Boasson Hagan out

pottssteve

Broken scapula - sustained in the crash late in today's stage:http://www.teamsky.com/article/0,27290,29112_8819278,00.html

Steve

thomthom

Hagen was devastated with the news...:

pinno

Does that leave Froomy more isolated?

Squeeky bum time for Team Sky and Froome. Think (hope) the tour comes alive in the Alps, fed up of sprinters and no successful break aways. Flecha had a vain attempt, but its too processional in the flat stages. Still think the Giro is a better, more exciting race.

LeicesterLad

pinarello001 wrote:

Does that leave Froomy more isolated?

Squeeky bum time for Team Sky and Froome. Think (hope) the tour comes alive in the Alps, fed up of sprinters and no successful break aways. Flecha had a vain attempt, but its too processional in the flat stages. Still think the Giro is a better, more exciting race.

This week is absolute turd to be honest. No way to celebrate the 100th edition.

chrisaonabike

LeicesterLad wrote:

This week is absolute turd to be honest. No way to celebrate the 100th edition.

As a Tour virgin, I've been watching eagerly this week, and I must admit, I've been quite disappointed.

I quite liked the Pyrenees, but the rest has been a bit dull, I have to say. Looking forward to Ventoux though.

nweststeyn

ChrisAOnABike... this has been a fairly exciting tour by recent standards Just wait til this weekend onwards.

ddraver

Yeah i think you have to have a week of recovery for the GC riders whilst the sprinters play as otherwise the GC teams would just shut down absolutely everything and nothing would happen for 3 weeks

alihisgreat

pinarello001 wrote:

Does that leave Froomy more isolated?

Squeeky bum time for Team Sky and Froome. Think (hope) the tour comes alive in the Alps, fed up of sprinters and no successful break aways. Flecha had a vain attempt, but its too processional in the flat stages. Still think the Giro is a better, more exciting race.

The Giro this year was terrible.. the Tour so far has been much much more exciting.

hammerite

nweststeyn wrote:

ChrisAOnABike... this has been a fairly exciting tour by recent standards Just wait til this weekend onwards.

This first week is my first proper memory of the race..... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Tour_de_France not exactly a classic!

chrisaonabike

nweststeyn wrote:

ChrisAOnABike... this has been a fairly exciting tour by recent standards

Hmph. I'm still waiting for a breakaway to get to the finish before the peloton.

So many times recently I've been shouting at the monitor "...so what was the point you morons????".

I can call them that, you see, while I still know nothing.

thomthom

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

pinarello001 wrote:

Does that leave Froomy more isolated?

Squeeky bum time for Team Sky and Froome. Think (hope) the tour comes alive in the Alps, fed up of sprinters and no successful break aways. Flecha had a vain attempt, but its too processional in the flat stages. Still think the Giro is a better, more exciting race.

The Giro this year was terrible.. the Tour so far has been much much more exciting.

I couldn't disagree more.

goonz

ThomThom wrote:

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

pinarello001 wrote:

Does that leave Froomy more isolated?

Squeeky bum time for Team Sky and Froome. Think (hope) the tour comes alive in the Alps, fed up of sprinters and no successful break aways. Flecha had a vain attempt, but its too processional in the flat stages. Still think the Giro is a better, more exciting race.

The Giro this year was terrible.. the Tour so far has been much much more exciting.

I couldn't disagree more.

Apart from some really adverse weather to make things interesting I have to agree with alihisgreat. Giro was pretty disappointing. This week is clearly a transition/recovery few days before a belter of a third week. This tour has been great so far imo.

thomthom

Stage 7 and 9 were great. The rest have been pretty meh. Where have all the semi mountainous stages gone? It's been a sprinter's paradise and will be the following days as well.

Bo Duke

Sad for EBH but he would have played a limited role in the mountains anyway?

Other thing - they can't rrrrrrrrrrrrace every day for 3 weeks, its not physically possible and its the same every year, there are usually a few 'quiet days' by common consent.

Daz555

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

pinarello001 wrote:

Does that leave Froomy more isolated?

Squeeky bum time for Team Sky and Froome. Think (hope) the tour comes alive in the Alps, fed up of sprinters and no successful break aways. Flecha had a vain attempt, but its too processional in the flat stages. Still think the Giro is a better, more exciting race.

The Giro this year was terrible.. the Tour so far has been much much more exciting.

Giro was interesting in some ways but the GC was a complete let down.

Yellow Peril

pinarello001 wrote:

Does that leave Froomy more isolated?

Only if Froome had found his @rse hanging out the back of the peleton. EBH hasn't had a great TdF. Slipstreaming Cav for a second in the sprint appeared to me to be as good as it would get


Squeeky bum time for Team Sky and Froome. Think (hope) the tour comes alive in the Alps, fed up of sprinters and no successful break aways. Flecha had a vain attempt, but its too processional in the flat stages. Still think the Giro is a better, more exciting race.

It can't be a bowl of cherries every day. the "exciting stages" deplete the riders heavily. I'm enjoying it immensely. who'd have thought we'd have seen Bakelandts, Gerrans and Impey wear the yellow jersey?

roypsb

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

pinarello001 wrote:

Does that leave Froomy more isolated?

Squeeky bum time for Team Sky and Froome. Think (hope) the tour comes alive in the Alps, fed up of sprinters and no successful break aways. Flecha had a vain attempt, but its too processional in the flat stages. Still think the Giro is a better, more exciting race.

The Giro this year was terrible.. the Tour so far has been much much more exciting.

Agree 100%. I love the Giro but it was a stinker this year. No competition for Astana and they did what Sky did at the Tour last year, dieseling to the finish (interestingly without getting any stick for it).

I think the Tour has been very good so far.

ContrelaMontre

ThomThom wrote:

Stage 7 and 9 were great. The rest have been pretty meh. Where have all the semi mountainous stages gone? It's been a sprinter's paradise and will be the following days as well.

They were in Corsica. Did you not notice the stages won by Bakelants and Gerrans? What year was it that Cipo won the first 7 stages or something stupid like that.*

This is a very good tour so far in spite of Froome's apparent dominance. Has there been a better stage than Sunday in recent years?


*(Edit it was 1999 as link above and it was only 4 stages but then two were won by Steels)

alihisgreat

Bo Duke wrote:

Sad for EBH but he would have played a limited role in the mountains anyway?

Other thing - they can't rrrrrrrrrrrrace every day for 3 weeks, its not physically possible and its the same every year, there are usually a few 'quiet days' by common consent.

Yeah he's really not on form.. a little bit too chunky at the moment I think.

MrTapir

I think its been really good so far, I've really enjoyed the sprinters drama i.e. the apparent overturning of Cav's dominance and Kittel's rise. As others have pointed out Bakelandts win was fantastic with a good few kms leading up to that, Saturday and Sunday were great, Dan Martin's attack.

Think it might get interesting with Froome more isolated and losing men every other day. The only thing i've thought 'meh' about was Froome taking more time in the TT, but what can you do. At least its not as bad as last year.

Plus I've enjoyed the geology and food posts.

Richmond Racer

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

Bo Duke wrote:

Sad for EBH but he would have played a limited role in the mountains anyway?

Other thing - they can't rrrrrrrrrrrrace every day for 3 weeks, its not physically possible and its the same every year, there are usually a few 'quiet days' by common consent.

Yeah he's really not on form.. a little bit too chunky at the moment I think.

EBH has been hit and miss this Tour. Seems to have dipped since the Dauphine. Maybe a tad too much timber mixed with really feeling the heat. I would be more concerned if it was little Pete or even G.

iainf72

Did anyone ever get the bottom of the Cassani claim about Kiriyienka last Sunday? Basically he said other teams wouldn't give him water / etc when he was dropped.

frenchfighter

I didn`t think the team would miss Eisel and Knees as much as some people were suggesting. I think they were right though.

iainf72 wrote:

Did anyone ever get the bottom of the Cassani claim about Kiriyienka last Sunday? Basically he said other teams wouldn't give him water / etc when he was dropped.

Lol. Didn`t hear that but it doesn`t surprise me at all. I`ve read numerous times from credible people that they have no friends.

alihisgreat

Richmond Racer wrote:

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

Bo Duke wrote:

Sad for EBH but he would have played a limited role in the mountains anyway?

Other thing - they can't rrrrrrrrrrrrace every day for 3 weeks, its not physically possible and its the same every year, there are usually a few 'quiet days' by common consent.

Yeah he's really not on form.. a little bit too chunky at the moment I think.

EBH has been hit and miss this Tour. Seems to have dipped since the Dauphine. Maybe a tad too much timber mixed with really feeling the heat. I would be more concerned if it was little Pete or even G.

If little Pete pulls out then I reckon its all over. One domestique in the mountains would be interesting :shock:

frenchfighter wrote:

I didn`t think the team would miss Eisel and Knees as much as some people were suggesting. I think they were right though.

iainf72 wrote:

Did anyone ever get the bottom of the Cassani claim about Kiriyienka last Sunday? Basically he said other teams wouldn't give him water / etc when he was dropped.

Lol. Didn`t hear that but it doesn`t surprise me at all. I`ve read numerous times from credible people that they have no friends.

I'd like to get to the bottom of that too.. seems very very unsporting if true.

goonz

Wasn't it Pierre Rolland at the top of a climb a few days ago trying to get a bottle of water off one of the helpers lined up along the side but not one team offered him a bidon.

Tom Butcher

Well if it spices up the tour a bit all to the good unsporting or not. For my money this has been a dull race - yes there have been a few interesting sprint finishes and the one day in the Pyrenees promised for a while but never delivered bit that's a poor return on what is the premier race of the year.

goonz

Tom Butcher wrote:

Well if it spices up the tour a bit all to the good unsporting or not. For my money this has been a dull race - yes there have been a few interesting sprint finishes and the one day in the Pyrenees promised for a while but never delivered bit that's a poor return on what is the premier race of the year.

As mentioned above what about Bakelants win and OGE actually winning some stages?

I sometimes wonder what people want from the races, constant attacks on pan flat stages?

First we want clean riding, then we want super human feats? Something not quite right.

frenchfighter

alihisgreat

Tom Butcher wrote:

Well if it spices up the tour a bit all to the good unsporting or not. For my money this has been a dull race - yes there have been a few interesting sprint finishes and the one day in the Pyrenees promised for a while but never delivered bit that's a poor return on what is the premier race of the year.

I think people sometimes expect too much from the Tour...

There have been some of the best sprint stages I've seen - OGE Bus, Kittel coming round Cav, Veelers crash, Bakelants by 1 second, Cannondale 150km leadout etc.

and stage 9 is a classic - Just because Froome didn't lose any time in the end doesn't make it a boring or dull stage. The opening was great with Garmin, Movistar and Saxo attacking, then Quintana attacking later and being marked by Froome was good TV.. all followed up by a nice breakaway finish from Martin and Fuglsang.

goonz

frenchfighter wrote:

Whats he sitting on? :shock:

cyclingsheep

goonz wrote:

Tom Butcher wrote:

Well if it spices up the tour a bit all to the good unsporting or not. For my money this has been a dull race - yes there have been a few interesting sprint finishes and the one day in the Pyrenees promised for a while but never delivered bit that's a poor return on what is the premier race of the year.

As mentioned above what about Bakelants win and OGE actually winning some stages?

I sometimes wonder what people want from the races, constant attacks on pan flat stages?

First we want clean riding, then we want super human feats? Something not quite right.

Think it's a combination of people remembering races with rose tinted glasses and forgetting there were 'boring' stages in them as well and people not knowing what 'clean' racing should look like. It will be tough for the next few years or decades even as our sport cleans itself up and races become realistic but in the end the real racing fans will remain.