Tour de France 2017 Stage 11: Eymet > Pau 203.5km

[Oude Geuze]

Re:

Seriously, what the **** was Edvald Boasson Hagen doing at the finish line. He looks straight at Kittel flying by and proceeds to race his fist in the air victoriously.

Trolling or srs? You look at his face, he raises hand to smack his handlebars, but then is reminded that his hand will be the one to hurt, and pulls back, hitting it lightly. You guys are so bored you try to see things that dont exist to increase hype and drama.

 

[Akuryo]

Re: Re:

maybe +Gaviria to add interest next year

Nope, it was already announced that Kittel will be Quicksteps sprinter at next years Tour.

Lefevere said IF he can keep both Kittel will do the Tour and Gaviria the Giro. Right now he has neither under contract or a sponsor for next year ...

 

[Lupi33x]

Re: Re:

maybe +Gaviria to add interest next year

Nope, it was already announced that Kittel will be Quicksteps sprinter at next years Tour.

how long is Gaviria's contract with Quickstep?

 

[Brullnux]

Re: Re:

Fair play to Kittel - his domination is very impressive.

But this route, and the passivity of the other teams... :Neutral:

And the lack of the other real sprinters...

Yeah, imo it's doubtful that Cavendish could really challenge Kittel in this form - let alone Demare or Sagan. But still, the competition without those three is so thin now that Greipel and Kristoff seem to have massively regressed.

We can have no idea if it's Kittel going well because of the crap field. It's almost Vuelta level. Cavendish probably wouldn't have been able to beat him because he has been affected by mono all year, but otherwise he'd have won one at least. Kittel has almost been beaten by EBH.

He was clearly the best sprinter when Cavendish, Sagan and Demare was in the race as well. And he's dominating without a proper leadout, while spending ridiculous time in the wind.

That was only one sprint. It's hard to determine anything from one sprint. Recently Kittel keeps messing up his lead out and positioning which would have given those three a good chance

 

[skippo12]

Re: Re:

Fair play to Kittel - his domination is very impressive.

But this route, and the passivity of the other teams... :Neutral:

And the lack of the other real sprinters...

To be fair, the only other than Cav who could probably compete with him is under contract with the same team at the moment.

Demare was on great form and could compete with Kittel.

Not really...he didn`t beat Kittel in a sprint this Tour but took advantage on a stage were Kittel was stopped by a crash.

 

[Irondan]

Re: Re:

maybe +Gaviria to add interest next year

Nope, it was already announced that Kittel will be Quicksteps sprinter at next years Tour.

Lefevere said IF he can keep both Kittel will do the Tour and Gaviria the Giro. Right now he has neither under contract or a sponsor for next year ...

Correct, I should have mentioned that.

Thanks!

 

[movingtarget]

Greipel just can't compete and Matthews seems to be less of a bunch sprinter these days. Bouhanni can't seem to get close either.

 

[Oude Geuze]

Re:

Groenewegen,

"I'm happy with my 2nd place"

good job kiddo, you'll get there.

He stayed on Kittels wheel the entire time, and still couldn't pass. Kittel is a monster this year, wonder what his 20s W is, must be around 1500

 

[Irondan]

Re: Re:

Fair play to Kittel - his domination is very impressive.

But this route, and the passivity of the other teams... :Neutral:

And the lack of the other real sprinters...

To be fair, the only other than Cav who could probably compete with him is under contract with the same team at the moment.

Demare was on great form and could compete with Kittel.

Not really...he didn`t beat Kittel in a sprint this Tour but took advantage on a stage were Kittel was stopped by a crash.

Obviously I disagree, but we'll never know for sure will we...

 

[Alexandre B.]

Re:

You can be annoyed at the result but at the same time there's no denying that Kittel is far stronger than the others and absolutely deserves it.

Of course he does.

Kristoff and Greipel must feel bad leading good teammates.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Groenewegen,

"I'm happy with my 2nd place"

good job kiddo, you'll get there.

He stayed on Kittels wheel the entire time, and still couldn't pass. Kittel is a monster this year, wonder what his 20s W is, must be around 1500

My guess would be higher than that.

Or I'm just really underestimating the difference between peak power output and 20s power.

 

[MartinGT]

I feel these boring back to back stages are taking some shine off how bloody good Kittel and QS have been this Tour.

 

[Son of Amsterhammer]

Ok. On to the next stage then.

 

[Frankschleck]

Dimension data should have ridden for ebh from the first stage, he would have had a decent chance of taking green then. sprinting better than ever

 

[alter]

Re: Re:

maybe +Gaviria to add interest next year

Nope, it was already announced that Kittel will be Quicksteps sprinter at next years Tour.

Lefevere said IF he can keep both Kittel will do the Tour and Gaviria the Giro. Right now he has neither under contract or a sponsor for next year ...

There will not always be so many flat stages, so he might change his opinion.

 

[DNP-Old]

Re: Re:

maybe +Gaviria to add interest next year

Nope, it was already announced that Kittel will be Quicksteps sprinter at next years Tour.

how long is Gaviria's contract with Quickstep?

He's about to sign an extension.

 

[Leinster]

Re:

I feel these boring back to back stages are taking some shine off how bloody good Kittel and QS have been this Tour.

5 stage wins is incredible, no matter how boring the first 200km of each of them was.

Add that Dan Martin has a 2nd and is 6th on GC (would be in podium position if not for Porte crashing into him, would be leading the combined jersey if it still existed) and it really is shaping up as a good Tour for them. No other team is competing on both fronts right now, but they are and they're killing it.

 

[Tonton]

'missing Demare, aren't we?

Congrats, Beau Marcel!

Cimolai>Bouhanni...

We're missing three other sprinters that could have at least got in Kittel's way...

Can't complain. Borefest and meh stages are dreams for mods When members yawn, they can't bite

What was I on when I gave this route a 8/10?

 

[Breh]

Re: Re:

I feel these boring back to back stages are taking some shine off how bloody good Kittel and QS have been this Tour.

5 stage wins is incredible, no matter how boring the first 200km of each of them was.

Add that Dan Martin has a 2nd and is 6th on GC (would be in podium position if not for Porte crashing into him, would be leading the combined jersey if it still existed) and it really is shaping up as a good Tour for them. No other team is competing on both fronts right now, but they are and they're killing it.

Yes, incredible really. They were basically doing the same in Il Giro. They had a terrific spring aswell.

Take in consideration that Alaphilippe has been out of contention for quite a while and it's kind of unbelievable they are having so much trouble landing a sponsordeal.

 

[GraftPunk]

'missing Demare, aren't we?

Congrats, Beau Marcel!

Cimolai>Bouhanni...

We're missing three other sprinters that could have at least got in Kittel's way...

Can't complain. Borefest and meh stages are dreams for mods When members yawn, they can't bite

What was I on when I gave this route a 8/10?

A heavy dose of optimism maybe? This edition does seem to be bringing out the complaints from all of us. I'm not sure if it's just the route, or the riders we've lost (and the situations surrounding their exit)... maybe both compounding disappointment and boredom?

 

[carton]

Re: Re:

Groenewegen,

"I'm happy with my 2nd place"

good job kiddo, you'll get there.

He stayed on Kittels wheel the entire time, and still couldn't pass. Kittel is a monster this year, wonder what his 20s W is, must be around 1500

My guess would be higher than that.

Or I'm just really underestimating the difference between peak power output and 20s power.

10s power? Still overselling it a bit, but perhaps possible. 20s is 400m at 70kph. They don't really even train for that.

 

[Tonton]

'missing Demare, aren't we?

Congrats, Beau Marcel!

Cimolai>Bouhanni...

We're missing three other sprinters that could have at least got in Kittel's way...

Can't complain. Borefest and meh stages are dreams for mods When members yawn, they can't bite

What was I on when I gave this route a 8/10?

A heavy dose of optimism maybe? This edition does seem to be bringing out the complaints from all of us. I'm not sure if it's just the route, or the riders we've lost (and the situations surrounding their exit)... maybe both compounding disappointment and boredom?

The way I see it, after an exciting Giro, the temperature on the forum went from pumped up to "here we go again, the Tour is gonna s**k as it always does", and besides the Sagan story splashing all over, there was more depressing stories than excitement. take away stage 9, and all we have so far is Valverde crashing, Bertie not the Contador that he was, tired Quintana won't beat Froome, Porte...well...

Actually, the first part of the Giro was boring, so there's hope...underwhelming so far though...

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

I feel these boring back to back stages are taking some shine off how bloody good Kittel and QS have been this Tour.

5 stage wins is incredible, no matter how boring the first 200km of each of them was.

Add that Dan Martin has a 2nd and is 6th on GC (would be in podium position if not for Porte crashing into him, would be leading the combined jersey if it still existed) and it really is shaping up as a good Tour for them. No other team is competing on both fronts right now, but they are and they're killing it.

Yes, incredible really. They were basically doing the same in Il Giro. They had a terrific spring aswell.

Take in consideration that Alaphilippe has been out of contention for quite a while and it's kind of unbelievable they are having so much trouble landing a sponsordeal.

It's all too believable. They are a very high budget team focused on classics and on sprints. They are also based in a small country. That fits the needs of relatively few potential commercial sponsors. There's a reason why very high budget classics teams are a rarity.

 

[Rollthedice]

For the second day in a row I wake up just to see a rider in green passing the line with his arms up.

 

[Escarabajo]

Ii is not that Kittel is that good. Don't get me wrong, he is very good. But the others suck so much and make look Kittel so good. How can they make so many mistakes over and over.