TDF Stage 17 *spoiler*

jim453

Procession?

Anybody got any balls whatsoever?

Wiggo going to stamp his authourity onto a TDF victory which otherwise may seem a little toothless.

Eyes down, looking...............

Yellow Peril

TdF's have been won in the past without the yellow jersey winning a stage (at least Wiggo has a TT under his belt). He and his team have already stamped their authority all over this race. He's even led a sprint out, when was the last time we saw that from a yellow jersey? Moreover we know if he is wearing it on Sunday he'll form part of a lead out for Cav and won't be doing a royal wave in the peleton.

Nibs will be well marked. It would take Nibs and TJVG attacking one after the other to try and wear down Froome and Wiggo to make any impact. I just don't know if other teams would co-ordinate enough to do that preferring just to protect their GC position as it stands.

Daz555

Wiggo has already won one stage and will comfortably win one more and I'm sure he's going to lead out the Sky train onto the champs elysees for Cav to have his chance to make a small piece of history for himself also.

I'd love Wiggo to go for the stage win today but I think Sky will want him to play the percentages and instead just focus on Nibs et al.

He will be a deserving champion if he does hold on to yellow and will hopefully be regarded by many as Britain's greatest ever cyclist.

Daz555

Duplicate

Gazzaputt

jim453 wrote:

Procession?

Anybody got any balls whatsoever?

Wiggo going to stamp his authourity onto a TDF victory which otherwise may seem a little toothless.

Eyes down, looking...............

You know I'm sick to the back teeth of the Wiggo bashing here. Toothless WTF????

We could have a British winner of the TDF for god sake.

Sky boys need total concentration today.

alwaystoohot

Daz555 wrote:

Wiggo has already won one stage and will comfortably win one more and I'm sure he's going to lead out the Sky train onto the champs elysees for Cav to have his chance to make a small piece of history for himself also.

I'd love Wiggo to go for the stage win today but I think Sky will want him to play the percentages and instead just focus on Nibs et al.

He will be a deserving champion if he does hold on to yellow and will hopefully be regarded by many as Britain's greatest ever cyclist.

I was thinking that last night, no champagne for Wiggo on the last day if they're going to at it hammer and tongs down the road.

jim453

Gazzaputt wrote:

jim453 wrote:

Procession?

Anybody got any balls whatsoever?

Wiggo going to stamp his authourity onto a TDF victory which otherwise may seem a little toothless.

Eyes down, looking...............

You know I'm sick to the back teeth of the Wiggo bashing here. Toothless WTF????

We could have a British winner of the TDF for god sake.

Sky boys need total concentration today.

Devils advocate, mate. I like Wiggo.

Hardly fire and Brimstone though is he.

Go and have a nice sit down.

LeicesterLad

Won't be much happening, definitely not from Nibs anyway, won't want to lose his podium spot and most of the others will be far to content with their top 20 places, points and paychecks to give a sh*t about actually racing for anything.

alwaystoohot

Disagree, Nibs should push Wiggo and Froome all the way, surely he can pick off Froome if he's canny and puts Wiggo under too much pressure meaning Froome has to possibly drop back to bring him back up the field etc..

Did you see yesterday Evans suggesting he might go in a breakaway as a last ditch effort?

What if Nibs did the same, W&F would have to follow buggering up the gameplan etc...

LeicesterLad

Alwaystoohot wrote:

Disagree, Nibs should push Wiggo and Froome all the way, surely he can pick off Froome if he's canny and puts Wiggo under too much pressure meaning Froome has to possibly drop back to bring him back up the field etc..

That's what Nibs 'should' do if he actually cared about winning, as it is, even Harmon said at the end of yesterdays stage that thats basically Nibali's challenge over else he risks losing his podium spot. he might put in a little dig to have a tester but he won't try and conjure up anything serious. think any serious attack is more likely to come from VDB who will be looking for a possible top 3, but looking at his performance yesterday it doesnt look like he will have the legs. Can't really think of anyone else who needs to or will bother putting in a dig, there's nobody actually left in the race!

alwaystoohot

But Nibs is only 18 seconds behind Froome and he's folding? Nahhhh, its a trick!

rick_chasey

Nibs will want more time on VdB.

If he can, he'll also put some time into Froome, but if he has to take Wiggins and Froome a long with him, so be it.

mididoctors

LIQ got to give it a go

if they had turned up with their giro squad caruso et al it would have been a different race...which I still think brad would have won [maybe froome]

Pross

We saw yesterday with Evans that riders can be trying to hide illness and if put under pressure people can lose vast amounts of time. The peloton are in close proximity to each other so it's easy to pick up a bug, the only way for Nibs to win now is to push hard from the bottom of the final climb and see if Wiggins is hiding any weaknesses. I doubt he is unless he has picked something up since yesterday but unless he gets tested the others will never know.

rick_chasey

Pross wrote:

We saw yesterday with Evans that riders can be trying to hide illness and if put under pressure people can lose vast amounts of time. The peloton are in close proximity to each other so it's easy to pick up a bug, the only way for Nibs to win now is to push hard from the bottom of the final climb and see if Wiggins is hiding any weaknesses. I doubt he is unless he has picked something up since yesterday but unless he gets tested the others will never know.

Nibs is racing for 3rd.

Daz555

Alwaystoohot wrote:

Disagree, Nibs should push Wiggo and Froome all the way, surely he can pick off Froome if he's canny and puts Wiggo under too much pressure meaning Froome has to possibly drop back to bring him back up the field etc....

Nibs hasn't got the legs.

iainf72

The only real chance for excitement today is some of the top 10 people trying to improve their placing and it all going to poop.

Or someone having a Flandis day.

bigmat

I think the podium is fixed unless any of the top 3 have a jour sans. TJVG might have a dig today now that he is off the leash, but realistically he was off the leash yesterday and was no threat to the top guys. Nibs has given it his best go, I'm sure if he feels strong he'll try again today but unlikely he'd get enough time to take 2nd, never mind 1st.

I have a feeling it will be a breakaway win again today - the GC guys look tired, if a group of riders who feel good and are no threat on GC get away then I just don't see any of the GC guys being interested in chasing until the final climb, by which time the break might have a big enough buffer again.

rebs

mididoctors wrote:

LIQ got to give it a go

if they had turned up with their giro squad caruso et al it would have been a different race...which I still think brad would have won [maybe froome]

to be fair all what would have happened is that thse Sky train would have simply doubled in size :P

rick_chasey

Quite short today. 143km.

oneof1982

Anyone with any doubts on the outcome should have a look at the betting websites. Wiggo ranges from 1/25 to 1/50 to win the tdf. This is basically a done deal.

So what am I hoping for today? A finely contained sky performance. If anyone has a go, reel them back in if they are a threat, let them have their day if they are not. Despite all the moaning and wingeing ( I know that is what the forum is for), I am going to relax and watch the machine at work. This will tick another box, and on Sunday, I will be in Paris, in tears, watching the first ever British win in the tdf.

frenchfighter

The only good thing that can happen today (apart from the courageous fighting of whoever is in the break), is Nibs going into 2nd place, preferably by the combination of Nibali gapping everyone and Froome cracking (needs his ego taken down several notches, even if Contador will do that aggressively if this guy rides the Vuelta).

I'd like Nibs to be 2nd and then there would also be suspense on the TT for the podium.

bigmat

frenchfighter wrote:

The only good thing that can happen today (apart from the courageous fighting of whoever is in the break), is Nibs going into 2nd place, preferably by the combination of Nibali gapping everyone and Froome cracking (needs his ego taken down several notches, even if Contador will do that aggressively if this guy rides the Vuelta).

I'd like Nibs to be 2nd and then there would also be suspense on the TT for the podium.

That all sounds fair, not sure if Froome is a bit big headed or just comes across that way, but all the "I could win this year's tour, but I'm sticking to the gameplan" stuff is a bit irritating to say the least. What I hope for from today is a decent GC battle, with riders willing to attack and hopefully a group of GC contenders only by the final climb. A bit of mano a mano riding, even if it ultimately has no impact on the GC.

mididoctors

rebs wrote:

mididoctors wrote:

LIQ got to give it a go

if they had turned up with their giro squad caruso et al it would have been a different race...which I still think brad would have won [maybe froome]

to be fair all what would have happened is that thse Sky train would have simply doubled in size :P

perhaps...unless they went at a mountain earlier in which case there would be no trains at all on the final climb

Gazzaputt

Rick Chasey wrote:

Nibs will want more time on VdB.

If he can, he'll also put some time into Froome, but if he has to take Wiggins and Froome a long with him, so be it.

After watching Nibali's digs yesterday they don't seem to amount to much. he has the legs to make an initial dig but cannot sustain a high tempo after.

Wiggo and Froome will of course follow him and I think will hope the pace tapped out by the 3 of them will further distance van Den Brocke.

Mad_Malx

BigMat wrote:

A bit of mano a mano riding, ....

This year's overused irritating expression.
'Leg to leg' (whatever that is in spanish) would make more sense.

rick_chasey

Gazzaputt wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Nibs will want more time on VdB.

If he can, he'll also put some time into Froome, but if he has to take Wiggins and Froome a long with him, so be it.

After watching Nibali's digs yesterday they don't seem to amount to much. he has the legs to make an initial dig but cannot sustain a high tempo after.

Wiggo and Froome will of course follow him and I think will hope the pace tapped out by the 3 of them will further distance van Den Brocke.

After his attacks yesterday, the fact Nibs was even working on the front suggested to me that he was more concerned with VdB than Sky.

iainf72

Ahhh, Evans has had bad stomach.

Hopefully he can recover enough for a stage attempt or something

Yellow Peril

iainf72 wrote:

Ahhh, Evans has had bad stomach.

Hopefully he can recover enough for a stage attempt or something

Wouldn't you put all of your effort into the young gun for this last mountain stage if you were at BMC?

Crozza

Yellow Peril wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

Ahhh, Evans has had bad stomach.

Hopefully he can recover enough for a stage attempt or something

Wouldn't you put all of your effort into the young gun for this last mountain stage if you were at BMC?

was thinking that Evans should try and get in the break, if he can, for Tejay to use later (if he would be any use - seemed that even Hincapie was having to wait for him yesterday). But is Evans far enough behind for Sky to let him?

iainf72

If Cuddles is feeling ok, he'll try something. He's that kind of rider. It could in part be to help TJvG