Tour de France stage 2 York-Sheffield *Spoiler*

above_the_cows

underlayunderlay wrote:

No tA Doctor wrote:

Top marks to Garmin for forcing the issue when they did, but God knows what they were thinking.

Garmin? I'm coming to the conclusion that they're constitutionally unable to race for more than two hours without getting bored and resolving to poke the rest of the race with a stick to see what happens.

Ha ha ha, they do sometimes come across as a bunch of naughty little boys.

Macaloon

Highlights show. Ravishing racing country. ITV do a fantastic job with these. They'd do an amazing job with some of Eurosport's rights.

Was Thomas on the front for the last 40km? :shock:

GC ding-dong through the backstreets of Sheffield. Surreal.

TMR

frenchfighter wrote:

“I dedicate this jersey to the public of England because they have been so amazing and gave us great support. The support was incredible. I have been blessed because I am one of the riders who could wear the leader’s jersey from the Giro d’Italia, Vuelta a Espana and Tour de France and very few people can say they have won all three jerseys.”
-Nibali

Nibali - Certified Heavyweight.

frenchfighter

I really do not understand these fans that travel all the way to their spot, wait all day for the riders to come, then instead of looking at the riders and enjoying a rare moment of joy, they are looking through the screens of their cameras, tablets and phones. And for what? Some crappy, blurred shot no doubt.

No_Ta_Doctor

underlayunderlay wrote:

No tA Doctor wrote:

Top marks to Garmin for forcing the issue when they did, but God knows what they were thinking.

Garmin? I'm coming to the conclusion that they're constitutionally unable to race for more than two hours without getting bored and resolving to poke the rest of the race with a stick to see what happens.

The ADHD team. It's why I love them. It's like they just raise a middle digit to the top teams and shout "CONTROL THIS, M*****F*****S!" It's like the Sex Pistols on bikes

No_Ta_Doctor

Macaloon wrote:

GC ding-dong through the backstreets of Sheffield. Surreal.

Exactly. Yorkshire was pretty much built for cycling, but I'd never dreamed of seeing Nibs V Contador V Froome kicking off in Sheffield.

Macaloon

That was absolutely brilliant by Nibali.

4 races like that a year would be awesome.

type:epyt

I got the impression Garmin were trying to test the legs of some of the others who have cracked earlier this year when things got tough. Nibs and a seemingly struggling Porte came through with little problem (understatement in Nibs case). Valverde hung on in but already looks like a man who used up his form earlier in the year.

frenchfighter

Horner doing well, Andy not too far off, Joaquim awful form even considering but just hope he is deliberately losing time. Modolo out...one less rider for Sagan to worry about but to be honest he is a world apart from the others given he can place highly on these stages as well.

secretsqirrel

frenchfighter wrote:

“I dedicate this jersey to the public of England because they have been so amazing and gave us great support. The support was incredible. I have been blessed because I am one of the riders who could wear the leader’s jersey from the Giro d’Italia, Vuelta a Espana and Tour de France and very few people can say they have won all three jerseys.”
-Nibali

Top Man 8)

type:epyt

frenchfighter wrote:

Horner doing well ...

I'm a bit wary of Horner doing well in the TdF because he's only really fighting for a top 5 at best and turning himself inside out (either for himself or Costa) will rule out a proper tilt at defending the Vuelta. I'm hoping once Costa is out of contention he is allowed to ride for himself with maybe go for a stage.

frenchfighter

Turfle

Exuding class in that jersey is not easy, but I think Nibali managed it.

frenchfighter

durhamwasp

frenchfighter wrote:

Froome looks appalling - everything about it was awful. Even my mum, who doesnt watch overly much cycling, mentioned how bad he looks.

Haha, can you write any comment without slagging off the British hope? Funny reading your shit.

My mam also doesnt watch overly much cycling and commented how sluggish she thought Contador looked, really seemed to be struggling she said...

frenchfighter

durhamwasp wrote:

frenchfighter wrote:

Froome looks appalling - everything about it was awful. Even my mum, who doesnt watch overly much cycling, mentioned how bad he looks.

Haha, can you write any comment without slagging off the British hope? Funny reading your shoot.

My mam also doesnt watch overly much cycling and commented how sluggish she thought Contador looked, really seemed to be struggling she said...

The last time the link in your signature was updated was Mar 2011. Maybe spend some time on that rather than writing the above?

andyp

Wow, that was the worst slap down since the Cadel Evans dog incident.

above_the_cows

No tA Doctor wrote:

Macaloon wrote:

GC ding-dong through the backstreets of Sheffield. Surreal.

Exactly. Yorkshire was pretty much built for cycling, but I'd never dreamed of seeing Nibs V Contador V Froome kicking off in Sheffield.

Through the back streets of a housing estate no less. Brilliant stuff.

Macaloon

Impressive team performance from Sky in terrain they were shocking on last year. Thomas was immense.

Strange that the group wouldn't chase Nibali straight away. Were they complacent at first before the Sagan anchor dropped?

And what was Froome so steamed up about to give such a curt response on ITV interview?

frenchfighter

Dedicated fan climbing up Holme Moss.

frenchfighter

This podium girl no kiss policy is odd. Check out Nibali go for the kiss:
daniel mcmahonVerified account
‏@cyclingreporter
Shark attack near miss.
https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video/Br30KsZCIAAUc1p.mp4

RideOnTime

durhamwasp wrote:

frenchfighter wrote:

Froome looks appalling - everything about it was awful. Even my mum, who doesnt watch overly much cycling, mentioned how bad he looks.

Haha, can you write any comment without slagging off the British hope? Funny reading your shoot.

My mam also doesnt watch overly much cycling and commented how sluggish she thought Contador looked, really seemed to be struggling she said...

My mother who doesn't overly watch cycling said how Nibali looked rubbish... :shock: :shock: :shock:

TMR

frenchfighter wrote:

This podium girl no kiss policy is odd. Check out Nibali go for the kiss:
daniel mcmahonVerified account
‏@cyclingreporter
Shark attack near miss.
https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video/Br30KsZCIAAUc1p.mp4

Wow! That's not kind - she really didn't want a bar of him did she? Do the girls still kiss him either side?

type:epyt

frenchfighter wrote:

This podium girl no kiss policy is odd. Check out Nibali go for the kiss:
daniel mcmahonVerified account
‏@cyclingreporter
Shark attack near miss.
https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video/Br30KsZCIAAUc1p.mp4

Ha, yes I noticed that.

I also noticed the one with the bobbed hair that handed out the stage winners trophy.

above_the_cows

Macaloon wrote:

Impressive team performance from Sky in terrain they were shocking on last year. Thomas was immense.

You might almost say its a better, stronger team...? G was a beast. Almost 40k seemingly on the front. I think we can also say that Porte is looking OK. To close a 2 minute gap up Holme Moss, while not a massive climb, was not something he would have been doing with March/April levels of form.

Macaloon wrote:

Strange that the group wouldn't chase Nibali straight away. Were they complacent at first before the Sagan anchor dropped?

I kind of thought that people didn't want to give Sagan a free ride to the line where he would then just take the win. The GC guys aside from Nibbles were it seems happy to let Nibali take the pressure of the jersey while they or at least Froome worked to make sure that the gap wasn't too large. The smartest ride of the day aside from Nibbles, which was more just all out go for it than wee canny barsteward, was Kwiatkowski, you literally didn't see him until 50m to go. He did no work and kept out of the wind for the whole run in making sure that Sagan was sufficiently pooped for him to be able to out sprint him. He has got a good sprint on him has the Little Flower but he isn't as fast as a firing on all cylinders Sagan.

Macaloon wrote:

And what was Froome so steamed up about to give such a curt response on ITV interview?

Maybe he just really needed a wee, or Jill was still stinking of alcohol from Thursday night?

alihisgreat

frenchfighter wrote:

Dedicated fan climbing up Holme Moss.

Zappis is a great club (and cafe) if anyone is ever in Oxford.

blazing_saddles

Now we are at the pointy end of the season, it seems that Sky are packing the front end of the finishers,
while Contador's lot are filling the bus.
Besides Bertie, only "flaky" Roche remains in touch and he finished behind Geraint. Next man home was Rogers, over 2 and a half minutes back. The rest, miles down.
The Nibali-Fuglsang combo looks much more threatening; the ones to watch.
Already seems as if Valverde left much of his panache in early season Spain.
He said at post stage interview that he was on the limit, today.
A shame Movistar persist in building a team around him, instead of their real talent, Quintana.

At this early stage, could the best of the rest be the two young Americans and JVDB?

Turfle

Don't forget Mollema!

Majka went out the back really really quickly, and did not look in a good way. He's got a lot of recovering to do in the next week.

wallace_and_gromit

frenchfighter wrote:

I really do not understand these fans that travel all the way to their spot, wait all day for the riders to come, then instead of looking at the riders and enjoying a rare moment of joy, they are looking through the screens of their cameras, tablets and phones. And for what? Some crappy, blurred shot no doubt.

Your lack of understanding appears to simply reflect that you are a narrow minded, miserable, whining so-and-so and also not privy to the capabilities of a smart phone on burst mode!

Two cracking days out, with around 30s of seeing riders in total, but the riders are but a tiny part of the experience. Wrestling with strangers for packets of Haribos thrown from the publicity cars is great fun!!

Lanterne_Rogue

Macaloon wrote:

And what was Froome so steamed up about to give such a curt response on ITV interview?

I got the impression that the editing was at least partly responsible - from memory they had a short section of him answering somebody else's question that implied he'd already been talking at length to the assorted hacks, then a short answer to ITV after a jump cut with no indication of how many inane questions she'd already asked, then a quick cut away. That's unlikely to be a fair representation.

And even if he was a bit offish, there's a long transfer tonight and today's stage appears to have been harder than many riders expected (even those that had recce'd it - working through those crowds must require more attention than usual). Add in any other number of issues (Porte's problem, Sagan trying to force him to ride down Nibs) and a short answer is probably forgiveable.