TDF Stage 3 Spoiler

shakey88

Even the Cav haters would have to admit that DQ is a wrong decision on so many levels and that neither rider did anything against the rules.I think it's getting personal now.
Shame really

northstar

the whole thing is getting a bit silly tbh.

Pross

Good thinking by Cav to drop back but probably went too far from the front. Superb effort to close to the front five, if HTC had been their old selves he'd have won by a mile. Good job by Garmin though and nice to see Farrar get a stage. The DQ was a complete farce though, it really is starting to look like a conspiracy! Thought G was having a cheek burst to try for yellow - who knows, tomorrow maybe?

Tusher

Poor, poor Cav. He wuz robbed, twice.

But I'm thrilled for Farrar and JV- a long overdue win, and on July 4th as well. They couldn't have written a better script.

Geraint flying off the front is ominous. In a good way.

ddraver

Tusher wrote:

Geraint flying off the front is ominous. In a good way.

Depends how you look at it... I first though Gee was becomiong the new Canc but then thought Sky have screwed up yet another lead out train!! (Still at least they did nt just lead out another team this time, maybe that's what confused HTC this time?!)

Steve2020

Cumulonimbus wrote:

afx237vi wrote:

camerone wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

Interesting tweet from the reliable RaceRadio

TheRaceRadio Anyone else think it is strange that Frank Schleck has not raced in Italy for a long time? He may have a surprise waiting for him July 20th

why 20th July

Stage finish in Italy.

Reminiscent of Valv.piti...

Last time he raced in Italy (i think) he had suprise from CONI - maybe it wont be a surprise this time?

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/coni-su ... ng-control

Interesting! He did subsequently race the Worlds in Varese at the end of the 2008 season, but at that point wouldn't have known about CONI v Valverde (which got going in early 09). But presumably if CONI have his DNA and his puerto blood they could have issued a ban by now anyway? And didn't CONI only get Valverde's blood because the hush-it-up judge was on holiday?

seanoconn

Thor lent on Cavendish first, complete joke to disqualify Cav as he was only trying to hold his position while being lent on.

Geraint Thomas is looking very strong. But i'd like to see him save his energy for getting into yellow in the first week, rather than leading out Swift, who's having trouble keeping up at the moment.

Turfle

Swift got totally cut off when the other trains switched sides. Nothing he could do about it, just unlucky.

rick_chasey

RichN95 wrote:

inkyfingers wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

Man, they really victimise Cavendish, doesn't they?

That's the first thing to happen in this tour that's made Iain happy!

It doesn't make up for Basso being dropped on a bridge, though.

Haah!

Like it.

Boonen - His heart's not in it anymore. Was reasonably well positioned with 2km to go. Lost a few places on the sharp right hander but made a few places up. The corner with the crash he bottled it. Disappointed.

Also.

What's with Farrar's beard?

That was a proper 1st Tour bunch sprint. Messy, lots of outsider sprinters in the top 5. I enjoyed it.

HTC are the US Postal of bunch sprints it would seem. B-o-r-i-n-g.

rick_chasey

Ah just saw the overhead replay.

Who's the sky numpty who crash infront of Boonen mm?

Je suis not impressed.

Wouldn't be surprised if it was Flecha or "better than Eddy Merckx, but could do with losing 10kg Eddy" Boasson Hagan...

nferrar

That Cav decision is ridiculous...

frenchfighter

iainf72 wrote:

[quote="frenchfighter"

And one for Iain:

Do you do requests? Could we have one of Mrs Cuddles next time?[/quote]

I wasn't being facetious in case you thought so.

Her twitter is reasonable:
http://twitter.com/#!/chiarapasserini

I am afraid I cannot help you with your request other than a google search as have kept none of them in my album

Vino's wife or girlfriend worth a butchers

Abdoujaparov

FFS. What are the commissaires playing at? Effectively changing the rules without letting everyone know. Hope they at least told the teams that leaning (!) would be out of bounds.

It's like (but much worse than) starting to enforce that saddle rule for TTs without letting anyone know about it.

Wouldn't be surprised to see a few guys DQd for holding onto cars in the mountains.

knedlicky

inkyfingers wrote:

The Cav haters will be dissapointed to see his fairly gracious post stage interview today.

I heard Cavendish wasn’t anything like so calm or gracious in the team bus immediately afterwards.

Team manager Zabel later admitted that HTC tried to control things too soon, i.e. 4 km out and with a headwind, and added that Cavendish wasn’t anyway well positioned when he was caught near the barrier (when a Liquigas rider went too wide).

But I suspect that’s only half the story - I think the other teams intentionally began the real action before the last turn (where Cav was momentarily delayed), because they’ve learnt leaving the sprint till late only plays into his hands/legs.

oldwelshman

From what I coul;d see Cav left the two HTC riders go as there were only two left with a long way to go, then got caughtup in the bend incident when EBH clipped spectator.
G was doing perfect lead out unfortunately no Sky rider on wheel through the bend
Cav did wel to close up after that, last year he would have sat up,

frenchfighter

Greipel was 9th, not sure if he was slowed up.

smithy21

HTC made a complete mess of it. Tony Martin looked completely stunned when he found himself on the front with 4km to go. It looked like a Sky lead out from last year.

This year Sky have gone for the leadout with no train option!!

patchy

Never mind velits going off the front, having to slow then go again. Very messy leadout.

rick_chasey

Ian, you must have enjoyed that sprint?

It was a proper retro sprint messy sprint, like when old McEwen was winning stuff.

Pross

HTC at the Tour de Suisse looked like they couldn't be bothered and that has carried on to France. It's as if they know that Cav is off and don't see much point in burying themselves for him. I was surprised to see Eisel drop off so soon though, maybe the after effects of his crash and having to ride hard to make the time limit on Sunday? Cav might be better doing what he did at the end of the Tour last year and following the other sprinters rather than getting his team to make all the running.

inkyfingers

I think it's a little early to write off the HTC train....lots of people wrote off Cav after the first sprint stage last year and look what happened then. Clearly they messed up yesterday, Eisel dropped off too early (as Pross said, probably knackered from effectively riding an ITT yesterday) and I think they realised that they had burned their matches too soon. Cav then tried a risky tactic of trying to drop back onto another wheel, but because HTC hadn't really lined it out he found himself swamped then having too avoid the chaos from the Sky rider (Swift I think) who had nearly gone into the barriers.

I was actually impressed with Cav, in the past he would have realised that he had no chance of the win and sat up, but he buried himself for 5th. That's how you win the green jersey (ridiculous commissaire decisions not withstanding.

dougzz

Watching Tony Martin look right and left it occurred to me that he was thinking "with every pedal turn I damage my own GC chances, how can I duck off the front without it looking too obvious". Cav just needs to rethink it a bit, and place less reliance on the leadout. He's capable of mixing it up and still winning.

rick_chasey

C'mon, you've all got to agree that was the best bunch sprint we've had in the Tour for a while.

inkyfingers

I really like Geraint Thomas but have to admit I laughed when I saw him leading out the invisible man! Hopefully Sky will find their leadout mojo again as it would make the bunch sprints more interesting,

smithy21

dougzz wrote:

Watching Tony Martin look right and left it occurred to me that he was thinking "with every pedal turn I damage my own GC chances, how can I duck off the front without it looking too obvious". Cav just needs to rethink it a bit, and place less reliance on the leadout. He's capable of mixing it up and still winning.

Yep- no way Martin has a hope of even getting in the top 20 if he keeps having to do that.

FJS

Sporza's evening program analysis supports Cav's disqualification, blaiming him rather than Thor: http://www.sporza.be/cm/sporza/videozon ... /1.1058931 Even without understanding Dutch, the headbut by Cav in yesterday's finals sprint they discovered is interesting - at about 2:10 in that video

Whether or not disqualification was justified, one point they make is probably true:the commissaires will have wanted to make a point on those intermediate sprints, on narrower and bendier roads than the finishes, to avoid them becoming too chaotic

inkyfingers

smithy21 wrote:

dougzz wrote:

Watching Tony Martin look right and left it occurred to me that he was thinking "with every pedal turn I damage my own GC chances, how can I duck off the front without it looking too obvious". Cav just needs to rethink it a bit, and place less reliance on the leadout. He's capable of mixing it up and still winning.

Yep- no way Martin has a hope of even getting in the top 20 if he keeps having to do that.

Personally I think a top 20 is the best he can hope for regardless of whether he has to lead out Cav. If they race really conservatively then maybe he could limit his losses enough to get closer to the top 10 in the TT but its going to be tough on the big mountain finishes.

Martin is a great TTer and a good stage racer, but I personally don't think there's enough TTing in this tour for him to win the time back that he loses in the mountains.

rick_chasey

FJS wrote:

Sporza's evening program analysis supports Cav's disqualification, blaiming him rather than Thor: http://www.sporza.be/cm/sporza/videozon ... /1.1058931 Even without understanding Dutch, the headbut by Cav in yesterday's finals sprint they discovered is interesting - at about 2:10 in that video

Whether or not disqualification was justified, one point they make is probably true:the commissaires will have wanted to make a point on those intermediate sprints, on narrower and bendier roads than the finishes, to avoid them becoming too chaotic

LOVE sporza.

Just watched that. Excellent.

Pross

inkyfingers wrote:

smithy21 wrote:

dougzz wrote:

Watching Tony Martin look right and left it occurred to me that he was thinking "with every pedal turn I damage my own GC chances, how can I duck off the front without it looking too obvious". Cav just needs to rethink it a bit, and place less reliance on the leadout. He's capable of mixing it up and still winning.

Yep- no way Martin has a hope of even getting in the top 20 if he keeps having to do that.

Personally I think a top 20 is the best he can hope for regardless of whether he has to lead out Cav. If they race really conservatively then maybe he could limit his losses enough to get closer to the top 10 in the TT but its going to be tough on the big mountain finishes.

Martin is a great TTer and a good stage racer, but I personally don't think there's enough TTing in this tour for him to win the time back that he loses in the mountains.

I agree with this - not sure why people think of Martin as a GC contender, he's carrying far too much weight to compete in the mountains.

With regards to FJS post above, I'm not sure that Cav can be accussed of head butting, he just dug his head in to stay upright which is pretty standard when people come into contact in the sprints. I'm sure the comms last year accepted that the first (and possibly second) use of the head by Renshaw was justified, it was the third that got him DQd.

knedlicky

FJS wrote:

Sporza's evening program analysis supports Cav's disqualification, blaiming him rather than Thor: http://www.sporza.be/cm/sporza/videozon ... /1.1058931 Even without understanding Dutch, the headbut by Cav in yesterday's finals sprint they discovered is interesting - at about 2:10 in that video

Cav certainly seemed to be the initiator (unlike what my regional UK newspaper reported). Thor's willingness to take the can (although I think mostly a PR thing) could be compared to when in football the perpetrator gets 'yellow' and the retaliator 'red'.

The video is interesting in that it's Rojas whom Cavendish is leaning on - perhaps indicative of who Cav thinks his other main contender this year is. When (as in the video) the likes of Planckaert speak against such behaviour, perhaps Cav should be wary of post-Tour criteriums in Belgium, maybe keep to Essex lanes.