Tour de France 2017 Stage 18: Briançon - Izoard, 179.5kms

[movingtarget]

Re:

Uran, what an utter dissapointment

But a major improvement on what he has been doing.

 

[TomLPC]

Re: Re:

How bad will Valverde feel atm? He could have won this race. Froome is nowhere near his level of the past years.

It's just that the competition is at a low now. I have never seen such poor rivalry since .... i don't know really

Valverde is irrelevant.

Same routine different year

Here's a spoiler for next year, Valverde looks like a beast early season, wins a bunch of stage race stages, flèche wallone etc, hyped up for a grand tour, sprints for some bonuses, collapses in the high mountains, podiums the vuelta

 

[Ikbengodniet]

Re: Re:

How bad will Valverde feel atm? He could have won this race. Froome is nowhere near his level of the past years.

It's just that the competition is at a low now. I have never seen such poor rivalry since .... i don't know really

Froome is at the same level. The rest just got near his level.

Strongly doubt this. Froome hasn't performed alien level for two years now, and there is a reason why. He is onyl a few months younger than Nibali after all.

His numbers are still the same. It's not Froome 2013 but he is the same as last 2 years.

 

[bigcog]

Froome attacked at the wrong point, he should have gone after the small descent was finished and they were climbing again, it would have probably stuck then.

 

[ppanther92]

Re: Re:

How bad will Valverde feel atm? He could have won this race. Froome is nowhere near his level of the past years.

It's just that the competition is at a low now. I have never seen such poor rivalry since .... i don't know really

Valverde is irrelevant.

Same routine different year

Here's a spoiler for next year, Valverde looks like a beast early season, wins a bunch of stage race stages, flèche wallone etc, hyped up for a grand tour, sprints for some bonuses, collapses in the high mountains, podiums the vuelta

Lol, but actually spot on.

 

[Brullnux]

Re: Re:

Absolutely crazy to see kwiat pull off and have to stop. At that intensity nobody is doing anything flashy

There's a chance they play it up for the camera.... just to prove how much they're burying themselves.. If they didn't stop brailsford would probably give out to them for still having energy left.

You could see how dead Kwiat was when he took off his sunglasses and just threw them away, instead of putting them on his helmet or on his person somewhere.

 

[luckyboy]

If you thought this year and last were bad, I bet nobody can wait for the TimeTrial de France 2018 featuring Froome and Dumoulin

 

[Carols]

Re:

How bad will Valverde feel atm? He could have won this race. Froome is nowhere near his level of the past years.

It's just that the competition is at a low now. I have never seen such poor rivalry since .... i don't know really

Bala has always been on my fav list but he would not have won this Tour. There is a reason he only has 1 Vuelta win in all his years of riding GTs. He just isn't at his best in the High mountains. He most likely would have podiumed though.

 

[bigcog]

Re:

If you thought this year and last were bad, I bet nobody can wait for the TimeTrial de France 2018 featuring Froome and Dumoulin

Lolz, nope the ASO will try to design a course like this again, perhaps with more dangerous descents for Bardet

 

[dacooley]

Re:

Weakest I have seen Froome since pre Vuelta transformation. Dead lucky Landa and Kwiat were stronger than him and were able to carry him whilst also weakening everyone else.

for gazillionth time you can help but s**t on froome... for sure both landa and kwiat would've easily won the tour, had they ridden it for themselves. :lol

 

[Alexandre B.]

Re:

How bad will Valverde feel atm? He could have won this race. Froome is nowhere near his level of the past years.

It's just that the competition is at a low now. I have never seen such poor rivalry since .... i don't know really

http://www.climbing-records.com/2017/07/barguil-sets-tremendous-record-on-izoard.html
What a low competition!

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Small time differences, yet easiest Tour for Froome ever.

God that was awful. Thankfully we had Barguil for some awesome climbing skills. Showing the 'contenders' how to do it.

Uran is really the most boring rider of the past 100 years

 

[MovistarRider]

Re: Re:

How bad will Valverde feel atm? He could have won this race. Froome is nowhere near his level of the past years.

It's just that the competition is at a low now. I have never seen such poor rivalry since .... i don't know really

Froome is at the same level. The rest just got near his level.

I doubt that Uran and Bardet are as strong as Quintana in 2015.

That is because Quintana 2015 was stronger than Froome.

Yet who got the Jersey.

Froome got the jersey due to having a better team in stage 2, not because being the better rider. In 2015 Nairo was the best rider, everyone could see that. The GC winner is not always automatically the best rider of that particular GT.

 

[Arredondo]

Re: Re:

How bad will Valverde feel atm? He could have won this race. Froome is nowhere near his level of the past years.

It's just that the competition is at a low now. I have never seen such poor rivalry since .... i don't know really

Yep, really poor GC standard this year. I think Bardet and Uran will look back at this and really regret not having at least tried to do a longer range attack or some other tactical move. This may well be their one shot at winning the biggest race in the world, and neither had the balls to really go for it.

I totally agree. There are for sure on the same level as Froome. And if you're on the same level, you can try to put Sky and Froome under pressure by playing a tactical game.

I mean, if you're on the rope and someone is far more superior, i can live with the current outcome. But now, under the current circumstances, i have the same (bad) feeling about this race. If, if, if.....

 

[miguelindurain111]

Re:

Froome must be missing the Triam

What is triam?

 

[IndianCyclist]

Re:

If you thought this year and last were bad, I bet nobody can wait for the TimeTrial de France 2018 featuring Froome and Dumoulin

Unlikely .considering French hopes Barguil, Bardet, Pinot are not so good in TTs

 

[bigcog]

Re:

Froome must be missing the Triam

Your mixing him up with his nemesis but whatever ...

 

[Ruby United]

Re: Tour de France 2017 Stage 18: Briançon - Izoard, 179.5km

Crazy how people are undermining someone who just* won the Tour de France for the FOURTH time

 

[cipurian]

Re: Re:

How bad will Valverde feel atm? He could have won this race. Froome is nowhere near his level of the past years.

It's just that the competition is at a low now. I have never seen such poor rivalry since .... i don't know really

Yep, really poor GC standard this year. I think Bardet and Uran will look back at this and really regret not having at least tried to do a longer range attack or some other tactical move. This may well be their one shot at winning the biggest race in the world, and neither had the balls to really go for it.

Especially Uran when he had more leeway at the beginning of the race when he wasn't even in discussion for gc.

 

[movingtarget]

Re: Re:

How bad will Valverde feel atm? He could have won this race. Froome is nowhere near his level of the past years.

It's just that the competition is at a low now. I have never seen such poor rivalry since .... i don't know really

Bala has always been on my fav list but he would not have won this Tour. There is a reason he only has 1 Vuelta win in all his years of riding GTs. He just isn't at his best in the High mountains. He most likely would have podiumed though.

Three riders within 30 seconds isn't rivalry ?

 

[3wheeler]

Re: Tour de France 2017 Stage 18: Briançon - Izoard, 179.5km

Froome jumped to soon. Should of waited till after the small descent then gone full "Alien" . Would of been more likely to force the gap to stick.

 

[Arredondo]

Re: Re:

How bad will Valverde feel atm? He could have won this race. Froome is nowhere near his level of the past years.

It's just that the competition is at a low now. I have never seen such poor rivalry since .... i don't know really

Bala has always been on my fav list but he would not have won this Tour. There is a reason he only has 1 Vuelta win in all his years of riding GTs. He just isn't at his best in the High mountains. He most likely would have podiumed though.

I still think 2015 Valverde would have had a shot at winning this Tour. And Valverde was so strong this season, there was no reason to assume he was not riding at the same level as he did in the Tour of '15. In that race, he was also strong in the high mountains.

 

[bigcog]

Re: Re:

Froome must be missing the Triam

What is triam?

Doping reference

 

[wwabbit]

Re:

Uran, what an utter disappointment

Oh really? At the start of this season if someone said that Uran will be 2nd placed at the TDF, everyone will be calling him nuts.

 

[cipurian]

Re: Re:

If you thought this year and last were bad, I bet nobody can wait for the TimeTrial de France 2018 featuring Froome and Dumoulin

Unlikely .considering French hopes Barguil, Bardet, Pinot are not so good in TTs

So Mountain TT then, huh?