TdF 2017 stage 7: Troyes > Nuits-Saint-Georges 213,5 km

[Breh]

Don't watch it if it doesn't interest you and stop complaining here. I'd enjoy that, tyvm.

 

[jflemaire]

Re:

I mean, wtf is these guys thinking? That this will actually intrigue people?? Throw a couple of difficulties into the finales at least to make the sprinter-teams wonder if their sprinter can make it over and the stagehunters believe (both from the early break, but also later on) they actually have a chance. That way we will see bigger breaks, a faster pace and more unpredictability. Its literally win-win-win, but Prudhomme (who is a giant tool) wants to sell this idea that the fight for green is more open. Literally the only way I can see anyone design so downright ****** stages throughout a whole Tour, christ, there are 6-7 more to go. And then they throw him out anyways.

Shame on Prudhomme, shame on ASO:

Speaking of Prudhomme. After the Liège stage a Belgian journalist mentioned to him the glaring lack of any kind of climbs in the finish. Prudhomme, seemingly very happy with himself, answered the plan was to have a German winner and they had it so the plan worked perfectly.

I guess the deal with Dusseldorf was "we will pay you what you want but we want a German winner". In case it didn't work on the first stage (which is what actually happened) they needed a plan B. Therefore making the Liège finish in any way interesting was out of the question.

So ASO gladly played the nationalistic game (as if there weren't enough of it already in sports) rather than designing an interesting stages. I live in Liège and I could have designed a better finish in my sleep.

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

There is a solution for these boring stages. Don't watch them. They are almost always boring.

Or just watch a replay of the last 5km. I like sprints. I'll repeat again tomorrow. As will the results.

Or... leave the tv/feed on while doing other things, tuning back in - mentally - when they approached the sprint.

Kittel could pull a "Dumoulin" mid-sprint and still win.

That's... disgusting!

 

[Beech Mtn]

Sprint stage - won't watch.

So many of these it almost feels like it's not July. Helping to break an old habit and free up my summer.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re:

Sprint stage - won't watch.

So many of these it almost feels like it's not July. Helping to break an old habit and free up my summer.

I don't know the exact figures and maybe it's just because it's late, but I'm pretty sure in most Tours that I've watched over the past decade there have been three or four sprint stages in the first week. This doesn't seem a new concept.

There were also four sprints in the first week of this years Giro, and three last year.

 

[Gloin22]

Re: Re:

I mean, wtf is these guys thinking? That this will actually intrigue people?? Throw a couple of difficulties into the finales at least to make the sprinter-teams wonder if their sprinter can make it over and the stagehunters believe (both from the early break, but also later on) they actually have a chance. That way we will see bigger breaks, a faster pace and more unpredictability. Its literally win-win-win, but Prudhomme (who is a giant tool) wants to sell this idea that the fight for green is more open. Literally the only way I can see anyone design so downright ****** stages throughout a whole Tour, christ, there are 6-7 more to go. And then they throw him out anyways.

Shame on Prudhomme, shame on ASO:

Speaking of Prudhomme. After the Liège stage a Belgian journalist mentioned to him the glaring lack of any kind of climbs in the finish. Prudhomme, seemingly very happy with himself, answered the plan was to have a German winner and they had it so the plan worked perfectly.

I guess the deal with Dusseldorf was "we will pay you what you want but we want a German winner". In case it didn't work on the first stage (which is what actually happened) they needed a plan B. Therefore making the Liège finish in any way interesting was out of the question.

So ASO gladly played the nationalistic game (as if there weren't enough of it already in sports) rather than designing an interesting stages. I live in Liège and I could have designed a better finish in my sleep.

Yes you could have designed it, and so could Libertine

But you don't have any funding to run Tour neither does Libertine and Tour does not run on air

Give Tour a 1 million donation and I'm sure they will let you design next years stage in Liege.

 

[diego721]

Re:

Hope, live TV audience reach will kick them hard.
And we will have 14 MTF stages on the route next year

Naesen for 50km solo win.

We both know that then the forum would cry about the Tour becoming like la Vuelta :lol:

 

[bob.a.feet]

For seem reason I'm still going to tune into a boring race while listening to David Millar painfully over-analyse everything, all so I can see 1km of action. That's the Tour for you.

 

[Ricco']

Well, the stages before I felt really bored but yesterday I came with the perfect solution to enjoy this kind of stages.

I created a Netflix account, started watching The Walking Dead and timed the episodes so one could end right between the 10 and 20 km's to go. Then, it was a matter of turn to Eurosport, get a little annoyed because they weren't yet at the last 5 km's, see the sprint and after the finish turn again to Netflix.

Much more enjoyable, give it a try. Only let down was that I forgot about the intermediate sprint and missed that. Tomorrow I will have that in mind.

 

[benzwire]

Re:

Taylor Phinney to Cancellara the sprinters.

Yes, please! That would be awesome.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

The solution tomorrow is the Austria stream, which should finish in time to go make a cup of coffee and a sandwich before the last 20 km.

 

[movingtarget]

The usual suspects to fight it out.

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re:

Taylor Phinney to Cancellara

Retire out of spite because he didn't win the time trial?
Oh wait, this isn't the Tour de Suisse. Nevermind.

 

[SHAD0W93]

Come on Demare!

 

[MartinGT]

Thunderstorms and hailstones = Groenewegen FTW!

Or

Maybe just Kittel

 

[Robert5091]

Zzzzz ... a 200 km rolling Tv-ad for the sponsors ...

 

[Finn84]

At least there was one stage with bit lumpy in the first seven days. But there have been worse early parts - I can recall 2003 and 2005 had no major difficulties. Of course there were TTTs.

Recently, 2008 route was my favourite of the early part. Ending on the hill in stage 1, TT on stage 4 and Super-Besse on stage 6.

 

[wirral]

This one is for the breakaway.

 

[Inquitus]

5 hours of live coverage, 5 minutes of racing! Weak break kept below 5 minutes all day and a big sprint at the end....again.....

 

[frisenfruitig]

Re:

This one is for the breakaway.

You think so? I don't see that happening unless all the teams with a sprinter are represented in the breakaway.

Another fcking 200k stage that will end up in a bunch sprint. When even the guys at Sporza are complaining the stages are way too long and boring you know they dun goofed. They could have made these awful stages a bit shorter or at least add in some hills at the end but noooooo. Apparently a 5 hour snooze fest is preferable.

I guess we can hope for some crosswinds.

 

[Akuryo]

On days like this you would get really good exposure if you put an ad on the helmet of Julien Vermote. He will be on the screen for hours riding at the front of the pack

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Probably a similar outcome to yesterday but I think this one will be a much more stressful day for the favourites. The wind is blowing in the right direction today. Whether it is strong enough or whether the course is exposed enough to break up the race I'm not sure - plus the most difficult parts are likely with 100+km to go. Even if it doesn't break up, a lot of racing and scrambling for position suits Demare more than Kittel I think

 

[trucido]

Demare to flaunt his teflon padding and protected rider status.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

Somebody euthanise me now. I can't take another day like this.

(At least there's the Tour de San Luis style amateurish stream of the Osterreich Rundfahrt, where Superman Lopez has to go nuts on a HC climb 60 km out if he's going to stop Denifl from taking AquaBlue's first ever stage race...)

It's actually quite sad. If the coverage of the österreichrundfahrt would be a bit better it could actually get some attention despite taking place at the same time as the Tour. Especially since I think todays stage in Austria will be quite exciting.

In the tour the best we can hope for are some echelons but before a very hard weekend I expect a boring stage ending with a kittel win.

 

[ThePirate81]

Long (5,3 Km) boulevard spurt with tailwind...I think Greipel could come on top of Démare today in the fight for "best of the rest" behind Ivan Drago.