TDF Stage 8 *Spoiler* Castres - AX 3 Domaines

frenchfighter

Daniel Benson ‏@dnlbenson 9m
Talansky: "the pace Sky set on the first climb of the day was almost faster than any climb we’ve done all season."

frenchfighter

DeadCalm, you see where your boy Bardet finished today? Superb.

frenchfighter

I wonder what Wiggins thought watching that.

emadden

frenchfighter wrote:

I wonder what Wiggins thought watching that.

Probably said to himself ... "thank fook I decided not to go... good call Wiggo ol' chum."

disgruntledgoat

emadden wrote:

frenchfighter wrote:

I wonder what Wiggins thought watching that.

Probably said to himself ... "thank fook I decided not to go... good call Wiggo ol' chum."

I was gonna go with "I'm sure I put more beer in the fridge than that..."

above_the_cows

frenchfighter wrote:

He said a bit more than that didn't he. Proper little factory boy response wasn't it.

He said something about a fat lady singing but I don't think he was talking about Quintana.

Lightning

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

Daniel Lloyd ‏@daniellloyd1 3m
Interesting watching the feed without commentary. You can hear Froome saying to Porte: "they're dropped, they're dropped, all of them."

Any idea where I can watch this? That's pretty funny.

frenchfighter wrote:

Robert Gesink ‏@RGUpdate 1m
A great day for @TeamBelkin and for me personally! Getting better and better this #TDF2013

Lmao. I seriously had to check twitter myself because I thought "no way this is true".

alihisgreat

Lightning wrote:

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

Daniel Lloyd ‏@daniellloyd1 3m
Interesting watching the feed without commentary. You can hear Froome saying to Porte: "they're dropped, they're dropped, all of them."

Any idea where I can watch this? That's pretty funny.

frenchfighter wrote:

Robert Gesink ‏@RGUpdate 1m
A great day for @TeamBelkin and for me personally! Getting better and better this #TDF2013

Lmao. I seriously had to check twitter myself because I thought "no way this is true".

No idea where - Dan Lloyd was in the studio for ES so presumably they had the ability to turn of Kirby's annoying commentary and actually enjoy the race!

mike6

Gazzetta67 wrote:

Sorry but what are sky doing that every other team cant . . . US Postal fast forward 10 years.

Cant stand poor losers.

pb21

frenchfighter wrote:

I can't remember the last time I saw something so unbelievable.

As others have said what is so unbelievable about Froome beating Ten Dam by just over a minute on a stage like this?

DeadCalm

frenchfighter wrote:

DeadCalm, you see where your boy Bardet finished today? Superb.

Indeed I did. Very pleased with that especially as he has been working for Peraud so far. I'd like him to somehow take the white jersey but can't see that happening unless Quintana has a really horrible day which I don't want to happen.

Pinot was disappointing. Was he dropped on the first climb or was it simply poor descending? Certainly, the way Roche flew past him on the descent was embarrassing.

So much for the renaissance of French cycling. I don't think they've had so much as a top 5 stage finish yet.

Peraud is top Frenchman and if he can hang in there tomorrow he should, all things being equal, sneak into the top 10 following the TT which is probably about as much as he and France can hope for. I still think AG2R would have been better having Betancur at the Tour and Peraud at the Giro but can see that it may not have been palatable to have a Colombian leader for the Tour.

sherer

not seen the stage but was Froome super good or were the others just on an off day, making this look better than it really was ?

I would expect gaps from Froome to some of those anyway

mroli

Skim read this (and forgot to logon, so got all the normally blocked comments).

As I watched it, I thought: "people are going to cry foul about this". I also noticed at one point, Sky were down to 3 with Pete K about to pull off and Saxo had 5 men in the front group (Roche at the back though), they hadn't put their noses into the wind once all day and I thought that Sky might be in trouble. The rest of the team had not been THAT impressive - EBH went back early and Kiryenka had to do a massive turn.

Then when Froome went, I thought "I wonder if FF will praise this - he went with 6km to go and took the race on". I also wondered whether he'd cuss Contador for keeping Kreuziger with him like he cussed Wiggins last year. Saxo had 5 riders in the top 30, Sky 2 in the top 50. They were just the 2 that counted.

Valverde aside - really disappointed with the lack of challenge from the other riders there. Ten Dam and Mollema should not be beating the likes of Evans, Van Gardaren, Rodriguez on these stages. Think of the hurt that Contador/Valverde and J-Rod put on Froome last Vuelta. I agree that Nibali would have put up a much better fight and I think Kreuziger would have kept with Porte.

Still a long way to go though. I don't think it is over - I think it is going to make for some very interesting racing.

Stannard better be girding his loins for a lot of work prior to the TV cameras being switched on !

Turfle

sherer wrote:

not seen the stage but was Froome super good or were the others just on an off day, making this look better than it really was ?

I would expect gaps from Froome to some of those anyway

Froome was great, but when Ten Dam and Mollema are 4th and 5th, when Contador can't stay with Kreuziger, and when Purito can't even stay with them, it's fair to say the other pre-race favourites were very disappointing.

DeadCalm

mroli wrote:

...

I also noticed at one point, Sky were down to 3 with Pete K about to pull off...

He really gave everything he had. I was watching Moto 3 on the French stream which was at the back of the peloton and as soon as he pulled over he came to a virtual standstill, his head slumped over the handle bars, gasping for breath. I honestly thought he might fall off so little momentum did he have. It was a pretty fine recovery to only lose 11 odd minutes in the end.

DeadCalm

Alberto Contador ‏@albertocontador 5m
Bad day on the Tour, sensations were not good,I hope they will change!Thanks to the team& @Roman86_K impressive,tomorrow will be a new day.
Retweeted by Chronique du Vélo

David Millar ‏@millarmind 1h
Had an insightful conversation with @thejensie on Pailhères. The conclusion? We're not necessarily getting better with age.

Vino'sGhost

emadden wrote:

Best times up Ax-3-Domaines

1. Laiseka 2001 22:57
2. Armstrong 22:59 2001
3. Froome 23:14 2013

froome needs to up the "training"

Pross

I think some people have reached ET levels of double standards on this thread but may have finally sussed the rules. I think the idea is - attack early but lose = clean rider with panache, attack when you have a chance of sustaining it and win = doping factory robot. The other alternative is you can only ride with panache and be clean if you have a name with Spanish (or possibly French) origin.

above_the_cows

Pross wrote:

The other alternative is you can only ride with panache and be clean if you have a name with Spanish (or possibly French) origin.

Well Richie Porte has a very French name and it isn't helping him...

Bakunin

The only question that I have after that stage is whether Roman K could have followed Froome and Porte? Sky answered all the others...scary.

Vino'sGhost

ddraver wrote:

Vino'sGhost wrote:

ddraver wrote:

MTFU training tips ‏@MTFU_Training
Can everyone who said @TeamSky are boring SRM watchers eat their hat please. #mtfu

Whoooooooooooop!!!!!!!!!!!!

Get in Froomedog

Get
The
F**k
In!!!!

I think it might be more than that

I can't be bothered with you, just f**k off back to the clinic

get fucked yourself. or do you only like opinions in a chat room that mirror yours. Youre blocked you boring fan boy

Vino'sGhost

and whilst im at it, Froome dog??? FFS grow up

Pross

Kreuziger looked like he would have at least limited his losses, another second tier GT rider who didn't appear that overawed by Froome and Porte. I have no doubt Quintana would have stayed with them if he hadn't gone early. It looks like a eyebrow raising ride as so many of the favourites were so bad. Cadel didn't look great last year and is another year older with a tough Giro in his legs, Bertie clearly looked out of sorts and Valverde was about where you would expect.

Doobz

Vino'sGhost wrote:

and whilst im at it, Froome dog??? FFS grow up

~Isn't it "Froomedog Millionaire?"

Tom Dean

frenchfighter wrote:

Daniel Benson ‏@dnlbenson 9m
Talansky: "the pace Sky set on the first climb of the day was almost faster than any climb we’ve done all season."

That's weird isn't it, considering they are such a weak team and today's race was so unimportant? oh, wait...

Walter White

Vino'sGhost wrote:

and whilst im at it, Froome dog??? FFS grow up

Its Froome dawg, get it right :roll:

tomisitt

Froome's VAM of 1715 m/h converts to a power output of 6.3 W/kg (Ferrari method) and about 6.5 W/kg with other models (CPL, rst). Anything over 6.0 W/kg is usually considered deeply suspect. Interesting stuff from @Scienceofsport if anyone wants a scientific breakdown of today's stage.

DeadCalm

Watching the highlights, Pinot was with the Sky group at the top of the penultimate climb. He lost massive amounts of time on the descent.

Vino'sGhost

Walter White wrote:

Vino'sGhost wrote:

and whilst im at it, Froome dog??? FFS grow up

Its Froome dawg, get it right :roll:

ha ha yes froome dawg millionaire. (doobs contribution noted

Paul 8v

frenchfighter wrote:

Great stage, stunning scenery, shame about the result.

I can't remember the last time I saw something so unbelievable. A bit Ricco'esque tbh. Looked like Froome was sprinting up that climb. Good to see him with a pain face on.

Porte even willingly gave up 20 or so seconds before he made his mind up and still finished well ahead.

CYCLISME A DEUX VITESSE

It's a shame really as quite apart from not liking or believing him and Sky's A team, he is an exciting rider and willing to attack. I guess however, like others have said about other people I liked, it is easy to race like that if you have assistance.

Sky jersey's have got worse and worse. Have they no shame. I can see Froome's hrm.

Great ride by Pete I suppose. Proper little pain face. The rest of Sky's team looking relatively weak somehow.

I really hope there are a lot of numbers calculated. I hope Ferrari gets on the case. I suspect it will be interesting reading.

SUPERB by Quintana. Pure class and humble too. Unlike the brat Porte - if you missed what he said about Quintana's attack be sure to check on Cyclingnews later.
Did anyone notice that Quintana had his jersey zipped right up to the top even on the climbs?
Shame he didn't win - that would have been old school epic. At least a pure climber won the prize.
Good to know he can have tips on how to descend and improve (Boardman pointed out that if he changed his cornering on hairpins he would save good time).
Love his poker face too.
I suspect we will be seeing more of him this race.
In the future I reckon he will become my favourite rider.

Glad I backed Evans over TJ. Not only did he get smoked, he didn't even try.

Not what I expected from Contador. Never good in the extreme heat but was not pleasant viewing. I suspect his crash may have caused him more damage then he is letting on.

HUGE by Ten Dam. Respect. Gesink on the other hand...

Great ride by Valverde.

Decent ride by Andy.

Pinot...fail. Quite apart from his shocking descending (which someone mentioned a few races ago), he was dropped on the first climb.

Disappointed Kwia lost as much as he did but it was far from terrible. He was also doing a ton of work for Cav this week.

Voeckler's move was laughable but good to see Rolland perform well and regain his polka dots.

Riblon made a nice attempt and he was the guy who made that lovely win on the same climb a few years back. Was nice when Quintana passed him as he pointed to his back wheel rather than riding straight off.

Now to go an skim read this thread.

I was quite interested to see what you would make of this Frenchie, Sky are often criticised for just riding to numbers and not attacking but along with his little flurry on the descent the other day Froome seems to be breaking the mould slightly. I appreciate you aren't a fan of sky but it's great to see any rider go for it.

I enjoyed the stage, always like to see big attacks in the mountains, it's just a shame the sport is so jaded by the actions of others in the past and it throws up instant suspicions. I'm looking forward to seeing if Contador regains some of his previous form so there is a proper battle between the two of them, hopefully it's just residual injury from the other day that will fade as it will be a much more exciting race.