Tour de France Stage 10 *Spoiler*

Jez mon

ddraver wrote:

Rundfahrt wrote:

Jez- I get what you are saying but I think a better choice would have been to try and force others to chase Nibali. Set a time and if he gets that lead before anyone else chases, then go ahead and do tempo, otherwise sit back and let others do the work.

That just is nt the Brailsford way though...Plus the others would have played the "your in the jersey, you chase" card leading to the mexican standoff discussed earlier. They did nt exactly reel Nibs in quickly, whoever it was only had to ride a half kilometer faster. This is the "problem" with having the jersey early on, everyone looks at you to chase.

This is pretty much what I was gonna say. TBH, there have been plenty of times in the classics and other tours when I thought sky were doing too much work. However, at the moment, the tactic is working tickety boo!

At the end of the day, successfully engineering another team getting the yellow jersey is a bit of a challenge to pull off.

Rundfahrt

Jez mon wrote:

ddraver wrote:

Rundfahrt wrote:

Jez- I get what you are saying but I think a better choice would have been to try and force others to chase Nibali. Set a time and if he gets that lead before anyone else chases, then go ahead and do tempo, otherwise sit back and let others do the work.

That just is nt the Brailsford way though...Plus the others would have played the "your in the jersey, you chase" card leading to the mexican standoff discussed earlier. They did nt exactly reel Nibs in quickly, whoever it was only had to ride a half kilometer faster. This is the "problem" with having the jersey early on, everyone looks at you to chase.

This is pretty much what I was gonna say. TBH, there have been plenty of times in the classics and other tours when I thought sky were doing too much work. However, at the moment, the tactic is working tickety boo!

At the end of the day, successfully engineering another team getting the yellow jersey is a bit of a challenge to pull off.

I never said anything about "engineering another team getting the yellow jersey," I commented on trying to get other teams to take over some of the work load. Interesting that plenty of other times you felt they were doing to much work, but you have been very vociferous in defending what they were doing today.

Jez mon

Nope, but others had.

Most of the time when I've watched Sky doing lots of work, there hasn't really been any point to it. But they have the yellow jersey, and it's in their interest to control the tempo

Rundfahrt

Jez mon wrote:

Nope, but others had.

Most of the time when I've watched Sky doing lots of work, there hasn't really been any point to it. But they have the yellow jersey, and it's in their interest to control the tempo

My point is asking whther it was really in their best interest controlling things to the extent they did on stage 10, the day before a big mountain stage, with incentive for others to do a large amount of the work and the ability to say "that's enough" if other teams decided to let Nibali get too far. One other item being ignored is that if Sky is as strong as everyone says then they should not have problem getting the jersey back from Nibali and Basso (if they messed up today and let him get it). The only team I see as a worry to let get the jersey right now is BMC.

dsoutar

Rick Chasey wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Btw: Anybody from around here visiting "The Asylum", these days?
Certainly earning the nickname. The lunatics are running wild.

The lack of basic cycling knowledge beyond doping rumours of some of them is particularly amusing.

You're a doper Rich. Just admit it, you'll feel better.

Does anyone know who The RaceRadio is?

The cycling equivalent of the barksdales.

Only rubbish.

More like Royston Vasey - only even more mental. I didn't know it existed until I saw a reference on here even though I look at the news items on the site. It's like the Broadmoor cycling club

ddraver

Rundy - they have the incentive to work becasue they have the yellow jhersey and Nibali is attacking to try and take it. That's the way it has always been in cycling. I'm sure EBH flicked is elbow at Lotto a few times, the trouble is he was met with howls of laughter from them!

No one else was going to pull up the climb (with the possibel exception of RSNT, but then they ve no idea what they re doing at the moment!)

Pross

I didn't think Sky had to work that hard yesterday to be honest. OK EBH and Porte had to do long stints on the front but they never pushed themselves. When EBH was on the from on the Colombiere the break pulled out and extra 40 or 50 seconds, they left Nibs out there until he more or less realised he was going nowhere once Sagan cracked (Nibs suggested he had eased up after that) and left VDB / Rolland to have their 30 seconds as they were no real threat. Obviously they would have rather had Rogers stay there to help out (although he will hopefully be fresher today as a result) but they also got some bonus work done for them by RSNT who were very keen to preserve their man in 7th place or wherever he was. I suspect that Sky will actually be quite pleased as the day had potential to punish them much more than it did.

frenchfighter