Tour de France - rest day1 round up

[b.broadhurst]

Geraint Thomas taking back 1 minute on Taaramäe in Grenoble? Seriously? He won him by just 20 seconds on the Dauphine and Taaramäe's form is a lot better now..

So is Thomas' form and he is stronger than Taaramae so his time trialling after a 3 week tour will be worth a bigger gap than 20 seconds.

 

[b.broadhurst]

Right, that's a bold assertion, so you need to have a forfeit for if you're wrong too. Deal?

Just checking first, wrong about Velits attacking?

Maybe I could take a Leopard Trek avatar?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

So is Thomas' form and he is stronger than Taaramae so his time trialling after a 3 week tour will be worth a bigger gap than 20 seconds.

There is more chance of Igor Antón beating Cancellara in a flat ITT than there is of Thomas climbing as well as Taaramäe without Rein getting involved in crashes.

 

[Parrulo]

oh libertine making that bet isn't even fair. its not even a risk lol

p.s. lol at the lack of knowledge about riders from the other guy you are betting against

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Just checking first, wrong about Velits attacking?

Maybe I could take a Leopard Trek avatar?

No, the bold assertion was that he would win a stage.

You don't appear to dislike Leopard enough.

Maybe an Ezequiel Mosquera one, with "I believe Eze" written on it. Or my old Kelme "Pity 4 Piti" one.

 

[LaFleur]

So is Thomas' form and he is stronger than Taaramae so his time trialling after a 3 week tour will be worth a bigger gap than 20 seconds.

So you are saying, that 3 weeks of touring will improve Thomas's gap over Taaramäe in the time trial by 40 secs? I call those 20 secs on the Dauphne on the equipment btw.. Cofidis and Sky bikes are nothing even close to comparing.

 

[b.broadhurst]

No, the bold assertion was that he would win a stage.

You don't appear to dislike Leopard enough.

Maybe an Ezequiel Mosquera one, with "I believe Eze" written on it. Or my old Kelme "Pity 4 Piti" one.

Can't stand Leopard, they kick up a fuss last year over chaingate but yet this year in the Tour de Suisse and the Tour they get on the front and ride hard. Bunch of hypocrites.

 

[Ramira]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/gesink-loses-time-motivation-and-sight-of-the-podium

That was after yesterdays stage, a stage which also happened to be on the day his father would have turned 52 if he was still alive.

It has absolutely no bearing on the rest of the Tour for Gesink.

 

[luckyboy]

It's been a terrible Tour so far apart from the couple of uphill finishes.

Looking less and less likely that Andy won't win. Not going to be the most heroic Tour win ever with most of the challengers either out or carrying on injured.

At least Gilbert and Voeckler are doing well.

 

[b.broadhurst]

oh libertine making that bet isn't even fair. its not even a risk lol

p.s. lol at the lack of knowledge about riders from the other guy you are betting against

Velits to win a stage.

 

[b.broadhurst]

That was after yesterdays stage, a stage which also happened to be on the day his father would have turned 52 if he was still alive.

It has absolutely no bearing on the rest of the Tour for Gesink.

Gesink to win White then by over 5 minutes.

 

[Ragerod]

This isn't funny any more.

Thomas has no chance of winning the white jersey despite looking impressive thus far. If we assumed that cyclists' performances on the uphill finishes are representative of their GC performances then Gilbert would be the favourite and he'll be fortunate to finish in the top 50. The big mountains are an entirely different beast and until we have one we won't who are the contenders and who are pretenders but one things for certain, Thomas isn't one of them. He's more likely to win a stage in a breakaway.

As for Velits, he won't attack. I'd love to see him do it but it's not in his nature and I'd advise him not to. Velits' best chance of a high GC require an insane time trial and wheel-sucking until he can wheel-suck no more.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

I remember Christophe Moreau used to attack in mountain stages and complaining about conservative riding afterwards And he was certainly not the best climber among the top 10 candidates.

Not saying Velits will do that, but being inferior doesn't automatically mean conservative riding.

Well yes, a rider can be an idiot.

If you are an excellent ITTer and a competent climber AND your primary goal is to get a good GC ranking, you ride conservatively in the mountains. Unless you are stupid. If you have another goal then this does not necessarily apply. Chasing stage victories or the KoM jersey are both more than reasonable things to do with your talents. But if you are riding primarily for GC, you do not attack superior climbers in the mountains outside of very exceptional circumstances.

If Velits is going to be a GC rider, he will be one in the Leipheimer, Wiggins, Vande Velde mould because that's what his spread of talent dictates.

 

[kjetilraknerud]

Well yes, a rider can be an idiot.

If you are an excellent ITTer and a competent climber AND your primary goal is to get a good GC ranking, you ride conservatively in the mountains. Unless you are stupid. If you have another goal then this does not necessarily apply. Chasing stage victories or the KoM jersey are both more than reasonable things to do with your talents. But if you are riding primarily for GC, you do not attack superior climbers in the mountains outside of very exceptional circumstances.

If Velits is going to be a GC rider, he will be one in the Leipheimer, Wiggins, Vande Velde mould because that's what his spread of talent dictates.

I completly agree with you, was just pointing out the fact that attacks happen in the strangest places.

 

[lancaster]

i think Ramunas Navarduuskas is wishing he hadn't been selected

he's been on the front for about 25% of the whole tour so far. absolute beast.
(It must breach all sorts of EU work directives)

 

[Jamsque]

Now that Zabriskie is out, Navardauskas will have to do even more work.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Now that Zabriskie is out, Navardauskas will have to do even more work.

At least he won't have to ride to defend yellow any more. And given the amount of work Garmin have done over the last while, I suspect that HTC would be wise not to rely on them to do much of the work pulling back the break on sprint stages. If Navardauskas continues the way he's been going, he'll have worn his legs down to stumps by the end of the three weeks.

 

[maltiv]

Now that Zabriskie is out, Navardauskas will have to do even more work.

Not really, they don't have yellow anymore and won't get it back. However, I wish there were someone making some sort of statistic over how long certain riders have spent riding on the front, Navardauskas probably leads that one by quite a lot.

 

[luckyboy]

Just tried to sort out the big GC guys and this Tour has kinda been ruined in terms of the GC battle..

Horner, Wiggins, Van Den Broeck, Vinokourov, Brajkovic out.

Contador, S.Sanchez, Hesjedal, Vande Velde, Gesink, Kloden, Leipheimer all losing time in the various crashes with AC nursing a knee injury, Gesink also injured and Kloden with a bad back.

Cadel, Basso, Andy and Frank are the only GC guys who aren't injured, minutes down or out of the Tour.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

yeah just an insane first 9 days.

Gesink probably will be in the top 10, I doubt he can still reach his best and contend a top 5.

I am torn about it all. Sure he gets to keep fighting and maybe take a top 10 and white, but he probably wastes to much eergy for the vuelta in the process. ahwell, not that it matters.

Klodi will probably struggle a great deal now also. What a disaster the tour has been for the shack.

Some big names missing...

I think Andy will run away with this race.

 

[Scirea]

If Contador can beat the hell out of Andy on one leg after the Giro he had, well, that would make my month.

 

[b.broadhurst]

If Contador can beat the hell out of Andy on one leg after the Giro he had, well, that would make my month.

If Contador wins full stop then it will be the best win of his career!!

 

[HL2037]

This race have been pretty depressing so far. Most of my favourite riders are out. Contador has lost time and injured his knee. My hopes are on Basso now. Remember: He who grins last grins longest.

 

[Dedelou]

Just tried to sort out the big GC guys and this Tour has kinda been ruined in terms of the GC battle..

Horner, Wiggins, Van Den Broeck, Vinokourov, Brajkovic out.

Contador, S.Sanchez, Hesjedal, Vande Velde, Gesink, Kloden, Leipheimer all losing time in the various crashes with AC nursing a knee injury, Gesink also injured and Kloden with a bad back.

Cadel, Basso, Andy and Frank are the only GC guys who aren't injured, minutes down or out of the Tour.

I can't remember a tour where 14 of the top 30 hopefuls for the final top 10 were eliminated or seriously impaired by crashes in the first week. I know some have mentioned 1997, but this is quite a disaster.

 

[Pantani_lives]

Andy Schleck has his best chance so far to win the Tour. He might even win it without attacking. Hopefully Contador and Gesink will be recovered by Thursday, and Basso and Sanchez can still play a role.