TDF 2013 - Stage 6 *SPOILER* Aix-en-Provence - Montpellier

ddraver

and in yet more other news, Franky Schleck has nt had his contract renewed his contract with the new trek thingum

No_Ta_Doctor

janibrajkovic ‏@janibrajkovic 9m

Left my 2013/14 contract on the road, 12km to the finish. Not allowed to start tomorrow. Big thanks to #tdf medical team. Amazing people

doug5_10

Anyone watching 'the ride' afterwards? Sean Kelly's legs hairy as a mo-fo!! That and Virenque's minging chav-tat.

ddraver

Wish o understood this avondetappe thing....

ddraver

mr_poll

Possible more sabotage on todays stage:

Daily Mirror

Team Sky sports director Nicolas Portal revealed Richie Porte and Geraint Thomas had punctures on Wednesday in a possible repeat of last year’s sabotage.

He said: “We think they might have been down to people placing tacks in the road. They were in the tyres when we inspected them.”

RideOnTime

6 days already. Time flys. Start off from Montpellier city of tourists and students tomorrow.

Yellow Jersey, Classification
General classification standings after stage six:

1. Daryl Impey (SA/Orica GreenEdge) 22:18:17"

2. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor/Team Sky) +3"

3. Simon Gerrans (Aus/Orica GreenEdge) +5"

4. Michael Albasini (Swi/Orica GreenEdge)

5. Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol/Omega Pharma - Quickstep) +6"

Stage six result:

1. Andre Greipel (Ger/Lotto Belisol) 3:59:02"

2. Peter Sagan (Svk/Cannondale) SAME TIME

3. Marcel Kittel (Ger/Argos Shimano)

4. Mark Cavendish (GB/Omega Pharma - Quickstep)

5. Juan Jose Lobato (Spa/Euskaltel)

wombly_knees

What a drag that stage was. Well done to Greipel and the imp. Quickstep blew their load far too early.

frenchfighter

Mark Cavendish ‏@MarkCavendish 13h
So so hot today! But no Manx sunburn.. Road-burn? Yup. Hit the deck. Leg-burn? Yup. Got beat in the sprint. Nice one @AndreGreipel.
Mark Cavendish ‏@MarkCavendish 12h
Really nice to see @darylimpey in the yellow jersey! Proper nice guy. Always friendly. Always working hard.



Looks like quite a bad fall.

DeadCalm

Some pretty sad in-car footage here of the Bouhani abandon.

http://www.lequipe.fr/Cyclisme-sur-route/Actualites/Bouhanni-n-avait-plus-de-force/383590

Daz555

Graeme_S wrote:

Why doesn't Cav have any team mates bringing him back on?

This.

Cav expended far more energy getting back on than he should have done.

RideOnTime

Daz555 wrote:

Graeme_S wrote:

Why doesn't Cav have any team mates bringing him back on?

This.

Cav expended far more energy getting back on than he should have done.

I thought he was making a pretty good fist of it on his own.
Sagan just hangs round the goal mouth he'd piggyback his own grandmother if it gained him a few metres.
He can't piggy back mine as they're dead...

ddraver

Daz555 wrote:

Graeme_S wrote:

Why doesn't Cav have any team mates bringing him back on?

This.

Cav expended far more energy getting back on than he should have done.

Heard rumours that the radios were nt working properly (someone's button was stuck on 'on') so they knew a rider was down from Race Radio but had no idea who...

RichN95.

ddraver wrote:

Daz555 wrote:

Graeme_S wrote:

Why doesn't Cav have any team mates bringing him back on?

This.

Cav expended far more energy getting back on than he should have done.

Heard rumours that the radios were nt working properly (someone's button was stuck on 'on') so they knew a rider was down from Race Radio but had no idea who...

One of the DSs said that was the reason. The other said it was because a line of riders get less leniency to use the team cars as shelter.

philbar72

RideOnTime wrote:

Daz555 wrote:

Graeme_S wrote:

Why doesn't Cav have any team mates bringing him back on?

This.

Cav expended far more energy getting back on than he should have done.

I thought he was making a pretty good fist of it on his own.
Sagan just hangs round the goal mouth he'd piggyback his own grandmother if it gained him a few metres.
He can't piggy back mine as they're dead...

there is a wee bit more to him than that. he's not Valverde. Luckily.

seanorawe

RideOnTime wrote:

Daz555 wrote:

Graeme_S wrote:

Why doesn't Cav have any team mates bringing him back on?

This.

Cav expended far more energy getting back on than he should have done.

I thought he was making a pretty good fist of it on his own.
Sagan just hangs round the goal mouth he'd piggyback his own grandmother if it gained him a few metres.
He can't piggy back mine as they're dead...

This

Sagan is the Gary Lineker of cycling

ddraver

All Sagan has to do is Piggyback this first week.

graeme_s-2

I can't help but think Cav would have had a better chance in the sprint if he'd had more team mates pacing him back in, but if the radios weren't working then I guess there isn't much they could have done.

Quite enjoyed seeing Greg Henderson laying into his team mates after the Stage 5 sprint on the ITV4 highlights show. Have a sneaking suspicion they won stage 6 mainly because they couldn't face another bollocking from the kiwi

DeadCalm

Brajkovic with some forthright opinions following his crash yesterday:

janibrajkovic ‏@janibrajkovic 2h
My opinion about the stress and crashes. Its our fault, not the organizers. Every single DS in the race wants the team in the front...

janibrajkovic ‏@janibrajkovic 2h
..so speed goes up, people get nervous, take risks and crashes happen. Sorry to say that but its the GC teams that make this s...t
Retweeted by PINOT Thibaut

inkyfingers

Interesting points, but what do you do about it? It's a race, if GC teams didn't put their guys at the front and they missed a split then they'd get slaughtered.

Are there any more crashes in the first week of a GT now than there were 20 years ago? I doubt it. Difference is that nowadays get updated via twitter every time a GC favourite breaks wind, let alone crashes. If your a rider that gets caught in a crash then yes, there are too many crashes.