Tour de France 2015 stage 20: Modane - Alpe d'Huez

[wwabbit]

Re:

Movistar could have scored a massive own goal with expelling of needless energy, on the attack. Valverde was struggling to hold on to Quintana.

Or they could have won a lot of time if they had reached the top with 20 seconds over Froome. But that means doing all of the descent and flat between the two of them at a pace

 

[Irondan]

Re:

**** l' alpe d huez, mountain stages should be designed without flat sections in between.. flat section kills the race. We had the greatest stage in our hands but obvioulsy quintana valverde cant bury themself for 30km in the flat. Nibali for example yesterday stayed 60km on his own because it was up and down until the end. no more flat sections please

How would you propose they get from one climb to the other? Are all the climbs in France linked by other climbs?

 

[Lyon]

Re:

Anybody saw Froome pedalling while sitting on the frame?! Never seen it before.

Marginal gain. No saddles downhill.

 

[Taxus4a]

Re:

Froome a beast on descends!

He remeber me Inudrian when catch Rominger in the descent... that day was 1 minute, today just 4 seconds, but froome catched alone.

 

[46&twoWheels]

Re:

**** l' alpe d huez, mountain stages should be designed without flat sections in between.. flat section kills the race. We had the greatest stage in our hands but obvioulsy quintana valverde cant bury themself for 30km in the flat. Nibali for example yesterday stayed 60km on his own because it was up and down until the end. no more flat sections please

without flat sections stages would last 30-40km

Variety allows to take a breath
Unless you wanna "kill" all the riders in a couple of stages

 

[Big Doopie]

nibali had an awesome rest day.

 

[53x11 in DC]

Re: Re:

Frenchmen going crazy on Alpe d’huez now Froome is in front of Bardet for polka

Movistar gave polka dots to froome, apparently

I feel bad for Bardet. Ag2r did everything they could to quell a GC battle on the CdF (which was really their only hope), but could only control it until 5 to go.

 

[franic]

Re: Re:

Big 4 =/= top 4 in GC

Exactly and neither is it the "4 best climbers in the race"

Contador’s fanboys deluded by their rider. It’s funny to remember their confidence in Utrecht.

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean?

I remember having a huge discussion at the start of the Tour with Contador’s fanboys: I was saying he was going to be the last of the the big 4, and I was mocked by everybody.
Anyway, let’s focus on the stage and don’t waste time with my borderline trolling

 

[slim charles]

Re: Re:

Big 4 =/= top 4 in GC

Exactly and neither is it the "4 best climbers in the race"

Contador’s fanboys deluded by their rider. It’s funny to remember their confidence in Utrecht.

After a while it just seems childish to call every fan a 'fanboy'.
Besides, Contador is absolutely one of the big 4. Not sure if any of other ones would be able to have much better result after winning Giro a month and a half ago. Froome maybe, none of the others.

 

[Lyon]

Re: Re:

Froome a beast on descends!

He remeber me Inudrian when catch Rominger in the descent... that day was 1 minute, today just 4 seconds, but froome catched alone.

Same thing...

 

[Sky'sthelimit]

Re: Re:

Movistar could have scored a massive own goal with expelling of needless energy, on the attack. Valverde was struggling to hold on to Quintana.

Or they could have won a lot of time if they had reached the top with 20 seconds over Froome. But that means doing all of the descent and flat between the two of them at a pace

True, for sky it's a huge relief that attack did not stick.

 

[Ramira]

Re: Re:

Makes me wonder why froome didnt just let quintana and valverde get a minute or so over the top of the climb and save his energy. Was always gonna get back to them on the descent and the flat before alp duez. How could quin and valv possibly stay away?

It would be extremely risky. If froome would have been isolated on this part valverde and quintana could have worked together and suddenly NQ would only have to get about 1 minute on the Alp and thats absolutely possible. Moreover piti is a very good descender.

Pretty much this. It wasn't a technical descent, so neither would have taken time on the other. So whatever the gap was at the top would be pretty much the gap at the valley. And then it would be 2 against 1, unless he was willing to let Porte come back, at which point he might have been 2 minutes behind, so any weakness would be enough to lose the tour.

This way all he has to do is be on a comparable level to Quintana up Alpe D'huez, he doesn't even need to be that close.

 

[franic]

Re:

nibali had an awesome rest day.

clinic material

 

[Irondan]

Re: Re:

Big 4 =/= top 4 in GC

Exactly and neither is it the "4 best climbers in the race"

Contador’s fanboys deluded by their rider. It’s funny to remember their confidence in Utrecht.

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean?

I remember having a huge discussion at the start of the Tour with Contador’s fanboys: I was saying he was going to be the last of the the big 4, and I was mocked by everybody.
Anyway, let’s focus on the stage and don’t waste time with my borderline trolling

Great, Thank you!

 

[Sasquatch]

Looks like Froome is going to get the Polka Dot jersey. No idea why Bardet and Rodriguez didn't join the break. Are they dumb waiting for the final climb? If one wanted to win they needed to get 25 points on that climb.

 

[TMP402]

Re:

Anybody saw Froome pedalling while sitting on the frame?! Never seen it before.

Nor I.

 

[luckyboy]

Re:

Before the Tour, the best four was Nibali, Froome, Contador and Quintana. Now the best four are Nibali, Froome, Quintana and Valverde, so they could just as easily be labelled as the "Big 4" as Nibali, Froome, Contador and Quintana could.

That said, the term "Big 4" makes no sense as one rider is a level above the rest.

Top form Valverde loses to top form Contador, Froome, Quintana, Nibali every time. One Grand Tour with a tired Contador and whatever is going on with Nibali does not change that they are all better GT riders than Piti.

 

[BigMac]

Re: Re:

**** l' alpe d huez, mountain stages should be designed without flat sections in between.. flat section kills the race. We had the greatest stage in our hands but obvioulsy quintana valverde cant bury themself for 30km in the flat. Nibali for example yesterday stayed 60km on his own because it was up and down until the end. no more flat sections please

How would you propose they get from one climb to the other? Are all the climbs in France linked by other climbs?

Not to mention this wasn't the original design. It had riders coming down from the Galibier / Lautaret before the Alpe, which had no flat inbetween. Even though that wasn't perfect, can't really blame them.

 

[willbick]

Re: Re:

Makes me wonder why froome didnt just let quintana and valverde get a minute or so over the top of the climb and save his energy. Was always gonna get back to them on the descent and the flat before alp duez. How could quin and valv possibly stay away?

It would be extremely risky. If froome would have been isolated on this part valverde and quintana could have worked together and suddenly NQ would only have to get about 1 minute on the Alp and thats absolutely possible. Moreover piti is a very good descender.

With all that long descent and flat run before duez there was no way the 2 movistar could ever stay away. I think these guys tend to panic and not use their heads, the sky DS shudda been telling porte and froome to just ride up tempo, wudda saved a lot of energy

 

[franic]

Re: Re:

Anybody saw Froome pedalling while sitting on the frame?! Never seen it before.

Nor I.

I think I’ve seen Kwiato at WC doing something like that

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re:

**** l' alpe d huez, mountain stages should be designed without flat sections in between.. flat section kills the race. We had the greatest stage in our hands but obvioulsy quintana valverde cant bury themself for 30km in the flat. Nibali for example yesterday stayed 60km on his own because it was up and down until the end. no more flat sections please

what about the 80 riders in the Grupetto? Whilst having mountain after mountain could be great if you do that for 7 or 8 stages per Tour (and 4 in a row like this year) your going to have a lot of riders fail to finish.

 

[TMP402]

Re: Re:

Anybody saw Froome pedalling while sitting on the frame?! Never seen it before.

Nor I.

I think I’ve seen Kwiato at WC doing something like that

Yeah I agree (and Sagan too I'm sure), just not seen Froome doing it before.

 

[MatParker117]

Froome should become the first rider since The Cannibal to win yellow and polka.

 

[BigMac]

Re: Re:

Anybody saw Froome pedalling while sitting on the frame?! Never seen it before.

Nor I.

Yea, another bizarre moment sponsored by Froome. Oh well, if it's efficient, who cares.

 

[whittashau]

Re:

nibali had an awesome rest day.

Maybe he recovered from his crash. Remember, he didn't lose much time (stage 2 aside) before it. In fact, he looked strong in the ITT, and on the cobble stage. People are very forgetful around here, and use this forgetfulness to suit their narrative