Paris-Nice 2017, 5th-12th March

[HelloDolly]

As I said yesterday todays stage would be another story and not really suited to Heano

Porte was so at ease on the climb ( and he may have worked just as hard as the others because of the cross winds)

But Contador was great imo....he fought and got right back into the race ....expect him to try something tomorrow to isolate SKY ....if QS worked with him they could share the spoils at the end

For the neutral observor tomorrow looks like it could be a cracker again

 

[portugal11]

Re:

I think the man of the day is...Jarlinson Pantano. What a machine.

The man of the day was carolina's beloved, better known as thibaut pinotes

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Henao to drop Contador soon.

Henao will drop Contador any moment now

Henao will drop Contador for sure.

In tears :lol:
To be honest I was bracing myself for Berto getting dropped in the final km and getting caught by Martin I'm pleasantly surprised. Again 2nd though bleeegh but he showed decent shape

OMG Pantano _O_ monster ride and he seems very loyal to Berto. Hooray! Berto has decent teammates

Alaphilippe fought all the way to the line - I feel bad for him

Good win by Porte - strong legs and not as marked as others, he was unbeatable

Henao cannot let this one slip away, I don't see him lose tomorrow, his team his very strong as well. He kind of deserves it, if he didn't ride for Sky I wouldn't mind it as much.
Aaargh if not for that first stage... but Berto gained 32 seconds on the Col d'Eze stage in 2007! Vamos!!

 

[HelloDolly]

Allaphillipe & Gallopin never had a chance on a stage like to day

Why do so many people on here get carried away with the hype

Trying to turn Allaphillipe in a GT rider will be about as successful as turning Kwaito into one and could mean he misses alot of win elsewhere

 

[HelloDolly]

Pantano is one of the nicest guys in the peloton by all accounts

Dan Martin may have been right up there if he hadn' t had to baby sit Allaphillipe yesterday !!!

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Fair enough. I'd probably put him as second favourite, given Quintana is doing the Giro. But a very distant second favourite. I fear he's shown nothing in the last 5 years to suggest he can come close to challenging Froome at the Tour.

Yet I've seen many people say he'll barely manage a top-5 if he's lucky. He's definitely overrated by a some, but also criminally underrated by many.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

if QS worked with him they could share the spoils at the end

How?

 

[Valv.Piti]

Hopefully Contador and QS will explode the race tomorrow!

My overall assessment of this race so far is it will be very hard for any one week stage race to beat this one. It has been formidable and will be tomorrow as well. Chapeau to the riders and ASO!

 

[portugal11]

I'm afraid that quickstep will race to win the stage and secure the second place

 

[HelloDolly]

Re: Re:

if QS worked with him they could share the spoils at the end

How?

Distance SKY and then when that is done every man for himself ....means they fight for 1st and 2nd

rather than stay at 2nd and 3rd

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

if QS worked with him they could share the spoils at the end

How?

Distance SKY and then when that is done every man for himself ....means they fight for 1st and 2nd

rather than stay at 2nd and 3rd

Right got you, I thought you had a scenario of 1 winning the stage, the other GC in mind.
Anyway I expect Martin/QS to close down any moves by Berto. They'll care more about their 2nd place.

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

Fair enough. I'd probably put him as second favourite, given Quintana is doing the Giro. But a very distant second favourite. I fear he's shown nothing in the last 5 years to suggest he can come close to challenging Froome at the Tour.

Yet I've seen many people say he'll barely manage a top-5 if he's lucky. He's definitely overrated by a some, but also criminally underrated by many.

Yeah, that's a bit extreme. I guess he may finish out of top 5, because if he doesn't win, then he seems to either throw away a high placing chasing more, or throws in the towel a bit (depending on how you read the situation ).

If Froome was to crash out early though; then not sure who else could you have as a bigger favourite than Contador. Quintana perhaps, if he performs miracles juggling his form; but no chance you could rate the likes of Porte, Bardet, Valverde or Aru as more likely to win than Contador.

His early season form has been OK. Not spectacular, but certainly not bad enough to suggest he's completely finished yet.

 

[Robert5091]

Men of the Day- Pantano for burying himself & Martin for snatching 3rd spot & bonus seconds - chapeau!

 

[sQiD]

If Alberto wants to win this, he has to do a Formigal and attack from the gong.

 

[DFA123]

Re:

If Alberto wants to win this, he has to do a Formigal and attack from the gong.

The problem I see with that is Quickstep and the bonus seconds that Martin grabbed today. Formigal attack worked because Quintana was there - so Movistar, the strongest team in the race, was actively disrupting the chase rather than hunting it down themselves. If Contador goes tomorrow then he has no chance of succeeding if both Quickstep and Sky are both chasing him down; so he would probably have to work with Quickstep - but then how is he going to drop Martin.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re:

Quickstep might have backed the wrong horse from the beginning of this race, if Martin had not worked for JA and gave up time while doing it this could be a completely different race.

Yes, and it's difficult to understand. This stage was always extremely likely to sink Alaphillippe. It's a very hard mtf, on a multiple climb stage, remarkably early in the year. This stage on paper looked like one for the best climbers in the field - Porte, Contador, Martin, Henao and, although he turned out not to have it, Zakarin - to smash everyone. And paper didn't lie.

Alaphillippe is a huge talent and he's young, so maybe some day he will be a good enough climber to mix it with that sort of rider. But this stage was always going to demand a climbing level that he simply hasn't shown before in the high mountains. Couillole is not Mount Baldy and this is not the kind of climbing field where Sagan finishes 6th on a mtf.

He could win many editions of Paris Nice with his current set of abilities, but not one with a huge mountain in it.

 

[johnymax]

Nice stage. Was surprisingly pleasing to see first Porte attacking and taking the stage and behind Contador dropping everybody else. Usually I'm not cheering for them in this kind of situations (although I like both riders), but today I was. Good set up to create some epicness tomorrow

 

[Mr.White]

So, we'll have to wait for the first of the record-breaking Alaphilippe's Paris-Nice titles Hype was of course unjustified. If you ask me, one Paris-Nice title will be a great success for him, breaking Kelly's record shouldn't be mentioned in relation to him

 

[staubsauger]

I got the feeling it was more about Alafpolak's nerves than about his shape to be honest. He was dropped way too soon based on his prior climbing performances.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re:

I got the feeling it was more about Alafpolak's nerves than about his shape to be honest. He was dropped way too soon based on his prior climbing performances.

His prior performances indicate that he is great on shorter climbs, not that he is great on mountains. The apparently now indestructible myth that he has a high level record in the high mountains is based on cherry picking a couple of his very best performances, neither of which provided much basis for thinking he can at this point mix it with these guys on this kind of stage.

 

[movingtarget]

Good comeback from Porte and impressive from Martin, Contador and Pantano. The race isn't over yet.

 

[AlexNYC]

Tomorrow's could be a great stage. It's short, it's the last one, and everything is on the line, which more likely than not means that it will be raced hard from the word go.

 

[The Barb]

Could be a good stage, although the GC would be much more interesting if Henao led by 10 seconds rather than 30. Hard to see him losing that amount of time on these short climbs where he will likely be as good as anyone.

I think a strong break will form and the winner come from it. Porte back to back wins perhaps.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Contador to solo from Côte de Levens.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Re:

I got the feeling it was more about Alafpolak's nerves than about his shape to be honest. He was dropped way too soon based on his prior climbing performances.

Alafpolak? What is that about?