Tour de France 2017 stage 9: Nantua > Chambéry - 181,5 km

[TomLPC]

Carlito is the race leader

 

[JackRabbitSlims]

How much energy does Voeckler burn with all his theatrics??

 

[klintE]

Re: Re:

Anyone knows what Sunweb tactic might be? 3 of their riders are single handedly pulling the break right now.

They have Matthews in the group they are trying to get him to the intermediate sprint and making it as difficult as possible for Demare and Kittel to make the time cut.

I don't think its possible (Mathews being on the front after 2 HC climbs)

 

[JackRabbitSlims]

Damn, they're gonna get back on....

 

[portugal11]

Sky is too strong...

 

[JackRabbitSlims]

Nacer back as well..

 

[hrotha]

Re: Re:

Time limit will be at least 50-55 min, so he is safe for now.

Way too lenient imo

Time limits have been a joke for years. It's almost impossible to miss them if you're not injured, sick or simply not trying.

 

[TommyGun]

Re:

Sky is too strong...

Why? Proper racing hasn't even started yet. Let's wait for the Biche-Colombiere combo and see who is left then.

 

[Finn84]

Re: Re:

Time limit will be at least 50-55 min, so he is safe for now.

Way too lenient imo

Time limits have been a joke for years. It's almost impossible to miss them if you're not injured, sick or simply not trying.

And when big enough group falls out, everyone can continue.

 

[kingjr]

Re: Re:

Time limit will be at least 50-55 min, so he is safe for now.

Way too lenient imo

Time limits have been a joke for years. It's almost impossible to miss them if you're not injured, sick or simply not trying.

What's the problem with that? I don't care if they finish the GC 10 hours down, as long as they finish. If it's possible to wait for 55 min from an organizational point of view, why should they make it less. All it would achieve is remove one contender for sprints and green jersey. Doesn't make anything more interesting.

 

[Kafviar]

Re: Re:

Time limit will be at least 50-55 min, so he is safe for now.

Way too lenient imo

Time limits have been a joke for years. It's almost impossible to miss them if you're not injured, sick or simply not trying.

And even if you're not trying you'll probably not get DQd anyways. The Vuelta last year. :|

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Time limit will be at least 50-55 min, so he is safe for now.

Way too lenient imo

Time limits have been a joke for years. It's almost impossible to miss them if you're not injured, sick or simply not trying.

What's the problem with that? I don't care if they finish the GC 10 hours down, as long as they finish. If it's possible to wait for 55 min from an organizational point of view, why should they make it less. All it would achieve is remove one contender for sprints and green jersey. Doesn't make anything more interesting.

Because finishing the Tour should actually be a challenge

 

[rick james]

Re:

Sky is too strong...

what, we are not even on the big climbs yet and you are making crazy statement like that, they train could be gone with a few attacks

 

[sir fly]

The breakaway should be able to ride on the time reports. There's enough riders in the group to match tempo of the peloton.

 

[kingjr]

Re: Re:

Time limit will be at least 50-55 min, so he is safe for now.

Way too lenient imo

Time limits have been a joke for years. It's almost impossible to miss them if you're not injured, sick or simply not trying.

What's the problem with that? I don't care if they finish the GC 10 hours down, as long as they finish. If it's possible to wait for 55 min from an organizational point of view, why should they make it less. All it would achieve is remove one contender for sprints and green jersey. Doesn't make anything more interesting.

Because finishing the Tour should actually be a challenge

It is a challenge one way or the other, and I absolutely fail to see what the point is to make finishing the race harder. I don't see what it achieves, except remove riders without whom stage finishes will become less interesting.

 

[portugal11]

Re: Re:

Sky is too strong...

what, we are not even on the big climbs yet and you are making crazy statement like that, they train could be gone with a few attacks

It is just a feeling.

 

[hrotha]

Re: Re:

Time limit will be at least 50-55 min, so he is safe for now.

Way too lenient imo

Time limits have been a joke for years. It's almost impossible to miss them if you're not injured, sick or simply not trying.

What's the problem with that? I don't care if they finish the GC 10 hours down, as long as they finish. If it's possible to wait for 55 min from an organizational point of view, why should they make it less. All it would achieve is remove one contender for sprints and green jersey. Doesn't make anything more interesting.

No, all it would achieve is make sure only reasonably well-rounded riders can contend sprints and the green jersey, not to mention keep helping their teammates ("well-rounded" here simply means "has modest endurance and climbing abilities and can get over bridges on a good day", not "is an all-rounder"). It also makes sure the domestiques are less fresh in subsequent stages.

 

[AICA ribonucleotide]

Hatch and Kelly on Eurosport now. Hopefully Kirby is gone for the rest of the day now.

 

[staubsauger]

Sagan has turned the green jersey competition into the intergiro classification of the Tour de France anyway. With all antipathy towards Demare I fail to see the point blaming him now if he stays in the time limit.

 

[TommyGun]

Re: Re:

Time limit will be at least 50-55 min, so he is safe for now.

Way too lenient imo

Time limits have been a joke for years. It's almost impossible to miss them if you're not injured, sick or simply not trying.

What's the problem with that? I don't care if they finish the GC 10 hours down, as long as they finish. If it's possible to wait for 55 min from an organizational point of view, why should they make it less. All it would achieve is remove one contender for sprints and green jersey. Doesn't make anything more interesting.

No, all it would achieve is make sure only reasonably well-rounded riders can contend sprints and the green jersey, not to mention keep helping their teammates ("well-rounded" here simply means "has modest endurance and climbing abilities and can get over bridges on a good day", not "is an all-rounder"). It also makes sure the domestiques are less fresh in subsequent stages.

This is exactly the trick that Sky has abused for years: for me it is very borderline (see the scandal created at last year's Vuelta).

 

[kingjr]

Re: Re:

Time limit will be at least 50-55 min, so he is safe for now.

Way too lenient imo

Time limits have been a joke for years. It's almost impossible to miss them if you're not injured, sick or simply not trying.

What's the problem with that? I don't care if they finish the GC 10 hours down, as long as they finish. If it's possible to wait for 55 min from an organizational point of view, why should they make it less. All it would achieve is remove one contender for sprints and green jersey. Doesn't make anything more interesting.

No, all it would achieve is make sure only reasonably well-rounded riders can contend sprints and the green jersey, not to mention keep helping their teammates ("well-rounded" here simply means "has modest endurance and climbing abilities and can get over bridges on a good day", not "is an all-rounder"). It also makes sure the domestiques are less fresh in subsequent stages.

And who is to decide how many minutes you can lose until you are not considered to have "modest endurance and climbing abilities"? It doesn't get more vague than that honestly. Démare rode the TdF 2 times and finished both times, now he's struggling with his health a little, it's not that he's suddenly rubbish.

 

[Poursuivant]

Bertie to attack on colombiere??

 

[hrotha]

Re: Re:

This is exactly the trick that Sky has abused for years: for me it is very borderline (see the scandal created at last year's Vuelta).

Sky's domestiques don't miss the time limit when they take it easy, and it's silly to blame them for what happened at the Vuelta last year.

 

[Tank Engine]

Re: Re:

This is exactly the trick that Sky has abused for years: for me it is very borderline (see the scandal created at last year's Vuelta).

Re: Time limit. So how have Sky been abusing it for years? You gave one case, where the majority of riders were outside the limit and you could argue Sky lost the Vuelta on that day.

The real climbing starts now. There will be a big reshuffle on the next two climbs.

 

[hrotha]

Re: Re:

And who is to decide how many minutes you can lose until you are not considered to have "modest endurance and climbing abilities"? It doesn't get more vague than that honestly. Démare rode the TdF 2 times and finished both times, now he's struggling with his health a little, it's not that he's suddenly rubbish.

Who gets to decide that? That's literally what the time limits are for, obviously, but the point is that these days they are much higher than ever. Your position that everybody should be able to finish the race no matter what is no less arbitrary, but at least mine has positive effects on the racing. If Démare is so sick that he can't follow the pace of the race, he's not going to contend anything anyway, so your point is rather moot.