Tour de France 2017 Stage 13: Saint-Girons > Foix 101 km

[The_Beach]

Great stage. But; I understand teams like LottoNL and UAE riding to protect a top ten on GC, but the stage would have been much more interessing have Aru done all the pulling himself from 50 k's out.

 

[Tigerion]

Re: Re:

Louis Meintjes.

The sport you do professionally is better off without you.

What did he do?

He used his teammates to help him finish as high as he can in GC.

Oh if it was one of those making the stage boring in order to save a 10th place on gc then im all with the haters and hope he cracks soon

His teammates were chasing the attackers and the on the final part he was leading the maillot jaune group. So yeah, he rode to save a 10th place on GC.

In his defense at the final he was chasing Yates to try and stay in contact for white jersey

 

[No_Balls]

Re: Re:

Landa - ignoring captains since 2015

??? Seems clearly to be the Sky plan...

The plan was to chase Landa? No way José. Me thinks Landa was doing Landa and riding for himself which clearly pissed Froome who chased his own teammate. This might piss Landa off doing something animalistic further down.

If it was a plan it was the worst i've ever seen.

As much as I'd like to believe Landa was Landa'ing it up for the lulz... I don't think Froome was chasing him. Froome was trying to drop his rivals and go up the road with Kwiatkowski, at a time when it was obvious that Landa wasn't going to get in yellow anyway. The objective of getting Landa back in the GC race to put extra pressure on Aru and Bardet was already going to be achieved no matter what.

Having thought about it Froome chased Martin even if it was obvious that the first group would keep clear. So yeah.

 

[hrotha]

Re: Re:

As much as I'd like to believe Landa was Landa'ing it up for the lulz... I don't think Froome was chasing him. Froome was trying to drop his rivals and go up the road with Kwiatkowski, at a time when it was obvious that Landa wasn't going to get in yellow anyway. The objective of getting Landa back in the GC race to put extra pressure on Aru and Bardet was already going to be achieved no matter what.

Plus the scope of the stage really changed for Sky when Quintana caught Landa and Contador. Allowing Landa to gain extra time no longer came without drawbacks after that.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

Would Dan Martin be in yellow if not for the crash?

No

Depends on how many seconds you give him for being able to ride uninjured (including being a strong contender for two stage victories, yesterday and the day Porte took him out). He's still carrying a back problem from the crash.

 

[Escarabajo]

I think Sky is playing with fire. Today worked fine but having Landa so close up front can come back to haunt them.

Unless they believe to have control over Landa.

 

[Forever The Best]

Re: Re:

What did he do?

He used his teammates to help him finish as high as he can in GC.

Oh if it was one of those making the stage boring in order to save a 10th place on gc then im all with the haters and hope he cracks soon

His teammates were chasing the attackers and the on the final part he was leading the maillot jaune group. So yeah, he rode to save a 10th place on GC.

In his defense at the final he was chasing Yates to try and stay in contact for white jersey

He could have tried to go with him. Or go with Martin to attack him.

 

[fauniera]

And for the gc this turned out very irrelevant. I'd say that although I think sky didn't ride a very clever race, froome was one of the big winners of the stage

Irrelevant? There are now 8 riders inside 2:07.

Meintjes is one of my least favourite cyclists. I hope he loses 15 minutes on Galibier.

Louis tends to get better in the third week. Don't get the hate.

 

[Brullnux]

I see the 'stage win' attempt went really well for Lotto and Bennett. Only four minutes or so out

 

[hrotha]

Louis tends to get better in the third week. Don't get the hate.

You don't need to hate Meintjes yourself but surely it's super easy to understand why people dislike him.

 

[Escarabajo]

Surely a great stage but kinda useless at the end. The winner is great for france but kinda the most unspectacular option with these four riders. And for the gc this turned out very irrelevant. I'd say that although I think sky didn't ride a very clever race, froome was one of the big winners of the stage

I guess you ended up turning the TV on on the last 26 kms!

:lol: :lol:

 

[Brullnux]

Re: Re:

Would Dan Martin be in yellow if not for the crash?

No

Depends on how many seconds you give him for being able to ride uninjured (including being a strong contender for two stage victories, yesterday and the day Porte took him out). He's still carrying a back problem from the crash.

Similar. Today he wouldn't taken back 10 seconds if he hadn't crashed. Add another 10 for a stage win somewhere and he's still behind Froome.

 

[Jelantik]

I thought Aru did a smart ride. A lot of gamble. He didn't even ride upfront for more than1 minutes probably here and there.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

Would Dan Martin be in yellow if not for the crash?

No, not even if he had won stage 9. He lost 1:15 due to the crash and is 1:32 behind on GC

Without his back issue from the crash though he probably gains seconds and possibly a stage win yesterday too, rather than losing seconds. Not that it matters now.

 

[Ruby United]

Re: Re:

Louis Meintjes.

The sport you do professionally is better off without you.

What did he do?

He used his teammates to help him finish as high as he can in GC.

Oh if it was one of those making the stage boring in order to save a 10th place on gc then im all with the haters and hope he cracks soon

You hit the nail on the head.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

This has to be one of the weirdest stages I've seen. Great entertaining though. But god Meintjes is the most boring rider in history.

 

[Mt Diablo]

¡Vamos Landa!

 

[red_flanders]

Re: Re:

Landa - ignoring captains since 2015

??? Seems clearly to be the Sky plan...

The plan was to chase Landa? No way José. Me thinks Landa was doing Landa and riding for himself which clearly pissed Froome who chased his own teammate. This might piss Landa off doing something animalistic further down.

If it was a plan it was the worst i've ever seen.

As much as I'd like to believe Landa was Landa'ing it up for the lulz... I don't think Froome was chasing him. Froome was trying to drop his rivals and go up the road with Kwiatkowski, at a time when it was obvious that Landa wasn't going to get in yellow anyway. The objective of getting Landa back in the GC race to put extra pressure on Aru and Bardet was already going to be achieved no matter what.

Bingo.

 

[Brullnux]

It might have been better for Aru had Landa taken yellow. That would've really *** up sky and he wouldn't have had to control the race anymore.

Anyway, Bardet, I am looking at you to attack on Sunday which you said was a plan. Let's do this

 

[ontheroad]

Landa is a maverick, if they unleash him up the road again I can't imagine that Froome will be a happy camper. The dynamic between those 2 will be interesting to watch. Who will the team favour, Froome or landa?

 

[France_En_Marche]

Is Quintana the biggest threat to Landa now?

 

[Alexandre B.]

The first four are pretty even on the climbs.

 

[RattaKuningas]

Re:

It might have been better for Aru had Landa taken yellow. That would've really **** up sky and he wouldn't have had to control the race anymore.

Anyway, Bardet, I am looking at you to attack on Sunday which you said was a plan. Let's do this

Nothing Aru could do. Everyone was fighting to be in the front and pull for him

 

[Bolder]

Quintana the big winner today, podium is within reach again. People might trash this stage design in the post mortem but here we are with top 7 separated by 2 minutes with 2, maybe 3 (Etape 15?) stages on consequence plus an ITT.

I'm not sure what Sky will say about Landa, but I don't believe he was riding for Froome, who used exactly as much energy as he needed to and not a drop more. Say what you will about him but it was a great ride.

 

[Arked]

Re:

Landa is a maverick, if they unleash him up the road again I can't imagine that Froome will be a happy camper. The dynamic between those 2 will be interesting to watch. Who will the team favour, Froome or landa?

With the remaining 20k TT of course Froome. Landa is just a card to play in Froomes favour.