Tour de France - Stage 8, 195km - Castres / Ax 3 Domaines, July 6th

[The Eggman]

I quite liked Quintana's attack. Great panache, and poor form on Porte's part to disrespect him like that.

How exactly did Porte disrespect him??

 

[movingtarget]

How exactly did Porte disrespect him??

Maybe from riding away from him ? Who knows. I did not see anything disrespectful. After all it is a race.

 

[Alphabet]

How exactly did Porte disrespect him??

"We we're never worried. What was he thinking? I think he reads too much in the papers about attacking."

Uncalled for criticism there for a young kid who presumably only went on the attack to win the Souvenir Henri Desgrange. I could almost imagine it in a booming Texan accent.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Ahem

You are all watching a great new era of cycling folks, Chris Froome has arrived and hes gonna being tearing s**t up for a long time, sit back and enjoy a proper cyclist

That's what I thought about Alberto in 2009. Go figure.

 

[LaFlorecita]

All I know is it is well out of order to accuse Froome, don't blame Froome for Alberto not coming into form I mean he cant even beat Ten Dam and Mollema. The competition is weak when Mollema and Ten Dam do this well is it really so bad to take 1 min plus on them guys, 1'45" to Contador who had to be paced the whole way is hardly suprising, no. The thing that annoys me is we all know if Contador had beat Froome today by a few seconds this forum would be saying ha ha take that Froomey, Alberto is back etc. It just amazes me why people are so nasty about him and when Alberto who has a far more darker past is still loved lol. (And no im not having a dig at Contador im just comparing the situation with why Froome gets hate when he attacked and shown strength).

I may go through the threads and check out Contador's Etna performance, do we have it that far back I wonder if people accuse Contador like they accuse Froome. You no you cant win when La Flo says Froome disrespects Alberto, what do you suggest La Flo miss out on another chance to win a GT. You could see on stage 3 he is itching to go so he decided to gap is rivals, is that disrespectful? Every damn interview he was saying Contador is a GT winner etc. How can anyone not like him he attacked If it was Alberto then my god the orum would have went nuts. Accuse Sky of being boring setting tempo for a timetrialist but when they attack its still not good enough. One thing for sure no Froome and Porte today then what a great stage it would have been lol It would have been Valverde, Mollema and Ten Dam top 3, you see how funny that looks.

I say Froome doesn't respect Alberto because he and Porte had a great time before the tour dismissing Alberto. Of course they were right after all, and hell he doesn't even have to be respectful, it's just that the difference between Alberto and Froome becomes so clear. Alberto names even people like VDB and Fuglsang as contenders and he always, always says "and I'm sure I forgot some people because I always forget some people"As Mauduit said, Alberto respects Froome a whole bunch, too much according to Mauduit. Alberto should be less friendly. But he can't. I'm sure Froome can also be friendly but he's also a bit smug. I don't like it.

 

[argyllflyer]

Where is a horde of new Froome's fans? He destroyed 2 myths today: inability to animate the race and inability to attack more than from 1 km to go. Anyway a bit sad that Porte was too strong. Froome's attack in Cabarge style would of looked even more spectacular.

Erm, did you not see Dauphine or Criterium International then?

 

[airstream]

When you beat the time of almost everyone from a very dirty era thats definately beyond the line

What did you feel in the 2009 Tour? The same?

 

[The Hitch]

better Froome than Valverde. Where are all the clinic experts throwing mud at Valverde?

In the clinic. If there arent that many accusations against valverde here it's because there aren't fanboys going round calling his success a victory for clean cycling. No one who accuses sky thinks valverde is clean though.

Absolutely, the hypocrisy is mystifying - convicted returned dopers good, neverconvicted bad.

I understand the love for Quintana, but the outpouring of sarcasm about Froome on what really was an attack that was to be expected (and many people did predict actually) seems more than a little artificial and arbitrary.

you expected froome to go as fast as Armstrong? Why didn't you say so.

 

[LaFlorecita]

"We we're never worried. What was he thinking? I think he reads too much in the papers about attacking."

Uncalled for criticism there for a young kid who presumably only went on the attack to win the Souvenir Henri Desgrange. I could almost imagine it in a booming Texan accent.

What a moron this porte, get out of my life pretty please.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

All I know is it is well out of order to accuse Froome, don't blame Froome for Alberto not coming into form I mean he cant even beat Ten Dam and Mollema. The competition is weak when Mollema and Ten Dam do this well is it really so bad to take 1 min plus on them guys, 1'45" to Contador who had to be paced the whole way is hardly suprising, no. The thing that annoys me is we all know if Contador had beat Froome today by a few seconds this forum would be saying ha ha take that Froomey, Alberto is back etc. It just amazes me why people are so nasty about him and when Alberto who has a far more darker past is still loved lol. (And no im not having a dig at Contador im just comparing the situation with why Froome gets hate when he attacked and shown strength).

I may go through the threads and check out Contador's Etna performance, do we have it that far back I wonder if people accuse Contador like they accuse Froome. You no you cant win when La Flo says Froome disrespects Alberto, what do you suggest La Flo miss out on another chance to win a GT. You could see on stage 3 he is itching to go so he decided to gap is rivals, is that disrespectful? Every damn interview he was saying Contador is a GT winner etc. How can anyone not like him he attacked If it was Alberto then my god the orum would have went nuts. Accuse Sky of being boring setting tempo for a timetrialist but when they attack its still not good enough. One thing for sure no Froome and Porte today then what a great stage it would have been lol It would have been Valverde, Mollema and Ten Dam top 3, you see how funny that looks.

Ten Dam ok. But Mollema isn't that weak of a rider. Everyone says the competition is bad because Mollema finished so high

Mollema finished top 5 in nearly every mountain stage this season.. He's a former Tour l'Avenir winner and top 4 vuelta after Cobo, Froome, Wiggins.. He deserves SOME credit for that. For crying out loud

Ten Dam is another story, but I think he just had 1 superday.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

What a moron this porte, get out of my life pretty please.

You know him personally/intimately?

 

[LaFlorecita]

You know him personally/intimately?

I follow cycling --> cycling is part of my life --> he should get out of my life

 

[Kwibus]

You can say the field wasweak with Ten Dam and Mollema coming 4th and 5th, but they actually just made a great performance looking at their climbing times so itreally isn't a very good argument. Sure a better Contador shouldve been closer and an as well prepared Contador(compared to Froome) would probably have ridden together to the finish line.

Both would have set and ridiculous time than that would make both of them ridiculously suspicious, but now only Froome did it so he made himself ridiculously suspicious. Setting the 3rd time ever on a climb in the middle of the "everyone on hardcore EPO use" era. Only 2 riders faster on a day with tailwind and no Pailheres before Axe 3.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Ten Dam is a suprise. Mollema really isn't. Been climbing very consistently into the top 5 this season. And was always a major climbing talent ofcourse. He just profited from other guys not being well (Contador, Rodriguez).

Ten Dam simply had a super day

 

[willbick]

I dont quite understand why so much was expected from Rodriguez at this tour. I dont think tour style climbs have ever been his strength have they?

 

[Ripper]

You could arguably say that about any winner of any bike race then if people are that tarred by what has happened in the past. Where do you draw the line?

Just saying...

Only certain winners of certain races. I am pretty certain with the folks who won the races I've last done that they were on the level.

Are you blinded by naivety, or patriotism?

 

[Ripper]

Absolutely, the hypocrisy is mystifying - convicted returned dopers good, neverconvicted bad.

I understand the love for Quintana, but the outpouring of sarcasm about Froome on what really was an attack that was to be expected (and many people did predict actually) seems more than a little artificial and arbitrary.

Some reasons you don't see a lot on this thread about Valverde.

He did not win (duh)

He's already been popped and served some time (and has a fair bit on him in other threads)

His time was considerably slower than Froome

He has not been winning nearly all year, nor has his 2nd in command

EDIT: Oh yeah .... what Hitch said!

 

[Antoine_Blondin]

Some pictures of the day :

 

[Antoine_Blondin]

 

[Antoine_Blondin]

 

[Antoine_Blondin]

 

[Antoine_Blondin]

 

[Ripper]

...

Awesome

Keep the photos coming ... good pics

 

[spalco]

The guy in the blue jersey must be one hell of a climber with that weight.

 

[nickel999]

Some pictures of the day :

Nice work ! Thank you for the posts