TdF '17 - stage 5: Vittel>La Planche des Belles Filles 160km

[hrotha]

"Still 6 Sky riders with 3 km to go" sounds a lot less spectacular when you realize absolutely everybody was still there. I think it's possible that they had Landa and/or Henao save themselves today, but what we actually saw was nothing to write home about. The myth of the "unassailable Sky" is just too convenient for all parties involved.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Mollema was there up until 2,8km before the line

Aru attacked at 2.3

I can understand criticism, but it's a bit too much.

 

[clydesdale]

Re: Re:

Further down the order:

Among the non team leaders who would still be expected to be good here, Henao, Kreuziger, Chaves and Mollema were all poor. Roche was surprisingly strong.

Of the prospective leaders: Fuglsang, Talansky, Barguil in order bad, worse, terrible

Wouldn't Mollema be here for Contador? I never really expected anything from him.

Yes, but he wasn't there for Contador, he was back down the mountain! Look at where the top doms for Froome and Porte were.

True, to be clear, I never really thought Contador had a shot anyhow. Maybe he was saving legs? I don't know, we will see if he is of any use when things get serious.

 

[fantomas]

Re: Re:

Sky and Froome were very weak by their own standards - No hard pacing by them throughout the entire climb length, and a shallow attack by the Alien was not enough today.......... Perhaps the freshness of Aru, a good day from Porte, a surprise attack by Bardet & perhaps an epic assault by Contador can break the Sky train apart.

Sky were weaker on the climb because BMC rode the whole stage at a fast tempo. Its fantastic that Aru is in form because Astana will ride hard the multi mountain stages.

If that's Sky weaker then god help us if they break into full choo choo mode. Still 6 of them there until Kwiatowski dropped off just after 3km to go.

What's more important, it was after only 3K. And then Aru blew them apart. Not really super convincing showing from Sky.

 

[May0maniac]

Re:

Further down the order:

Among the non team leaders who would still be expected to be good here, Henao, Kreuziger, Chaves and Mollema were all poor. Roche was surprisingly strong.

Of the prospective leaders: Fuglsang, Talansky, Barguil in order bad, worse, terrible

Barguil always said that he was just stagehunting at the Tour and riding for gc at the Vuelta, he was smiling when he was dropped and winking into the camera, he didn't look like a gt rider who's chances got smashed.
Talansky was bad, he also lost a lot of timeon the Pena Cabarga stage durning the last Vuelta, but he already lost 25 seconds on stage 3, so I don't really know what to think of his gc ambitions.

 

[HelloDolly]

UIran though was good and now for me Cannondales GC man

 

[Breh]

Quick Step has put a rider in the top5 every day except for yesterday.

 

[Anderis]

A lot of anglophone riders in the top15.

Is Meintjes' first language English or Afrikaans?

 

[dacooley]

Re:

Nieve's pace was too slow, he was no Poels so in theory anybody could've attacked, it wasn't as they were on their limits. Aru choose to go and nobody closed it down right then. Thomas couldn't follow, we saw in the end his form so later Froome decided to take matters into his own hands. Next time when Aru will attack be sure that Froome or Richie will go with him and then we'll see if Aru can drop them all, not saying that he is not capable.

Very profound observation. Aru could comfortably win the stage as he was a bit of joker (with that, I'm not arguing that he was clearly the strongest today), but since now he is a real threat and Froome and Porte will handle his moves really seriously.

 

[carton]

Re: Re:

Talansky was bad, he also lost a lot of timeon the Pena Cabarga stage durning the last Vuelta, but he already lost 25 seconds on stage 3, so I don't really know what to think of his gc ambitions.

Talansky has always said he's a better third week rider and his palmares seems to bear that out. But with a 30-year-old two-time-Giro-runner-up already a minute up on him and only 22km of time trials to go I'm guessing he's most likely the back-up-plan / secondary-card-to-play now. But I think he still has a decent shot at a top-10 if he carries on. And I seriously doubt Cannondale will put him to work unless a top-5 is within Rigo's grasp.

I think Chaves and Fuglsang are in a similar position (with Fuglsang more likely to be tied to the sled as Aru has a genuine shot at jaune). Henao, Kreuziger, and Mollema could be peaking for later or just saving themselves for later (or just off-form, we'll know soon enough.

 

[Son of Amsterhammer]

Re:

Quick Step has put a rider in the top5 every day except for yesterday.

So many strong riders on that team!

 

[dirkprovin]

Re:

A lot of anglophone riders in the top15.

Is Meintjes' first language English or Afrikaans?

Meintjes is an Afrikaner name and he comes from Pretoria which was a predominantly Afrikaans speaking area historically. Having said that, his English is perfectly fluent so he may well have been educated at an English speaking school or at least a bilingual one.

 

[woodburn]

Re: Re:

Andy picking Aru for today!

He nailed it! Cycling savant.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re:

Mollema was there up until 2,8km before the line

Aru attacked at 2.3

I can understand criticism, but it's a bit too much.

I'm not being super-harsh, I just would have expected him to be there until at least the moment when it exploded. It's one thing disappearing then, another to already be gone quite a bit earlier.

 

[May0maniac]

Re: Re:

Andy picking Aru for today!

He nailed it! Cycling savant.

Ice cream Andy was right after all.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Dan Martin a bit disgruntled with a reporter apparently. It seems he's more annoyed about coming 2nd again than he is pleased at dropping Froome etc.

 

[Blanco]

Re:

Amazing Aru. I've such a special feeling for that guy. Can't realistically see him winning with the last TT and Sky train but he should be a real plague for them on the mountains. He seems on top top form. He tested his legs today, gained some time. Now he can recover the following days. Just affraid by the help he can get on the mountains.

That last TT is quite technical and has a 1.2km, 10% wall in it, so I assume Aru won't lose that much time

 

[Anderis]

Re:

Dan Martin a bit disgruntled with a reporter apparently. It seems he's more annoyed about coming 2nd again than he is pleased at dropping Froome etc.

Dan Martin's biggest win since he left Cannondale is a Volta a Catalunya stage. Perhaps a tad frustrating for a man who earlier won 2 monuments, 2 GT stages and 2 one-week WT races overall. Especially when his form does seem good.

 

[Valv.Piti]

I dont know, I just seem so indifferent to this whole thing at the moment. Valverde was literally the only thing I was excited about this Tour and that time trial robbed him, me and the rest of the world for the potentially biggest thread to Froome.

 

[Son of Amsterhammer]

Re: Re:

Amazing Aru. I've such a special feeling for that guy. Can't realistically see him winning with the last TT and Sky train but he should be a real plague for them on the mountains. He seems on top top form. He tested his legs today, gained some time. Now he can recover the following days. Just affraid by the help he can get on the mountains.

That last TT is quite technical and has a 1.2km, 10% wall in it, so I assume Aru won't lose that much time

Let's all hope it's not raining....

 

[carton]

Re:

I dont know, I just seem so indifferent to this whole thing at the moment. Valverde was literally the only thing I was excited about this Tour and that time trial robbed him, me and the rest of the world for the potentially biggest thread to Froome.

I can't help but imagine the Valverde thread had he won :surprised: :lol:

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

I dont know, I just seem so indifferent to this whole thing at the moment. Valverde was literally the only thing I was excited about this Tour and that time trial robbed him, me and the rest of the world for the potentially biggest thread to Froome.

I can't help but imagine the Valverde thread had he won :surprised: :lol:

Haha yeah, my bad. *** this.

 

[del1962]

Froome said the flatter section slowed down the chase, no one wanting to pull on the front there, suspect without that would have been closer

 

[bob.a.feet]

It's good that Aru seems to be the non-Sky rider with the best form as you know he will be aggressive and fight for the win, and he can sustain it over three weeks.

 

[Anderis]

Re: Re:

Having said that, his English is perfectly fluent so he may well have been educated at an English speaking school or at least a bilingual one.

Well, speaking fluent English is not really a rare skill nowadays. Even more so for people coming from countries in which English is one of the official languages.