Tour de France 2017 stage 4: Mondorf-les-Bains-Vittel 207 km

[Finn84]

The combativity award of the day got decided early.

 

[winkybiker]

Go man, go! My forecast is that he gets caught inside the final 100m.

 

[vidarlangberget]

Kristoff!

 

[carolina]

Re: Re:

Cavendish seems ultra pessimistic about his chances today

What did he say?
(BTW that could mean he is feeling good. it's a tactic often used by him, such as at MSR when he won and other times)

If you read his interview about how he got fourth place the other day, it's no surprise he feels this way.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/cavendish-i-have-a-better-chance-of-winning-here-than-if-im-sat-at-home/

 

[del1962]

I guess with only one rider up the road Sagan or Matthews could take yellow, can't see either beating Kittel Though

 

[Eagle]

Re:

I guess with only one rider up the road Sagan or Matthews could take yellow, can't see either beating Kittel Though

Are there bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint?

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Demare, Groenewegen or Colbrelli.

Let's go for the less obvious ones

 

[Ricco']

Just had a great idea for an app.

With all the sensors available on the peloton, someone should invent an app which would connect to the smartphone alarm, and we could set it up to ring at a kilometrage defined by the user. Could be of great help today.

 

[DNP-Old]

Good lord, this Tour is a disgrace.

 

[tomorrow]

Re: Re:

35km to go - 1.9 kilometre-long climb at 7.4%

FDJ, Bora, Sunweb could be interested. Slim chance - but it's not impossible to drop Kittel & Cav.

I don't think it's enough to drop Kittel in that way he wouldn't be able get back. It could serve to tire Kittel at most, if he needed to chase.

Btw, if the BOTD is already caught, sagan could go for the 4cat point to earn RP jersey, it's the only he's haven't already earned in TDF

That would be awesome. I want to see Sagan in that Jersey. I am very curious how much afford he would give to defend it in stage 5.

well, if he wanted to defend the jersey, he would have to win the stage, or win the cat 3 climb and finish second in the stage. There are double points rewarded for the MTF into the mountain competion. As much funny would it be to watch, this is mission impossible even for Sagan.

 

[del1962]

Re: Re:

I guess with only one rider up the road Sagan or Matthews could take yellow, can't see either beating Kittel Though

Are there bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint?

Actually don't know, just assumed there are.

 

[Eagle]

Re: Re:

I guess with only one rider up the road Sagan or Matthews could take yellow, can't see either beating Kittel Though

Are there bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint?

Actually don't know, just assumed there are.

I haven't heard any mention of them so I'd guess there isn't

 

[tobydawq]

There isn't.

 

[willbick]

on a day like this they should allow anyone to join the back of the peloton!

 

[Son of Amsterhammer]

Re:

on a day like this they should allow anyone to join the back of the peloton!

Yes they should!!

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

How many people will die of boredom watching this exact stage I wonder

 

[winkybiker]

Re:

Michael Mathews from Australia will win this bike race stage.

Yes, as is his usual form, he'll animate the race with a stinging late-stage attack with about 30km to go. A group of top class riders including Greipel, Kittel, Demare and Sagan,will just manage to bridge across to him but then they will mercilessly wheel-suck, thinking only of themselves. Matthews, in spite of heroically doing all the work in the wind to keep the break alive and thus effectively towing them to the finish, will still find a finishing kick good enough to take the win.

 

[SKSemtex]

Re: Re:

35km to go - 1.9 kilometre-long climb at 7.4%

FDJ, Bora, Sunweb could be interested. Slim chance - but it's not impossible to drop Kittel & Cav.

I don't think it's enough to drop Kittel in that way he wouldn't be able get back. It could serve to tire Kittel at most, if he needed to chase.

Btw, if the BOTD is already caught, sagan could go for the 4cat point to earn RP jersey, it's the only he's haven't already earned in TDF

That would be awesome. I want to see Sagan in that Jersey. I am very curious how much afford he would give to defend it in stage 5.

well, if he wanted to defend the jersey, he would have to win the stage, or win the cat 3 climb and finish second in the stage. There are double points rewarded for the MTF into the mountain competion. As much funny would it be to watch, this is mission impossible even for Sagan.

I did not check an amount of points and I thought that winning the 3 kt climb should have been enough.

 

[Vroome.exe]

Re: Re:

Michael Mathews from Australia will win this bike race stage.

Yes, as is his usual form, he'll animate the race with a stinging late-stage attack with about 30km to go. A group of top class riders including Greipel, Kittel, Demare and Sagan,will just manage to bridge across to him but then they will mercilessly wheel-suck, thinking only of themselves. Matthews, in spite of heroically doing all the work in the wind to keep the break alive and thus effectively towing them to the finish, will still find a finishing kick good enough to take the win.

Sounds like a normal race day for the Australian Michael Matthews.

 

[winkybiker]

Re: Re:

Michael Mathews from Australia will win this bike race stage.

Yes, as is his usual form, he'll animate the race with a stinging late-stage attack with about 30km to go. A group of top class riders including Greipel, Kittel, Demare and Sagan,will just manage to bridge across to him but then they will mercilessly wheel-suck, thinking only of themselves. Matthews, in spite of heroically doing all the work in the wind to keep the break alive and thus effectively towing them to the finish, will still find a finishing kick good enough to take the win.

Sounds like a normal race day for the Australian Michael Matthews.

Yes the Australian Michael "bling" Matthews does that sort of stuff all the time. His mate, Simon "gerro" Gerrans is similar style of stylish, dynamic, attacking rider. Unpredictable and selfless, the pair of them. Neither of these guys ever finishes a race wondering "what if?". They both leave it all out there. It's victory or nothing for those guys. They never received the memo about conserving energy in the pack. Sagan can only dream of being as charismatic and exciting as the dynamic 'strayan duo. Sadly, "gerro" isn't racing this year in the Tour. The race is a shadow of what it would have been without his dominant presence.

 

[Robert5091]

Wanty - Groupe Gobert's sponsors will be happy - lots of tv-time.

 

[sir fly]

Someone will surely try to bridge to Van Keirsbulck at some point.
...Or jump when the peloton reels him in.

 

[cycladianpirate]

Re: Re:

Michael Mathews from Australia will win this bike race stage.

Yes, as is his usual form, he'll animate the race with a stinging late-stage attack with about 30km to go. A group of top class riders including Greipel, Kittel, Demare and Sagan,will just manage to bridge across to him but then they will mercilessly wheel-suck, thinking only of themselves. Matthews, in spite of heroically doing all the work in the wind to keep the break alive and thus effectively towing them to the finish, will still find a finishing kick good enough to take the win.

Sounds like a normal race day for the Australian Michael Matthews.

Yes the Australian Michael "bling" Matthews does that sort of stuff all the time. His mate, Simon "gerro" Gerrans is similar style of stylish, dynamic, attacking rider. Unpredictable and selfless, the pair of them. Neither of these guys ever finishes a race wondering "what if?". They both leave it all out there. It's victory or nothing for those guys. They never received the memo about conserving energy in the pack. Sagan can only dream of being as charismatic and exciting as the dynamic 'strayan duo. Sadly, "gerro" isn't racing this year in the Tour. The race is a shadow of what it would have been without his dominant presence.

My sarcasm detector just broke.

 

[LosBrolin]

Fantastic stage! Glad I didn't miss this one

 

[Robert5091]

Re:

Fantastic stage! Glad I didn't miss this one

Hope you did not take time off work for this ...