Tour de France Stage 11 *Spoiler*

ddraver

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

sherer wrote:

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

Sagan's getting involved!

https://twitter.com/TweeterSagan/status/223500546135433216

Sagan has said before he isn't on twitter or facebook so doubt that is a real account

I assumed it was because of some of the people following him... I will look into it further though.

edit: and yeah.. some of the tweets do look suspect.. unless sagan tweets during the stages in third person

Are you Serious?

ddraver

OK I'm drunk....

If you actually think about sh1t for 5 seconds you ll realise that HAD Froome been a team leader then the whole favourites group would have been following him up the climb - when he stopped and dropped back, the whole group would have attacked in unison!

we have ABSOLUTELY NO I-FUCKING-DEA HOW THE STAGE WOULD HAVE PANNED OUT WITH FROOME AS LEADER!!!! none at all, not even a little tiny bit!

what we saw was a climber make a dig for 10 seconds off of the front. EVERYONE rode back up to him within a minute. We just don't know how Froome would be doing on his own....

thamacdaddy

there should be no question. Wiggins has proved he can handle big pressure (with a few blips). Olympics to this whole season he has shown when it really counts he can keep his head on and keep focused on what he is paid the big bucks to do.

Froome doesn't need to think like that, no one is looking at him and doubting whether he can really win this thing or lead a team. If he gave it a big dig and lost 8 minutes because he over cooked it no one would be criticizing him for it because there is no expectation there and one day where he takes yellow could be followed by another where he pops and loses it all. Why gamble what they already have?

Send him to the Vuelta as leader vs Bertie (who will put him under that pressure) and then let him earn a TDF leadership shot. But until then he should do the job he is being paid well to do and not play these silly games on the mtn, I don't think there was confusion I think he wanted to show us all what we saw. In contrast to his interview directly after the race (though he toed the line later on) TJVG was far more enigmatic about the fact he was at the tour for Evans and he would still be there tomorrow for him. He also lost a packet going back for Evans and he should also get his shot on another tour.

dave_1

TailWindHome wrote:

yourpaceormine wrote:

Dave Millar has just tweeted about a Sky Wags War

Any ideas what he is going on about?

Cath Wiggins and Rick Chasey were sparring on Twitter.

Yes, I saw Rick's twitter handle appear in the midst the WAG war. Froome's missus is quite a looker eh.

I think Brad should not go to the front again and simply watch and wait..he spent energy yesterday with Froome sitting behind waiting to jump his own leader of 2.07 of a GC lead. In hindsight that seems wrong of Froome, no?

milton50

I have to say I'm getting a bit tired of the repetitive nature of this Tour. You get a few riders throwing desperation attacks at Sky, get a few seconds ahead, then get reeled in by the Sky machine which then just continues to ride tempo up the climbs. Then Bradley murders them in the TT. It's typical of the British sporting mentality that having wished we had a genuine Tour contender for so long, we then complain because it's too easy

If Froome is clean then his time will come. For now his job is to support his leader in wearing yellow to Paris. If he can't resist going for glory at every opportunity then he's not exactly a class act.

thamacdaddy

What I am quite looking forward to seeing is sky sending froome as leader with heneo and uran to the vuelta. Those three together would be less tempo and very interesting on the climbs.

ddraver

Ahem :oops:

Apologies for the language but I think the underlying points are valid (where have I heard that recently?!?)

MrTapir

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

sherer wrote:

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

Sagan's getting involved!

https://twitter.com/TweeterSagan/status/223500546135433216

Sagan has said before he isn't on twitter or facebook so doubt that is a real account

I assumed it was because of some of the people following him... I will look into it further though.

edit: and yeah.. some of the tweets do look suspect.. unless sagan tweets during the stages in third person

It does say at the top of the Twitter profile "This is not Peter Sagan".

ddraver

To be Fair ALI, you re doing better than Frenchie when he posted that Cyclismas Article in the Contador thread!

Daz555

Dave_1 wrote:

I think Brad should not go to the front again and simply watch and wait..he spent energy yesterday with Froome sitting behind waiting to jump his own leader of 2.07 of a GC lead. In hindsight that seems wrong of Froome, no?

Froome needed a rest and those two flatter sections where he seemed to blow up allowed him to rest and sit out of the wind for a couple of mins. Wiggins was happy to take the wind and looked very strong.

Froomes break was so sudden I'm sure it was a miscommunication. He seemed to break at exactly the same moment that Wiggins slowed slightly after catching the Nibali group - ie Kelly did not want Froome and Wiggins to try and drive on through and out of the front.

Why Froome went so hard is a bit of a mystery though. Everyone knows that Wiggins does not have that sort of punch - which is why he prefers to drag them back in gradually and maintain and even pace.

iainf72

2 things I thought were interesting. Frank Schleck said he heard Wiggins tell Froome to slow down earlier.

And the comments from TJvG in this one

http://www.pelotonmagazine.com/Le-Tour/ ... -All-About

Daz555

iainf72 wrote:

2 things I thought were interesting. Frank Schleck said he heard Wiggins tell Froome to slow down earlier.

Very wise if that is the case. Froome can be a bit of a over excited puppy at times and Wiggins would not want him blowing up and leaving him isolated.

derbygrimpeur

Maybe Wiggins was telling Froome to slow down as no need to ride too hard? No point in riding full gas all the time is there

oldwelshman

I dont see a problem with wiggo telling froomey to slow a bit, he has also told him to drive harder at other times, thats why he's the leader.
In the interviews sky said they had planned to try to get time back on Cadel at the end to get him into second nd that after he and Brad got to the nibali group he thought he was ok to go but then the team told him Nibali was chasing him and gapping wiggo so to hold back as the plan was for hom to get away. Personally I dont think it would have made a huge difference, I reckon Froome would have been caught by Tibot, maybe gain a few seconds on NIbs who would have finised with wiggo, people forget it was 3km to go. Even if Brad blew would not have lost 2 minutes, 30secs at most.

mroli

Interesting that no-one is posting on here that TJVG should have burnt off Cadel and gone on to look after his own GT hopes..... :roll:

sherer

at the end of the day Brad is doing what he needs to do to win Le Tour and getting the job done very well.

I guess the complaining is that is isn't that exciting to watch.

Evans cracking is at least a sign he is a clean rider

styxd

Did Wiggins tell Froome to slow down due to the fact he can't keep pace with him? Froome seems to be a faster rider afterall.

I think Froome should have a go in the last mountain stage, see if he can take a couple of minutes out of Wiggins and take the yellow. He deserves it.

derbygrimpeur

styxd wrote:

I think Froome should have a go in the last mountain stage, see if he can take a couple of minutes out of Wiggins and take the yellow. He deserves it.

:roll:

They're on the same flippin team and Wiggins is the leader. Froome will get his chance in another year.

rick_chasey

mroli wrote:

Interesting that no-one is posting on here that TJVG should have burnt off Cadel and gone on to look after his own GT hopes..... :roll:

Evans should have let him go yeah.

oldwelshman

styxd wrote:

Did Wiggins tell Froome to slow down due to the fact he can't keep pace with him? Froome seems to be a faster rider afterall.

I think Froome should have a go in the last mountain stage, see if he can take a couple of minutes out of Wiggins and take the yellow. He deserves it.

I think EBH should attack wiggo on the next big climb and if that does not come off then maybe Porte can attack on the second climb to give rodgers a chance to get the yellow, they all deserve it after all!!! Do you know anything about stage racing?

Turfle

EBH can put a lot of time into Wiggins on the descents too. Might make a nice platform for Froome to bridge up to.

LangerDan

iainf72 wrote:

2 things I thought were interesting. Frank Schleck said he heard Wiggins tell Froome to slow down earlier.

And the comments from TJvG in this one

http://www.pelotonmagazine.com/Le-Tour/ ... -All-About

I think at about 6km to go you could see Wiggins shout at Froome

calvjones

Does anybody know what Stephen Roche's view of the Froome-Wiggins thing is? After all, he has first hand experience.

oldwelshman

calvjones wrote:

Does anybody know what Stephen Roche's view of the Froome-Wiggins thing is? After all, he has first hand experience.

No he doesn't he was riding with team mates who would not ride for him, thats totally different

styxd

Do you know anything about stage racing?

Not really!

But surely the best/fastest rider should win? Doesnt seem like much of a race otherwise?

I've been on the receiving end of this sort of racing before - dragged some bloke all the way round the last sportive I entered (it was very windy). Only for him to skip the final foodstop and cycle past for a quicker time and push me out of the top 10. Spent about 15 minutes having words with the organisers at the end explaining the situation, but they couldnt (more like wouldnt!) change the times.

derbygrimpeur

styxd wrote:

Do you know anything about stage racing?

Not really!

But surely the best/fastest rider should win? Doesnt seem like much of a race otherwise?

I've been on the receiving end of this sort of racing before - dragged some bloke all the way round the last sportive I entered (it was very windy). Only for him to skip the final foodstop and cycle past for a quicker time and push me out of the top 10. Spent about 15 minutes having words with the organisers at the end explaining the situation, but they couldnt (more like wouldnt!) change the times.

Mega LOLZ lovely trolling

rick_chasey

OK. Quick poll.

Who thinks Froome should have gone for it?

lucan

Not me.

slim_boy_fat

Rick Chasey wrote:

OK. Quick poll.

Who thinks Froome should have gone for it?

Not me.

derbygrimpeur

Not me