

For those people that can't win the race a top-10 is big.

For Froome, Contador etc of course not. For Peraud or Fuglsang, absolutely.

Also for Purito?

Peraud, i guess so, but why didn't they help when valverde had a mech then?

 

[roundabout]

Also for Purito?

Peraud, i guess so, but why didn't they help when valverde had a mech then?

Did Purito decide to lose 10 minutes and start hunting stages? No.

He may move up in week 3, but he would have given himself a lot more to do.

And why would Peraud help? Given his ability to crash/have a mechanical at a bad time, ****ing off Movistar would be a bad thing.

 

[Miburo]

Did Purito decide to lose 10 minutes and start hunting stages? No.

He may move up in week 3, but he would have given himself a lot more to do.

And why would Peraud help? Given his ability to crash/have a mechanical at a bad time, ****ing off Movistar would be a bad thing.

So ****ing off saxo bank is a good idea?

Someone from Purito's caliber who wanted to win this tour shouldn't care for 7th or 8th place...

 

[The Hitch]

Every second counts

You are clearly strugging to keep up with the discussion. Havetts said Katusha were working for Kristoff. Kristoff is a sprinter.

For Kristoff every second doesn't count. He either gets the sprint or he doesn't.

 

[Hugo87]

FDJ I really don't know, but then they didn't pull much either. The three others had very obvious reasons to ride.

Artur Vichot pulled hard on front.

 

[roundabout]

So ****ing off saxo bank is a good idea?

Someone from Purito's caliber who wanted to win this tour shouldn't care for 7th or 8th place...

He didn't race against saxo bank.

Bah, it's ****ing pointless.

 

[DirtyWorks]

lol hitch hahahaah

sky is fucced. froomey needs to attack after chalet reynard to put the biggest gap he can. on the stage with madeleine and that one on the alpe,movistar and saxo will go ballistic.

Hitch's comment just above is right. Froome is okay, Porte TT'd fantastically, so he'll be along side Froome for a while. Today might have been unfamiliar territory for Froome. Maybe if they had three or more stages like today, Sky might be in trouble.

Meanwhile, that lead group dug deep for that break and we've got another week to go.

As for the list of Team Sky, I get the comment, but why not barter some efforts with Sky for a win another day? This is professional sports after all.


FWIW, it was a great stage. I don't think I'm alone in expecting this one was going to do nothing to GC. I'm glad I checked the ticker!

 

[Miburo]

He didn't race against saxo bank.

Bah, it's ****ing pointless.

I wish the other teams gave up like you

 

[DenisMenchov]

If pro racers were as naive as you guys Cancellara would win every 1 day classic out there.

Fabian - oh noes, i cant take a pull, im weak.

Other riders- oh, Cancellara is weak, we must help him pull this back till Carrefour de l'Arbre

Fact is Froome was there, and he is stronger than anybody.

Pure gold, laughed so hard.

 

[LaFlorecita]

I thought it was cool a few years ago when there was a carrot saxo alliance. On Alpe dHuez stage also cool to see Iglinsky help Alberto. But this was ridiculous

 

[Zam_Olyas]

Here is Lelangue of BMC

https://soundcloud.com/roidub/bmcs-lelangue-stage-13-tdf

courtesy tanja@bambula

 

[Christian]

I thought it was cool a few years ago when there was a carrot saxo alliance. On Alpe dHuez stage also cool to see Iglinsky help Alberto. But this was ridiculous

In other words it's cool when it helps Velasco but not when it works against him.

The most ridiculous IMO was at the Olympic RR when the Austrian team and some other Sky-related riders were put to work for Cavendish

Anywho I of course also would have prefered for the other teams not to work... but on the other hand I can understand for example AG2R trying to make the most for Peraud, he will probably only lose time from here on (except for ITT) and a Top-10 for a French rider on a small French team in Tour de French is a big deal

But FDJ I didn't understand, Garmin was also too bad

 

[Flamin]

BMC was the most ridiculous imo. A champion like Cadel shouldn't be bothered at all doing any kind of work, while currently sitting 14th in gc, 6 minutes down. Only thing he should be thinking about is an epic stage win on Ventoux or Alpe. Luckily they sat up after a while.

Katusha? Sucks from a cycling fan's view, but understandable since Purito is only 2 minutes from a podium spot and a major goal this year has always been: do something big in le Tour.

Ag2r? Wasn't it Peraud doing most of the work (haven't paid that much attention)? In that case, can't blame him taking responsibility himself.

 

[DenisMenchov]

BMC was the most ridiculous imo. A champion like Cadel shouldn't be bothered at all doing any kind of work, while currently sitting 14th in gc, 6 minutes down. Only thing he should be thinking about is an epic stage win on Ventoux or Alpe. Luckily they sat up after a while.

Katusha? Sucks from a cycling fan's view, but understandable since Purito is only 2 minutes from a podium spot and a major goal this year has always been: do something big in le Tour.

Ag2r? Wasn't it Peraud doing most of the work (haven't paid that much attention)? In that case, can't blame him taking responsibility himself.

It wasn't Peraud, there were at least 3 domestiques.

 

[Flamin]

It wasn't Peraud, there were at least 3 domestiques.

Yeah, but only at the end of the stage. At first, there was only one ag2r guy working.

edit: I know it wouldn't make much sense if it was Peraud, but that's what I read somewhere.

 

[DenisMenchov]

Yeah, but only at the end of the stage. At first, there was only one ag2r guy working.

So you think that Peraud was chasing the break and at the same time pulling away from his team mates, but then they miraculously recovered, and then pulled themselves???

 

[More Strides than Rides]

You are clearly strugging to keep up with the discussion. Havetts said Katusha were working for Kristoff. Kristoff is a sprinter.

For Kristoff every second doesn't count. He either gets the sprint or he doesn't.

You;re right. I wasn't paying attention to the conversation I quoted

 

[Flamin]

So you think that Peraud was chasing the break and at the same time pulling away from his team mates, but then they miraculously recovered, and then pulled themselves???

See edit from my previous post.

 

[The Hitch]

You;re right. I wasn't paying attention to the conversation I quoted

Well props for honesty.

 

[The Hitch]

In other words it's cool when it helps Velasco but not when it works against him.

Cant blame Samu for working with Contador. Same reason no Lotto Belisol rider made my list. Beisdes its one thing for a leader to ride for a podium in a break, another for the leader to get domestiques to defend his 14th place.

Tiralongo was different though, same as Monfort with Schleck.

 

[goggalor]

Cant blame Samu for working with Contador. Same reason no Lotto Belisol rider made my list. Beisdes its one thing for a leader to ride for a podium in a break, another for the leader to get domestiques to defend his 14th place.

Tiralongo was different though, same as Monfort with Schleck.

No one was defending 14th place. All the teams in the 2nd group have ambitions to move their leaders up.

 

[The Hitch]

No one was defending 14th place. All the teams in the 2nd group have ambitions to move their leaders up.

move their leaders up against who? Bmc didnt pull when Valverde was chasing back on. They only started when he was 10 minutes down and Saxo and Belkin attack.

That wasn't trying to gain a place, it was defending it.

 

[Christian]

Cant blame Samu for working with Contador. Same reason no Lotto Belisol rider made my list. Beisdes its one thing for a leader to ride for a podium in a break, another for the leader to get domestiques to defend his 14th place.

Tiralongo was different though, same as Monfort with Schleck.

Yes I suppose Sanchez had decent motive, but from watching the stage it was clear that Velasco was calling the shots on Euskaltel, that bothered me at the time. But you are right about the rest Lotto Belisol had a valid reason and defending a 14th place is not a valid reason.

However I don't understand what you mean when you say the Tiralongo/Velasco scenario is the same as Monfort/Schleck. I assume you are talking about stage 19 in the 2011 Giro and the Galibier stage in the 2011 Tour? Monfort was a domestique, he was just doing his job while Tiralongo was on a different team. But he still had a valid reason because he got the stage win and Velasco really didn't need any more time to his lead at that point.

Maybe you meant Devenyns, I think it was him who selflessly helped the Schleck group in the valley for no personal gain whatsoever