Respect for the riders

joelsim

I think we all have to say Chapeau to every single rider who took part, success or failure. But there are a few who for me have excelled.

Froome- obviously. He won and seemed to have the answer on the vast majority of occasions
Porte - stunning wingman
Quintana - just exciting to watch and full of charisma, rather like Betancur
Valverde - was doing well until his mechanical, and to my mind he performed out of his skin after it, supporting Quintana
Rui Costa - 2 great wins and plenty more support for the team
Riblon - simply a great ride up Alpe D'Huez and one of the moments of the tour
Kwiatkowski - nearly, but was up against a prodigy
Talansky - started poorly but got better, and rode his heart out
Sagan - played the game well without doing anything amazing
Kittel - a new force in sprinting this year and gone up a level during the Tour
Fuglsang - with no help from his team, he did really well
Peraud, Thomas - bravery
J Rod - a brilliant 3rd week to get onto the podium
Rolland - for effort
Voight - for consistently getting up front at age 41

And those that did particularly poorly
Evans
Contador
Goss
Cav
de Gendt
Hesjedal
Voeckler
Gilbert
van Garderen
Pinot
Daniel Martin (probably a tough one as he won a stage, but I expected him to do much better)
Gesink

crescent

Joelsim wrote:

And those that did particularly poorly
Evans
Contador
Goss
Cav
de Gendt
Hesjedal
Voeckler
Gilbert
van Garderen
Pinot
Daniel Martin (probably a tough one as he won a stage, but I expected him to do much better)
Gesink

That's very nearly my fantasy league team you've named there. And I have to say, their points tally supports your theory :oops:

moray_gub

Crescent wrote:

Joelsim wrote:

And those that did particularly poorly
Evans
Contador
Goss
Cav
de Gendt
Hesjedal
Voeckler
Gilbert
van Garderen
Pinot
Daniel Martin (probably a tough one as he won a stage, but I expected him to do much better)
Gesink

That's very nearly my fantasy league team you've named there. And I have to say, their points tally supports your theory :oops:

I suppose its a measure of his previous standards but seems harsh to say Cav was particularly poor after 2 Tour stage wins.

morstar

I actually think that's a little harsh on Contador too but otherwise I'd generally agree.
For fear of sounding like Frenchie, the fact that Contador didn't have the form but continued to attack and ride with the self belief that he could showed (dare I say it?) panache.
Now in reality, it's flogging a dead horse but it's like Wayne Gretzky said, "You miss 100% of the shots you never take".

ms_tree

My rider of the race is Kreuziger. I thought he was fantastic what he did for Bertie. A couple of times of the mountain finishes he slipped off the back, ground his way back up and then rode for ages pulling AC along.
Also Valverde who was really supportive of Quintana and also fought back to get into the top 10.
Gesink did loads of work for Mollema and Ten Dam as well.

joelsim

Ms Tree wrote:

My rider of the race is Kreuziger. I thought he was fantastic what he did for Bertie. A couple of times of the mountain finishes he slipped off the back, ground his way back up and then rode for ages pulling AC along.
Also Valverde who was really supportive of Quintana and also fought back to get into the top 10.
Gesink did loads of work for Mollema and Ten Dam as well.

Yes, I should have put Kreuziger in there too.

Regarding Cav, I just think he was below par, but his standards have been amazingly high for years. I suspect the Giro and tummy bugs didn't help.