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

[Forever The Best]

How about, you know, attacking one time in his career? He already finished in the top 10 last year.

Maybe you should watch other races as well, not only the Tour de France. Meintjes attacked at the queen stage of this years Tour of the Basque Country, for instance. Link. I also remember at least one longe range suicide attack from him, at the U23 Worlds.

Looking at Meintjes' results on PCS, it seems that he is always the type of a follower in the last 1-2 years just like I thought (the last time he was attacking before Arrate was PdB 2015), though on the stage to Solaison where he was pretty active (didn't watch the stage (was chilling on the beach), but from what I read he was pretty active). Also the one at Arrate isn't a long-range or sth, he only attacked on the last climb.

 

[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.

Bingo.

https://twitter.com/Procyclingeu/status/885902923502432258

Looks like he was actually Landa´ing everyone as predicted. The pressure on Aru and Bardet is just a bonus.

 

[Benotti69]

Re: Re:

You're way off the mark. The question was, is it understandable that some fans dislike riders who are insanely conservative and add nothing to the race, and only take the initiative to make the race worse as a spectacle?

Of course Meintjes can do whatever he wants within the rules. It's legitimate. It's also dreadful and dull and it won't win over many fans.

Me and my brother legitimately got furious at Meintjens today, in a jokingly way of course. This guy add absolutely NOTHING to the race, zero, zilch, maybe 0,00000005.

Oh god the horror. He pisses me so much off for some reason. Other extremely conservative riders haven't done that, but that guy triggers me.

150+ others guys did not add much to the race today.

 

[Arked]

Y'all just angry because UAE chased Landa. Leave poor Meintjes alone!

By the way I don't think Landa can win the Tour. I think it's impossible for him to gain enough time before TT. He is exceptional rider, but he is not Landis or Pantani. This not this era guys. Landa is not level or two above everyone else to do whatever he wants in mountains. He will be taken seriously now by other GC contenders with only 1 minute behind Aru. Also remember he has Giro in his legs.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

You're way off the mark. The question was, is it understandable that some fans dislike riders who are insanely conservative and add nothing to the race, and only take the initiative to make the race worse as a spectacle?

Of course Meintjes can do whatever he wants within the rules. It's legitimate. It's also dreadful and dull and it won't win over many fans.

Me and my brother legitimately got furious at Meintjens today, in a jokingly way of course. This guy add absolutely NOTHING to the race, zero, zilch, maybe 0,00000005.

Oh god the horror. He pisses me so much off for some reason. Other extremely conservative riders haven't done that, but that guy triggers me.

150+ others guys did not add much to the race today.

Thats a pretty bad argument, dont you think?

 

[cycladianpirate]

Hated the way Aru rode today. Does he really believe that by following Froome's wheel up to Stage 20 he's going to win this tour? I'm starting to believe the conspiracy theories that Froome intentionally gave up yellow to win this Tour the easy way - with a two minute win on the ITT.

 

[DanielSong39]

Re:

Hated the way Aru rode today. Does he really believe that by following Froome's wheel up to Stage 20 he's going to win this tour? I'm starting to believe the conspiracy theories that Froome intentionally gave up yellow to win this Tour the easy way - with a two minute win on the ITT.

Aru wasn't going to gain time on Froome today. He'll attack when he's feeling very strong. Today was not that day.

Based on race commentary it seems like Froome did more work than Aru so a ST performance with your rival doing more work was about as good as he was going to do.

 

[Irondan]

Re:

Hated the way Aru rode today. Does he really believe that by following Froome's wheel up to Stage 20 he's going to win this tour? I'm starting to believe the conspiracy theories that Froome intentionally gave up yellow to win this Tour the easy way - with a two minute win on the ITT.

Obviously Froome has posted some great ITT times in the past editions of the Tour and other races, but he looks a bit more vulnerable than he ever has too, which makes me believe he'll have a hard time putting over a minute into the other contenders, although that might just be all he needs....

 

[DNP-Old]

This was just a test for Contador to unleash hell tomorrow.

 

[cycladianpirate]

Re: Re:

Hated the way Aru rode today. Does he really believe that by following Froome's wheel up to Stage 20 he's going to win this tour? I'm starting to believe the conspiracy theories that Froome intentionally gave up yellow to win this Tour the easy way - with a two minute win on the ITT.

Obviously Froome has posted some great ITT times in the past editions of the Tour and other races, but he looks a bit more vulnerable than he ever has too, which makes me believe he'll have a hard time putting over a minute into the other contenders, although that might just be all he needs....

I take your point, but it seems to me that there is so little urgency in the way Froome is riding that he's holding something back. I would speculate that, from day one, the penultimate stage TT has always been on his mind. I could, of course, be wrong, but I am expecting him to absolutely nail it.

 

[hrotha]

Re: Re:

150+ others guys did not add much to the race today.

Emphasis on "today".

 

[Durden93]

Few points for today: What's the consensus on Barguil? Target Giro/Vuelta GC, or stage hunt/KOM?

Contador showed real strength today, would've liked to have seen him try to go away on the final climb

Landa can win a GT if he focuses on it, even if he remains with Sky.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Re:

Few points for today: What's the consensus on Barguil? Target Giro/Vuelta GC, or stage hunt/KOM?

Contador showed real strength today, would've liked to have seen him try to go away on the final climb

Landa can win a GT if he focuses on it, even if he remains with Sky.

It's refreshing to see a rider like Barguil target stages and KOM. However, he'll probably be back to targeting GC next year. I hope that he forgets about the Tour GC though and just keeps on focusing on stages and KOM and targets the Vuelta GC instead. Then he can focus on classics in the spring.

 

[SeriousSam]

Re: Re:

150+ others guys did not add much to the race today.

Emphasis on "today".

Not sure that's necessary. The vast majority of riders never contributes anything of note to any race

 

[May0maniac]

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.

I'm no sure that It was just that, there are rumours about Aru signing with them next year and maybe Martinelli asked Saronni to help a fellow Italian who wears yellow, of course they also protected his 10th place on gc.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Thats what I made of it as well, I strongly believe the RAI commentators said that also. I don't blame them for that, I just think Meintjens is racing so boring to the extreme...

 

[fauniera]

Speaking of UAE, whats up with Atapuma? He has a very bad year and is nowhere in this Tour.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Anybody got Giro 2015 vibes from today? Still the race I overall has enjoyed the most watching cycling.

 

[Leinster]

Re: Re:

Given how Aru rode today (marking Froome all stage long) the obvious tactic for Sky now is to send Landa off the front again and leave the others to chase. Will they do this or just keep tempoing it out knowing that Froome will out TT them in the penultimate stage. There are a lot of variables now that the GC is so tight.

It depends if they are prepared for Landa to win the race I guess, because if he is given much rope on the Izoard or Galibier then he could well do so. Or maybe Landa will just do his own thing anyway - if you have perhaps your only ever chance to win the Tour and are probably leaving the team anyway; who cares about team orders?

He's also had this once before. Would he be prepared to swallow throwing away his own chances again? Didn't lead to much, did it?

Exactly, I think Sky have a decision to make. Either give him a free role as co-leader now in a semi-controlled way, or insist he works for Froome and risk him going for the win anyway, in a potentially destructive way.

He looks the strongest rider in the race right now and if he does his usual third week peak then he looks at least as good a bet as Froome to challenge Aru.

I'd prefer Landa to win the Tour then Froome, but come on, the guy is a minute behind him, and you can double, maybe even triple that margin with the 20 km ITT. Landa might take at least a minute out of Froome on each of the final two major mountain stages, but Sky would be CRAZY to bet on that. Plus he also has to be taking significant time out of Aru in the process.

And of Bardet. And of Uran.

Given that Mikel did the Giro, it's also more difficult to guarantee a third week peak like the 2015 Giro imo. So I don't think that even Mikel himself would be expecting the title of "co-leader" right now. But he should be a semi-protected helper. As he has been all the way through so far anyway.

Sky's tactics from now on would seem to be pretty straightforward. Landa gets free reign to attack wherever, and whenever he chooses, with whomever as long as his co-escapees are behind both him and Froome on GC. It is then up to Aru, Uran, Bardet, Martin etc to chase Landa. Froome can follow wheels, and Kwiatkowski, Nieve et al can make sure he is well fed, watered, and sheltered from the breeze.

If nobody chases Landa, Landa gains 2-3 minutes over the Galibier and Izoard, and Sky win the Tour. If everybody chases Landa, Froome sits in their wheels remaining 6s behind Aru on GC, puts a minute-plus into everyone in the Marseille TT, and Sky win the Tour.

If Aru still had Fuglsang to help, this would be a race, but unless the non-Sky teams in the top 5 come to some arrangement, Team Brailsford has this locked up.

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Re: Re:

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.

I'm no sure that It was just that, there are rumours about Aru signing with them next year and maybe Martinelli asked Saronni to help a fellow Italian who wears yellow, of course they also protected his 10th place on gc.

Yes, no doubt it would be dressed up as "protecting 10th" but more realistically Astana hired some help, and it may not be the last time in this race

 

[deValtos]

Bardet still has a strong team (like seriously when did Ben Gastauer start climbing at an elite level?) and so I think if Landa attacks his team will respond immediately this time.

I don't think Ag2R want a situation with Landa up the road and Froome sitting in wheels.

Nor does Aru ofc but he can't do jack about it with his team ...

 

[DanielSong39]

Expect more alliances to form in the coming stages. Races are often won through deals...

 

[lenric]

Re: Re:

Epic stage.

Another piece of evidence pointing towards short well designed stages being good for entertainment

If they have a long, kind of hard stage before, yes.

 

[May0maniac]

Re: Re:

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.

I'm no sure that It was just that, there are rumours about Aru signing with them next year and maybe Martinelli asked Saronni to help a fellow Italian who wears yellow, of course they also protected his 10th place on gc.

Yes, no doubt it would be dressed up as "protecting 10th" but more realistically Astana hired some help, and it may not be the last time in this race

Nibali will probably also get a call, they'll probably ask him to convince his team to help Aru against Sky.

 

[Leinster]

Re: Re:

Epic stage.

Another piece of evidence pointing towards short well designed stages being good for entertainment

If they have a long, kind of hard stage before, yes.

Yup. It's not just a case of having 2-3 hour 100-120km stages every single day. The 6 hour 230km marathon stages that wear riders down also play their part. If short stages were a guarantee of entertainment, the Tour of California would be a laugh a minute.