Re: Re:
Tonton said:
DFA123 said:
What is obvious is that one weak attack close the summit was never going to be anywhere near enough to take over a minute out of Froome.
He talked the talk before hand, got his team to set up the potential attack, but then cowed when it was decision time and settled for a podium position. A disappointing outcome.
This.
It's still a great TdF for Romain, though. But his reputation as a fearless attacker has taken a serious hit. He ain't no Contador, he ain't no Vino... The morale of the story is: if you run your mouth, you'd better deliver. Otherwise, shut up and pedal.
He tried.
However, after expending all his team, he needed to do what he didn't do on stage 15 and just gun it.
Barguil made the jump. When Vuillermoz went off the front, that was the time to attack.
How many riders were left? Froome, Landa, Uran, Bardet and Barguil.
Everyone else was dropped.
The fact Barguil stayed away and started the climb with the GC boys, shows, that yes, they could have gone faster.
Ask yourselves, was Barguil truly the strongest and fastest? Of course not.
All these comments are accurate. Romain needs to hope for echelons today/tonight (I have no clue if that's possible), and hopefully some time gains there. He also needs to rethink how he attacks for the future.
If he doesn't want to risk second...then sorry, but he'll have to settle for not winning. They had Sky on the ropes and he didn't throw the knockout punch.
I know he had a set plan to attack at a particular point, but when your team sets such a pace, and it does actually finally drop every Sky rider, then you go. He didn't. Nieve and Kwiatkowski got back on...that's the proof he didn't continue the pace coupled with the fact Barguil got away.
He went too low. So what if Uran follows. Go for it. Train for it next year. Longer range attack. It might have worked. Aru clearly wasn't going to bridge him and Landa was clearly going to stay with Froome (lots of evidence of that). Want proof Bardet could have gone harder earlier?
Landa attacked. Had zero reason to attack, but he did. When Sky played that card, it tells me they had the whole situation won.
So well done for trying Bardet, just rethink the strategy. Don't wait for the exact point to attack...do what Barguil did then and there.