Tour de France 2017. stage 1: Düsseldorf, 14 km itt

[arvc40]

Froome with the much bigger balls today. He now has the benefit of those big balls.

 

[bigcog]

Re: Re:

It wasn't even that Froome was that good. He was on his level, not anything special.

The rest was just really bad.
I mean cmon, Gesink was faster than Porte, Quintana and Contador... they simply did very very poorly

Valverde's crash probably affected Porte's ride considering they had to move him off the course, and probably spooked the others. Froome was confident enough and had obviously done his homework. It wasn't a devastating ride, but solid when compared to the rest.

The thing is though I don't think you tell the riders until after they finished that Valverde crashed no?

Especially for Quintana I reckon it's best you keep him in the dark until after he's completed his run.

Porte would've seen it because it would've affected his line. I'm pretty sure the DS of Aru and Contador (who are prone to taking risks and crashing) would have told them to take it easy on corners.

Porte followed Roche in a car and saw him come down and said it put him on edge a bit, hence he took no risks at all.

 

[Nacho]

Re:

GC guys (those who said so)

Froome
Yates +25"
Porte +35"
Quintana +36"
Majka +37"
Talansky +37"
D. Martin +37"
Bardet +39"
Aru +40"
Contador +42"
Fuglsang +42"
Meintjes +01'00"
Chaves +01'01"

Wow! Does that mean Froome is going to have to attack his teammate on stage 5? Thomas will probably still be in the lead. Some of those other GC contenders you mentioned will be attacking. Such a dilemma.

 

[bigcog]

Re:

Worst possible start.

Sky dominating like that is bad for the sport. Cut their budget.

But it's ok for Movistar and Astana to do that in races

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Surprisingly good TT from Dan Martin.

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

Froome with the much bigger balls today. He now has the benefit of those big balls.

Plus the fact that he generally is the best TT rider of the GC bunch.

 

[deValtos]

Quintana looked promising, I think he's going to have the legs.

He just won't have the team ...

 

[Baldinger]

Re: Re:

Worst possible start.

Sky dominating like that is bad for the sport. Cut their budget.

But it's ok for Movistar and Astana to do that in races

No?

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

Worst possible start.

Sky dominating like that is bad for the sport. Cut their budget.

But it's ok for Movistar and Astana to do that in races

Only crazed fans of particular riders like to see any team strong enough to strangle big races.

 

[lbennie]

Porte seemed very chilled. Said no risks at all. I guess he has a lot of faith in his mountain legs.

 

[IndianCyclist]

2018 TDF TT heavy route Dumoulin vs Froome is what i want to see

 

[bigcog]

Re: Re:

Worst possible start.

Sky dominating like that is bad for the sport. Cut their budget.

But it's ok for Movistar and Astana to do that in races

Only crazed fans of particular riders like to see any team strong enough to strangle big races.

So I am crazed fan ? Thanks very much :lol: It's just the first stage lets see what happens before declaring it a bore fest..

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

2018 TDF TT heavy route Dumoulin vs Froome is what i want to see

Considering Sky will have about 5 climbers who can drop Dumoulin, I don't think anybody would want to see that.

 

[Jelantik]

Re:

2018 TDF TT heavy route Dumoulin vs Froome is what i want to see

why wait that long? Vuelta this year - Dumo Giro champ vs Froome Tour champ

 

[sir fly]

Not sure about this opening stage.
More than half a minute is a lot.

 

[Brullnux]

Re: Re:

GC guys (those who said so)

Froome
Yates +25"
Porte +35"
Quintana +36"
Majka +37"
Talansky +37"
D. Martin +37"
Bardet +39"
Aru +40"
Contador +42"
Fuglsang +42"
Meintjes +01'00"
Chaves +01'01"

Wow! Does that mean Froome is going to have to attack his teammate on stage 5? Thomas will probably still be in the lead. Some of those other GC contenders you mentioned will be attacking. Such a dilemma.

Yes, Froome will have to attack Thomas on Stage 5, but I don't think it is a dilemma at all for him.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

I haven't been here for a couple of years. Very good ride by Froome - significant differences between him and other GC contenders on such a short course suggest that Alien's wattage is back to high level. Disappointing performances from Porte and Contador - maybe they didn't risk but still time loss to Froome is large (Richie won TT a few weeks ago after all). Solid ride by Quintana but a bad day for him anyway (for obvious reasons). What's more Froome's teammates were strong as hell. Advantage Froome after the 1st stage. This Tour looked to be wide open but it could be the same as always (hopefully Contador will do some damage though).

 

[SeriousSam]

Multiple Skybots in the top 10 of a time trial, Froome already 30 seconds ahead of his rivals. We might be in for an utterly boring control fest.

 

[JosephK]

Race for all non-Sky GC contenders is for the 3rd podium spot behind Froome and G. Thomas. LOL. Froome to win this TDF by 5+ minutes.

 

[dirkprovin]

Re: Re:

It wasn't even that Froome was that good. He was on his level, not anything special.

The rest was just really bad.
I mean cmon, Gesink was faster than Porte, Quintana and Contador... they simply did very very poorly

Valverde's crash probably affected Porte's ride considering they had to move him off the course, and probably spooked the others. Froome was confident enough and had obviously done his homework. It wasn't a devastating ride, but solid when compared to the rest.

The thing is though I don't think you tell the riders until after they finished that Valverde crashed no?

Especially for Quintana I reckon it's best you keep him in the dark until after he's completed his run.

Porte would've seen it because it would've affected his line. I'm pretty sure the DS of Aru and Contador (who are prone to taking risks and crashing) would have told them to take it easy on corners.

Lovely story my friend but much as I admire your stirring defence of Porte; it all falls apart due to one uncomfortable fact ... their relative start times. I hereby submit the start times as evidence
172 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing Team 18:06:00
173 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo 18:07:00
174 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 18:08:00

Porte started 2min ahead of Valverde so unless he managed to doctor the timing system or stop off for a cup of coffee along the way; it is not possible that he would've seen Valverde's accident let alone be held up by it. His DS in the car MAY have chosen to tell him had there been a TV screen in the car but neither can we assume that.

Porte stated that he chose to ride cautiously and he was far from an orphan in that regard. This was however a stage where he was at a relative advantage to the bulk of his GC rivals (other than Froome) due to his (supposed) ITT superiority but instead he finds himself conceding 35sec to Froome and back in the ruck with the others.

 

[HelloDolly]

Lots and lots of crashes and the tram tracks not covered according to ITV4....

 

[Robert5091]

Now the GC guys have to get a couple of minutes on Sky before the ITT at then end of the Tour - maybe not LRP but he's still 35 seconds back. It's the Giro all over again!

 

[Nacho]

Re: Re:

GC guys (those who said so)

Froome
Yates +25"
Porte +35"
Quintana +36"
Majka +37"
Talansky +37"
D. Martin +37"
Bardet +39"
Aru +40"
Contador +42"
Fuglsang +42"
Meintjes +01'00"
Chaves +01'01"

Wow! Does that mean Froome is going to have to attack his teammate on stage 5? Thomas will probably still be in the lead. Some of those other GC contenders you mentioned will be attacking. Such a dilemma.

Yes, Froome will have to attack Thomas on Stage 5, but I don't think it is a dilemma at all for him.

I see. Glad to see it will be OK for them. Thanks.

 

[arvc40]

Re:

Multiple Skybots in the top 10 of a time trial, Froome already 30 seconds ahead of his rivals. We might be in for an utterly boring control fest.

This is possible !

 

[Pharazon]

Re:

Now the GC guys have to get a couple of minutes on Sky before the ITT at then end of the Tour - maybe not LRP but he's still 40 seconds back. It's the Giro all over again!

it'll be a lot more difficult to get time back on Froome with his team than it was with TommyD with his lack of one...

as long as Froome doesn';t need an emergency dump that is...