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

[movingtarget]

Re:

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

Uran can't do any better. Why would he blow his podium chances with a stupid attack when he looks like finishing second ?

 

[Frankschleck]

uran killed himself bringing froome back

 

[Brullnux]

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

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

Sorry, remind me the last time the Izoard was raced as a MTF on such a flat stage? Obviously it was going to be faster than when it is the first climb on the route of some Alpine odyssey, or as the last climb after the Agnello, or Allos and Vars before a descent into Briancon.

 

[PremierAndrew]

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.

If Landa was stronger than Froome, he wouldnt have finished behind the 3 main GC guys today

 

[Gigs_98]

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

I'm a big fan of Valverde's abilities, but no ways would he have won this race.
Hypothetics are a waste of time, especially when you are so wrong.

I'm impressed that in one sentence you managed criticize speculation and speculate as well.
There is simply no way we could know if Valverde had been able to win this tour but it's obvious that Valverde in this sprint was stronger than ever wile Froome has looked quite weak compared to previous years.

 

[jaylew]

Re: 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.

If Landa was stronger than Froome, he wouldnt have finished behind the 3 main GC guys today

I don't know if he was or not, but that's not sound logic.

 

[IndianCyclist]

Re: Re:

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

Uran can't do any better. Why would he blow his podium chances with a stupid attack when he looks like finishing second ?

Maybe he would have attacked but with Cannondale about to get their highest ever placing in the tdf, Vaughters would have strictly prohibited attacking just like in the Hushvod case

 

[hrotha]

Re: Re:

Uran can't do any better. Why would he blow his podium chances with a stupid attack when he looks like finishing second ?

Why do you assume he can't do any better? He hasn't had any trouble responding to any attacks during the whole race.

 

[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

I'm a big fan of Valverde's abilities, but no ways would he have won this race.
Hypothetics are a waste of time, especially when you are so wrong.

I'm impressed that in one sentence you managed criticize speculation and speculate as well.
There is simply no way we could know if Valverde had been able to win this tour but it's obvious that Valverde in this sprint was stronger than ever wile Froome has looked quite weak compared to previous years.

If Valverde feels bad how does Porte feel ? And Dan Martin who was affected by the same crash.

 

[Brullnux]

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

I'm a big fan of Valverde's abilities, but no ways would he have won this race.
Hypothetics are a waste of time, especially when you are so wrong.

Nice doublethink there.

 

[Poursuivant]

Any crosswinds tomorrow or is it all about the TT?

 

[PremierAndrew]

Funny how Froome attacked more than Uran today, when he had nothing to gain by doing so

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

if if if if

I don't like the ifs. Truth is, in climbing level, the peloton seems much closer. Not only Froome, notice that Quintana in the Giro never got much leeway as well either. As a result, the differences are made in the TT. And thus, advantage for people like Froome and Dumoulin.

It will be very very hard for guys like Bardet, Quintana, Aru and all to win a GT when a TT-er who can climb is around.. since the level is much closer uphill. Add Jungels to that list in 2/3 years as well

 

[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

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

Sorry, remind me the last time the Izoard was raced as a MTF on such a flat stage? Obviously it was going to be faster than when it is the first climb on the route of some Alpine odyssey, or as the last climb after the Agnello, or Allos and Vars before a descent into Briancon.

At least 2007 it was the last climb and Ricco was going full gas. So Barguil's time today is really good, as was the Tour level this year. In my opinion at least in the better half of the last 10 Tours.

 

[movingtarget]

Re: Re:

Uran can't do any better. Why would he blow his podium chances with a stupid attack when he looks like finishing second ?

Why do you assume he can't do any better? He hasn't had any trouble responding to any attacks during the whole race.

He has brought back the attacks but it doesn't mean it hasn't hurt him or that he has something in reserve and he knows he is capable of a good TT.

 

[hfer07]

Re:

Even B Grade Froome is good enough to win. The fact that he attacked on a flat part of the climb says it all about his climbing.

+10000 I noticed that too. Next Year is going to the one that will break Froome, once Quintana, Bardet, LANDA and DOUMOLIN show up in 100% form to dethrone him ....

 

[DFA123]

Re:

Funny how Froome attacked more than Uran today, when he had nothing to gain by doing so

Maybe he did have something to gain. His attack basically extinguished Landa's hopes of getting on the podium.

 

[hrotha]

Re: Re:

Uran can't do any better. Why would he blow his podium chances with a stupid attack when he looks like finishing second ?

Why do you assume he can't do any better? He hasn't had any trouble responding to any attacks during the whole race.

He has brought back the attacks but it doesn't mean it hasn't hurt him or that he has something in reserve and he knows he is capable of a good TT.

So you don't actually know he can't do better. Aight. ^_^

 

[Matteo.]

Re:

Funny how Froome attacked more than Uran today, when he had nothing to gain by doing so

He's froome. It's his style(fortunately)

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

Uran can't do any better. Why would he blow his podium chances with a stupid attack when he looks like finishing second ?

Why do you assume he can't do any better? He hasn't had any trouble responding to any attacks during the whole race.

He has brought back the attacks but it doesn't mean it hasn't hurt him or that he has something in reserve and he knows he is capable of a good TT.

The thing is that he will never know for sure, because he didn't try anything. Everyone is hurting on the last climb of the day, but if you want to make up time and win the race, at some point you have to take the risk that others might be hurting more than you. If you can close gaps to everyone, then that's a bit of a clue that perhaps others are as much, or even more, on the limit than you are.

 

[Gigs_98]

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

I don't understand why people are complaining about "If's". This is a forum. If it's not allowed to discuss about things like that here, where is it?

 

[hrotha]

Re: Re:

Funny how Froome attacked more than Uran today, when he had nothing to gain by doing so

He's froome. It's his style(fortunately)

Hold on a second, let's not portray Froome as some sort of swashbuckling daredevil. He didn't do zilch. He did need to gain some time in case something unexpected happened. As it is, he could still lose the Tour to a not so serious crash in the ITT, for example. Last year at the Vuelta he needed to go crazy to have a chance to win, and he steadfastly refused to give it a proper go, in the end doing exactly what Bardet has done today.

 

[movingtarget]

Re: Re:

Funny how Froome attacked more than Uran today, when he had nothing to gain by doing so

Maybe he did have something to gain. His attack basically extinguished Landa's hopes of getting on the podium.

He wanted to increase his gap on Uran who used to be able to ride a good TT. As of now who knows what he is capable of but he has certainly shown improvement this year but the circumstances of the race also helped him with crashes to some rivals and Contador, Chaves and Quintana off their game and no Nibali in the race.

 

[yaco]

Re:

Aru has faded this Tour now. Race prep not good enough.

Nailed it - Was one stage race short in his preparation.

 

[Frankschleck]

the thing is, uran chasing froome down, if he just went after the second place, he should not have done that, which makes me think that he thinks he can win this on the time trial.