TdF 2018 stage 3 TTT Cholet 35.5 km

[arvc40]

Terrific performance from Egan Bernal today !. What year will he win the Tour !

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

Excellent day for Dumoulin I'd say

Yeah he and Uran are in a good position.

 

[movingtarget]

Sagan looked completely done for. Green jersey might not be a formality after all. Not that it really matters as BORA already completed their main goal.

Just a bad day by the looks of it.

 

[janraaskalt]

Sagan looked completely done for. Green jersey might not be a formality after all. Not that it really matters as BORA already completed their main goal.

Just a bad day by the looks of it.

Too muscular for the hilly parts. He climbed better in his earlier days.

 

[Screecher]

Sagan looked completely done for. Green jersey might not be a formality after all. Not that it really matters as BORA already completed their main goal.

Just a bad day by the looks of it.

Too muscular for the hilly parts. He climbed better in his earlier days.

To be fair, even Colbrelli, who is a lighter guy than Sagan struggled on that climb. Still, guys like Degenkolb, Matthews and GVA had no issues.

 

[movingtarget]

Sagan looked pale. I wonder if he had any illness ?

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Re:

G. Thomas
Jungels +4
Dumoulin +8
Uran +32
Majka +47
Fuglsang +48
Porte
Zakarin +49
Valverde +50
Landa
Froome +52
Yates +57
Nibali +1.03
Bardet +1.12
Kruijswijk
Roglic
Mollema +1.13
Martin +1.35
Quintana +2.05

Tell me if I forgot somebody.

Look at the GC already, and we've still to do mini-Amstel and mini-Roubaix, before we even get to the mountains

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Great performance by Astana, with Valgren, Cort, Fraile and Kangert doing stellar rides.

As Fuglsang said when asked at the finish line:

"Some experts said the absence of Louis would cost us a minute, so in that light, finishing 51 secs down on BMC is pretty good".

 

[Bot. Sky_Bot]

Dissapointing results, but yes, really excellent stage!
I really don't understand how is it possible suggesting it was boring. Please, more TTT stages, more kms.
Of course dissapointing is Sky didn't win, GT is not in yellow, but we have some pretty nice losses to Froome: Fuglsang + 47'', Landa&Quintana + 49'', Bardet & Roglic +1'11, .. and of course Nibali +1'02.

 

[Lequack]

Re:

Dissapointing results, but yes, really excellent stage!
I really don't understand how is it possible suggesting it was boring. Please, more TTT stages, more kms.
Of course dissapointing is Sky didn't win, GT is not in yellow, but we have some pretty nice losses to Froome: Fuglsang + 47'', Landa&Quintana + 49'', Bardet & Roglic +1'11, .. and of course Nibali +1'02.

Those are not losses to Froome but to Geraint Thomas. Froome will now have to bring bottles and gels to G, at least until he can gain 50 seconds back.

 

[Bot. Sky_Bot]

Re: Re:

Dissapointing results, but yes, really excellent stage!
I really don't understand how is it possible suggesting it was boring. Please, more TTT stages, more kms.
Of course dissapointing is Sky didn't win, GT is not in yellow, but we have some pretty nice losses to Froome: Fuglsang + 47'', Landa&Quintana + 49'', Bardet & Roglic +1'11, .. and of course Nibali +1'02.

Those are not losses to Froome but to Geraint Thomas. Froome will now have to bring bottles and gels to G, at least until he can gain 50 seconds back.

Those are today's losses to Froome. And Froome will not have to do such things unless he lost so much time that he will have no chances to win it overall. 3 min? 5 min? So obvious.

 

[Cookster15]

I'd say Sagan is sick. Today's hills were not big or long enough to slow him muscular or not.

Great result for BMC that will help restore team moral and brings Porte back into the game.

But not sure what all the Geraint Thomas hype is about? Laughable that Sky would consider him over Froome. Just laughable. His highest finish in a Grand Tour is 15th in the 2016 Tour. Not on the same planet as Froome Giro in the legs or not. But if Sky want to throw away the chance of the first Giro Tour double in twenty years fine by me.

 

[Bot. Sky_Bot]

Re:

I'd say Sagan is sick. Today's hills were not big or long enough to slow him muscular or not.

Great result for BMC that will help restore team moral and brings Porte back into the game.

But not sure what all the Geraint Thomas hype is about? Laughable that Sky would consider him over Froome. Just laughable. His highest finish in a Grand Tour is 15th in the 2016 Tour. Not on the same planet as Froome Giro in the legs or not. But if Sky want to throw away the chance of the first Giro Tour double in twenty years fine by me.

But of course.
EDIT: To be honest it's great for TdF we have ca 30 sec split between so many GT contenders.

 

[jsem94]

Verdict: TTTs suck, as we already knew.

 

[TubularBills]

Sky... as expected... a warm welcome...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZUQ8568KFE

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Top 5 more or less as expected, though Sunweb and Mitchelton are closer than I would have guessed - good rides by them.

Rides of the day for me:

EF and Astana, both delivering much better than expected, with the injuries they suffered.

Acceptable performances from Movistar, Bahrain, AG2R and Bora (Majka definitely riding GC).

Disappointing times by Katusha, Lotto NL, Trek and UAE.

 

[TubularBills]

Sky... as expected... a warm welcome...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZUQ8568KFE

 

[oldcrank]

What a great stage!! Since I bought my first copy of "The Comic"
(i.e. Cycling Weekly) there has been many riders that were on
the winning TTT team the year they won the Tour including
Eddy, Joop, Bernard H, Laurent, Stephen etc. Will Richie
join that list of legends? Personally, I hope the Dawg
wins his fifth Tour and takes his place among the
immortal legends of professional road cycling.

 

[SKSemtex]

For those who are not fans of Facebook: "I had bad legs today, from the start. It was really hot and I also lost my bottle on a bump, just 400 meters into the race. I gave my best, as I always do, but I also suffered a lot to respect the coveted yellow jersey I had. I wish I could have contributed a little bit more to Rafal's GC quest today but this is the way it is in sports. You have good days, you have difficult days. Tomorrow we'll have another chance and, once again, we will give it our all" (Sagan)

 

[durtyfat7]

I didn't watch the whole stage. Is it true that Landa was struggling and Movistar had to slow down for him?

 

[yaco]

Much ado about nothing - Riders often have bad day or need 100+ kms to warm up their legs - You are in a TT and you have nowhere to hide - Expect sagan to be at the pointy end in tomorrow's final.

 

[SKSemtex]

Re:

Much ado about nothing - Riders often have bad day or need 100+ kms to warm up their legs - You are in a TT and you have nowhere to hide - Expect sagan to be at the pointy end in tomorrow's final.

I was a little bit scared. There was info that he supposed to do 18 seconds pulls, and he was lucky to stay with team 10 km. I feel sorry for Majka a little bid. He needed this TTT to be much better.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

I didn't watch the whole stage. Is it true that Landa was struggling and Movistar had to slow down for him?

They barely showed Movistar so if it's true you'd have no idea. Valverde's comment after the stage was that the time loss was within what was expected.

 

[b.broadhurst]

So QS admit mistakes and that Jungels road too fast, surely he should know in TTT that if you feel strong you ride for longer not increase your speed.

 

[hazaran]

No *** QS made mistakes, they should be fined another 30 seconds - what the hell is their DS doing driving in front of riders when their team is imploding. Stay the *** back.