Le Tour 2018 stage 17: BDL to Saint-Lary-Soulan 65k

[rainman]

Re: Re:

the last climb is way too hard (16km at 9%) to have your leader attack alone vs sky train on first climb.

Exactly this. Why would Dumoulin exhaust himself to disrupt the Sky riders at the expense of his own chances in GC because that is what he would do.

None of these riders are going to be exhausted by a two hour stage.

The Sky train has controlled and constricted the race for 7 years now. If you want to win you have to disrupt it somehow - and this short stage, with the grid start and immediate climbing, has offered a unique opportunity. Yet those best placed in the GC have tried nothing.

They probably can't do much about it.

 

[DNP-Old]

 

[Lance Armstrong]

Re:

How is Demare holding up?

8:30 down. It's gonna be 40 minutes at this rate.

 

[SKSemtex]

Sagan is testing his Innsbruck legs :lol:

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

2200m and then a 10% final km is ofcourse hard as balls. I expect big gaps

 

[Finn84]

Now Nairo will blame problems on this stage to his bad result overall.

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

the last climb is way too hard (16km at 9%) to have your leader attack alone vs sky train on first climb.

Exactly this. Why would Dumoulin exhaust himself to disrupt the Sky riders at the expense of his own chances in GC because that is what he would do.

None of these riders are going to be exhausted by a two hour stage.

The Sky train has controlled and constricted the race for 7 years now. If you want to win you have to disrupt it somehow - and this short stage, with the grid start and immediate climbing, has offered a unique opportunity. Yet those best placed in the GC have tried nothing.

They probably can't do much about it.

Probably not, but they should at least try when the opportunity presents itself. Who knows how Sky would have reacted if Dumoulin had shot up off the road and their domestiques were still stuck in the grid? At least ask them the question.

 

[rainman]

Re: Re:

the last climb is way too hard (16km at 9%) to have your leader attack alone vs sky train on first climb.

Exactly this. Why would Dumoulin exhaust himself to disrupt the Sky riders at the expense of his own chances in GC because that is what he would do.

None of these riders are going to be exhausted by a two hour stage.

The Sky train has controlled and constricted the race for 7 years now. If you want to win you have to disrupt it somehow - and this short stage, with the grid start and immediate climbing, has offered a unique opportunity. Yet those best placed in the GC have tried nothing.

They probably can't do much about it.

Probably not, but they should at least try when the opportunity presents itself. Who knows how Sky would have reacted if Dumoulin had shot up off the road and their domestiques were still stuck in the grid? At least ask them the question.

They'd reel him in and he would be well in the red for the crucial last climb. I agree it would be nice to see someone bust their ass

 

[burning]

Well, considering that there is about 2% chance to have GC action in the Aubisque stage, we are approaching to the final 2 relevant climbs.

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

They'd reel him in and he would be well in the red for the crucial last climb. I agree it would be nice to see someone bust their ***

Well, that's one scenario, maybe even the most likely. But it's not the only way it could play out. Maybe Bardet or Roglic would join him, then Quintana, Valverde and Landa go across. Suddenly Thomas and Froome have to decide do they wait for their teammates or react themselves. At least their is the possibility of them making a bad call and losing out.

Which there isn't if you soft pedal and let Luke Rowe get to the front and control the peloton after 2km.

 

[Zoophonic]

Amador needs to take a bike maintenance course it seems

 

[Angliru]

Re: Re:

#bringbackberti

Not in a million years did I thought I would say this, but I agree. F*CK SKY!

Careful now. Your Sky card and all its benefits may get revoked!

 

[dgodave]

Enough racing already... lets see the chateaux!

 

[Screecher]

Démare 10 minutes down after the first climb.

 

[Pirazziattacks]

Re: Re:

the last climb is way too hard (16km at 9%) to have your leader attack alone vs sky train on first climb.

Exactly this. Why would Dumoulin exhaust himself to disrupt the Sky riders at the expense of his own chances in GC because that is what he would do.

None of these riders are going to be exhausted by a two hour stage.

The Sky train has controlled and constricted the race for 7 years now. If you want to win you have to disrupt it somehow - and this short stage, with the grid start and immediate climbing, has offered a unique opportunity. Yet those best placed in the GC have tried nothing.

They probably can't do much about it.

Probably not, but they should at least try when the opportunity presents itself. Who knows how Sky would have reacted if Dumoulin had shot up off the road and their domestiques were still stuck in the grid? At least ask them the question.

And who knows whether some Sky riders are having a bad day or taking a while to get going on the first climb- see Esteban Chaves in most GTs he rides. You'll never know if you just let Sky set a tempo that's comfortable for most of the peloton on the first climb.

 

[rainman]

Re: Re:

They'd reel him in and he would be well in the red for the crucial last climb. I agree it would be nice to see someone bust their ***

Well, that's one scenario, maybe even the most likely. But it's not the only way it could play out. Maybe Bardet or Roglic would join him, then Quintana, Valverde and Landa go across. Suddenly Thomas and Froome have to decide do they wait for their teammates or react themselves. At least their is the possibility of them making a bad call and losing out.

Which there isn't if you soft pedal and let Luke Rowe get to the front and control the peloton after 2km.

I'm hoping Roglic will really give it a dig today. I dont think Tom D wil lbe able to make the difference.
Wd be glad to be wrong.

 

[ppanther92]

Démare 10 minutes down after the first climb.

Looking good for him. That leaves him with 25 minutes to lose on the second climb. As we saw yesterday, he is a master of pacing and won't lose time on the final climb.

 

[ontheroad]

All 7 Sky's still there!

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

And who knows whether some Sky riders are having a bad day or taking a while to get going on the first climb- see Esteban Chaves in most GTs he rides. You'll never know if you just let Sky set a tempo that's comfortable for most of the peloton on the first climb.

Exactly, if you're not even going to ask them questions, then you'll never find out if there was a weakness to be exposed. It seems like, once again, the others are more concerned with protecting a top 3 / top 5 GC than actually taking a risk to win the race.

 

[The Hitch]

Re: Re:

[quote="
Exactly this. Why would Dumoulin exhaust himself to disrupt the Sky riders at the expense of his own chances in GC because that is what he would do.

None of these riders are going to be exhausted by a two hour stage.

The Sky train has controlled and constricted the race for 7 years now. If you want to win you have to disrupt it somehow - and this short stage, with the grid start and immediate climbing, has offered a unique opportunity. Yet those best placed in the GC have tried nothing.

They probably can't do much about it.

Probably not, but they should at least try when the opportunity presents itself. Who knows how Sky would have reacted if Dumoulin had shot up off the road and their domestiques were still stuck in the grid? At least ask them the question.

And who knows whether some Sky riders are having a bad day or taking a while to get going on the first climb- see Esteban Chaves in most GTs he rides. You'll never know if you just let Sky set a tempo that's comfortable for most of the peloton on the first climb.[/quote]

Sky riders bad day? This is the team that has been blowing everyone out of the water since Mick Dodger was riding 100km on the front of mountain stages. Testing to see if they are on a "bad day" is a hail mary

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

such a short day is actually easy for Sky. they can use 1 rider per 10km basically.

 

[ontheroad]

Surely Movistar have to sacrifice Quintana and Lotto Kruiswijk on the next climb in a bid to break up the race and push Roglic/Landa further up the GC.

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

Sky riders bad day? This is the team that has been blowing everyone out of the water since Mick Dodger was riding 100km on the front of mountain stages. Testing to see if they are on a "bad day" is a hail mary

Well Thomas for one has had a bad day every GT he has completed up to this point in his career. Forcing him to go hard from the gun seems like a no brainer if you actually want to challenge the yellow jersey. Letting him soft pedal out of the blocks, warm up nicely, and wait for the train to protect him all the way up the first climb is a terrible strategy.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Rowe still leading.

gg sky. Another tour win in the bag

 

[Highlander]

I think that Sky is setting up Rowe to be the next GC contender based on how he can lead the peloton across these high mountains. He should get leadership in the Vuelta.