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

[Billie]

Re: Re:

But for Martins puncture and crash he would be in 4th only 30 secs down on Froome.

Froome also crashed, too.

Dumoulin, Bardet and Quintana also lost valuable time because of mechanicals

 

[del1962]

Be great if we could have a GC without mechanicals, crashes and TTT

G would still be ahead I think but not by much

 

[DNP-Old]

 

[Hugo Koblet]

What a champ ^^

 

[bob.a.feet]

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Great photo. Alaphilippe for sure the most entertaining rider this Tour

 

[del1962]

You gota love Alaphillippe real sportsman and slightly mental (for his descending speeds)

 

[guncha]

Too pity there is no MTF tomorrow as Froome would have lost all hopes for top 3 then. Final week with just one sub-normal mountain stage is rubbish.

 

[jaylew]

Re:

Be great if we could have a GC without mechanicals, crashes and TTT

G would still be ahead I think but not by much

Yeah, I have to agree. It would have been interesting to see. The riders have acknowledged Geraint has been the strongest but it would have been interesting to see how it would have played out if he hadn't had the cushion. No doubt he'd still be on top but I think things would have been much more interesting.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Re:

Be great if we could have a GC without mechanicals, crashes and TTT

G would still be ahead I think but not by much

That's not very likely. Yet noone had any real bad luck in this year's Giro, so we got a clean fight there.

 

[Poursuivant]

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Fuglsang & Landa on the speed today

https://twitter.com/mrconde/status/1022152434049863681

This is so crazy. So many riders that talk about how fast the pace is and SKY is rolling around with 4-6 guys when it is 20 riders left..

Apparently Quintana rode the last climb at 5.88 w/kg. That’s nothing abnormal. And he rode it faster than everyone.

If we take into account the road surface and that it was on third week for a 16 km that is very impressive. Compare that to Finestre at the Giro. That would be a good comparison.

http://www.cyclist.co.uk/news/4807/giro-ditalia-power-play-froomes-finestre-watts-revealed

For his attack, with an average of 397W, Froome would have held around 5.6W/kg. These numbers were only slightly higher than those of Dumoulin, who responded with 395W for the same distance, accounting as for why the gap remained steady on the ascent.

It should also be considered that this ascent of Finestre was somewhat slower than previous occasions. In 2015, Mikel Landa scaled Finestre in 1 hour 2 minute and 51 seconds. Froome's time was almost two minutes slower at 1 hour 4 minutes and 20 seconds.

 

[Leinster]

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Too pity there is no MTF tomorrow as Froome would have lost all hopes for top 3 then. Final week with just one sub-normal mountain stage is rubbish.

He gets a rest day tomorrow, but Friday’s stage is hard. If he cracks before the summit of the Aubisque, he’ll lose time (especially to Roglic) all the way to the finish. If he cracks on the Soulor, he’ll lose even more.

 

[Billie]

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pretty pathetic from Greipel that he is at home screen grabbing time differences at the base of a climb in the hope that the guy doesn't lose too much time.

Quintana was also almost 3 minutes behind Kangert at the start of the climb so Demare lost much more than 9 minutes

 

[guncha]

I can't imagine someone attacking at the bottom of Sulour/35km before finish. 20km decent will ruin any potential attacks.

 

[del1962]

Re: Re:

pretty pathetic from Greipel that he is at home screen grabbing time differences at the base of a climb in the hope that the guy doesn't lose too much time.

Quintana was also almost 3 minutes behind Kangert at the start of the climb so Demare lost much more than 9 minutes

These sprinters can descend at warp speed though

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

pretty pathetic from Greipel that he is at home screen grabbing time differences at the base of a climb in the hope that the guy doesn't lose too much time.

Quintana was also almost 3 minutes behind Kangert at the start of the climb so Demare lost much more than 9 minutes

These sprinters can descend at warp speed though

Not pathetic at all. Greipel got kicked out of the race for being too late and he would have been the fastest sprinter left

 

[jaylew]

Re: Re:

pretty pathetic from Greipel that he is at home screen grabbing time differences at the base of a climb in the hope that the guy doesn't lose too much time.

Quintana was also almost 3 minutes behind Kangert at the start of the climb so Demare lost much more than 9 minutes

These sprinters can descend at warp speed though

Not pathetic at all. Greipel got kicked out of the race for being too late and he would have been the fastest sprinter left

Plus, Greipel pointed out how much cheating he saw on the stage he DNF'd. We can only speculate on who the riders were.

 

[Screecher]

Re: Re:

pretty pathetic from Greipel that he is at home screen grabbing time differences at the base of a climb in the hope that the guy doesn't lose too much time.

Quintana was also almost 3 minutes behind Kangert at the start of the climb so Demare lost much more than 9 minutes

These sprinters can descend at warp speed though

Not pathetic at all. Greipel got kicked out of the race for being too late and he would have been the fastest sprinter left

Plus, Greipel pointed out how much cheating he saw on the stage he DNF'd. We can only speculate on who the riders were.

It's quite clear to me who one of the riders was, why else would he bother tweeting about Démare.

 

[armchairclimber]

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Imagine trying to explain this Tour top 4 to someone in 2012.

There’s a second rate cobbled classics hopeful poised to win the Tour de France. An up and coming TT specialist is his main competition. One of the least talented domestiques in the whole WT is in third. And a professional ski jumper is in fourth.

You’d have ended up subjected to a well meaning psychiatric intervention.

In 2012? Where Froome was the best climber :lol:

You are right. I should have said 2011. It was up until the latter part of that season, mid career, that Froome was a nobody and generally considered, to the limited extent that he was considered at all, to be lucky to have a pro contract. Thomas was a young cobbles contender, not in the same league as the best, but considered a possibility to maybe one day win a Monument. Dumoulin was a Rabobank U23 rider, considered a possible future ITT champ. Roglic was a ski jumper.

This goes to show that perceived wisdom and historical assumptions about what kind of rider can do what were wide of the mark. That particular rule book has been torn up and re-written.

It was rewritten circa 1990.

Oh, silly me .... why bother worrying about it now then?

 

[Oude Geuze]

Damn it’s hard to tell the clinic from the regular forum these days. Nothing but snark and innuendo all through the stage.
We need more casual fans here who still loves racing, drama and brave efforts without the constant cynicism and outcry. The selective sky hate is getting so old. They have twice the budget of other teams, why tf are people surprised that their doms can hang with team leaders?
Every team knows Egan Bernal is maybe the biggest talent of the last 10 years, Sky signed him, that’s what happens when a team has a lot of money. Learn to accept, it’s been 9 years. They will continue to sign stars, have money to develop and support them and afford to spend top riders just to carry their bottles through France. They will continue to win races. Can we just not moan about it every day?

 

[Koronin]

Re:

Damn it’s hard to tell the clinic from the regular forum these days. Nothing but snark and innuendo all through the stage.
We need more casual fans here who still loves racing, drama and brave efforts without the constant cynicism and outcry. The selective sky hate is getting so old. They have twice the budget of other teams, why tf are people surprised that their doms can hang with team leaders?
Every team knows Egan Bernal is maybe the biggest talent of the last 10 years, Sky signed him, that’s what happens when a team has a lot of money. Learn to accept, it’s been 9 years. They will continue to sign stars, have money to develop and support them and afford to spend top riders just to carry their bottles through France. They will continue to win races. Can we just not moan about it every day?

You do realize that a LOT of fans if not the vast majority of fans that have been around since at least the Lance/US Postal days are cynical?

 

[Chrispol]

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https://twitter.com/ArnaudDemare/status/1022187287147425792

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a fight over here.

 

[Walkman]

Re: Re:

pretty pathetic from Greipel that he is at home screen grabbing time differences at the base of a climb in the hope that the guy doesn't lose too much time.

Quintana was also almost 3 minutes behind Kangert at the start of the climb so Demare lost much more than 9 minutes

These sprinters can descend at warp speed though

Not pathetic at all. Greipel got kicked out of the race for being too late and he would have been the fastest sprinter left

Plus, Greipel pointed out how much cheating he saw on the stage he DNF'd. We can only speculate on who the riders were.

What is the deal? I haven't been paying attention, is Demare grabbing cars and lifting? And getting a pass because he Is french?

 

[Escarabajo]

Demare has been probably holding on to sticky bottles or French people has been pushing him all the way to the finishes. According to GPS he lost 9 minutes on Quintana on the last climb.

 

[William H]

When I've looked at that live tracking its been jumping around enough that its clearly not entirely reliable

 

[rick james]

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Demare has been probably holding on to sticky bottles or French people has been pushing him all the way to the finishes. According to GPS he lost 9 minutes on Quintana on the last climb.

scary after he got dropped after the first 400 meteres at the start