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

[Valv.Piti]

Thats some extremely small time differences...

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

I kinda expected you to say something of Pantano

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re:

Kittel ftw!

I'm expecting a top 10 from Kittel too tomorrow

 

[mode747]

I took Van Emden off my team. Rooting for Roglic now.

 

[gregrowlerson]

Re: Re:

Alberto Contador will win this bike race.

Bertie's Tour record post-positive: 5th, 4th, DNF, 5th, DNF. Contador fans in July are a lot like Liverpool fans in August: "this will be our year". No it won't.

I'm obviously referring to the ITT. And it's June.

Red Rick, you are on fire!!

 

[gregrowlerson]

Hoping for strong rides from Contador and Porte today. In fact if he is not too cautious on the wet roads, Richie has an outside chance at winning this stage.

Otherwise it would be great to see Tony Martin in yellow at days end.

 

[movingtarget]

Would have said Dennis but he isn't starting so the Panzer will probably take it. Roglic should do well. Contador, Froome and Porte should be the best of the GC riders.

 

[Jungle Cycle]

Among the GCs I guess Thomas, Valverde. Latour, Mollema, Jakob, they all might be in front of their leaders and at the end of the day will be in position to offer tactical options...

 

[Son of Amsterhammer]

Re:

Hoping for strong rides from Contador and Porte today. In fact if he is not too cautious on the wet roads, Richie has an outside chance at winning this stage.

Otherwise it would be great to see Tony Martin in yellow at days end.

If it's wet I don't think he'll risk anything. Which is a shame as I agree, he'd have had a shot at the win given his current form.

 

[SHAD0W93]

Contador to put time in all his rivals.

 

[The Hegelian]

Re:

Dennis has to be favourite, no?

Oh lol realise he isn't on the startlist. Why not? Isn't he more useful than Moinard or Schar? He was looking great in Suisse.

I would have thought he'd be a good insurance policy for BMC. Anything can and probably will happen in a GT - including Porte crashing out early. Dennis would definitely be fave for the prologue - from a teams point of view, winning a tt (and maybe 2) and holding yellow for a day or two - that's more than a lot of teams get for the whole race.

+ would be decent support in the mountains.

But I suppose it demonstrates a real confidence in Porte to go the whole hog. i.e. that they're willing to sacrifice some Dennis success for the chance to win the damn race.

 

[dirkprovin]

Re: Re:

Dennis has to be favourite, no?

Oh lol realise he isn't on the startlist. Why not? Isn't he more useful than Moinard or Schar? He was looking great in Suisse.

I would have thought he'd be a good insurance policy for BMC. Anything can and probably will happen in a GT - including Porte crashing out early. Dennis would definitely be fave for the prologue - from a teams point of view, winning a tt (and maybe 2) and holding yellow for a day or two - that's more than a lot of teams get for the whole race.

+ would be decent support in the mountains.

But I suppose it demonstrates a real confidence in Porte to go the whole hog. i.e. that they're willing to sacrifice some Dennis success for the chance to win the damn race.

Kung isn't a bad option B for this time trial ?

Dennis, for all his talk of becoming a GC man, has yet to show ANY real aptitude when the hills start turning into mountains. Of the 6 GTs he has started, he has only ever finished 2 and only once inside the top 100. At this point of his career, he IS an outstanding ITTer (probably in top 3 in the world) with the capacity to win certain 1 week stage races. With regards to his GC utility as a helper, whilst he could be useful on the flat he'd be much less likely to be around when the road tilts seriously upwards

 

[tobydawq]

What is the matter with all these Contador delusions? Absolutely nothing suggests he will beat Valverde or Porte today...

 

[gregrowlerson]

Re:

What is the matter with all these Contador delusions? Absolutely nothing suggests he will beat Valverde or Porte today...

You are going off form.

We are going off FORM.

Obviously you haven't seen the photos

 

[Katabatic]

I like Roglic or van Emden for this one. It might be a bit too short for Martin.

Froome and Porte to take an early lead in the GC.

 

[Squire]

It's gonna be with Martin as it was with Dumoulin in the Giro. It's the big goal. There's no way he's not perfectly prepared for this.

 

[Roku]

I go for Roglic. Martin second and Kung third.

Among the favourites: Porte to gain time on Froome, who will also perform better than Contador and Quintana, respectively.

 

[KnightBg]

Hi to all. My first comment here . I like how people belive that Contador have chances to do something this year.... I doubt that he will even be in top 6 in the general standings at the end. For today 95 % victory for Tony. Even if the weather prediction suggest rain , Tony has proven to be a good rider on wet surface, so i don't think that could be a problem.

 

[Kwibus]

I think this TT is too flat for Roglic to win. I had him down as my favourite, but I've been thinking about it a lot for my tour toto and this course is too flat for him.
He won ZLM, but he didn't have any real specialist opposition there. He won 2 TT's this year that were on 'hilly' terrain and the flat one he finished around 5th position.

 

[RattaKuningas]

Eventhough Froome wasn't the strongest in the Dauphine I wouldn't be suprised if he would be the best among GC conteders today.

 

[Netserk]

Contador will add another top-10 to his tally

 

[Bavarianrider]

It's a three horse race between Martin, Roglic and Kittel.
I will never understand why Dennis isn't here though. Would have been a cakewalk for him.

 

[Bavarianrider]

Re:

If we believe the latest PCM 2017, this is the result. So bet on Thomas

1 Geraint Thomas Team Sky 16'26
2 Vasil Kiryienka Team Sky + 1
3 Andrey Amador Movistar Team + 3
4 Chris Froome Team Sky s.t.
5 Stefan Küng BMC Racing Team + 4
6 Jarlinson Pantano Trek - Segafredo + 6
7 Sylvain Chavanel Direct Energie s.t.
8 Peter Sagan Bora - Hansgrohe + 7
9 Primož Roglič Team Lotto NL - Jumbo + 8
10 Richie Porte BMC Racing Team + 9
11 Michał Kwiatkowski Team Sky s.t.
12 Jos Van Emden Team Lotto NL - Jumbo + 10
13 Stephen Cummings Team Dimension Data s.t.
14 Thibaut Pinot FDJ + 11
15 Taylor Phinney Cannondale - Drapac s.t.
16 Jonathan Castroviejo Movistar Team s.t.
17 Dylan Van Baarle Cannondale - Drapac + 12
18 Jesús Herrada Movistar Team s.t.
19 Simon Geschke Team Sunweb s.t.
20 Dmitriy Gruzdev Astana Pro Team s.t.

Wow what a Piece of crap this game must be if it sims time gaps like that. 2017 and they Party like it's 2003? (PCM 2003 had no time gaps in TT , too.)

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Re: Re:

Where I live currently, 17 C is our record high temperature this year. We had one gorgeous day of it.

Wow, that must have been one hell of a year in Shanghai! Or maybe your location isn't updated to reflect your current location yet?

 

[movingtarget]

It's a three horse race between Martin, Roglic and Kittel.
I will never understand why Dennis isn't here though. Would have been a cakewalk for him.

BMC worried about the overall more plus they have GVA for stage hunting.