Tour de France 2017 Stage 19:Embrun-Salon-de-Provence 222.5K

[Knutsen]

Re: Re:

... to think about how to win it.

He told DD team manager Douglas Ryder before start that he was going to win solo from a breakaway. His first remark to Ryder after the stage win: "I told you so!".

So, not much thinking..

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

... to think about how to win it.

He told DD team manager Douglas Ryder before start that he was going to win solo from a breakaway. His first remark to Ryder after the stage win: "I told you so!".

So, not much thinking..

Probably for the best. Tactics not usually his strong point, so a wise decision to bypass all the fun and games at the end of the race!

 

[PremierAndrew]

Chapeau to Arndt and EBH for attacking despite being the strongest sprinters in the group

 

[Deadbody]

I´m a bit worried that they will think this route has been exiting because the time gaps are small in the GC. This has, IMO, been one of the worst routes in a long time. I worry that if the TV ratings are "fine, ok, whatever" they will use this as a sort of template for years to come. Honestly i don't have point to make, i just wanna rant a little. I´m sorry.

 

[DFA123]

Re:

I´m a bit worried that they will think this route has been exiting because the time gaps are small in the GC. This has, IMO, been one of the worst routes in a long time. I worry that if the TV ratings are "fine, ok, whatever" they will use this as a sort of template for years to come. Honestly i don't have point to make, i just wanna rant a little. I´m sorry.

Absolutely. For me, it's been an even worse race than 2012. And I don't say that lightly.

 

[William H]

I don't think this course has been terrible. But it could have benefited from a serious mountain top finish today, and a decent classic style stage (hills or cobbles) or two early in the race.

 

[Frankschleck]

i quite like this course as well^, much better than 2012 which was the baddest race i have ever seen.

 

[Benotti69]

I think GTs need to add more cobbles and strada bianche to make riders ride these early races and improve their bike handling abilities

 

[rick james]

Re: Re:

I´m a bit worried that they will think this route has been exiting because the time gaps are small in the GC. This has, IMO, been one of the worst routes in a long time. I worry that if the TV ratings are "fine, ok, whatever" they will use this as a sort of template for years to come. Honestly i don't have point to make, i just wanna rant a little. I´m sorry.

Absolutely. For me, it's been an even worse race than 2012. And I don't say that lightly.

a couple of sharp finishes would have mixed things up a bit

 

[Frihed89]

Re: Re:

I´m a bit worried that they will think this route has been exiting because the time gaps are small in the GC. This has, IMO, been one of the worst routes in a long time. I worry that if the TV ratings are "fine, ok, whatever" they will use this as a sort of template for years to come. Honestly i don't have point to make, i just wanna rant a little. I´m sorry.

Absolutely. For me, it's been an even worse race than 2012. And I don't say that lightly.

Le tour des chèvres, with very few, but noteworthy, exceptions: Barguil, Primoz, Boasson and Atapuma.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Re:

I think GTs need to add more cobbles and strada bianche to make riders ride these early races and improve their bike handling abilities

Agree completely.

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

I´m a bit worried that they will think this route has been exiting because the time gaps are small in the GC. This has, IMO, been one of the worst routes in a long time. I worry that if the TV ratings are "fine, ok, whatever" they will use this as a sort of template for years to come. Honestly i don't have point to make, i just wanna rant a little. I´m sorry.

Absolutely. For me, it's been an even worse race than 2012. And I don't say that lightly.

a couple of sharp finishes would have mixed things up a bit

Yep, was crying out for a few muritos in the first week or so to kick start the GC action.

 

[vedrafjord]

There was a serious lack of medium mountain stages where the hardest climbs were in the middle. Those are the ones that can be really interesting from a long way out. Also needed more TT km to tempt the pure climbers into attacking from further out on mountain stages. Cobbles would help too. A couple of years ago they were making a big effort to put Ardennes/cobbled classic style stages in the first week but they seem to have dropped that idea.

 

[Tank Engine]

Re:

Great to see EBH finally win He and Arndt remembered their homework and Eddie was stronger.

PS: Sergio pacing on the flats. Lol

Since Mike Flowers played the role of Henao, as well as his own in the Alps, it is only fair that Henao returns the favour.

Sky let AG2R radically cut the gap in the team competition, but their trio of the Alien, Robocop and The Mike Flowers Pop will finish that job tomorrow.

I'm interested in seeing how Flowers and Roglic perform tomorrow, it will say a lot about their powers of recuperation.

 

[silvergrenade]

Re: Re:

Great to see EBH finally win He and Arndt remembered their homework and Eddie was stronger.

PS: Sergio pacing on the flats. Lol

Since Mike Flowers played the role of Henao, as well as his own in the Alps, it is only fair that Henao returns the favour.

Sky let AG2R radically cut the gap in the team competition, but their trio of the Alien, Robocop and The Mike Flowers Pop will finish that job tomorrow.

I'm interested in seeing how Flowers and Roglic perform tomorrow, it will say a lot about their powers of recuperation.

You think Kwiato will not soft pedal?

 

[Robert5091]

Gald for EBH to get a win - NRK will be happy too, but maybe not Brian Holm. All set up for The Dawg tomorrow.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

I´m a bit worried that they will think this route has been exiting because the time gaps are small in the GC. This has, IMO, been one of the worst routes in a long time. I worry that if the TV ratings are "fine, ok, whatever" they will use this as a sort of template for years to come. Honestly i don't have point to make, i just wanna rant a little. I´m sorry.

Absolutely. For me, it's been an even worse race than 2012. And I don't say that lightly.

2017 was still better than 2016 for me. 2017 is bad, 2016 was downright horrible. And Mont Ventoux debacle or the 10 km of crosswinds doesnt make it better at all, the things people are always referring to. Horrible race, just horrible.

 

[Tank Engine]

Re: Re:

You think Kwiato will not soft pedal?

I think that will be up to Kwiato. There's no advantage to be gained from him soft pedalling and the team leader always gains information from a team-mate going full out. There are only 2 guys who can do that job and Kwiato doesn't seem to be the guy to soft pedal unless he absolutely has to. He will also want to do justice to the national jersey. Plus the team competition.

If he does a bad time I would interpret that as him being burnt out.

 

[Norbea]

Re:

Embarrassing for Arndt.

To quote August Jensen: "There is no shame in being dropped on the flats by Eddy. Been there".

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Embarrassing for Arndt.

To quote August Jensen: "There is no shame in being dropped on the flats by Eddy. Been there".

Shades of Thor Hushovd, Eddy the Boss in 2011. I was there in Pinerolo that day in 2011, what a monster.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Re: Re:

Embarrassing for Arndt.

To quote August Jensen: "There is no shame in being dropped on the flats by Eddy. Been there".

Shades of Thor Hushovd, Eddy the Boss in 2011. I was there in Pinerolo that day in 2011, what a monster.

Yeah, I remember that, Hagen dropped Mollema on a freaking 3km climb. That was sick.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Pra Martino actually was 6 km @ 6% or something similar.

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

I´m a bit worried that they will think this route has been exiting because the time gaps are small in the GC. This has, IMO, been one of the worst routes in a long time. I worry that if the TV ratings are "fine, ok, whatever" they will use this as a sort of template for years to come. Honestly i don't have point to make, i just wanna rant a little. I´m sorry.

Absolutely. For me, it's been an even worse race than 2012. And I don't say that lightly.

2017 was still better than 2016 for me. 2017 is bad, 2016 was downright horrible. And Mont Ventoux debacle or the 10 km of crosswinds doesnt make it better at all, the things people are always referring to. Horrible race, just horrible.

For me this is the worst overall for as long as I can remember. At least 2016 had some memorable moments - like the farce on Ventoux, some good sprints, a couple of nice uphill puncheur finishes - and it had a high quality field throughout. Only the GC battle was really disappointing last year.

This race has just been awful in every way; almost nothing good about it. A large proportion of the best riders in the world have either crashed out or been disqualified; a ridiculous number of stages were designed to be a bunch sprint - even though the sprints turned out to be a one horse race; the GC was pretty much over from the first TT; the riders in 2nd and 3rd didn't try a proper uphill attack from more than about 3km out all race; really low number of decent breakaway/puncheur stages.

Looking back at this race in 10 years or so, I think all I would remember are Porte and Valverde crashing out and Sagan getting DQd. Maybe Barguil if he goes on to make a KOM dynasty in the next few years. In general though, that's a pretty sparse and crap list of highlights.

 

[Valv.Piti]

The pelotón's complete lack of interest in mountain stages last year made that race laughable IMO. That was one of the very few good things about this race that made it watchable, at least, and is the reason I rate this edition higher.

 

[Tank Engine]

This race seems similar to me In many ways to the 2014 Tour. I think I rated that 5 out of 10 (compared to the average I'm a generous marker) Crashes took out 2 of the top 3 GC favourites fairly early, so after the Vosges there was basically no GC action (the situation was slightly different, since Nibali was way ahead of everybody else, rather than 3 riders "holding hands" - not literally, but the similar capabilities of the favourites, the strength of Sky and the parcours have led to that). The 2014 Tour had some decent breakaway action in the mountains (the best stage was the stage to Pla D'Adet, where Katusha chased down an early break on the flat to get JRod into the break on the first climb, where the race just went mental). 2014 is of course memorable for the cobble stage, but it was downhill from there. This year the Jura stages and the second Pyrenean were good and at least it's not 100% clear who will win this year. The second half of the race in 2014 was a minor battle to be a distant second.