TDF Stage 8 *Spoiler* Castres - AX 3 Domaines

goonz

Pinarello hat trick, they must be loving it.

timoid.

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.

Good grief Frenchie, listen to yourself! Froome won in a very Contador (the heavy gear years) like fashion. If your boy had done likewise, you would be glorifying his élan.

And Porte was spot on in his statement. Both Daniel Lloyd and Kelly stated that Quintana's attack was doomed.

I do agree with you on one thing however, that Sky jersey should not be seen outside of The Blue Oyster

RichN95.

DeadCalm wrote:

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.

Are you sure? I saw him on the descent trying to catch on with Nico Roche. Roche was clearly the better descender.

Lightning

RichN95 wrote:

DeadCalm wrote:

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.

Are you sure? I saw him on the descent trying to catch on with Nico Roche. Roche was clearly the better descender.

I may be wrong but I think he did get dropped on the descent.

RichN95.

Anyway, the biggest lesson of the day is that barbeques are clearly the future for nutrional science. Apparently Laurens Ten Dam only eats barbeques come rain or shine, snow or gale.

RichN95.

Lightning wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

DeadCalm wrote:

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.

Are you sure? I saw him on the descent trying to catch on with Nico Roche. Roche was clearly the better descender.

I may be wrong but I think he did get dropped on the descent.

That's quite possible.

ddraver

Andrew Talansky ‏@andrewtalansky
To clarify, my comments today on Sky, their riding style, and pace setting on climbs all come from a place of respect for a job well done.

Unfortunately some people try to use those words to imply something other than that, hence my need to clarify.

(oh and from earlier, this rather amusing thingum)

alihisgreat

Cav having shoe trouble today:

ddraver

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/cyc ... 810262.ece

RR, you know how you copy things and send them to me.....could you be so kind my darling?

No_Ta_Doctor

ddraver wrote:

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/cycling/article3810262.ece

RR, you know how you copy things and send them to me.....could you be so kind my darling?

+1

Walsh must have a piece tomorrow as well.... :-)

RichN95.

No tA Doctor wrote:

ddraver wrote:

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/cycling/article3810262.ece

RR, you know how you copy things and send them to me.....could you be so kind my darling?

+1

Walsh must have a piece tomorrow as well.... :-)

It will be interesting to see what Walsh and Kimmage write tomorrow - each coming at this from different angles.

Bo Duke

Contador was paced by his teammate Roman Kreuziger after he lost contact with the leaders on the final ascent.

"I have to thank Kreuziger, but I need to eat well and recover for tomorrow," he said before vanishing into a Saxo-Tinkoff team vehicle.

No doubt a very large Spanish steak was on the menu.

Bo Duke

What a stage, what a performance by Sky!

Relentless teamwork, they rode out of their skins. Pete's stint on the front was unbelievable, he led them up to the 2,001m peak, descended (and had to slow down to allow then to rejoin) then led them up the first section of the 3x. Then Portie grinned his way higher decimating a world class field only for Froomie to light up the afterburners! Holy schmo-lly :shock:

Interesting to see Porte 'drift backwards' with Quintana after Froome's attack, denying him any hope of someone to work with/take strength from, before finding energy from goodness knows where to accelerate after Froome. Fantastic confidence, chapeau.

Valverde won't get praise from me, he shouldn't be there. Andy Schleck had a good day by his standards but saddened to see Cadel drop back, a gentleman rider and the race needs the likes of Cadel.

The main result of today is the rest of the field will have to attack, attack and attack every day now, not just Froome, but eachother! The gaps are so big there's no point sitting in the peloton, they have to get up the road and roll the dice. Sky will just have to ride on at suicidal speed and strangle anyone who dares stick their neck out.

Go Frooooooomie !!!

gsk82

Portes comments seemed a bit off but I reckon he was getting at something like 'quintana would've been right up there at the end if he wasn't messing around wasting energy trying a tactic he'd read on forums'

Sky will get to the top of the last climb quicker than any one lone long distance attacker. It needs several guys to go together to make them chase, but even then froome is the best there so could probably just follow them alone if needed.

DeadCalm

RichN95 wrote:

DeadCalm wrote:

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.

Are you sure? I saw him on the descent trying to catch on with Nico Roche. Roche was clearly the better descender.

Pretty sure. There was definitely an FDJ rider in that group. Given the finishing times of the other members of the team and the fact that they wouldn't have abandoned him, I'd say it was highly likely to have been Pinot. He ended up losing 6 minutes but you'd have thought that if he'd got to the final climb with the main group he'd have climbed at least as well as Bardet, who lost 2.34. So, his lousy descending has probably cost him 3 and a half minutes.

frenchfighter

Those of you who are referring to Ten Dam and Mollema as average climbs etc need to watch more racing.

--
Fortunately this was the result yesterday.
45 Przemyslaw Niemiec (Pol) Lampre-Merida 0:08:57

frenchfighter

1) Froome: 6.5 w/kg
2) Porte : 6.15
3) Valverde: 6.1
4) Mollema: 6.1
5) Ten Dam: 6.0
6) Ituralde: 5.9
7) Contador: 5.85

Rodriguez: 5.75

Evans: 5.35
Teejay: 4.6

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