Unfortunately, a long range attack doesn't help many of the top riders. Thomas for obvious reasons, Roglic is happy with a podium and he can get that in the TT, Froome is tired/won't be allowed, Quintana may be hurt and could be satisfied with a stage win and top five, Landa doesn't look great, Kruijswijk will probably settele for 6th/help Roglic; only Bardet I think might actually do something, and he's too far back to actually matter. Dumoulin is the unknown quantity for me: he'll probably feel that if he gets within a minute he has a chance in the TT. Can he gain a minute on just the Aubisque and its descent? Attacking on the Tourmalet is 99% certain not to actually achieve anything, Sky will just chase him down unless he's super strong. However, even if he is caught, he probably won't lose much on the Aubisque. Unless sky push for a froome podium, that is.Moviefan1203 said:
. . . Still don't trust Froome not to pull another Landis.
Your assessment is correct, except I won't put 99% failure probability on attacking on the Tourmalet. No way is that high. If you have riders up the road and attack midway there is a small change it will succeed. Not 1%. There is also a chance for one of the top guys to have a bad day and everyone else will smell blood. I don't it will happen but it could happen.Brullnux said:
Froome leading them down it, without braking, after sky find a marginal gain that creates an adhesive track down the mountain.ice&fire said:
I agree with most of this. If we're talking about going for yellow, the only guy for whom I see an early attack making sense is Kruijswijk for Roglic. Force Sky to hopefully burn doms early in a hope that Roglic can put enough time into G on the climb to be in striking distance in the TT. Of course, he'd also have to put time into Dumo.Brullnux said:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram