Tour de France 2015 Stage 17: Digne-les-Bains-Pra Loup 161km

[TMP402]

Quintana and Froome shaking hands after the stage...

 

[mr. tibbs]

Re: Re:

Majka: "Nobody told me I needed to stop, otherwise I would have stopped"

Don't they have radios?

Tinkov making them ride without as a rebellion against the establishment.

 

[TommyGun]

I cannot believe how insanely lucky Froome has been since the beginning of the Tour. Absolutely nothing happened to him, that's crazy.

 

[damian13ster]

Re:

So... the Giro-Tour double is way too difficult. At least for Contador. IDK if Froome can cope with it though. He hasn't raced the Giro in many years, and while the climbing suits him, the race is always harder to control and more unpredictable. Would be interesting to see him try tackle the Giro.

If he races Vuelta then we will see.

Much less time to rest between Tour and Vuelta + much better competition. This double is way harder. If he gets close to winning then Froome can definetely go for Giro-Tour (not next season though)

 

[veji11]

Bah Froome is just too strong, and the Movistar got the dream stage for them with TVG out and Contador 2 mins further back. They have the podium wrapped up !

 

[fungusbear]

Re: Re:

Well that was rubbish. I hate movistar for accepting 2nd and 3rd rather than going for the win.

Froome is the strongest. By a mile. No way they beat him unless they order a domestique to crash into him.
Accept it. Strongest GC rider in the world. By far

I don't disagree that he is the strongest, he clearly is. But instead of getitng your domestiques to ride hard for most of the mountain, why not attack one after the other. At least give your all instead of two Quintana "attacks", and don't chase down riders who could burn up SKY domestiques early in the stage.

 

[Sky'sthelimit]

Thomas to jump two places.

 

[BeagRigh]

Re: Re:

Can just see Contador hitting the deck in this

http://gfycat.com/CornySomberGuineafowl

Really hard to tell what exactly is happening. Did he flip over the handlebars?

According to eyewitnesses Rogers and Contador collided causin the crash....

It is very difficult to see if that gif but there could be two bodies there..

 

[sunnyIce]

Re: Tour de France 2015 Stage 17: Digne-les-Bains-Pra Loup 1

Hey guys...how was the stage today? I missed almost all of it, caught the last half hour. Too bad abt AC. Did he crash? Otherwise, it looked like the usual Tour. NQ and AV pretending with 5 second attacks. Looked dull.

 

[TMP402]

Re: Re:

So... the Giro-Tour double is way too difficult. At least for Contador. IDK if Froome can cope with it though. He hasn't raced the Giro in many years, and while the climbing suits him, the race is always harder to control and more unpredictable. Would be interesting to see him try tackle the Giro.

Has he ever expressed an interest in that kind of thing? It seems to matter for Contador, but for Froome?

Froome initially said he was doing Giro-Vuelta this year because of how anti-him this year's Tour route looked. But he also appears to be doing the Vuelta this year anyway.

 

[veji11]

Re:

I cannot believe how insanely lucky Froome has been since the beginning of the Tour. Absolutely nothing happened to him, that's crazy.

That's how it goes, he had his share of bad luck last year... More amazing is how riders like Indurain or Armstrong managed to be lucky 5 or 6 years in a row : even Coppi, Anquetil, Merckx or Hinault had some GTs where they had bad luck.

 

[Cimber]

Re: Re:

Well that was rubbish. I hate movistar for accepting 2nd and 3rd rather than going for the win.

Froome is the strongest. By a mile. No way they beat him unless they order a domestique to crash into him.
Accept it. Strongest GC rider in the world. By far

Agreed, but you can win if you are bold and smart, even when you are not the strongest. Like Contador did in the Vuelta a few years back. First step for that is to ride for the Victory and not 2nd or 3rd.

Some years back Movistar also ruined the chance to gap Froome when they had him isoleted and after the 1st mountain and with a long flat before the next. Sadly they also rode against Contador that time exactly as today making it super easy for Froome in an otherwise very vulnerble situation.

 

[fungusbear]

Re: Tour de France 2015 Stage 17: Digne-les-Bains-Pra Loup 1

Hey guys...how was the stage today? I missed almost all of it, caught the last half hour. Too bad abt AC. Did he crash? Otherwise, it looked like the usual Tour. NQ and AV pretending with 5 second attacks. Looked dull.

We got excited after an exciting start, and then the race was anulled by Movistar and became the borefest that we are getting accustomed to.

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Re:

I cannot believe how insanely lucky Froome has been since the beginning of the Tour. Absolutely nothing happened to him, that's crazy.

What´s crazy about that? Circa 100 riders went trou unharmed... LA did it for 8 years... Is this your first tour?

 

[damian13ster]

Re: Re:

Well that was rubbish. I hate movistar for accepting 2nd and 3rd rather than going for the win.

Froome is the strongest. By a mile. No way they beat him unless they order a domestique to crash into him.
Accept it. Strongest GC rider in the world. By far

I don't disagree that he is the strongest, he clearly is. But instead of getitng your domestiques to ride hard for most of the mountain, why not attack one after the other. At least give your all instead of two Quintana "attacks", and don't chase down riders who could burn up SKY domestiques early in the stage.

You mean Valverde? I could see Sky allowing him to win a stage by 4 minutes just to mess with Quintana
Seeing what Movistar does at that point would be priceless. Froome covered every single attack from direct competition with ease. He is unbeatable at this point (unless there is a crash)

 

[VayaVayaVaya]

Re: Re:

So... the Giro-Tour double is way too difficult. At least for Contador. IDK if Froome can cope with it though. He hasn't raced the Giro in many years, and while the climbing suits him, the race is always harder to control and more unpredictable. Would be interesting to see him try tackle the Giro.

If he races Vuelta then we will see.

Much less time to rest between Tour and Vuelta + much better competition. This double is way harder. If he gets close to winning then Froome can definetely go for Giro-Tour (not next season though)

No way. Giro-Tour is definitely harder. Giro is harder than the Vuelta, and the competition in the Tour is the hardest. If you don't go into the Tour at 100%, you can't win. Contador beat Froome in the Vuelta last year and is not even in the ballpark at the Tour this year after riding the Giro. If you are the best at the Tour, you can follow wheels of the lesser competitors in the Vuelta. Exception being last year's Vuelta with Contador, Froome, and Quintana.

 

[Cimber]

Re: Re:

So... the Giro-Tour double is way too difficult. At least for Contador. IDK if Froome can cope with it though. He hasn't raced the Giro in many years, and while the climbing suits him, the race is always harder to control and more unpredictable. Would be interesting to see him try tackle the Giro.

Has he ever expressed an interest in that kind of thing? It seems to matter for Contador, but for Froome?

Froome initially said he was doing Giro-Vuelta this year because of how anti-him this year's Tour route looked. But he also appears to be doing the Vuelta this year anyway.

WOuld be nice to see, but Giro-Tour is a harder combo though.

 

[Walkman]

Re:

I cannot believe how insanely lucky Froome has been since the beginning of the Tour. Absolutely nothing happened to him, that's crazy.

He has been "lucky" because of his strength, hence he has made his own luck in many aspects.

 

[bassano]

Re: Re:

If he races Vuelta then we will see.

Much less time to rest between Tour and Vuelta + much better competition. This double is way harder. If he gets close to winning then Froome can definetely go for Giro-Tour (not next season though)

bollocks, because of total different prestige Giro/Tour aganist Tour/Vuelta and as someone said, tour as a 2nd GT is way to harder then Vuelta

 

[Cimber]

Re:

I cannot believe how insanely lucky Froome has been since the beginning of the Tour. Absolutely nothing happened to him, that's crazy.

On the other hand, last year he has so many freak accidents. Thats cycling

 

[TheGreenMonkey]

Quintana has the acceleration to get a small gap and Froome takes a little longer to really get going but when he does he is getting back to Quintana very easily because he can simply maintain a higher speed for longer than Quintana.

 

[TommyGun]

Re: Re:

I cannot believe how insanely lucky Froome has been since the beginning of the Tour. Absolutely nothing happened to him, that's crazy.

What´s crazy about that? Circa 100 riders went trou unharmed... LA did it for 8 years... Is this your first tour?

No, but the course this year seemed way more tricky than the Jean-Marie Leblanc ones in the 90s...

 

[Arredondo]

Great interview!

 

[damian13ster]

Re: Re:

Well that was rubbish. I hate movistar for accepting 2nd and 3rd rather than going for the win.

Froome is the strongest. By a mile. No way they beat him unless they order a domestique to crash into him.
Accept it. Strongest GC rider in the world. By far

Agreed, but you can win if you are bold and smart, even when you are not the strongest. Like Contador did in the Vuelta a few years back. First step for that is to ride for the Victory and not 2nd or 3rd.

Some years back Movistar also ruined the chance to gap Froome when they had him isoleted and after the 1st mountain and with a long flat before the next. Sadly they also rode against Contador that time exactly as today making it super easy for Froome in an otherwise very vulnerble situation.

Trivia question: what was the gap in GC before the Fuente in Vuelta?
What is it now?
Was Rodriguez actually caught out or just not strong enough to chase (it was almost 1 vs 1 battle).
Valverde almost caught up by himself
How much stronger is Froome than Valverde?
Again: what is the gap in GC now?

Nothing can be done in this Tour. The cyclist that is 2 levels above everyone else wins. As simple as that

 

[TMP402]

Somehow Mollema doesn't deserve to be in the top 10 still. Not sure why Roche rode to 7th rather than help Froome - not that it was ultimately necessary.